Saturday 26th June: My Media Roundup by Ali McClintock Warner, journalist and lecturer

June 27, 2020

Every Saturday morning, we invite a publishing pro to put together their top media links. This week's guest editor is Ali McClintock Warner.

Ali is a freelance journalist and part time lecturer in magazine journalism at the University of Roehampton.

You can reach out to Ali on Linkedin and Twitter.

Ali says:

"Most of my career has been Business to Business producing magazines and content for trade publications and brands. Since I was very little I have loved the content format that is magazines - from the Beano to Jackie to Just Seventeen. I also love helping students shape and make their own.

I confess I love the discipline of print but I also love how the magazine format is constantly adapting to include online digital, audio and events. It’s an industry that’s always on its toes - and that can lead to brilliant things."

Industry news that I feel strongly about:

I’m Northern Irish and I grew up on a housing estate. University was a big deal for me; if I hadn’t got a grant I wouldn’t have been there. I never really thought about my own background stopping me or being a barrier to getting into journalism - it was something that if I acknowledged it was in the corner of my vision.

In my first year teaching at Roehampton University, a set of my students created a magazine called Glam it Yourself - a lot of the beauty hacks they were writing about were for natural hair and diverse skins - I’d never looked at shelf space in stores until they open my eyes. The following year a group of brilliant women produced AfroSensations -when I tried to get a black woman editor in the mentor them it was really hard - it was a wake up call that the industry I loved and love had and has work to do.

Titles such as Gal-dem, and high profile hires such as Edward Enninful are a big help - and so too is this fantastic move by Harpers Bazaar state side. Listening to Samira Nasr’s introduction to her readers on Instagram filled me with real hope. So too are resources such as @creativeaccess and @presspad that are doing their bit to address current barriers to entry.

Acknowledgement from Anna Wintour that Vogue had ‘not found enough ways to elevate and give space to black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators,” has also done a lot to spark change. But what I love even more is the response from those brilliant new creatives that is Vogue Challenge - here’s a brilliant curated selection from Teen Vogue, and Edward Enninful’s top ten.

A resource that helps and continues to inspire me in my role:

Maybe you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but I confess I do with magazines. So far 2020 can do one - but lord it is bringing out the very best in magazine covers. Magazines reflect the issues of the society that they are part of. A constant source of thought provoking and inspirational front covers from around the globe is @coverjunkie. What you can see in cover choices is also how society works its way through an issue. Take Covid-19 for example - we moved from the fear of lockdown, to finding ways to adapt and work from home, to Grazia, Elle and Vogue making key workers their new cover stars, to finding a cure, to what’s next for the economy - its all there to see in visual form.

Tapping into the Zeitgeist:

In a industry whose current landscape is tough and that is going to see more closures and get tougher - it brings me joy to see people confident enough to launch new magazines.

Those that do launch are there because they see a need - they are tapping into a zeitgeist. The Week Junior in the hands of the brilliant Anna Bassi and her team launched the US version of the magazine just before lockdown - that alone deserves a round of applause - so too does the way this title covers big issues for young readers - Brexit, Grenfell, Covid-19, Black Lives Matter - it covered with clarity and balance and factual accuracy that a lot of grown up news magazines could learn from. With elections coming stateside - giving young readers a chance to work out their own views has been made a lot easier by this launch.

An independent magazine launch that really deserves a readership and support is Cocoa Boy which joins its sibling title Cocoa Girl on the news stand. It’s the idea of former art editor Serlina Boyd who was looking for content for her own kids - it’s aim is to inspire and inform young readers on black culture and history - it’s doing a brilliant job.

Finally Bloomberg Green’s launch is the final big deal for me. Pre Covid-19 plastic, air pollution, food and fashion waste, issues around sustainability and climate change had moved up the news agenda - the need to focus on a new and better normal that makes sustainability a business priority I believe is signalled by this launch.

Zeitgeist is also something I see in the magazine ideas put forward by our third year students at Roehampton - this year’s cohort:

An after-hours mag which tapped into the nation’s insomnia.

Perfect lockdown content for young foodies.

This mag tackled the tough subject of grief and loss and offered support for Gen Z.

A lux pregnancy mag that keeps young mums in fashion and slaying for a full 9 months.

Magazines that matter:

This one’s important - because it makes a difference. Not just through its content, but in the freedom and choice it gives to the people who sell it. 50% of the £2.50 cover price goes to the seller and from 6 July vendors will be back on the streets selling this brilliant and important publication, so if you are looking for a great read that makes you feel good too - buy one.

Just for fun:

I love clothes swaps and sustainable fashion and my insta following reflects that. At the beginning of lockdown, the brilliant Aussie Thrift store jadore_thriftstore created a set of hacked parody front covers for a ‘new magazine’ called Bored. The coverlines are a thing of beauty and a joy forever - if you fancy a chuckle - it’s so worth a look see.

If you would like to guest edit a future edition of My Media Roundup, simply reply to this email.