How to make a magazine

A petite woman, wearing high-waisted jeans, geek chic glasses and a pair of Chuck Taylors, looking as though she could pass for a Wintec student,  sits at the top of the stage. She is Nadia Saccardo, 29, editor of Smith Journal and one of the most talked about speakers at this year’s Spark festival.

The soft-spoken Aussie is in Hamilton to talk about how Smith Journal  is made from scratch and remains wildly popular  in what many describe as a dying industry.

Saccardo believes a magazine for print will only last these days if it feels like an object, rather than something disposable.

Any magazine that lacks in appearance and content will eventually end up just in an online form, she says.

Smith Journal is printed by Frankie Press which also print  Smith’s sister magazine Frankie.

Frankie magazine always had a steady stream of male readers, and 1 in 4  Frankie readers is male.

The creators of Frankie decided to fill the gap in the market and create something that had quality content men would not have to hide in a paper bag when leaving the newstand.

Smith Journal is in its second year of distribution and has a readership of about 100,000, and is stocked in around 40 countries.

“When you look at the newstands there is a gap, there are heaps of publications for men but many of them are aimed at really obvious interests, so you’ve got sport, fishing, music, and girls.

“They were really stylish, focused on men’s fashion or they were really seedy. What wasn’t on shelves was just really good stories, useful well rounded stuff that people want to pick up and read.”

How do you make a magazine from scratch?

“In our case it started from talking to a lot of people about how they felt about how they felt about the state of mags, why they couldn’t find something to pick up, and what they wanted and what they didn’t want, and we also asked ourselves the same thing.”

What makes a quality magazine:

•                A mag that spoke to the audience like a friend, not down to them

•                A mag that felt really good to hold with  attention to detail.

•                Great design work, great photos.

•                A mag that didn’t care if it was on the pulse or not.

•                A mag that was surprising.

“I do think the way we do things at Smith is a little bit different but it seems to work in its own weird way.”

One reader called it “a craft beer in magazine form”.

Unlike most magazines, Smith Journal has very few sectionsthat provides an open plan.

Nadia says she sees Smith being a long-term magazine, as long as they remain unpredicatable and do not get stuck in a formulaic process.

The woman behind the mag:

Students surround Nadia after her presentation, they ask her to sign their copy of the mag and hopefully pose for a picture. She politely obliges. A self-confessed introvert, she looks surprisingly comfortable with all the attention.

She grew up in Melbourne and  studied English and classical history at the University of Sydney.

In 2009 she completed a  master’s degree in publishing. She got involved with Smith by submitting articles to Frankie. A lot of her writing seemed to fit more with Smith. She became editor of Smith for the second edition.

Nadia’s top tips:

• Technology is not the bad guy (Skype really pulls the mag together).
• Think about the images.
• Publishing is not glamorous (You are going to get sweaty).
• Sometimes you just have to roll up your sleeves and get shit done.
• Some of the best stories take time.
• Never proof read your own work (Nadia says her secret weapon is her dad, he proof reads all her articles and gives her feedback).
• The best bits happen when you least expect them.
• Ideas come from everywhere.