Last weekend I attended Cover to Cover which was a 1 day conference by / for magazine people. Industry and non-industry. I love magazines and print, which is why I love Issues – who are who ran it.

(I think I actually think I regret giving away my early full runs of Flaunt and Wallpaper* 20 years ago. Possibly more than selling 6 boxes of comics for $0.25 a piece … the vast majority are now on walls of shops as key collectables…)

The main thread that came out that is that magazines are only part of a sustainable business. Events, experiences are both enabled by and for print.

Calm before the storm

Here’s my notes;

Megan Schertler, co-founder of In Real Life Media – Print Isn’t Nostalgia. It’s Bedrock.

  • The ‘PRINT ISN’T NOSTALGIA. IT’S BEDROCK’ was a great way to start the event. I need a “Print Isn’t Nostalgia” shirt.
  • Print used to an output, now it’s a signal.
  • The future belongs to
    • make meaning
    • make trust
    • build ecosystem
  • The strongest publications are never just content operations
  • Content is cheap, everything else isn’t
  • AI cannot generate earned significance
  • Digital is optimized for exposure. Print is optimized for recall
  • The publication becomes part of the reader’s identity
  • Advertisers are buying adjacency to the magazine and brand
  • Magazines ‘create gravity’ for the rest of the business
  • AI makes credibility more valuable
  • If everything [in terms of what you offer advertisers] is custom, it is not a business. Have a menu of things you are happy /and willing/ to do
  • Work on direct-to-consumer first, then worry about brand partnerships
  • Price is a signal. The average price of a magazine at Issues is $35 CDN.
  • Don’t be shy to be a commercial success

Isaac Fox, founder of Lore Magazine – Causing Good Problems

  • There is a little bit of romance doing somethign you don’t have to do, but do it anyways
  • Print is the excuse for in-person parties and community
  • ‘dad or daddy’ vs ‘godfateher or uncle’ – godfather has a job, uncle as a podcast
  • Lore’s marketing principles
    • capture content every chance you get
    • tap into the power of email – he reccomends ‘Yet Another Mail Merge’, which is something I’ve been looking at for Events In Plain Sight
    • make your team feel like the stars (which is just a good management trick) – highlight your staff; makes them feel like stars but also you need 8-ish touchpoints for a purchase and 90% of reccomendations to purchase come from peers, so if you highlight someone and they share it, you just got +1 to your touchpoint count
    • try to get famous with every piece of content. it’s not bad to seek attention – it is strategic
  • Almost everything you think is scary is smart and strategic

Ojus Jain, founder of Esses Magazine – A passport to the world: Esses and building for the new luxury consumer

  • The printed product is the window into the ecosystem
  • It is not about scale, it is about consistent engagement with the community (or niche)
  • Bring the human to the storyteller
  • There is value in intentionality
  • Advertisers will pay for access to an audience /that will engage/

Hillary Brenhouse, Founder and Editor of Elastic Magazine – Publishing x Psychedelia: Lessons in Sensory Experience

  • Trust your contributors to expand your vision
  • Depending on your goals, you might actually be building a charity or not-for-profit
  • Your contributors are your magazine
  • Small circle, big payoffs (in reference to stockist list)
  • Go deep, not wide
  • Their website exists soley to sell the the print magazine
  • Your magazine’s form should be inseperable from it’s identity
  • Let print shape the editorial idea

Inori Roy, Associate Editor at The Local – Local Journalism Matters: Bringing Magazine Sensibilities to Local News

  • ‘scrollytelling’ is an awesome portmanteau for when you try to invoke the experience of flipping a page in an online magazine
  • The whole Victoria Goldie thing is crazy

Anja Charbonneau, Founder of Broccoli – The New Rules of Magazine Publishing

  • Making the magazine is the easy part. See also building an app.
  • Making the magazine, and only the magaizne is not sustainable
  • When to release an issue is complicated. Try to maximize value and momentum. While not abusing or canibalizing either
  • You actually don’t want an issue to sell out
  • All for a longer shelf life— title: “Cover to Cover 2026” date: ‘2026-03-25T08:08:00-04:00’ author: adam layout: post permalink: /clever/2026/03/25/cover-to-cover-2026 categories:

    • clever

Last weekend I attended Cover to Cover which was a 1 day conference by / for magazine people. Industry and non-industry. I love magazines and print, which is why I love Issues – who are who ran it.

(I think I actually think I regret giving away my early full runs of Flaunt and Wallpaper* 20 years ago. Possibly more than selling 6 boxes of comics for $0.25 a piece … the vast majority are now on walls of shops as key collectables…)

The main thread that came out that is that magazines are only part of a sustainable business. Events, experiences are both enabled by and for print.

Calm before the storm

Here’s my notes;

Megan Schertler, co-founder of In Real Life Media – Print Isn’t Nostalgia. It’s Bedrock.

  • The ‘PRINT ISN’T NOSTALGIA. IT’S BEDROCK’ was a great way to start the event. I need a “Print Isn’t Nostalgia” shirt.
  • Print used to an output, now it’s a signal.
  • The future belongs to
    • make meaning
    • make trust
    • build ecosystem
  • The strongest publications are never just content operations
  • Content is cheap, everything else isn’t
  • AI cannot generate earned significance
  • Digital is optimized for exposure. Print is optimized for recall
  • The publication becomes part of the reader’s identity
  • Advertisers are buying adjacency to the magazine and brand
  • Magazines ‘create gravity’ for the rest of the business
  • AI makes credibility more valuable
  • If everything [in terms of what you offer advertisers] is custom, it is not a business. Have a menu of things you are happy /and willing/ to do
  • Work on direct-to-consumer first, then worry about brand partnerships
  • Price is a signal. The average price of a magazine at Issues is $35 CDN.
  • Don’t be shy to be a commercial success

Isaac Fox, founder of Lore Magazine – Causing Good Problems

  • There is a little bit of romance doing something you don’t have to do, but do it anyways
  • Print is the excuse for in-person parties and community
  • ‘dad or daddy’ vs ‘godfather or uncle’ – godfather has a job, uncle as a podcast
  • Lore’s marketing principles
    • capture content every chance you get
    • tap into the power of email – he recommends ‘Yet Another Mail Merge’, which is something I’ve been looking at for Events In Plain Sight
    • make your team feel like the stars (which is just a good management trick) – highlight your staff; makes them feel like stars but also you need 8-ish touch-points for a purchase and 90% of recommendations to purchase come from peers, so if you highlight someone and they share it, you just got +1 to your touchpoint count
    • try to get famous with every piece of content. it’s not bad to seek attention – it is strategic
  • Almost everything you think is scary is smart and strategic

Ojus Jain, founder of Esses Magazine – A passport to the world: Esses and building for the new luxury consumer

  • The printed product is the window into the ecosystem
  • It is not about scale, it is about consistent engagement with the community (or niche)
  • Bring the human to the storyteller
  • There is value in intentionality
  • Advertisers will pay for access to an audience /that will engage/

Hillary Brenhouse, Founder and Editor of Elastic Magazine – Publishing x Psychedelia: Lessons in Sensory Experience

  • Trust your contributors to expand your vision
  • Depending on your goals, you might actually be building a charity or not-for-profit
  • Your contributors are your magazine
  • Small circle, big payoffs (in reference to stockist list)
  • Go deep, not wide
  • Their website exists solely to sell the the print magazine
  • Your magazine’s form should be inseparable from it’s identity
  • Let print shape the editorial idea

Inori Roy, Associate Editor at The Local – Local Journalism Matters: Bringing Magazine Sensibilities to Local News

  • ‘scrollytelling’ is an awesome portmanteau for when you try to invoke the experience of flipping a page in an online magazine
  • The whole Victoria Goldie thing is crazy

Anja Charbonneau, Founder of Broccoli – The New Rules of Magazine Publishing

  • Making the magazine is the easy part. See also building an app.
  • Making the magazine, and only the magazine is not sustainable
  • When to release an issue is complicated. Try to maximize value and momentum. While not abusing or cannaibzlizing either
  • You actually don’t want an issue to sell out
  • All for a longer shelf life
  • Wholesale pricing is usually around 50% list, so factor that into your bugetting

Whitney Mallett, Founder of The Whitney Review – Laboratory for New Criticism: The Whitney Review from Ethos to Practice

  • Opinion vs. hot take
  • I need to write up how ‘Fuck AI’ is actually really complicated. It was hilarious that she said that and then a few minutes later accidentally triggered Siri on the laptop that was driving the projector. You cannot plan that sort of thing.
  • Print used to enforce work counts, which is something we have lost in the movement to digital. See also need to be efficient in code. Memory and disk is essentially free so being bloated is fine. She showed how much she has struck from a submission to get it to the essence. Do not underestimate the power of a great editor.
  • Create surprise
  • It is play to borrow other’s audiences
  • Sometimes ‘a hole that needs to be filled’ is enough of a business model to justify a thing’s existence. (100%)

Love it. Absolutely will be back next year.

  • Wholesale pricing is usually around 50% list, so factor that into your bugetting

Whitney Mallett, Founder of The Whitney Review – Laboratory for New Criticism: The Whitney Review from Ethos to Practice

  • Opinion vs. hot take
  • I need to write up how ‘Fuck AI’ is actually really complicated. It was hilarious that she said that and then a few minutes later accidentally triggered Siri on the laptop that was driving the projector. You cannot plan that sort of thing.
  • Print used to enforce work counts, which is something we have lost in the movement to digital. See also need to be effecient in code. Memory and disk is essentially free so being bloated is fine. She showed how much she has struck from a submission to get it to the essence. Do not underestimate the power of a great editor.
  • Create suprise
  • It is play to borrow other’s audiences
  • Sometimes ‘a hole that needs to be filled’ is enough of a business model to justify a thing’s existence. (100%)

Love it. Absolutely will be back next year.