Influx

Food magazines have traditionally followed a fairly predictable formula and target; lots of well-shot images, recipies and a few feature articles on a destination, all targeted and focused firmly and squarely at the female reader. David Chang is one of America’s most innovative chefs and...

AFAR has been one of the most interesting magazine launches of recent years, so I spent some time with Greg Sullivan, the founder, to learn more about their story. Can you tell me your background? Lawyer for three years.  Investment banking for a couple of years.  Started an arcade game...

James Warner has written a great piece in McSweeney's on the Future of the Book. Loaded with a special flavor of cynicism, Warner examines what the book world will evolve from 2020 to 2080.Here's one of my favorite passages.2040: Authors Will Become Like Tamagotchi. "Having determined that what...

When I took a look at the "about" section of a new soccer magazine, The Blizzard, a magazine designed to be downloaded, I was struck by how they defined their reasons for existence. They summed up precisely why magazine publishing has been forever changed and how developments in the web-publishing...

The NYT recently published an article on how independent bookstores, that now account for 10% of book sales, are coping with the changing and challenging environment. Most of the sellers interviewed talked about embracing online with more seriousness, getting into social media and finding...

When your brand is in trouble, you can always count on a certain degree of openness to licensing deals and brand extensions. While the concept of a Vogue cafe might have been far from the mind of the brand owners 10 years ago, it's now very much on the agenda. With consultants running though the...

Although newspapers have no trouble producing a physical object containing news almost every single day of the year, magazines have a tougher time, some are weekly, but most are monthly and take weeks to produce. As an interesting experiment, some writers, designers and artists got together to see...

While Apple's iPad has been the subject of a lot of attention ranging, from ridicule and mixed reviews. The spin suggested the iPad would usher in a new era for those in the publishing business by creating another medium for consumers to experience print. However, the promise suggested by Apple's...

AAN is on a fast track to break out of the web and into mainstream stardom, the guys have just signed a six-figure book deal with Random House and there are rumors of a TV deal just around the corner.Kent Nichols of AAN will be a speaker at the Influx Ideas 07 conference in October.

Miranda July is true renaissance women; an actress, musician filmmaker, artist and storyteller. Miranda is best known for an independent film she wrote and directed, released in 2005, called “Me and You and Everyone I Know.” She has now written a book of stories and is promoting it on...

Yesterday, Gizmodo broke the news of a fireplace manufacturer installing iPod functionality into their latest line of luxury of fireplaces and at the same time, Harry Potter’s publishing house, Bloomsbury, announced that it would be looking to make acquisitions following a 74% drop in pre-tax...