London Reconnections Magazine - The Transport Magazine You'll Happily Read on the Tube
August 17, 2015 7:41 AM Subscribe
London Reconnections Magazine - The Transport Magazine You'll Happily Read on the Tube
Egon was wrong. Print isn't dead and we intend to prove it. London Reconnections, London's premier source of transport geekery, is now available in print. And we think it looks rather good.
LR has been around for nine years now, our goal being to provide long-form articles and analysis for both the professional and enlightened reader on the subject of London transport.
In that time we've featured on the Blue multiple times. From How the Underground Font was created and almost lost, to why railways that are loops are a terrible idea, to how rail project managers make the same mistakes as IT project managers and ruin everyone's Christmasses in the process.
We're very proud of what we write and that the site is ad free. But now we've decided to go to the next level and take things into print as well.
Why do it?
1) To future-proof LR's funding stream. Costs are ever-increasing and right now I pay them all out of my own pocket. That's getting harder to do, and means if I fall under a bus tomorrow there's no guarantee the site would continue. That would be a bad thing.
2) Because we wanted to prove that people want to read stuff like this. That it's possible to write long, geeky articles about transport that people will happily pay for.
3) That it was possible to make all the above look bloody good - and that a "specialist" magazine doesn't have to look like something you'd be embarrassed to be seen reading on the Tube, or by a friend.
More information on contents and how to buy is here.
I'm immensely proud of what we've put together, and feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. I'm hopeful of the new opportunities it presents for us, and hope some people here enjoy it as well.
Egon was wrong. Print isn't dead and we intend to prove it. London Reconnections, London's premier source of transport geekery, is now available in print. And we think it looks rather good.
LR has been around for nine years now, our goal being to provide long-form articles and analysis for both the professional and enlightened reader on the subject of London transport.
In that time we've featured on the Blue multiple times. From How the Underground Font was created and almost lost, to why railways that are loops are a terrible idea, to how rail project managers make the same mistakes as IT project managers and ruin everyone's Christmasses in the process.
We're very proud of what we write and that the site is ad free. But now we've decided to go to the next level and take things into print as well.
Why do it?
1) To future-proof LR's funding stream. Costs are ever-increasing and right now I pay them all out of my own pocket. That's getting harder to do, and means if I fall under a bus tomorrow there's no guarantee the site would continue. That would be a bad thing.
2) Because we wanted to prove that people want to read stuff like this. That it's possible to write long, geeky articles about transport that people will happily pay for.
3) That it was possible to make all the above look bloody good - and that a "specialist" magazine doesn't have to look like something you'd be embarrassed to be seen reading on the Tube, or by a friend.
More information on contents and how to buy is here.
I'm immensely proud of what we've put together, and feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. I'm hopeful of the new opportunities it presents for us, and hope some people here enjoy it as well.
Role: Editor
This project was posted to MetaFilter by Iteki on August 17, 2015: Egon is wrong. Print isn't dead.
Thanks - that's basically what I was going for :)
When we were thinking about doing this, I got together in the pub with the person I hoped would design it. We sat down with all the rail magazines from WH Smiths in order to work out how to pitch and design it. We lined up all the mags on the table, and every single one looked like it had been done from a standard template, with standard stock imagery.
I said to her then, that if we didn't make something that people would happily show their friends, then we didn't have anything new to offer to readers - because no matter how good the content, if it didn't look as good as it read it didn't matter. Because no one who wasn't a train nerd would read it, and the whole point was to open this world of interestinf stuff up to new people.
I'm really happy with what we've ended up with. I mean, embarrassingly so. Have been giggling to myself about it all day!
posted by garius at 1:41 PM on August 17, 2015
When we were thinking about doing this, I got together in the pub with the person I hoped would design it. We sat down with all the rail magazines from WH Smiths in order to work out how to pitch and design it. We lined up all the mags on the table, and every single one looked like it had been done from a standard template, with standard stock imagery.
I said to her then, that if we didn't make something that people would happily show their friends, then we didn't have anything new to offer to readers - because no matter how good the content, if it didn't look as good as it read it didn't matter. Because no one who wasn't a train nerd would read it, and the whole point was to open this world of interestinf stuff up to new people.
I'm really happy with what we've ended up with. I mean, embarrassingly so. Have been giggling to myself about it all day!
posted by garius at 1:41 PM on August 17, 2015
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posted by Iteki at 12:57 PM on August 17, 2015