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I read Conor Purcell’s The Magazine Blueprint, a guide to independent publishing from a long-time Irish journalist, for two reasons. Firstly, because of the direction I’m going with TN2 as the incoming editor: I want to cover more independent Irish publications. In our international media-saturated world, turning our eyes close to home matters, because all of us in Ireland are the first and primary audience for independent Irish writers and artists. Using the platform of TN2 to bring greater readership to our homegrown talent is good not only for the current batch of indie creators, but also for the future of indie media. It’s win-win. Secondly because I’m precisely the target demographic of the book and that is kind of delicious when it happens.

Conor Purcell is a Dublin-based writer, designer and publisher with some impressive credentials — not only has he created multiple successful independent magazines himself (including We Are Here and We Are Dublin), but his writing has been published in such diverse titles as Esquire, Rolling Stone and the Guardian. Among his interview subjects include the people behind New York Magazine, Vanity Fair and Gourmand — as well as other smaller indie magazines that are fascinating to learn about. Through The Magazine Blueprint, Purcell has created a beautifully designed, plain-spoken mentor for those of us who want to get into indie publishing.

Given the much talked-about ‘death of print’ and the conscious transition of TN2 to an online-first publication, I had been pondering ways to keep the print edition of the magazine relevant and interesting. Online content can be videos, playlists, full of hot-links to cutting edge information; online content is easily updated and should be up-to-date. Print is different. With the timeline it takes to write, edit, publish and literally physically print your magazine/newspaper, anything very au current can be stale by the time the physical copy reaches your greedy little hands — which means that print must evolve or perish. Conor Purcell, and the more than 50 magazine makers from around the world that he interviewed for the book, are a part of that evolution.

“Just as photography didn’t kill painting,” Purcell writes, “and TV didn’t kill radio, the advent of the internet has not killed print. The very best magazines are objects, to be held, read and shared.” Objects, he later defines through a quotation from Jeremy Leslie, as “a physical item endowed with qualities that appeal to multiple senses: smell, sound, touch as well as sight. Their makers are open-minded about what a magazine can be.”

I recommend it highly to anyone, pragmatic or academic, interested in the future of print publication from zines to coffee-table periodicals, and the founders, graphic designers and writers behind them. This copy is going to be by my side for a while to come.

The Magazine Blueprint can be purchased online for 23 euros.

All photography from the author’s site.