Surfing in Ink and Paper: Adventures in Magazine Publishing
For a lot of people, surfing is not only a sport, it is a lifestyle. The sport has attracted people from all walks life. Some had already built their everyday life around the sport. It has established a whole new culture by itself. With a culture of people with an intense love and commitment to surfing, they have posed themselves as a good market. It is a good niche of people that magazine publishing companies have definitely explored. Here’s a list of magazines that have dedicated themselves to the community.
Surfer
John Severson founded this very successful publication from his own garage in the 1960s. It originally served as an accompaniment to his third surf film, Surf Fever. The magazine proved to be a success, prompting Severson to launch The Surfer Quarterly which later on became the Surfer Bi-Monthly. Surfer was such a huge success that it helped to initiate the boom of the surf culture in the 1970s to the 1980s. It has opened the doors between surfers to talk about almost everything that is related to it.
One important outcome from the magazine was the environmental awareness and movement among the surfers. Articles about marine pollution, reef and harbor conservation have been featured on regular sections. This then has lead to the establishment of the Surfrider Foundation in the 1980s.
John Severson later sold the magazine to Better Living, Inc. Forty-one years later after Surfer was started in his garage, the magazine has undergone several changes in its staff and ownership. The company has also turned itself into a full-sized magazine publishing company. It has since then hailed as the “surfer’s bible.”
Pitpilot
Pitpilot covers the British surfing scene. Combining sensible articles with just anything crazy, the magazine aims to be THE British surf magazine. It links up British surfers with the rest of the world. The magazine has been a hit since only after six months since it started, they already had, in their own words, “a cushdy little office in town.”
Surf Girl Magazine
In a scene which seems to be dominated by men, surf girl gives it a fresh air. In fact, it is the only widely distributed magazine aimed at the female surfer. Orca Publications in Newquay, Cornwall publishes the magazine. It merges topic from the usual women’s magazine like fashion, health and beauty into the surfing culture. Articles on famous female surfers, surfing spots and environmental issues are also featured.
Zigzag Surf Magazine
Zigzag surf magazine is the fourth oldest surf magazine in the world. Started by Paul Naude, Doug MacDonald and Mike Larmont, the magazine was conceived after the team met up with publisher of the Backdoor, a Hawaiian tabloid magazine. The original shop is in the rooftop of Mike Larmont’s surfboard factory. The magazine was later sold to Craig Sims and Rob Von Wieringen in 1988. Presently, the team of John McCarthy and Will Bendix publishes the magazine.
Wave Action Surf Magazine
Like the other magazines, wave action surf magazine started out humbly, in a small apartment in Huntington, California. Surfers Mike Freihofer and Pete Rocky pioneered the magazine while still working for another magazine publishing company, International Surf. With two other friends, Tracy Mikulec and Jake Knight, they launched Wave Action Surf Magazine in 1993. The magazine publishing company went on successfully thereafter, creating four more publications.
Wave Action surf magazine initiated the idea for other publications to look out for the next top surfers by releasing an "All Grom Issue" with the article "Hot 100."
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The wonders of magazine publishing
Many see it as a simple reading material, but take a closer look and you can see the many wonders of magazine publishing.
As a key component in promoting the industry of mass media in the world, magazine publishing has changed the face of print media – one that has taken it into new and greater heights.
The wonders of magazine publishing is one that cannot be easily discounted, since it had been responsible in making it an indispensable reading material that withstood the test of time, even with the advent of a rapidly expanding and progressing information technology.
The sphere of influence of the perpetual partnership of pen and paper has transcended through time and has not been shaken by the threat of electronic media and the thrust towards a paperless society.
This is mainly so since the wonders of magazine publishing exhibits a process so versatile and dynamic that simply, yet surprisingly, allows it to adapt and adjust to changes of the times.
The best reason for this adaptability is the fact that humans crave for information or the means through which one yearns to be heard, and it is through this fact that every publishing process, including magazine publishing, is one of the greatest factors that will foster its survival.
It is the hunger and craving for information that makes magazine publishing, as well as with any other mass media, an indispensable tool in delivering information, whether it be on paper or electronically.
Today’s information culture makes it difficult, if not impossible, to live without mass media.
Obviously, the press is by far the best conduit that brings information to the people, and magazine publishing allows information – in its many faces- to be creatively and extensively presented.
Unlike tabloids, spreadsheets and periodicals, magazine publishing incorporates conventional reporting with creativity and artistry.
While all the other forms of print media adhere to strict rules and guidelines, magazine publishing breaks this taboo and is inclined to more liberal and aesthetic approaches.
Commercially, magazine publishing is one of the most veritable money-makers in the media industry, since it can drive focus towards a certain segment of the market that it hopes to give focus to.
From home improvement, do-it-yourself guides, women’s, men’s, children’s, sectarian, opinion, features, essays, public awareness, public service, political, entertainment- you name it- magazine publishing can embrace it and present it to the public without the bat of an eyelash.
From the commercial standpoint, the broader market scope of a magazine the better, since this is undoubtedly one of the best venues to advertise and introduce new products.
On average, a person with active contact to mass media is exposed to no less than five hundred advertising messages or materials in a day, most of which can be found in magazine publications printed regularly.
Magazine publishing’s versatility and dynamism has even adapted to the advent of online information technology, where it has even broadened its scope and distribution in a much more global scale with the propagation of the world wide web.
The wonders of magazine publishing gives us a clear and encouraging picture at how it will continue to proliferate regardless of the changes and challenges it faces, as long as it will continue to satiate the public with the need to be informed and be kept informed.
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