Agency Insider: Inside ME Magazine

Some time has passed since the last Agency Insider. In this issue we chat with Art Director Jon Banthorpe about ME design magazine, its local online presence and the local print industry...and promise this discussion will not end here!

KG: So ME was previously Modern Elegance and had been published for some time. The magazine worked and was one of the coolest around from the very beginning, but then there was a silent phase and a big come back which brought us the magazine as it is today...what happened?, what changed? What didn't?

JB: M.E. was initially a sold magazine based solely on Fashion. With the advent of more free magazines, local magazines with cover prices were very badly affected -even today not many people are considering producing a local magazine with a cover price.

The silent phase you are referring to was our redesign period. We wanted to broaden the magazine's base and take it away from just fashion, concentrating on design and lifestyle as a whole. If you compare today's issues to the past I think you'll find almost everything has changed apart from a few core elements. The main drive has been towards quality - of images, of editorial, and of journalistic content.

As with any changes, we made adjustments and responded to their success or failure, but magazines are very time based and changes must be gradual. The 2008 M.E. is the closest so far to our ideal publication, not that there aren't still adjustments to be made.

KG: The local print industry includes some 25 free magazines
distributed with established networks...does this worry ME magazine?

JB: There are a lot of free magazines, and we pay attention to all. But honestly I think there are only a number of magazines I would recognise. I would love to be in a position where we don't have to pay attention to anybody but that would just be complacency. Though I do think we lead the field in certain areas, and we plan to improve these and more.



KG: Who is in your opinion the typical ME reader?

JB: It's difficult to pin down a typical individual, we approach the magazine from so many levels. Ultimately our ideal reader is one that seeks quality in all things. This could be quality in products, but equally this would also be quality in ideas and execution.

KG: ME's editorial team includes contributions from around the world...is it the same with its readership, and how this fit in your online strategy (medesignmag.com)?

Our distribution is purely local, so other than foreigners in Malta that read the magazine, our readership remains locally based. We do send a lot of issues abroad to contributors, potential interviewees and others and always receive a positive reaction which is encouraging.

As for the website, all websites must have an international outlook, as is their nature. Our viewing figures tell us we receive a lot of foreign and local hits, and this is largely due to the breadth and quality of the subjects we cover. Ultimately I'd like medesignmag.com to be the most viewed site in Malta - once a month is not enough for the amount of material we generate.