Search Results for: This Magazine

‘We Changed Culture’: An Oral History of Vibe Magazine

Longreads Pick
Source: Billboard
Published: Sep 27, 2018
Length: 27 minutes (6,985 words)

The Underground Magazine That Helped Shape Portland, Oregon

Snipehunt 1994, cover by Sean Tejaratchi, courtesy of Portland Mercury

It’s hard to imagine now, but Portland used to be a tiny ignored little city that a lot of bands didn’t want to play and national media largely ignored. Those were sweet times. In that relative cultural isolation, a poster artist named Mike King started a music fanzine named Snipehunt to both harness and serve Portland’s small arts community. Enlarged and fully realized by editor Kathy Molloy, her volunteer team designed, edited, published, and distributed the magazine themselves. Snipehunt had a devoted following and helped launch the careers of its then-unknown freelance writers. Then in 1997, it abruptly quit publishing, and Molloy ghosted everyone and moved to British Columbia.

In an oral history for the Portland Mercury, local writer Joshua James Amberson goes on his own snipe hunt for Molloy, and he lets those who were involved with her artistically piece together the magazine’s creation and influence. One artist called Molloy “the punk mayor of Portland.” Molloy remains a mystery who, like her magazine, cannot be found online. Thanks to Amberson, Snipehunt now sort of has web presence.

The scene that inspired Snipehunt featured bands that weren’t getting media coverage and writers and artists without an outlet. The magazine soon became a breeding ground for local creators, and its contributor list is a peek at the kind of local talent and energy emerging during that time: novelist and screenwriter Jon Raymond, current Portland city commissioner Chloe Eudaly, filmmaker and installation artist Vanessa Renwick, local writer and publisher Kevin Sampsell, novelist Rene Denfeld, Crap Hound and Liar Town creator Sean Tejaratchi. For many of the contributors, Snipehunt was their first publication, their first opportunity to regularly try out their ideas on an audience.

A typical issue of Snipehunt had interviews with local and national bands, pages of comics from independent artists, scene reports from West Coast cities, oddball prose pieces, political action coverage, and pages of reviews—albums, zines, live shows, films, and books. It was a broad take on DIY culture, loosely based in the punk scene but covering artists and subjects far beyond the imposed limitations of that world.

With the magazine’s history largely absent from the internet, its name unfamiliar to the majority of current Portlanders, and physical evidence of its existence difficult to come by, I reached out to a couple dozen of its contributors to provide me—and the rest of new Portland—with a much-needed history lesson.

Read the story

Little Bits of Paper Everywhere: An Oral History of Snipehunt Magazine and Kathy Molloy

Longreads Pick

Between 1988 and 1997, a vast network of volunteers and freelance writers designed, published and distributed an independent culture magazine called Snipehunt in Portland, Oregon. It. Then it abruptly ended and its charistmatic editor disappeared.

Published: Sep 27, 2018
Length: 20 minutes (5,087 words)

Judging by the Cover: How the Magazine Industry’s Identity Crisis Is Playing Out on Its Front Page

Longreads Pick

Digitization has profoundly altered the way magazines sell and get produced, yet traditional print covers still have a strong cultural and economic impact. Cover designs now have to strike a delicate balance between satisfying loyal subscribers and attracting new digital readers who engage on social media.

Source: The Ringer
Published: Sep 4, 2018
Length: 20 minutes (5,184 words)

NYT Magazine’s Rita Dove on What Poetry Might Grant Unsuspecting News Readers

Longreads Pick

Brendan Fitzgerald interviews Rita Dove on how she plans to approach her upcoming one-year stint as poetry editor at New York Times Magazine. Taking over for Terrance Hayes this summer, Dove has free rein to select a poem that will appear in the magazine each week, along with her short introduction. Dove is the fourth poet to hold the poetry editor position.

Published: May 25, 2018
Length: 7 minutes (1,794 words)