Colophon 2011

Feld Hommes

Issue 01

5 cover(s) available
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Issue 01, Stipe Ercerg

Sample from interview with the actor Stipe Ercerg

3 spread(s) available
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Feld Verlag

Hamburg, Germany

Langbehnstrasse 15 Hof / Haus A, 22761

Email: info@feld-magazin.de

• Category: Men, Sport
• Periodicity: Quarterly
• Language: German
• Web: http://www.feld-magazine.com

Exclusive Interview

Its basically all about the fun of doing something new and different.

What is your magazine about?
FELD HOMMES is a men’s magazine. It covers typical topics such as fashion and girls, but with a slightly different approach. In addition, you will find a variety of interesting subjects, ranging from arts to politics and sports. We call it a “Magazine for Men and other People”, meaning men who do not reduced in their interest to muscles, girls and cars but are somewhat intelligent and cultivated. And everybody else who is like that.

Who’s behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
Well, the main people to mention would be Jan Weiler and Kai Maser and me to some extent. Jan is the Editor in Chief, former Editor in Chief of the “SZ-Magazin” turned famous author. And Kai is our partner in all production issues, he runs a successful pre-press company with subsidiaries throughout Germany. I am the magazines Creative Director. I used to be Creative Director of “Sleek” and run my own Brand Design Consultancy in Hamburg. As to our motivation I guess we all wanted to create something new, outstanding and a bit edgy. Its basically all about the fun of doing something new and different.

How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
FELD HOMMES is monothematic, that is to say that there is an overall subject for each issue. This was “Dirt” for our first issue, the next will be “Leather”. So, once we start working on an issue, the team sits down together, our core team of some eight people, and we try to come up with interesting subjects for the new issue, Over the next few weeks, this is refined and then we start contacting authors, photographers, artists and all the people who contribute on each issue. Our first issue was produced in about two months which was a bit of a hassle, normally we expect to spend some three to four months on an issue.

What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
Given that our first issue just appeared: conception, pregnancy and birth. As in life. And of course, before all that was meeting the right people. As in life too.

Which are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
We certainly hope it will become a bit of a success.

What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be “the” thing to help the magazine to improve?
As with many projects, the two big constraints are time and money. This is particularly the case with our magazine because it is a no-profit project for the main participants. We all have to find the time to make the magazine next to what we do to make a living. So, some kind of a time machine allowing you to squeeze two weeks in one would be a big help.

Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
Alive and kicking. Apart from that, we hope, we can steadily increase our quality of our content and that we might be able to make enough with advertising to finance an exciting content.

Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
As I said above: men who are interested in more that cars and chicks, who have an interest in culture and fashion and are able to read articles that are longer than tree lines. To me those are quite normal men really because all of my friends and many other men I know are like that. But the publishing market seems to see this differently.

Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Independence is not important to us per se. But being able to create something outstanding and exciting is. And from what I know about the publishing industry, it would be very difficult to do so within the structure of a big publishing house – too many people who have a stake and are afraid of doing something wrong. They spend years to develop a magazine, test it over and over again in focus groups and the result is something which tries to please everybody and thus excites nobody.

What’s your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
My own background is in advertising so I am certainly not opposed to it. We would not let advertisers concern influence our content and – being an independent magazine – we do not need to. On the other hand we would be quite happy to have editorial-drive-advertising such as ads that are specially created for one of our issues and are related to the issues subject.

Which is your relationship with your printer? Does he play a main role in your development?
Very close. Our printer is Neef + Stumme, a German printing company specialising in premium printing. We sit down together at a very early stage to think about how we can produce an issue and which features we can use productionwise.

Which magazines did influence you most? What are you looking for in other magazines?
There are two magazines I really admire: Arena Hommes Plus for its fashion and, of course, Dutch. I think a good magazine needs to be unique to some extent and it should develop its own visual language.

How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
I read or browse trough about 10 to 15 magazines a month, but I don’t think this qualifies me as a maniac. It’s just part of my job, really.

E-mail interview from Mieke Haase “05.01.2006”. © Colophon2007.com – Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg)

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