The quarterly magazine Sweet Paul, dedicated to food, craft and lifestyle, has been busy since its first issue bringing fun crafting projects, gorgeous pictures and beautiful design to its growing audience. Its founder, Paul Lowe Einlyng, borned and raised in Oslo, now living in Brooklyn, gives us a tour of his empire.
Can you tell us about your magazine?
Sweet Paul is a magazine about food, crafts and lifestyle. I usually say it’s about what makes life worth living.
After working for magazines for many year, I though it was time to start my own.
It started out as online and after two years we went to print.
I wanted to create a magazine that I want to read, it’s a a bit selfish but it works.
And editorial-wise?
Whenever I plan a new issue, I think “what do I want to eat now, what do I want to make?”
My mission is to give my readers easy and delicious recipes and chic and doable crafts.
It’s important for me that the recipes and craft ideas I come up with are easy.
I don’t make a magazine to show off that I’m clever, I want you to make it!
Why choose print? What kind of paper do you use and why?
I love printed magazines: reading magazines online is simply not the same.
We print the magazine in Canada. I use a very green printing process because this is important for me.
I also like paper that has some structure, so it has more “feel” than regular magazines. I want it to feel good in your hands.
How’s the audience response?
Its wonderful. It’s really amazing when you start something small and see it grow like this. We sell all over the US, Canada and the world. Anthropologie is our biggest retailer. I love getting messages and emails from readers telling me they made something and they like it: it makes me a very happy man.
Good print mags get a lot of love, but it’s not always translated into sales or advertising. How are the sales? Advertising-wise, is it a normal approach of selling an ad page or more of a brand ad approach?
We do a lot of advertorials in our issues. We make the content for different brands. It makes the pages look good and on brand. I think today you gotta think a bit differently about ads, how to sell them and what you can offer. We can offer our advertisers a whole package, ads, contents, online ads, banner ads, content for their website, etc. Its’ working really well for us.
What are your upcoming projects?
There might be another book in the future, maybe some tv… Can’t tell you more, a guy gotta have his secrets, you know.
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