The former creators of frankie have released a brand new parenting magazine that takes a ‘less is more approach’ to advertising.
Louise Bannister and Lara Burke, the ladies behind independent publishing house, We Print Nice Things, and former creators of frankie, Smith Journal and Spaces, have delved into the parenting realm with their first magazine venture, Lunch Lady Magazine.
Based on the blog by Australian photographer and mother of two Kate Berry, the mag hones in on 30-49 year old food focused parents, and will feature recipes, real life parenting stories, art, photography, profile pieces and humour.
But most interestingly is the minimal advertising that appears in the magazine, which both Bannister and Burke were adamant about getting right. However, a copy doesn’t come cheap at $18.95.
“We’ve dealt with a lot of advertisers before and we wanted to take a different approach this time,” Bannister told B&T.
“We won’t get hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising but hopefully we’ll get a lot of support from our readers rather than just advertisers.”
Bannister said they’ve collected a number of foundation sponsors for the first issue who have committed to being involved for the whole year, including Allpress Coffee, Kido Store, Love Mae, Arro Homewares and Nature Baby. She also said they would only include one type of advertiser in each category of the magazine, so there would be no overlap or competition.
“Our aim is for Lunch Lady to not be saturated by advertising and for editorial to be the focus. We are proud of our advertisers and our aim is to support and promote each other.”
“We were willing to go it alone too,” Bannister added. “We won’t sacrifice our ethos.”
“There were a couple more advertisers we would’ve loved to see in there, but at the end of the day we’re really happy.
Asked about moving on from frankie, Bannister said it was the same issue as it was when they were 26.
“This is the time of our lives, and there was nothing out there for creative parents like us. Now we’ve grown up.”
“We’re hoping people from frankie will move across with us.”
Magazine editor Kate Berry also told B&T the point was to create something that differs from the traditional parenting magazine that features the “perfect family” and gives you “the 10 steps to being a better mother”.
“We want to build a community of lunch ladies,” Berry said. “We really want it to be that you pick it up and it feels like a friend.”
Berry created the blog as a form of catharsis for her daughter after the nine-year-old was bullied at school because of her homemade lunches.
“It’s a realistic portrayal of the day to day life as parents,” Berry added. “And it acknowledges that we’re still people – we are parents, but we’re still the same people we were before we became parents.”
Lunch Lady Magazine will be published quarterly with the first edition available from November 16.
