Introducing paper magazines loved for their unique concepts and themes

Have you heard the phrase ‘magazines are disappearing’? The advent of smartphones changed many industry ecosystems but mostly the publication market. According to the ‘Korea Press Foundation’s ‘2018 magazine industry status research’, sales of 2017 Korean magazine industry was 1.353 trillion won, which is 24.7% down from that of 2014, the year of its previous research. People working in the magazine industry also went down by 33.6% from 2014 to around 12,000. But even during such harsh conditions, there are magazines that have attracted readers with unique concepts and themes and are becoming popular, even. Here are a few original magazines you will want to subscribe to regularly.

‘bear’ magazine, stories of people who are happy working

‘bear’ magazine records stories of people who do ‘happy work’.

Are you able to go “Yes!” to the question, “are you happy doing what you do right now?” Some of you may answer right away, but most wouldn’t. Then would it be fair to say we are only happy as ourselves not working? Can’t happiness and work coexist? Human magazine ‘bear’ says no to this, which interviews people who are happy doing what they do. When existing magazines talk about healing, travel, and hobbies only, sees the world through work and talks about it.

Magazine ‘bear’ is a quarterly magazine that meets and talks with people who are happy with their work (Photography by @design_eum).

Ever since its launch in June 2015, magazine ‘bear’ has published 14 books as a quarterly magazine, each with a different theme. However, despite having a different theme for each book, Bear magazine pursues the same thing throughout the series; stories of people through their work. They go beyond drawing an abstract and emotional blueprint about works but depict the minds and faiths of people in their workplace on their pages.

‘magazine BOOUK’, stories about people you meet in kitchens

BOOUK magazine aims to become a sentimental lifestyle & food documentary magazine.

What do you think of when you hear the word kitchen? It’s a familiar word of course, but if you think about it, these days, when 1-person households and nuclear families are dominant, it may not be the case anymore. Magazine ‘BOOUK’ is an interview oriented quarterly magazine that talks about eating and living through kitchens of people or our times with the motto ‘Raw life begins in the kitchen.’ Not only does it bring out the meaning of kitchens that changes or remains the same over time with the people inside them, the magazine also talks about the lifestyle, taste, and sentiments of the people of the kitchens.

Talks about various stories with kitchen as its object, which changes over time and with people (Photography by magazine ’BOOUK’ homepage).

With its first book on Jeju, the magazine sometimes talks about a place or about a certain object; but the keyword is always ‘kitchen’. The most recent book was on 'cinema kitchen', which introduced various people who talked about their favorite food introduced in certain films. It’s filled with spaces that remind us of some movie scenes as well as kitchen stories related to movies including the ones that are loved by so many as ‘healing flims’ like 'Little Forest' and 'Kamome Diner’.

One movie, various perspectives, ‘PRISMOf’

Magazine ‘PRISMOf’ talks about one movie in many perspectives (Photography by Movie Matter .com).

A French filmmaker Francois Truffaut said, “the first method to love a film is to watch it twice, the next is to write about it, and the last is to make one yourself.” The first and the second of Truffaut’s advice is what ‘PRISMOf’ is about. Its first book came out September 2016 after being funded in July 2016 through Tumblebuck, and the magazine received funding until its 3rd book. Now you can find the magazine in major bookstores easily.

‘PRISMOf’ is a movie magazine without a single movie still cut (Photography by Movie matter.com).

PRISMOf, which means encompassing many perspectives for a single movie, clearly is differentiated from existing movie magazines in several ways. Firstly, it is that it only deals with one movie for one book; secondly, not a single movie still cut is inside the magazine; and thirdly, each book comes with ‘goods’ called prism piece. These novelties created a buzz among cinephiles as a special magazine to have. If you are a bit late, the magazine gets sold out. Stay tuned to PRISMOf’s SNS account as you can contribute your writing to the magazine.

magazine ‘URBAN LIVE’, traveling to experience the life of cities

Magazine URBAN LIVE does not tell you to take off somewhere.

If you purchased magazine ‘URBAN LIVE’, thinking it’s a travel guide, you will be disappointed. As the name suggests, this book will tell you how it is to live in the city. The magazine will not let you know the way to somewhere or give you weather information, places to go eat and sightsee, like any other travel guides. As their catchphrase “to travel is to live there!” goes, this book introduces the lives in certain cities and what kinds of people fill up the cities.

After reading one book, you will feel as if you’ve been to the place (Photography by Urban books homepage).

Travel magazine ‘URBAN LIVE’ was created with the concept of selecting a city for each book and allowing the reader to experience the life of this city. To do this, they select local brands operated by local artisans and reestablish daily lives, items, spaces, brands, etc., according to the magazine’s standards and talk about the local attitudes towards life. Of course, like any other travel magazines, there are pages for restaurants, cafes, landmarks, etc. But they are more trustworthy as their editors have stayed in the city to find out about them in depth. After reading the whole book, you will feel as if you’ve traveled to the destination.

Aside from the aforementioned, recommended magazines, there are many independent magazines that talk about various themes. There’s ‘Bold Journal’ for bold fathers, 'womankind' that suggests thoughts on feminine life values with illustrations, philosophy magazine 'NewPhilosopher’ that brings depth of humanities onto your everyday life, and many more. Such magazines bring more than information, and they provide opportunities for experience and contemplation. How about setting out to find the magazine of your taste before your summer vacation?