There are precious few publications standing against the accepted status quo that print media has had its day and the future is digital. Taking a stand among their ranks is lifestyle magazine Monocle, which even eschews social media, choosing to address those who seek its singular lens via a 24-hour radio show rather than by 140-character posts.
The brainchild of magazine publisher Tyler Brule, Monocle embodies the culmination of the Canadian's career in media that has included an active life in journalism and the founding of Wallpaper, a magazine that helped change the face of interior and design publications during the 1990s with its eclectic mix of design genres. Now marking its 10-year anniversary with a redesign and an issue focused on the Japanese fashion market, Monocle is very much part of the media landscape, albeit an increasingly unsteady one.
"Print media is not dead," declares Brule at a recent interview in Tokyo. "Maybe I can say that because I have just come here from Frankfurt, but in Germany and Japan there isn't this pervasive unilateralism that digital has won the day and that you have to make apologies for print. Frankfurt is only an hour plane trip from London, but the attitude to print is very different. Germany is the only one taking Facebook and Google to task — to court — to defend print.