I Am Pop-up Magazine Editor Douglas McGray and This Is How I Work.
Douglas McGray’s first magazine is not like a magazine. Pop-Up Magazine , which is currently on tour, is a live variety show that uses a variety of storytelling techniques on stage. McGray also hosts California Sunday Magazine (which really looks like a magazine), a weekly magazine covering California, the American West, Asia, and Latin America. We talked to him about how he organizes a live show, his philosophy of interdisciplinary collaboration and his favorite label – literal.
Location: San Francisco, California. Current position: Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Pop-Up Magazine and California Sunday Magazine. One word that best describes how you work: experimental. Current mobile device: iPhone. Current computer: Macbook Pro.
First of all, tell us a little about your past and how you got where you are now.
I was a writer, mainly for magazines. Then I worked with This American Life and fell in love with radio. But it struck me that radio seemed like a separate world. I knew millions of writers and hardly knew any of these radio producers. I realized that I do not know many filmmakers and photographers. In the end, I thought about how these communities come together. Writers have their readings, photographers have their shows in galleries, filmmakers have their shows and festivals. I longed for a more creative mixing. I got together with my friends and we came up with the idea of a live magazine. Writers, radio and podcast producers, photographers and filmmakers will tell new stories about the world around us – science, pop culture, politics, food, music, war, art, comedy and more – across all different media mixed together. We called it Pop-Up Magazine . At first it was a side project, but the idea took off.
In 2014 we became a Pop-Up Magazine Productions company. We now host our live performances across the country, at venues such as Lincoln Center and the A. Howard Gilman in New York, the San Francisco Symphony and the Theater at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. Our performances are becoming more and more theatrical. We create art stories with original photographs, films, animations and illustrations. Our home band Magik * Magik Orchestra plays their music live to the original music. We teamed up a New York Times journalist with a shadow theater troupe to bring her story of technology and memory to life with living shadows, inviting thousands of people to try something at once to tell the story of spice and global conflict, and organizing live collaborative work. between a dancer and a documentary filmmaker. We turned the restaurant into a magazine, co-hosted live music and storytelling shows with Beck, and prepared stories to be heard in voicemail. (Do you already have tickets for one of our spring shows? You should get tickets !)
We also created a weekend magazine, The California Sunday Magazine , which covers California, the West, Asia and Latin America for a national audience, with detailed features and cinematic photography. Our print edition is delivered six times a year with Sunday copies of the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, and also by mail to subscribers. California Sunday started pretty quickly. Since opening at the end of 2014, we have been finalists for ten National Magazines, including this year’s General Excellence, the top prize in the Photography & Design category, and a few days ago by the Society of Publishing Designers named California Sunday Magazine of the Year.
It was a pretty wild evolution for something that started out as a hobby.
Tell us about the production process for Pop-Up Magazine and California Sunday Magazine .
The process is the same at the beginning. We hunt for members and ideas. And some members find us – we get great offers from people we know and from people we don’t know. Once drafts of stories arrive, we work with our contributors to shape and refine them. And our art department orders a photo or illustration, and in the case of Pop-Up Magazine , an animation or a film. If the story is for live performance, we share the drafts with our music director and she composes the scores. And then we collect all the parts and publish a magazine or stage a play.
Tell us about a recent work day.
Pop-Up Magazine’s Spring Tour will premiere this week, and we’re sending California magazine on Sunday , so Monday has been busy. The day began early as usual with emails from the East Coast and Twitter. (Social media can be tiresome, but Twitter is a particularly good way to spot talent and learn about new stories and ideas before they hit the front page of the New York Times .) Then I took my son to kindergarten and rode my bike to him. office.
I had a bunch of things to read and mark up. A late draft of a fun script for Pop-Up Magazine . Draft of a long overseas essay on California Sunday . Proof that at California Sunday’s New Short Film Division, we are dramatically changing this section in the next issue, so this was my first chance to see how it all fits together: storytelling, art and design.
I quickly said hello to a job candidate in a job interview (we are hiring and we just posted a few new jobs) and then it was a series of walking meetings. First with the executive editor of California Sunday – we discussed a couple of ambitious photography assignments and our political coverage. Then with our creative director. We looked at the art and design for the spring tour and talked about a couple of big projects we have planned for fall and winter. I paused for our general staff meeting on Monday – 15 minute standing meeting. He then meets with the managing producer and executive producer of Pop-Up Magazine’s special projects. Then chat with my co-founder, our publisher, to talk about TV stuff and movies. I use fast phone calls and emails when I can. Also tacos. Then another short meeting to talk about the massive growth of Pop-Up Magazine – partnerships with local media, art organizations, entrepreneurial organizations and our locally hosted franchise pilot called Pop-Up Zine – and a few upcoming small events: a talk design in San Francisco, happy hour in Washington DC, booth at an art fair. Then there is another draft worth reading.
Late in the evening, I need to change gears and seriously think about one thing for an hour or two. We’re planning on releasing the next California Sunday Special – I can’t tell you what it will be about yet, but we’re trying to make our Specials special.
After that, I went to music rehearsal to listen to live music from our music director and her band from Pop-Up Magazine , which debuts Thursday night. Then I rode my bike home to become a father. When everyone fell asleep, I sent emails late into the night.
What apps, gadgets or tools can’t you live without?
The answer is obvious, but Slack. We, as a company, have been doing this all our lives, and it’s hard for me to imagine how we would have coped without it. And our Sonos speakers make the office more fun.
How is your workplace arranged?
Our office is located in a large industrial building in San Francisco. The space is not fancy, but I love it – it feels like a place to create things. We sit down for four people at the table, and the tables are close to each other. Our Creative Director, California Sunday Executive Editor , Pop-Up Magazine Co-host and Senior Producer are sitting about three feet away from me. I don’t have enough personal space to make a mess, so I try to keep my desk clean. There’s a 27-inch display for my laptop, a pair of headphones for listening to the radio and editing movies, airfields for phone calls and music, a metal cup filled with black pens (for writing) and orange pens (for editing), and a stack of California Sunday Notecards and Pop-Up Magazine Notecards for handwritten notes. I keep a bag of radio transmissions under my desk – a Marantz recorder and a microphone shotgun.
What is the most overlooked aspect of creating a great live performance?
I would say this is imagination. You can create a flawless professional show like so much more. It won’t be so memorable. We work very hard to amaze people. We tell stories that turn right when you think they turn left. We are constantly trying things that we have never tried before. We want our shows to be unforgettable.
What’s your best shortcut or life hack?
I ride my bike everywhere. In most cases, this is literally a shortcut. But also some of my best thoughts have been implemented on a bicycle. The problem can baffle me all day, and I will bike it to a meeting. Also, I live in California, so almost every day is a great day for cycling.
Who are the people who help you achieve results, and how do you rely on them?
You know, if I do my job well, the opposite is true. I help other people get results. I don’t always succeed – sometimes I stretch too much and slow down, or I micromanage – but I try my best and I feel better. I try to give our brilliant creative director Leo Jung and photography director Jacqueline Bates a lot of freedom to experiment. California Sunday Executive Editor Raha Naddaf is an excellent editor and leader. Pop-Up Magazine co-founders Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith are very creative and adventurous. Senior Producer and Co-host of Pop-Up Magazine Anita Badejo is leading the editorial planning of our live performances, Senior Producer Hailey Hole is leading the show, and Senior Producer Tina Antolini is looking for members outside of the big cities where the media usually gathers and they’re all super talented. … Our community producer Roseli Ilano helps us make new friends and new employees across the country. California Sunday Senior Editor Keith Rachlees has edited some of our most ambitious articles. Hour Edwards, who leads our business side, is exactly the business partner you hope for and need. And there are so many others – I could go on and on. I am very lucky to have colleagues.
How do you keep track of what you need to do?
This changed as my work evolved. I used to be a big believer in a simple handwritten to-do list on sticky notes. But my days got faster and harder, so I tried different tools.
What’s your favorite side project?
This is it all! My side project became my job.
What are you reading now or what do you recommend?
Daniel Alarcón, the king is always above the people .
Who else would you like to see to answer these questions?
Daniel Alarcón. Lena Whitehe. Samin Nosrat.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
I really can’t say one thing. I have worked as a journalist for most of my career. Your job is to learn from others. I can’t turn it off. I am constantly learning from the people around me.
What problem are you still trying to solve?
What to do and what to transfer. I am beginning to think that you will never truly solve this problem.