Once a month we invite our member magazine publishers and enthusiasts to guest-edit our fortnightly email newsletter. The aim is to inspire others with magazine-related content, connect members and build our community so we can learn from each other.
This month our guest editor is Fiona Livingston, Founder and Creative Director of FOYER. You can follow Fiona on LinkedIn – remember to connect and say hello!
Tell us about yourself
For my 9-5pm jobs, I work part time for Chilli Chan’s as Operations and Growth Manager and also as Creative Operations Manager for L’Abeille Pastry, both located out of Amsterdam, Netherlands. In my 5-9pm life, I am the founder and editor of a thoughtful annual indie magazine called FOYER; a culture and heritage magazine written from the point of view of individuals from diaspora communities and second-generation heritage backgrounds.
What’s on your mind?
I’m excited to start working on FOYER Issue 5: Language edition. FOYER explores culture and heritage through themed editions and I’m always excited at the initial contributor outreach phase to see what amazing stories, viewpoints and interpretations I receive on the theme. With FOYER, I adore how the themes are interpreted in such personal but accessible and relatable ways through creativity such as articles, artwork, photo essays and poetry. What’s on my mind at the moment, is trying to develop my reader community through storytelling and cultural exchange events. I’m looking forward to investigating this!
What’s the best article you’ve
read this month?
I really enjoy Vittles’ Substack newsletter. They have incredibly well-written, insightful articles not just about food culture, but about how food penetrates society and cultural understanding. They run a great commentary series called ‘Acid Reflux’, and I was particularly drawn to the Matcha special.
This article explores the global phenomenon of matcha culture, particularly its transformation from a traditional Japanese tea into a trendy wellness drink and lifestyle symbol. The matcha craze represents how wellness has become less about actual health and more about aesthetic performance and status signalling. People aren’t necessarily drinking matcha because they care about its traditional preparation or genuine benefits, they’re doing it to project a certain image online, and to generate social media content.
The article captures a broader cultural malaise, where we can see through the hollowness of these trends yet remain trapped within them, seeking to “feel something – or maybe to avoid feeling anything at all.” It made me consider how ‘trends’ impact us in ways we do not immediately realise, and the wider impact this has on creating privilege, and branded experiences disconnected from any real cultural roots. Something for us all to be aware of in a social media diluted communications world.
Show us an incredible magazine cover
I love the bold and daring covers of Gossamer magazine, but I think this tactile edition for their ‘Touch’ issue was genius. This pertinent edition was published during COVID-19 when we were not able to touch each other. I think the physical aspect of the magazine was heightened by having a ‘fuzzy’ cover, which brought not only the content to life, but was a beautiful exploration of tangibility and bringing ‘touch’ back into our lives.
What’s your top tip for publishers?
I have learnt that building a community is worth its weight in gold. I am very much inspired by Bog Bodies Press, which has created a successful indie magazine, mnemotope, on very little budget, but with a clear and challenging vision and by building a community.
Armed with a black and white printer and staples, they put together their first magazine without curated content – anything goes! This freedom of publishing is exciting and unbound by theme, genre or skill level.
But their real success, for me, comes from their off-the-page activities – community building – by running workshops on collective publishing and storytelling, book launches, as well as discussions on imagined limits on publishing, and intimate launch parties. Being at the forefront of your topic and embracing the community that lives there is something that I feel we should all be doing more of to feel seen in an uncertain world.
Questions for the community
What subject or issue would you like the International Magazine Centre Members Group to discuss and untangle over on LinkedIn?
My question is: How are live events or brand extensions becoming a more significant part of your financial and community-building strategy for 2026?
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