Vine has been shortlisted in two categories in a search for the UK’s most talented, inspiring and enterprising independent publishing companies.
In the Periodical Publishers Association’s (PPA) 2008 Independent Publishing awards, our 15,000-circulation community lifestyle magazine has been nominated for Best Launch and the Individual Achievement Award.
Vine’s editor and publisher, Owen Hunnam, 21, is the youngest-ever entrant to be shortlisted in any PPA awards and is going head-to-head with publishing veteran Mike Soutar, the ex-editorial director of worldwide media group IPC.
Soutar was also formally the editor of FHM, oversaw the launch of Nuts and now heads the company behind free men's weekly Shortlist.
The PPA said that overall entries were up 78 per cent, with 33 publishing companies fighting it out to win one of the ten awards. Jane Salliss, IPA coordinator, said: “The judges were impressed this year with the quality and diversity of entries. I think even those judges from the bigger publishing companies learnt something from the independent publishers.”
The winners will be announced at a prestigious lunch at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on May 6.
Our story has also received national press attention and was featured in trade magazine The Press Gazette. This is the full article as published on 25 April 2008:
One-man magazine fights Shortlist for indy award
By Rachael Gallagher
A 21-year-old university dropout is going head-to-head with
publishing veteran Mike Soutar in two categories at the Independent
Publisher Awards.
Owen Hunnam is the youngest entrant to be
shortlisted in any award from the Periodical Publishers’ Association,
and his 15,000-circulation Sevenoaks-focused community lifestyle
publication, Vine, is up against ex-IPC editorial director Soutar’s
free men’s weekly, Shortlist. Hunnam, who has a background in
graphic design but no other publishing experience, said he thought his
chances of beating Soutar to the best launch and individual achievement
prizes were “so small”, but he was pleased to have been nominated. “It’s
a pleasure to be taking on the big boys,” said Hunnam, who began
developing the free Kent-based monthly title in January 2007 after
dropping out of a business degree. He launched the first edition in June last year with a £7,000 business loan. Since the magazine launched, circulation has risen from 10,000 to 15,000 and pagination has increased.
Hunnam
currently oversees the editorial operation and outsources the
advertising and distribution. Half of the copies are directly
distributed to ABC1 homes in the Sevenoaks and the remaining 7,500 are
placed in selected outlets. Hunnam has also launched an interactive community website, which is beginning to attract advertising. “I
think my naivety and youthful arrogance has been an advantage to me,”
he said. “If I’d known what was in store for me there are a lot of
things I wouldn’t have done. And being so young means I don’t have any
commitments. It consumes my life.” The prizes for best launch and
individual achievement are just two of five that Shortlist has been
nominated for in this year’s IPA awards, which take place during the
PPA’s magazines conference on 6 May. The title has been
shortlisted in the consumer magazine of the year category, while Phil
Hilton has been nominated for editor of the year and Matt Phare is up
for the designer of the year award.
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