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LGTBI magazine Archer expands distribution to USA as it aims to give industry a ‘shake-up’

Archer MagazineAustralian magazine Archer Magazine, which describes itself as the “world’s most inclusive publication about sexuality and gender”, has expanded its distribution footprint to the US.

The print magazine is now to be stocked in cities, across the US, including New York, Austin, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.

Amy Middleton, editor of Archer Magazine, told Mumbrella the title was “never destined to remain solely focused on Australia” however the expansion to the US does not see the publication create different versions for each market.

“Our mission statement is to represent diverse attitudes to sex and sexuality, and the broader the scope, the more diverse our content becomes,” Middleton said.

“It isn’t necessary for us to create separate editions for each international location. The stories published in Archer are universal in their content, and completely individual at the the same time.

“They focus on human experience, and most articles are written at least partially in the first person. Understanding sexuality and gender is not a geographically limited concept. The whole world needs to step up and understand how diverse and complex our experiences can be.”

Launched in Melbourne in 2013, Archer Magazine the print edition is published twice-yearly, with an online presence as well.

On expanding to the US, Middleton said they “have a solid readership in the States already” as “queer, sex-positive and media communities all converse internationally”.

“We’ve been stocked there for the past couple month, across 10 cities or so – a situation that is handled by our distributor Trident Magazine Services,” she said.

On how the US differs to the local market, Middleton said the main difference is population size.

Middleton

Middleton

“There are chains of magazine stores that have multiple locations throughout New York City alone. In Australia, Sydney can barely sustain one Mag Nation outlet. It’s a very different audience,” she said.

On what’s next for the publication Middleton said there is a focus on “building our engagement in USA and Europe” with the goal of putting on more global events.

“We’re also ramping up our website’s output, because our readers are very hungry for content between print editions,” she said.

Archer Magazine’s long term goals are around bringing in more partners with the aim of becoming financially viable.

“Part of Archer’s manifesto is to give the media industry in Australia a shake-up,” Middleton said. “We would like Archer Magazine to represent a new, viable model for independent media, to encourage the development of other platforms.”

Middleton said the publication is “different from mainstream media in a few ways”, saying they publish first-time writers, with a focus on “nurturing this process to allow lesser-heard voices to read wide readerships”.

“We run every article past the writer throughout the editing process, to ensure they are represented as they wish to be. We allow every writer and subject to choose their labels, terms and pronouns. These are all trailblazing concepts for Australian media, and we’re determined to find a way to make them work as part of a successful model,” she said.

Miranda Ward 

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