Name: Lee Taylor

Occupation: Editor-in-chief

Industry: Media

Lee is the Editor-in-chief of FLUX, an independent fashion, music and arts magazine. Set up by Lee, his partner Claire Lomax, and Martin Craddock in 1997, FLUX started off life as a fanzine. Since then, it has quickly evolved into a nationally distributed publication and website (Fluxmagazine.com). As somewhat of an aspiring editor myself, the first question I wanted to ask was how Lee might describe his average day as editor-in-chief of FLUX Magazine. He replied ‘Well as an editor & father of 2 young kids I have to say I'm spinning plates. Flux is an independent magazine so we tend to wear many hats too so we're dealing with editorial, writers, PR people, galleries and such plus any advertising enquiries that might come about’. He describes his job as ‘exciting mixed in with periods of tedious tasks. So you have to try and stay calm and focussed as it is very up and down. As we're a small indie we wear many hats as I said previously which can be a pain but in another way it keeps you levelled more as a person I think. Plus I have kids too so it all goes to make a busy, hectic mix’.

Asked to describe the aims and style of FLUX Magazine, Lee responded ‘What I love personally are those things, little cultural nuggets that make you go wow or simply make you think. I want some kind of reaction in myself and then we want to show other people. It's very much a cultural journal but we don't want it all dry and cold. Want it to be engaging, enjoyable experience. Flux is a current culture magazine so we're always in search of mad, bad, strange or thoughtful cultural nuggets we can unearth. Officially we say on the website "FLUX is a spirited, independent fashion, music and arts magazine featuring the best, living, breathing culture from the UK & across the globe."’

What are the best aspects of the job?

‘Discovering a great new artist, designer, song. Having a great writer come up with an original idea for an article’.

And the worst?

‘The harsh cold world of advertising. This makes or breaks lots of well intentioned, brilliant magazines’.

Finally, I asked Lee if he had any advice for aspiring editors. ‘You don't have to wait for someone to hand you a job. Make your own magazine. It's much easier nowadays, get a group of you together as we did. See it almost like a band. You can be the lead singer but you need to your team firing on all cylinders (or at least most) and you'll get somewhere. Or join in on another indie mag. You'll learn tons because they are small enough to give you an insight and get you fully involved’.

Whether you fancy yourself as an entrepreneur, or employee of another magazine, website or publication, I think it’s safe to say the world of media is a tough business but one that is well worth entering if you have the drive to succeed.

Website: Fluxmagazine.com

Images: Newsstand.co.uk  Junodoran.net  Pdfcast.org