As LON Little Shop evolved, I was heavily influenced by the London-based Monocle lifestyle brand. Monocle started as a printed magazine, then grew to operate cafes and designer retail shops. I began with the retail concept, being LON Little Shop, and quickly wanted to extend our reach with a printed quarterly. After many weeks brainstorming on names for the new magazine we landed on Alpine Modern. It just so happened that Sandra Henderson, a German-native journalist living in Boulder, had started a blog on "Alpine Modern" architecture just months before. I tracked down Sandra on Facebook, messaged her, and told her my plans. She was thrilled and we were both instantly aligned on the vision for for what Alpine Modern could become. It was an exhilarating time to be publishing a magazine and I am forever grateful for the opportunities it created for me and everyone involved. Unfortunately we had to shutter the operation after two years and six issues. We had a solid subscriber base and were distributed worldwide, but from the outset we decided to keep the magazine ad-free. Perhaps if we incorporated advertising revenue we could have kept it alive but, we ran out of time and financial resources before we could tweak the model.
As I was reading through old emails between me and our editorial staff I stumbled on one I sent two weeks before our first issue was published. It's the final draft of my "Letter From the Publisher" that I wrote as the opening to Issue 01. Here it is:
So, I decided to publish a magazine. In print.
Print is not dead. There has been a welcome resurgence of interest in the craft of printed media, and my devotion to print has never wavered. I read the morning newspaper. Before long plane flights, I relish the opportunity to load up with an armful of magazines. The anticipation of breaking the spine on a new book gives me chills. And yet, I have every Apple product ever made, I run my businesses in the cloud, and I can code. I am no Luddite. I spend my days hitched to digital devices; so my idea of relaxed reading is not staring at another rectangular display. Give me print.
Alpine Modern is, quite simply, the magazine I have always wanted to read but could never find. A magazine with rich, global lifestyle editorial about modern living in mountain regions, with layout and typography inspired by mid-century Swiss design – and a magazine that limits its advertisements and partnerships with only brands that share these philosophies. I believe brand marketing should provide inspiration and discovery, not noise.Issue 01 is our first take on this ideal. Grab your coffee, throw another log on the fire, and settle into the first issue of Alpine Modern. Thanks for reading.
— Lon