STOCKIST SPOTLIGHT: UNIQUE MAGAZINES

As an independent magazine, stockists make our world go round. Based on the other side of the world, in Newcastle, England, Unique Magazines had faith in us and became our first ever stockist in the UK (or anywhere even close!)

Unique Magazines is a more than just a store—it’s a community.Their frequent events around schools and universities bring people together in the name of print, and their online presence highlights the amazing, and dare I say unique magazines that they stock. The work they do in supporting indie publishers just like us is amazing and inspiring. Back in July, they celebrated the grand opening of their Mag Room—a place to flip through magazine pages, rather than browse online. I say this is a great sign of a powerful movement, and Ellie agrees…

We spoke to Unique Magazine’s Ellie Purvis—who handles the store’s content creation, events and social media—about what it’s like working there, and the highs and lows of running a store devoted to magazines in today’s digital age. Ellie is also downright lovely. So, read on to learn about Ellie and the Unique Magazine team’s story.

WANDERER: Congratulations on your recent grand opening of your magazine room! How was it?

Ellie: Thank you so much Emma! Aww it was amazing! Our whole vision for it came to life and the thing we valued most was the real community feel it had. People turned up to support a local, independent business and that meant the world to us. It was a huge reminder that print is not dead!

Tell us a bit about your store, Unique Magazines! And tell us a bit about the new Magazine Room?

Where do I even start?! So, the business began officially back in 2002 (before I was even born) as an online store and retailer providing thousands of mainstream magazines to customers, businesses, schools and libraries worldwide (even Australia). Over the past few years, we began to focus on independent titles, such as Wanderer magazine. We’ve seen the evolution of these publications, and the future of them seemed bright, due to their fresh content from such creative minds. So only last year I started sourcing independent magazines to retail here in our store and online. This was the first time we had worked directly with independent publishers to source magazines, so it was exciting!

But for us, only having an online store, whilst promoting print felt somewhat hypocritical? We wanted an experience for customers. One where they can come in, see, feel and even smell the print. A one where physical print is celebrated and shown off proudly. So, in April 2024 we started to mock up what was somewhat a store, in our old meeting room. As we started to really see the potential, we couldn’t help but put even more of our hard graft into this dream—being the only magazine store here in the Northeast. So, fast forward to now, and it is finally finished! It holds both independent tiles like Wanderer and mainstream favourites and it really is a hub for the local northeast community. [It’s] more than just a retail shop for printed magazines—it is a movement to get creatives talking and print thriving.

What are the challenges associated with working at and running a magazine store?

The thing nobody wants to talk about is the uncertainty of print—we are moving more and more into a digital age. Magazines are ceasing to go online only, print materials are being replaced for Instagram reels on our phones and AI is giving people all the inspiration they need for projects, so where is the place for print?

Although this all seems a bit negative, we are pushing against the grain and championing print to keep it alive. We can’t say for certain the future of print, but from someone who spends five days a week working in the heart of it, all I can say is it fills me with absolute excitement to see print slowly making a comeback—between all the noise of the digital age.

Do you think magazines are making a comeback? What have you seen that gives you this reasoning?

I’m confident they are making a comeback! I spend a lot of time at universities, with students who are in their final year of the fashion courses here in the UK. Their final year project is to create a magazine, and it accounts for a large percentage of their grade. From there, I have seen first hand these young, creative individuals leaving university, entering the world of industry–whilst also continuing their uni creations on their own backs! The ideas in them are phenomenal and the fact these individuals are so young, yet pursuing something that has been around for centuries fills me with nothing but hope. The Gen Z and Alpha generations have a huge love for timeless classics like Vogue, and print is somewhat becoming a means for creative inspiration and growth. If this is the younger generation, pursuing print, then to me it’s clear that print is going to continue to flourish with young, modern, creative perspectives and ideas.

What’s the most Unique magazine you have in stock?

I spoke to the team for this question because we have a few! Rebel Roots is quite unique—it’s a plant-based zine, and each issue focuses on a different vegetable and what you can make from it! The visuals and artwork inside are super quirky!

A more recent special one is Hybrids and Mushroom Friends. Each page is filled with a nature like scene and a human element placed somewhere on it. It is different and fascinating to flick through.

But honestly, we have so many different magazines and no two are the same. From the northeast Geordie culture to the bushlands of Australia, we have so many titles to get lost in!

What influenced your love for magazines?

My first memory of magazines where being a kid going shopping with my Mam and begging her for a £8.00 magazine filled with absolute tatt gifts, like bright pink lip balm and clip on earrings (the answer was usually no) Then I remember having a sneak peak at the front cover of my Mams ‘Take a break’ magazine, with crazy covers for a 6-year-old to read haha.

But I don’t think any of this inspired my love for magazines if I am honest. When I originally started working here in 2020—Before I went travelling and returned—I had no clue about magazines. Being completely transparent I came to the interview with little knowledge at all as to what I was going into, I just needed a job! I’ve since dove head-first into the passion of magazines. This new role has given me the opportunity to explore the creativity of print, speak to the people behind the scenes—like the team here at Wanderer—and really dive into how the print media world works. And I love it! I love the self-expression portrayed through the pages of a fresh read, and how each one tells a unique story and attracts a niche of people who feel deeply rooted in its messages. 

I have always loved writing and reading in school and excelled in my English skills (can’t say the same about maths though) which makes me feel like this passion for words and written work has always been deeply rooted in me, it just took 23 years to work it out and find something to apply it to!

If I were a fly on the wall at Unique Magazines for a day, what would I see?

Haha, I love this question! You would see me turning up at 9:03am (I still haven’t mastered being here on the dot) with an iced coffee in my hand. You would then probably hear Chris (our distributions manager) getting frustrated at me for asking him to film a reel with me, then me gossiping to my work Mam Angela.

No but in all seriousness, you would see a family, as cheesy as it sounds. We all have our own roles (there is pretty much one person in each department) and not one is more important than the other. You would see lots of busy fingers on keyboards, emails being answered, blogs typed, social posts scheduled and invoices being arranged. You’d also see the warehouse team packing for their afternoon deadline, as well as creative conversations in the office for new ideas and plans. You will also see customers browsing print now, since our store is finally finished!

What’s the best thing about Unique Magazines?

Probably the environment when we come into work—the small team makes everything we do so personal, and the support we give each other in our roles is just so lovely. And of course, the customers! We have our loyal customers, who call us to make a renewal or email us when they need something. Those regular customers remind us exactly why we do what we do.

A quote I love is ‘They’ll forget the price, but they never forget how you made them feel’. As an independent retailer, we are more expensive, but the feedback we get is how friendly and personal we are, so they keep coming back! This to us, is just priceless. 

And finally, indie publishers like you guys at Wanderer! We get thanked a lot for stocking indie publishers’ magazines, but we also want to thank you guys! For the support we get and for trusting us to retail your magazine, something which is so valuable to you. The fact you all put so much work and passion into your craft and then allow us to sell it in our tiny corner of Newcastle is such a privilege!