Miranda Yardley is an enthusiastic and passionate publisher of magazines, decent alternative magazines that you’ve no doubt seen before. Starting off in Manchester, she moved to London to train as an accountant in 1996 before starting up her own practice and eventually taking up an offer from a client to run the extreme music publication Terrorizer in 2002. Since then she has built on the magazine’s positive reputation within the alternative market and with the help of a dedicated team of writers and designers, she has been able to create a premier voice for the underground. Now, in 2010 Miranda publishes Terrorizer on a monthly basis and releases the goth-centric supplement Dominion as part of that. In addition, she also brings out a guitar-focused extreme music magazine called Sick Sounds. For our second industry spotlight, Miranda takes time out of her busy schedule to talk us through her career and offer some advice to aspiring journos looking to get into the industry.
“If you are not in business to change people’s lives then there’s no point”
Miranda begins by discussing her job-role in London and how the involvement with Terrorizer came about. She explains: “When I first came to London in the 90s, I was acting as an external accountant and auditor for a publishing company whose mandate was essentially business publications.”
In 2000, Miranda set up her own accountancy practice but remained affiliated with the publishing company she had worked for as an advisor. During this time there was a deal made between the company and their suppliers who were in some financial difficulty to take away two titles, one of them was Terrorizer magazine. “Early in 2002 the company wanted to remove Terrorizer from their portfolio of titles, and they offered it to me earlier in the year and I politely declined, later on the same year the company’s circumstances changed and when they offered again, I took it with both hands.”
The publisher explains that while she is has remained ever-passionate about promoting alternative culture and extreme music, it has been a challenge to build the publication’s reputation. She says: “The battle against apathy has been something that I have had since I started with the title and it’s really about getting people off of their backsides to buy magazines, people are all too happy to sit at home and get the information off of the internet but some sites are not so authoritative
.”
The magazine industry and the internet are linked and any type of print publication cannot ignore the net to get their message out – people in both industries need to understand that their business is not simply publishing magazines or updating websites, it’s about giving people information.”
Miranda describes the importance of Terrorizer’s Grindhouse live events when it comes to battling apathy within the alternative scene. She comments: “There are so many bands producing music. Not everyone is great and not all of them are going to set the world alight but some of them are still trying to hone their craft and the more encouragement we can give to them the better.”
Recently, Miranda has put her duties as a magazine publisher to the forefront of her career fuelled by the drive to create something new and innovative for the alt-audience. From this, came the bi-monthly Terrorizer supplement, Dominion and before that, the standalone publication Sick Sounds. She says: “I made a very difficult decision last year to move from a role as a practicing accountant and earning a reasonable amount while part-time managing Terrorizer to taking on these concepts that I had in my head.”
Continuing on to describe the thought process that led to her focus on magazine specific to alternative music and culture, Miranda notes: “I made the decision on the back of the plans that I had done for Sick Sounds last year that I would devote my time to putting out magazines and websites publishing information centring around alternative culture.”
Miranda goes into detail about her original vision for Sick Sounds and how she filled a great gap in the market to appeal to the excellent musicians that litter the extreme music market. She says: “I saw Sick Sounds as being a complimentary product for Terrorizer and a large number of our readers are interested in the informant aspect of extreme music and there wasn’t a guitar magazine on the market.”
While there are other zines in the sector dealing with gothic and dark music, with Dominion, Miranda wanted to create a credible and regular guide that is aimed at providing engaging new information to its readers. “There’s not really a magazine out there that deals particularly with alternative and goth. I am all-too aware that many print magazines covering this type of music have come and gone – I don’t like to lose.”
Moving on, Miranda discusses the challenges that come with running Dominion in particular. She says: “The problem with the alternative and goth scene is that people are inherently backward looking. It’s very difficult to seize on great new artists and records that we can really champion – people in their 20s are throwing stuff at us like The Cure’s ‘Disintegration’ which is a great album, but surely their favourite records should be something more contemporary! We need to be looking forward.”
Miranda explains that it is very important for readers and fans of Dominion to become more actively involved in shaping the content. “If people want to go and engage with me on the Facebook group to talk about what they want then that would be very helpful.” She continues on to emphasise how important it is for her to make a difference with her work. She says: “If you are not in business to change people’s lives then there is absolutely no point in being in business.”
When questioned about the state of the music industry at present, Miranda says that while she remains cynical about how some parts of it are run, the PR agencies, labels and contacts available to support bands and publications are second-to-none in their approach. “We rely to a high degree on people’s good will to allow us to do what we want. The amount of good will that exists within this industry is extraordinary.”
Finally, Miranda discusses the importance of getting your face known as a young writer looking to get into the industry. She comments: “Doing the intern thing has been something I have been so passionate about since I began and I wanted to get young people involved with it.” She continues on to elaborate on how internships can be the best way to get a job at your favourite publication if you are willing to work hard and have the right amount of experience. It’s a fact that three current members of staff started out working with Terrorizer as part of their internships scheme. “The best way for people to get an internship is to e-mail their CV and then keep in contact until we get back to you. We get people starting their GSCEs, A-level students, undergraduates, journalism graduates, post-graduates and people in their 30s and 40s with different degrees looking for a change of career. We are open to anyone.”
Find out more about Miranda’s publications by visiting the following links:
Terrorizer
Sick Sounds
Dominion
