Chatting with Kim Hastreiter of Paper

The legendary co-founder, editor, and publisher talks about changes in publishing and that Kim Kardashian cover.

You once described in an interview that your job as an editor was to “get rid of everything mediocre;” do you think that ability is learned or is it a talent someone is born with? I hate to tell you, but I’m afraid that this ability—to separate the mediocre from the great—is likely a talent I was born with. I think it has to do with being “right brained.” I would always try to follow what my geeky accountant was telling me about profit, loss statements, and business projections, but it always felt like someone was speaking Chinese to me. I would watch his mouth moving, yet could never understand what he was saying. I am completely stupid at most “left brain” things like business financials and money projections, while I am super good at zeroing in on a great unknown young artist or picking out the best work that an artist has ever done. I used to notice my accountant would wear a mix of poor clothing choices and was baffled about what it was that I did; I finally realized that there are a lot of different definitions of “smart.”

Some folks can be incredibly book smart, while others can be incredibly street smart or visually smart. Someone, like my accountant, can have an innate sense of projecting profits and losses ten years down the road, while I have an amazing ability to find a Hermès scarf or a cashmere coat in a Salvation Army bin. He can talk to banks easily, while I can pick the absolute best photo from a shoot in two minutes flat, help direct a tired brand how to dust itself off to appeal to young folks, or help push a fashion designer into the direction they are most talented in. I am super intuitive and have very good instincts. I can tell which brands will go out of business in the next five years because they just don’t get it, becoming more and more irrelevant, and I bet I’ll be right (even though I can’t do a financial report).

How have magazines, as a format, evolved and what role do they play today? Magazines have evolved tremendously since the Internet arrived. Young people still love to hold a beautiful object, look at a beautiful, well-designed page, and read an amazing story, but no one goes to magazines (or newspapers) to engage of-the-moment news whether be it cultural, political, or just for what’s happening. Magazines also can’t exist as separate entities because the print business model is outdated and defunct. You cannot exist as a business if you just have a magazine because magazine and newspaper advertising no longer exists as a primary marketing tool for brands. The entire model of magazines needs to flip. Print can still be a small part of a communications brand, but it is just a small piece, and magazines do not lead companies anymore; communities and content lead companies. It needs to be about the message not the medium, and the medium reach can be huge now because of digital. The entire print paradigm from the 20th century is a dinosaur. They can still make magazines, but in order to succeed as a communications company print on paper must function as a smaller yet more innovative piece of the communications puzzle going forward.

That said, print magazines are still proving to be a coveted purchase and collectible for millennials; magazines can still offer a lot that digital cannot. They can be beautiful, provocative, visual, intellectual, and even pop objects that folks still want to hold and look at. I think the biggest change is that magazine content these days should have less to do with their previous format of covering timely stuff that’s going on and more to do with innovative ideas that engage their community.

What are the essential habits and skills you think every editor should possess? As an editor, these days, you need to make your magazine a small piece of a big idea puzzle. The content within the idea needs to be developed so it can be delivered, not just on the printed page, but across all platforms simultaneously—from digital to videos, podcasts to social, and experiential. It also needs to be content that can engage people.

Don’t get me wrong: There is still a place for great editors. Great editors still need to know how to recognize, create, and craft content by thinking differently. Coming up with amazing ideas and boiling content down to its best essence; removing what is not great (whether images or words) so only amazing content remains. Fierce editing makes everything stronger.

 If someone thinks they have what it takes to be a great fit/asset at the magazine, how should they go about getting your attention? Write me a great letter/email that will inspire me, shake me up, and show me clearly why I should pay attention. I have gotten many peoples attention over the years this way. When I write a great letter or anything else. I edit it, and edit it, and edit it until it is great. Not good. Not mediocre. Great. Everything you do strive to do needs to be the best. I don’t want lazy or mediocre—it just doesn’t make me happy or excited.

How did the Kim Kardashian cover evolve from an idea to #break(ing)theinternet? The idea of Kim Kardashian was proposed to me (by my amazing Chief Creative Officer, Drew Elliott, and my Editorial Director, Mickey Boardman) as the cover of our 30^th anniversary issue. I rejected it because I didn’t feel this made sense to celebrate three decades of our Original Gangster PAPER brand with that type of person on the cover. Within 10 minutes, Drew and Mickey came back to me and said, “We have another idea. What if we make another issue in November that would be all about trying to break the Internet? Everything in the issue would be collaborations with social superstars. We would only have people in the issue with enormous social followings […] and Kim Kardashian could be on the cover. We will release everything on the Internet on the same day to create bedlam.” This was a GENIUS idea so I said, “Bingo, lets do it.” Drew and Mickey led the charge; it was really their baby. It was a super exciting and amazing adventure that morphed into something even more than we had ever expected. Bravo to Drew and Mickey!

What is a favorite published piece that you’ve contributed to? I have so many favorites. I love when I engage others to create stuff for us that is unique, original, and amazing. I loved when I invited mentally disabled artists from the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California to illustrate fashion collections for me. I also loved when I invited via a “brief” (one of my killer letters to get the attention of people I wanted to work with) an amazing assortment of communication gurus to “rebrand America” after Obama was elected.

What can you not work/live without? Amazingness. I mean art, the people who create it, and who are amazingly creative and inspiring.

What is an industry pet peeve of yours? My pet peeve in the fashion world is the concept of “one day you’re ‘in’ and the next day you’re ‘out’.” The fashion world tends to crown designer “geniuses” of-the-moment, then dump them when they are “off trend” a year later. This is horrible! How can someone be a genius today and not a genius in two years just because trends have changed?

Twitter or Instagram? Instagram. I really don’t tweet anymore. And Facebook is for the elderly.

Do you have any advice for people trying to break into publishing? Don’t think you can survive in the business of making magazines.

What word/phrase/motto do you live by? It’s always better NOW than it used to be.

Kim Hastreiter was photographed by Richard Phibbs.

Amanda Jean Black is a guest blogger at Ed2010, sharing stories from her site onthemasthead.com. When not hunting down publishing’s elite for an interview, you can find the native New Yorker obsessing about style and culture, shopping for designer streetwear, and jamming out to 90′s alt rock.