What’s the Spread?
What would make the perfect women’s magazine? Juicy yarns, big ideas, deeply personal examinations of women’s lives—and none of the advertiser obligations.
In this weekly newsletter, we—Rachel Baker and Maggie Bullock—serve as your nose-to-the-ground truffle hunters, sharing the best articles we can unearth that are for, by, or about women. The Spread is where you will join us, each week, in processing a fresh batch of smart, funny, weird, deeply reported, knock-your-socks-off women’s stories.
While print editions are dropping like flies (Adieu to the pages of Glamour, Nylon, Allure, Self, and Marie Claire), we’ve found ourselves overwhelmed by the vast array of “women’s media” that is still out there, competing for our brain space, and our dollars. In addition to the women’s titles that are still valiantly raging against the dying of the light, there are the scores of general-interest publications increasingly tackling ideas and subjects that, not long ago, were relegated to the “pink ghetto”. Plus there are the women’s sites, the quirky one-woman’s-voice or single-topic newsletters, the untold hours of podcasts, all pumping out stories from a broader, more diverse, and more interesting array of voices than ever. There’s plenty out there—we all just need a place to find it.
Who is the Spread for?
Anyone who loves—or even just likes or is curious about!—stories and ideas involving “women,” whatever the word means to you.
Who are these “Rachel and Maggie” ladies?
A pair of career magazine editors and enthusiasts—and longtime Elle work wives. Rachel Baker, who now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, is an editorial consultant for slew of shiny media clients, including legacy publications, startup brands, and podcast juggernauts. (Come ASME season, she also moonlights as an awards coach.) Maggie Bullock, who now lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, is an award-winning freelance writer and acclaimed author of The Kingdom of Prep: The Rise and (Near) Fall of J. Crew (Dey Street), which you can pick up right here.
Do y’all have a podcast?
Kind of! We’ve experimented with audio-issues right here on Substack, and we regularly lend our interviewing skills to Print Is Dead (Long Live Print), a podcast about people who make magazines. Have a listen here!
Is the name…a little much?
Yes!
