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 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, also writes The Bigger Picture about her other passion, family movies. Maggie Bullock, who now lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, is an award-winning freelance writer and the author of the forthcoming The Kingdom of Prep (Dey Street), which examines the last 40 years American fashion and retail through the rise and fall of J. Crew…and is available for preorder riiiiight here.

Are you going to clog my inbox?

Nope. You’ll be getting one email a week, folks. No spam here. We don’t have the tech savvy to spam you.

Is the name…a little much?

Yes!