Making a Cat Magazine
And how it transformed us into a publisher.
In 2023, my publishing company Broccoli released Catnip, a 216-page magazine for cat people, and it changed the course of our business.
(Catnip Volume 2 just arrived—click here to get your copy!)
Back in 2022, I was thinking a lot about what magazine to make next. In my heart, I knew what magazine I wanted to make—a magazine about cats. Cats have been my lifelong companions, and I find them endlessly fun and fascinating. I love how they embody so many unique personalities and contradictions—playful and aloof, fearless and shy, soft and sharp. But I knew from making Broccoli Magazine and Mushroom People that magazines require a lot of investment, and then there is the whole problem of finding an audience. Did people want anything beyond funny cat videos on social media? I believed that cat lovers deserved more than silly videos, and that this obsessive audience would enjoy seeing cats reflected through the Broccoli lens, with thoughtful stories, gorgeous art, and playful design.
So I messaged Stephanie and Ellen in our editorial group chat to say that I thought that our next project should be a cat magazine. It took some convincing (maybe because they both have dogs at home). I made a case for the symbolism of cats, their dynamic nature, and the way humans have had meaningful relationships with these animals for a very, very long time.
So with apologies to Dandelion, Juan, and Pico (the editorial and design dogs of Broccoli), we dedicated a year of our working time to all things cat.
From day one, we knew that Catnip was meant to be lighthearted and playful, a magazine designed to make people happy. I loved having this clarity of purpose, not only because it made our story selection process easier, but because it would be a joyful project to work on. A magazine about cats should be fun to make.
We’ll dive deeper into the design sensibilities of Catnip in another post (here’s an interview with our designer Jennifer James Wright (JJ) about Heartbeat’s design!), but my original vision for the magazine was for it to feel like you’re wandering through the aisles of the best thrift store ever, one stacked high with vintage trinkets and textiles. On one shelf you might find a golden floral print tablecloth from the 1960s, a 1990s Tamagotchi, and a handmade ceramic cat from the 1980s that looks a little bit off, but in a cute way.
Stephanie and Ellen helped to craft calls for written pitches and visual submissions. This is an integral part of every magazine we make, because it puts us in contact with so many new and interesting collaborators. Some of the standout features in the magazine came to us that way, like incredible double exposure photography of giant cats taking over Japan by Satomi Sugiyama, profiles of cat neighbors in a London apartment complex by Rebecca Zephyr Thomas and Lauren Cochrane, or an ode to a strange internet treasure of a website called Diabella Loves Cats, by Claire L. Evans.
Meanwhile, JJ and I dug into the design. Cats can be troublemakers, and we wanted them to leave their mark on the magazine, as if a cat had walked across the pages. Working with Ellen’s copy, we created a miniature “mewsletter” insert that is seemingly written by cats, with features like “Dear Tabby” and “Hissed Connections.” JJ also designed cut-out scratch marks as a surprise. Then, we added clear spot-gloss paw prints illustrated by Lauren Doughty to the cover and several interior pages. These paw prints have been a major hit with readers, who tend to lose their minds when they spot them.
On the cover, we featured a collage by Stephen Eichhorn, a Chicago-based artist. The image of a moody orange cat with a flower on his nose felt perfect for the magazine, and it sends a clear message: This is all about CATS. Stephen’s art is featured inside the magazine, too (and will appear in Volume 2!).
This vision came with a high price tag, though. Making a 216-page magazine like Catnip (or Heartbeat or Mushroom People) costs around $50,000 USD. This covers paying our team and contributors (something that is really important to us!), plus production costs for printing, freight shipping, and customs fees. Taking the financial leap on a new title is always risky, but our director of partnerships, Jessica Gray, did an incredible job finding up-and-coming cat brands who were excited about Catnip. The fun and stylish ads she secured helped offset our production costs and allowed the advertising to feel fun and seamless, not jarring for the reader.
With stories, art, design, and ads all in place, Catnip finally went off to print in early 2023. When it launched in October 2023, it was an immediate hit and has been our top-selling publication ever since. We’ve reprinted it over and over again, and our stockists are such fans that they’ve done things like make their own DIY Catnip window display. I love seeing our cats infiltrating museum gift shops, design boutiques, and stylish shops around the globe, and I’ll never get tired of receiving photos of people’s cats next to the magazine or seeing people beeline for Catnip at an art book fair when they catch a glimpse of the cover.
For me as a founder, Catnip was a transformational project. Broccoli started as a singular magazine, but after experimenting with publishing unrelated projects like art books, other magazines, and oracle decks, we stopped being a one-magazine media brand and became something else. If we were no longer a magazine, what were we? Catnip’s success gave me the clarity to grow into becoming a publisher, knowing that with the right amount of care and passion, our team could create a great magazine (or book, or deck) about any subject. Making the magazine was a dream come true for me, but seeing how it’s been loved by the world is even better than a dream. And that’s why I wanted to make Catnip—it’s a gift for cat lovers, and a way to bring a little joy into the world.
Read more magazine-making posts:
Designing a Music Magazine
Making a Mag-of-the-Month Club
How we acquired Mildew, the Secondhand Fashion Magazine
A wonderful magazine 🩵
i'll never forget seeing catnip displayed between very expensive sweaters in a chicago boutique! y'all are proving that magazines are (and should be) ubiquitous in our culture — thank you for that!