{"id":211679,"date":"2026-03-19T17:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/211679\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T17:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:27:17","slug":"turning-the-page-on-a-digital-pace-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/211679\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning the Page on a Digital Pace \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

On stands at bookstores and print shops (like recent Austin addition TOMO Mags<\/a>), independent magazines are, once again, having a moment. Everything old is new again, and small presses are betting that eager eyes are looking for inspiration and reading material that isn\u2019t interrupted by notifications and carries a nostalgic, analog heft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to think that the pendulum swung so hard to the digital side, that this is more of a reset and a balance,\u201d said TOMO Mags founder Vico Puentes, moderator for a South by Southwest panel on what long-form print publications can offer readers in a culture of short-form, quick-paced content and news. \u201cIt all boils down to people wanting to disconnect for a little bit and breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the thoughtful shop owner brings together their magazines in the bold, blue shelves of his storefront, Puentes gathered for the conversation three strong voices in independent print: Kyle Tibbs Jones, co-founder and editor at The Bitter Southerner; Caroline Hwang, editor-in-chief and founder of Synonym magazine, and Jennifer Prohov, content strategist at No\u0113ma.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 5,000, 7,000 word stories, so it immediately slows you down because of the length,\u201d Jones says of The Bitter Southerner\u2019s staunchly left-leaning cultural features. Across all three publications, distinct aesthetics play a pivotal role in storytelling, drawing readers into the worlds of their long-form journalism and personal essays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As independent publishers, each leader emphasized the joy of \u201cnerding out\u201d over design choices and having the freedom to break formats. Diaspora-documenting Synonym, for example, uses a plastic coil binding inspired by cookbooks, and The Bitter Southerner takes advantage of the press\u2019 background in book publishing to put out a coffee table book-sized magazine telling the \u201cthe real stories of our region\u201d three times a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to be able to grab people right away through our design and it is actually one of the very first things that everyone talks to us about when they see the magazine,\u201d said Hwang. Jones and Prohov agreed, noting that their readers often share photos of spreads and cover images online, bringing the physical publication into the digital world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDigital has taken over the world,\u201d Prohov acknowledged. \u201cWe have to feed that beast because the beast is there,\u201d she said, explaining that, as a transformation-centered publication documenting issues of the moment across several fields, No\u1ebdma publishes their stories online first, before collecting a series of pieces into an annual, collectable publication. Active as they need to be, the emphasis on analog forms of communication goes beyond the page for these printers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media feels so fleeting and feels so disconnected and we\u2019re trying to form real relationships with people,\u201d said Prohov. Instagram and other platforms have helped to create communities around these publications, but in-person events and a reliable, consistent voice keep an engaged readership alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve become very close with our readership, with our audience,\u201d Jones said. \u201cPeople really, really, really believe in what we stand for and our ethos at The Bitter Southerner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite growing interest from readers and niche dedicated followings, analog media remains a precarious economic game in the face of the internet. The three representatives were open with the audience about the different financial strategies of each publication. Bitter Southerner operates under what Jones called \u201crock band economics,\u201d largely financing their journalism through merchandise sales and subscription. No\u0113ma, Prohov said, is something of a unicorn in the space as an editorially independent nonprofit with a secure funder. For Synonym, Substack subscriptions, donations, and sponsorships all help keep the magazine alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Staying true to an ethos of slow living through thoughtful design and extensive storytelling is intentional, patient work, according to these print lovers. There is pressure to be as consistently relevant and of-the-moment as online-based publications can be, Jones admitted, discussing the difficulty of striking a balance between timeless storytelling and current curiosities, especially as the publications angle to stay relevant in their readers\u2019 lives. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to be evergreen in an environment that we\u2019re living in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prohov jumped in, reminding her that analog media has a different edge than ever-relevant material: \u201cEven if it\u2019s not evergreen, it\u2019s capturing this moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On stands at bookstores and print shops (like recent Austin addition TOMO Mags), independent magazines are, once again,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,82886,2970,82887,82888,51488,82889],"class_list":{"0":"post-211679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-jennifer-prohov","12":"tag-sxsw-2026","13":"tag-synonym-magazine","14":"tag-the-bitter-southerner","15":"tag-tomo-mags","16":"tag-vico-puentes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}