Can a new 292-page magazine cut through the noise?

In an era when most media entrepreneurs are racing to shrink formats and monetise micro-moments, Huw Gwyther is doing the opposite. The founder of Wonderland and Man About Town has launched Imagine, a new magazine brand that opens with an ambitious 292-page print debut — an unapologetically maximalist gesture in a media landscape obsessed with brevity.

Published biannually, Imagine is pitched as a digital-first platform that blends high fashion, film, music, art, and design — bolstered by multimedia content and a collectible print edition. It’s a bold play in an industry that continues to reel from print’s long decline, with consumer attention splintered across countless apps, creators, and subcultures.

“From day one, the guiding principle has been simple: the only limitation is your imagination,” Gwyther says. But behind the rhetoric lies a calculated strategy: identify and own a niche, build around engaged communities, and lean into luxury’s enduring appeal in both print and digital.

The high stakes of independent publishing

Launching a new media brand in 2025 is not for the faint of heart. Legacy publications are scaling back or folding altogether; digital-native platforms wrestle with monetisation and shifting algorithms. The economics of attention — fast, fractured, and monetised in milliseconds — are not naturally kind to 300-page magazines.

But therein lies the opportunity, at least in theory. Magazines are no longer mass-market vehicles, they are luxury objects, brand statements, and often tools of cultural positioning.

It’s a niche Gwyther knows well. His earlier titles became cult favourites by fusing fashion-forward visuals with pop-cultural intuition. With Imagine he aims to extend that blueprint to a new generation of tastemakers and readers, many of whom discover fashion through TikTok edits and Spotify playlists.

A talent-led, community-centric model

Instead of chasing trends, Imagine puts emphasis on timeless creative direction and unfiltered conversation. The launch issue features emerging global talents — Monster star Nicholas Alexander Chavez, multi-hyphenate Eiza González, and Heartstopper breakout Yasmin Finney among them — across both digital and print covers.

The format is loose by design: there are no rigid themes, but rather a mix of original photography, interviews, and embedded multimedia intended to move seamlessly between screen and page. Contributors include photographers like Sandy Kim and Bartek Szmigulski, stylists such as Marc Forné and Dione Davis, and editors with pedigrees from British Vogue, Dazed, and Vanity Fair.

Editor-in-Chief Olive Walton — whose experience spans music video, film, and digital production — was brought on to help reimagine what luxury editorial might mean today. Fashion Director Justin Hamilton and Beauty Director Kelly Cornwell round out a team selected for both aesthetic vision and cross-platform fluency.

Why print still matters

Despite its digital DNA, Imagine insists on the relevance of print. The launch edition is available globally via curated stockists including Dover Street Market, The Broken Arm in Paris, and London’s Shreeji Newsagents — a deliberate nod to the boutique magazine economy that has quietly thrived even as legacy glossies shuttered.

Print has become a canvas for storytelling that digital can’t replicate — tactile, permanent, curated. For Gwyther, the print object is not just a product but a statement: a tactile artefact in a world of ephemera. It’s also a commercial tool, building brand equity and cultural capital that can then be monetised across other channels — from digital editorial to video, events, and possibly commerce.

As with all independent ventures in 2025, Imagine’s success will hinge not just on vision but on execution — and the ability to build meaningful audience relationships in a landscape where content is instant, disposable, and often free.

Still, for those tired of algorithmic sameness, the arrival of a meticulously crafted, talent-first magazine offers something refreshingly analogue: time, attention, and a point of view.