Another week means another Publisher Interview! So let’s get on and find out more about the life and career of one of our beloved publisher partners.

Today’s it is the turn of Tony Herrington, editor and publisher of The Wire. First published in 1982, The Wire is the world’s leading independent monthly music magazine. Each issue is committed to reporting on a dynamic global network of underground, alternative and experimental musics and features journalism and photography by some of the subculture’s most original and authoritative critics and observers.

Issues from The Wire’s Digital Archive

Individuals and institutions can subscribe to the complete digital archive through the Exact Editions shops  – that’s over 35 years, 400 issues and 35,000 pages!

Without further ado; over to you Tony! 

1) What’s your role within the The Wire?

Maintaining the climate and conditions in which The Wire can happen; making sure all its components are moving in the same direction.

2) What attracted you to the magazine publishing industry?

It’s all the fault of music. I’ve been reading about music, buying music magazines, as long as I’ve been buying records; since I was about 10 or 11. 

As well as being a crucial source of news and information, the critical discourse that the magazines set up with the music they covered seemed to me a necessary aspect of the whole experience. It completed it. The music started the argument, the magazines continued it. As a reader this made me an active agent in the process. It made me think about the music I was hearing, rather than just passively consuming or dismissing it. 

Magazines became objects of fascination as much as records: how were they made? Now I know, and they still fascinate me.

3) If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Dolsot vegan bibimbab with ginger tea from Bibimbap Cafe on Museum Street in central London.

4) If you weren’t working in publishing, what would you be doing?

Working in a record shop and freelancing as a music critic.

5) Do you have an all-time favourite The Wire issue?

I don’t have a favourite issue, but I always say the current issue of The Wire is the most important issue, with the possible exception of the next issue.

The Wire’s Current Issue (February 2020)

6) Which country have you enjoyed visiting most?

Scotland. In the early 2000s, every May bank holiday The Wire would decamp to a small music festival in Stirling called Le Weekend. That was the most fun I have had on the road with The Wire.

7) What do you think will have changed in the publishing industry in 5 years?

At the top: less print, more ‘experiences’. Down at the grass roots: more small press journals.

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Thanks so much for speaking to us, Tony! If you’re a publisher and would like to be interviewed for our feature, please get in contact on publisher@exacteditions.com.