Publishing

Body Politics and its directors have been involved in publishing and editing for over 20 years - from magazines and newsletters to journals and zines. We deal with rising talent rather than falling stars and have contacts with creative writers and artists from around the world.  We never work with expensive art studios who add long lunches and expensive champagne to the account. We prefer single mums who ooze talent from a Mac on the kitchen bench.

Our corporate experience includes:

Editing the environmental magazine Simply Living.

In the late 1970s Simply Living was the alternative magazine that graced coffee tables around the nation. Under the direction of its original founders, John and David Stewart, it broke new ground by displaying environmental and alternative lifestyles in a Vogue-like production. In the early 1980s it was bought by animal welfare activists Verna Simpson and Richard Jones and given a political edge that made it one of the world’s premier alternative magazines.

Founding and editing the political humour and satire magazine Matilda.

Matilda magazine was a necessary antidote to the rise of Rupert Murdoch, new Labor and the rampant consumerism of the mid 1980s. In the mould of Private Eye and Nation Review, Matilda’s star burned brightly for 14 months before she sank under a welter of defamation writs from outraged politicians, judges and bureaucrats. Germaine Greer, Richard Neville, Barry Humphries, Micheal Leunig and David Coombe were all regular contributors.

Publishing the adult couple’s magazine, Ecstasy.

Ecstasy was Australia’s first upmarket and explicit, couple’s magazine. Many of its pictorials were shot in historic and environmentally significant sites like the Old Canberra Brickworks and the Cotter Dam. The magazine made a point of rejecting stereotypes and sort out aboriginal and maori models. It also employed an Australian Federal Police officer as its Contributing Editor and once shot a pictorial with her on the steps of ASIO’s headquarters in Canberra.

Publishing the Canberra Raiders magazine, Raiders Country.

Raiders Country was launched on the back of the Canberra Raiders successful years of the late 1980s. It profiled player’s private lives, criticised the NRL for its Sydney-centric attitudes, offered playing tips from Laurie Daly and featured HG Nelson and Roy Slaven. The magazine had many articles re printed in national magazines including the famous interview with captain Mal Meninga that was purchased by Playboy in which he criticised the NRL for drug testing players for marijuana. Raider’s star indigenous winger and Fred Nile candidate, Chika Fergusson, was a regular visitor at the magazine’s office and supplied much of the gossip for the columns.

Joint editors with Phillip Adams, of Kookaburra magazine.

With virtually no TV, radio or print focussing on Australian humour and satire in the mid 1990s, Phillip Adams called to say it ‘was time’. Using his radio program and newspaper columns, he wanted to call in every budding satirist and cartoonist in the country to submit a yarn or cartoon. “Make sure Howard’s on the cover”, he thundered. Kookaburra  was launched at the National Press Club by Kim Beazley and Max Gillies. After six weeks it was on the Australian’s best seller list where it stayed for a month.

Publishers of the Eros Magazine

Starting off in 1992 as an industry newspaper called the Sex Files and undergoing two major transformations on the way, the Eros Magazine is Australia’s longest running trade publication. Sophisticated and stylish, it profiles new products, interviews industry personalities and reviews erotic art. The magazine puts forward the industry’s views and editorialises on new legislation and government censorship policy.

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