Posse Magazine

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THE FINNISH POP CULTURE PORTAL

Magazines : Posse Magazine
Interview : Raine Ruoppa / Editor in chief

When was your magazine first published?
The first issue came out in october 2001

Who's idea or concept was it?
It was me(Raine Ruoppa) and my friend Antti Ratinen. We were studying graphic design and wanted to have a magazine of our own. We both liked hiphop and there were no other finnish hiphop magazines around, so it was a natural choice.

Would you say that your magazine now is different from the first edition?
It´s not that different. More pages and more people involved.

How would you present your magazine to our readers who don't know it?
Well it´s a hiphop magazine but usually it looks more like a fashion magazine. All four elements of hiphop are presented, but there is more, for example book reviews and lifestyle advices. We aren´t too serious about the content of our magazine. We include whatever makes us laugh. Dark finnish humor can be found in several articles.

What are the main topics or areas that your magazine covers?
The four elements of hiphop: rap, breakdance, DJ and graffiti.

What is the periodicity of your magazine?
Twice a year. Spring & fall.

Could you present your "editorial line"?
To be honest, I don´t think we have one. We do whatever feels good at the time.

Who are your readers? Do you aim to touch or focus on a certain part of the population?
Ofcourse we focus on young, urban people. Not necessarily the ones with the biggest pants but the ones who already know a lot of the things that are going on. It´s not easy to understand it if you aren´t already familiar with the finnish hiphop culture. So yes, our magazine is aimed at a narrow part of the population.

Do you have any competitors?
Well there is Numero, a skateboarding and a music magazine. Then there is Flashback, a lifestyle magazine. I actually don´t concider them so much as competition although we all are aimed at the same type of people because we all have very different contents. It think it´s good to have diverse selection of magazines aimed at a certain group of people. For example I myself am a subscriber of both Numero and Flashback and I would hate to see them go through hard times because of our magazine.

Is your magazine distributed all over Finland?
Yes. In the largest cities.

Do you know if it is available abroad?
Our magazine is written in finnish so it´s sold only in Finland.

If our readers who live abroad would like to subscribe, how could they proceed?
At the moment the only way is to contact one of our dealers, for example www.syndicatenetstore.com or The Funkiest Records.

How is the situation with the Finnish press (newspapers, magazines)nowadays?
The magazines have lost a lot of advertisers to the television last year.
Also the unstable economical situation has reduced advertising. So it´s not going that well, ads are vital to any commercial public media. Anyway the sale of magazines is still quite good.

Do you think that this situation will continue or are there many chances that it will change in the future?
It´s difficult to say. It is almost impossible to predict the direction of the economy. I think we´re going to see some turbulent times but I´m optimistic about the future. It will get better sooner or later.

Would you say that the "traditional magazines" suffer or benefit from the internet?
I think at the moment they benefit, this interview is a good example of it. Also the internet has made it easy to keep in touch with the artists and with the people who are involved in the making of the magazine. For us the internet has made many things easier. I think traditional magazines aren´t going to fade out in the near future.

Do you have a web site?
Not at the moment.

Have you ever considered the possibility to propose an identical version of your magazine in an electronic format?
We have talked about it, well not about an identical version but about a Posse Magazine web site. So far we have been so busy with the printed version that we haven´t found the time to get the web site under way.

And to conclude this interview, what are the projects for the magazine in the near future?
Improve our spelling, interviews and layout. The magazine is only a hobby for us and we´re not trying to make any money with it, we´re publishing it just for fun. Let´s hope the new issue will be better than its predecessors.

Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2003