A look at the first edition of Medium Rare’s Qantas magazine

“I want this to be the magazine you can’t believe you got for free,” says editor-in-chief Kirsten Galliott on Medium Rare’s Qantas magazine

The first edition of Medium Rare’s new-look Qantas magazine popped up in Qantas lounges and in-flight seat pockets on July 1. New editor-in-chief Kirsten Galliott moved across from Pacific Magazines and InStyle not just to edit the magazine but to oversee all Qantas content on different platforms.

“There are 2.3m passengers flying Qantas every month and the primary aim is to entertain those passengers,” Galliott told Mediaweek. “My key target is how do we make this magazine the best it can be for the passengers. As an editor I have never had such a captive audience.

“For advertisers they are just the right demographic – busy executives who can be hard to reach who don’t consume a lot
of media.”

Although the title can only be obtained only via Qantas, an app was launched this week to make a digital edition widely available. Galliott said the app will be constantly updated.

Galliott was full of praise for the previous team who looked after the title at Bauer Media. “They did a brilliant job and it has been the market leader because of the work they did.”

As to why the title changed publishers, Galliott said: “Qantas is in a different place right now and the title was ripe for a change. The publishers had a lot of ideas when they pitched for the business and I have a lot now too. The magazine hadn’t changed for a long time.”

The airline magazine’s new editor said readers will automatically register a major makeover that includes “lots more white space, a more premium design and fewer photos that are used larger”.

One of the key members of Galliott’s new team is creative director Tony Rice who came across from The Australian Financial Review Magazine. “He’s a genius,” she said.

The 200+ pages in the first edition do give the title a luxury, premium feel and indicate Galliott is on her way to achieving this goal: “I want this to be a magazine that you can’t believe you got for free.”

New sections in the magazine include QBusiness and QStyle. The travel features won’t be always be done by travel writers – “I want writers who can report on their experiences in a way that are evocative and lyrical. And maybe a little more personal as well. We have authors writing for us and writers from other genres as well.”

As part of her research, Galliott has been speaking to people when she has been travelling. “I have been stalking people on planes.

[blockquote style=”3″]Mediaweek Podcast
Listen to our unedited interview with Kirsten Galliott to hear about the challenges of getting the first edition of the new-look Qantas magazine out.
She talks about the travel hotspots they will feature regularly and also looks back at some of the great titles she had the fortune to work on. She even has an idea for how the late and great Fairfax monthly the[Sydney]magazine could still be in print!
“I want this to be a magazine that you can’t believe you got for free … As an editor I have never had such a captive audience”
Listen to Mediaweek‘s conversation with Kirsten Galliott here.[/blockquote]

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