8020, the user-generated publishing company that put JPG Magazine on the map, has branched out and released a new rag devoted to travel. To separate itself from the hundreds of poorly written (and mostly advertorial) travel mags littering Borders, Everywhere offers readers the opportunity to submit their own stories and photos chronicling adventures and places off the beaten path.
As with Everywhere‘s sister publication, the hipster photo mag JPG, readers can submit anything they want to the magazine’s Web site and assign a photo or a story to a theme within an upcoming issue. Reader’s vote on the best work, and editors make the final selection, so pretty much all the content comes from both amateurs and professional writers and photographers.
The first thing that sets Everywhere apart from mags like Traveler and High Adventure is the cover. Eschewing the hot girl walking on the beach, the editors of Everywhere plastered an ominous overhead shot of Tokyo with an overcast sky looming in the horizon. A matching story inside, paints Tokyo as a city of the future–overpopulated, overbuilt, and really cool. Half a dozen writers explain the virtues of Tokyo and help uncover its mysteries and quirks, and each story is teeming with beautiful photos that compliment every word.
With the exception of the cover story, most of the other musings are only a few paragraphs used simply to illustrate the stunning photos. Some stories beg for more information, while others could do with more photos, but for a premiere issue, the editors did a really nice job. The biggest challenge is going to be balancing the stories with the photos. Is Everywhere simply a magazine for travel photography, or is it really going to be a competitor to the meaty (and advertising rich) Conde mags? Only time will tell. Let’s see what the second issue brings us.
