"THE WORD IS ONE OF THE VERY FEW THINGS YOU REALLY NEED IN LIFE"
A satisfied reader

The Word was launched in February 2003. It was the first magazine to come from Development Hell Ltd, an independent publishing venture set up by David Hepworth and Jerry Perkins, two former EMAP executives with more than 35 years combined experience devising, editing and publishing titles such as Q, Empire, Mojo and Heat. The company also publishes the world's leading dance music and clubbing title Mixmag.

"We don't hold anyone's age against them," says editorial director Hepworth, "but it happens that most Word readers are men over the age of thirty who spend a great deal of time and a lot of money indulging their passion for entertainment. Their willingness to part with money for CDs, DVDs and books has earned them the tag of 'Fifty Pound Guy'."

"The thing to remember about these people," says Perkins, who is the managing director, "is that their passion for music is not retrospective. They still want to discover new artists but find it difficult to access information that they can trust."

For the last two years Word has produced a monthly "Now Hear This" CD to accompany each issue. This selection of the best material from the most worthwhile new talent has come to be regarded as the gold standard for cover-mounted CDs and is highly valued by the readership. This led one reader to complain "your magazine is costing me a fortune every month. It's about £50 an issue on CDs and downloads."

"Over the last couple of years our readers have been introduced by our CDs to great new names like Fountains Of Wayne, Keren Ann, the Decemberists and Beirut and haven't just gone out and bought them, they've also told all their friends about them. We know that Word readers are difficult to persuade, but once persuaded they are impossible to shut up," says David Hepworth. "That's one of the reasons that they're such a valuable audience for an advertiser."

This audience, an increasing number of whom are subscribers, also keep in touch with the world of Word via the magazine's website, the internet HQ of intelligent life on planet rock. They spend an average of five minutes per visit and an increasing number of them get involved with the debates on the site by posting everything from the first five songs on their iPods to the title of the best books ever written by a rock star.

Many of them also subscribe to the Word Weekly, a podcast with a passionate, growing following scattered all over the world, which has been described, approvingly, as "even better than the magazine". Fronted by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, it features contributions from members of the Word family and covers matters of great pith and moment. "The objective of the Word podcast," says David Hepworth, "is to keep the bright red beach ball of human discourse in the air and also to provide a use for the bracing conversational thermals upon which the editorial operation runs."
For a sample try here:

THE EDITORIAL TEAM
Editor Mark Ellen: former editor in chief of Emap Elan and formerly launch editor of Q and Mojo.

Associate Editor Andrew Harrison: formerly editorial director of Emap Performance Network, former editor of Mixmag, and music editor of Details magazine in New York.

Associate Editor Rob Fitzpatrick: formerly the editor of Channel 4's music site and a contributor to Melody Maker, Mixmag and The Guardian

Reviews Editor Jude Rogers: founder of literary magazine Smoke and contributor to The Guardian and New Statesman

Art Director Jonathan Sellers: formerly Art Director with EMAP Consumer Magazines

Contributing Editor Paul Du Noyer: former editor of Q and Mojo.