The process of making a new IORR magazine was almost like giving birth to a new baby for me. So far 61 ones, still counting...
The goal was making four - 4 - magazines per year, but with a family of three children and my wife, and working 8-12 h with my real work, that was hard. Also, the Stones were touring often, like now. I needed a month to compile text, stories etc for a new magazine to be printed. Before that, all recent Stones info I had was kept in an incoming file, so that every magazine would cover all the latest happenings.
When starting compiling a new magazine, the first task was going into the capital city Oslo, to visit the photo agencies. There were 3-4 agencies, and they represented all professional international photographers and agencies including AP, Reuters, REX and so on. I paid full price for every picture I printed, typical USD 150, that way I owned the right to print the picture, and I could return to the agency as a value customer every time I was working on a new magazine. They gave me full access to everything they had, I panned through hundreds of rare press photos, also paparazzi pictures, which I never used, in respect of the Stones' privacy, then great rare pro shots, like the one below with Mick & Clive, or Keith and Johnny Depp, or the Ronnie one. None of these were used in any magazine, but I had them for evaluation, then other images were chosen for that magazine...
With 20-30 great photo samples coming back from the agencies, I worked on text, stories, what picture to have on the front page, back page, center page, then I looked through the photo samples and reduced the number into 12-15. Then I ordered high res images from the agency, and had them sent to the printers. The printers got my pdf text with final layout, then they cropped in right size images. Some times they cropped out band members, that's why I always had to get a proof blueprint.
When the blueprint was approved, the magazine went into print. A week or so later, the magazines were ready. ypically, they got the material on a Monday, I got the blueprint 1-2 days later, then 24 hours printing, binding, going to the printers in Oslo on a Friday to pick up the final boxes with magazines, dead tired. Then the hard work of putting magazines into envelopes, making name labels and so on had to be done fast, usually in 24 hours, because I was always on the road or was about to leave for work travel, so the magazines had to be mailed out before I left home. Friday afternoon until the post office closed at 2pm Saturday was always a long long work night.
One time I remember my family helped in on packing and mailing the magazines, while I was on tour. I was surprised when someone showed me the new magazine, may be it was in NYC. I had never seen it, even if I had approved the bluepring.
It was great days, busy days, and I love them all, my iorr "babies"...



Bjornulf