Jan 25, 2008

January: Hugo Rehnberg, publisher

He’d rather be a happy camper in the shallow end of the media pool than a ragged war correspondent in Beirut.
Meet Hugo Rehnberg, a media entrepreneur who calls himself more stupid than brave and willingly admits to being just a bit superficial.

As a co-owner and publisher at the Stockholm based Perfect Media Group, Hugo Renberg is in charge of several publications, including the lifestyle magazine Pause and the guy’s magazine Moore. Although his day job primarily consists of planning and developing the publications, that doesn’t mean he’s parted with the pen. Apart from producing the brilliant little blog “Mitt liv som Hugo” (“My life as Hugo”) he’s also a frequent writer of articles and columns in his magazines.

At age 32 Hugo is already an experienced media entrepreneur. In younger, and maybe more flamboyant days, he was a co-founder of the notorious brat gossip website YO Stockholm, which later became the somewhat less controversial Stureplan.se. Apart from being a serial entrepreneur in the media business, Hugo has also had a short career as a pop star in the boy band First Class. The later is something that he rather unwillingly talks about nowadays. At present his musical ambitions are limited to singing at weddings, which is something he does with both verve and nerve whenever he gets the chance.

But despite Hugo's undisputed singing talent, it’s not music that earned him the man of the month award. It’s his endeavours as a publisher (and of course the fact that he's the one ultimately in charge of which products make the beauty pages in his publications).

How did your career in media get started?

- I worked as a so called ‘gurka’ (the Swedish word for cucumber) on the national sports radio. My job was to gather game statistics from sport venues where we had no reporters. It was a thrilling job. For instance you got the opportunity to call drunken janitors in Örkelljunga Idrottshall to hear how the ladies volleyball team performed against Floby in the season finals.

What do you think about the future for printed magazines?

- The daily papers have been much faster to adopt to the digital reality. The life style magazines, on the other hand, have been awfully slow. I think the main reason for this is that the advertisers have been frightened to take the step onto the internet. The first life style magazine to truly succeed in integrating print and web will be the big winner. So far I don’t think anybody has been able to do that in an optimal way.

Being an entrepreneur is hard work, we know that. What made you choose this pitiless path of hardship and sleepless nights?

- Maybe I’m more stupid than brave. Entrepreneurship is like suffering from a clinical depression without taking your medication. There are some highs - and a lot of lows. To be an employee is more like eating Prozac. You avoid the lows, but you do not really get the highs either. Sure, you sleep better at night as an employee, but so far I think being an entrepreneur is worth the trouble.

Guy’s magazines like Moore get a lot of criticism for their content - both for showing too much skin and for being sexist. How do you deal with such criticism? Can you stand up for a magazine like Moore?

- There’s no doubt that magazines like Moore do a certain amount of damage, mainly by effecting the self image of young girls in a bad way. It’s always possible to meet such criticism by saying that the fashion industry is much worse. But I think those kinds of arguments are a bit spineless. It’s sort of like saying ‘I’m okay, because you’re much worse’. I am a co-founder of Moore, so I have to stand up for it, but maybe I wouldn’t start such a magazine again.

Do you feel superficial sometimes? I mean do you sometimes stop and think: shouldn’t I be doing a more important journalistic endeavour?

- Several times every day. But then I just close my eyes and visualize my self, a couple of years older, in an ragged old photo vest with a bunch of pens sticking out of the pocket, on a blurred by-line picture from Beirut.

The technical development has made it much easier to start a printed magazine nowadays. You really just need an idea, a computer and some relatively cheap software. How do you think this affects the industry?

- That’s definitely a positive thing. When a person can turn a bright idea into reality, without having to invest loads of money, it’s good for the diversity of the industry.

Can you give some examples of good and bad Swedish magazines?

- Elle, Damernas Värld, Glamour and the men’s magazine Café – which is pretty much like a woman’s magazine – are all high quality publications. The lousy ones tend to disappear relatively quickly. Denis Lopez’s magazine XOXO wasn’t exactly genius …

Describe your magazine wet dream.

- A good magazine should be an escape from reality - a place to loose oneself in the beautiful pictures, the intelligent words and the stylish
lay out. It would be fun to do a magazine for men who have grown out of more fashion oriented men’s magazines like King and Café. It could be a life style magazine with more focus on career, politics and the role of the modern man. A Swedish W would also be exciting - a glamorous magazine with a towering fashion altitude, but without the disturbing hipness anxiety. And a Swedish Vanity Fair of course ...
But from a strictly economical point of view it would be much better to find a more narrow niche in the market, like a magazine about outboard boat motors, or one for people that lives with a pace maker.

You have done many different things in media. Which job has been the most rewarding?

- Right now being a publisher is the most fun. You get to develop the products without having to do all the hard work. And you can always blame the CEO if the numbers look bad.

What advice would you give to somebody that wants to start their own magazine?

- Start a good website instead.

You had a short career as a pop artist in the boy band First Class. Do you sometimes regret that you didn’t continue along this trail?

- Hell no!

Recipe for men’s man of the month in January

Name: Hugo Rehnberg.

Age: 32.

Family: Girlfriend.

Occupation: Publisher.

Hometown: Stockholm, Sweden.

Enjoys on his spare time: Golf, jogging, reading, writing, a good movie.

Most beautiful place on earth: North Island, Seychelles.

Looks up to: My father.

The world's most beautiful man: Viggo Mortensen.