Raise Your Game: Your job?

Simon Kanter: I'm the editor of Haymarket network which is part of a big publishing company called Haymarket.

RYG: Skills to be successful in this job?

SK: You need to be inquisitive, determined. You need to have a passion for the job. You need to believe in the people that you interview and you've got to want to work very hard (with feeling).

RYG: Nine to five job?

SK: Absolutely not! It's a job that takes as long as it takes but it's a job that people enjoy doing. We love creating products and we do it mostly within small teams.

Most magazines, not the glossy magazines that you see on the news stand but the vast majority of magazines, are actually produced by small teams of three, four or five people. The challenge is to produce something brilliant and exciting. You can't put a timeframe on that.

RYG: If someone was looking for work experience with you, what kind of things would you look for in a candidate?

SK: We receive lots of applications from people with very good school qualifications or degrees. The thing that singles out individual applications is the fact they show some evidence of having tried to get work in this business, at any level, doing whatever work is required.

If they can show that they've got passion, understanding and a determination to work in the business, that immediately singles them out from other young people who may just have good qualifications.

RYG: What are your greatest achievements?

SK: I would have to say the launch of a football magazine called 442. At the time, we were being tasked with launching computer magazines, and one day we were scratching our heads about what's missing from the market.

At that time nobody had produced an adult football magazine, and if it was such a clever idea we thought that somebody would already have done it. We eventually got it out into the market and by now it's one of the most successful titles that this company produces.

We also produce all of Manchester United's non-book publishing work, which means we produce the match programme for the home games at Old Trafford. We create a monthly magazine called Inside United and are responsible for content on the website www.manutd.com. In addition to this we also produce all the membership magazines and materials for the 'One Man Utd' membership club.

RYG: Do you still get excited by it all?

SK: Yes absolutely! How can you not get a buzz from working with the biggest football team in the world! We work with some other great brands such as the 'UEFA Champions League' where we create their official magazine and talk to them about the wonderful plans we have for improving the quality of communications in the Champions League.

RYG: How did the concept of the new 'Spikes' magazine come about?

SK: It came about through the International Association of Athletics Federations who had been recommended to us by UEFA.

This wonderful sport is in some serious decline because its reputation has been tarnished due to the perception that it's full of performance enhancing drugs. The challenge was to bring athletics back into people's minds. How could we bring a new generation into athletics and make them understand what a wonderful sport this is?

It was very challenging, but we felt it was a challenge we wanted to take on. This sport is about great heroes and it's a clean sport. It's a sport that has amazing people doing astonishing things.

We laid out Jonathan Edwards' triple jump world record on the ground and invited people to pace up and down. It takes 26 paces walking at an average speed to walk from one end to the other, and if you think that Jonathan Edwards, from the moment he took off to the moment he landed, hit the ground only twice. When people see that they realise just how astonishing these athletes are!

The challenge was bringing these heroes to life and making people see what an exciting sport this is. How do we help to create a real interest in the great rivalries that are out there? Although they may not be many great British rivalries at the moment there are certainly some great world rivalries.

If you take a sport like tennis, people are fascinated by the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Why shouldn't they be fascinated by Tyson Gay versus Asafa Powell versus Usain Bolt? These are massive, international rivalries and events that we should be helping people to engage with.

RYG: How do you make decisions about things like the front cover of the very first issue of a new publication?

SK: The magazine is all about heroes, and it's all about the people who make a difference in this sport. It's about inspiring people to want to investigate the sport further, therefore, it was crucial that, for this first issue, we had an iconic hero on the front cover.

Yelena Isinbayeva represents all that's right about athletics. First and foremost, she is a brilliant athlete who consistently beats the women's pole vault world record. Secondly, she looks great. She's a young, good looking woman who is competing at the highest level in her sport. That combination made her the right person to put on the front cover. She is somebody who is brilliant at what they do, looks great and has the capability of inspiring others.

RYG: How important is it to have global heroes?

SK: If you think about that extraordinary Nadal versus Federer final at Wimbledon, the fact that one is from Switzerland and one is from Spain is irrelevant.

In the same sport, Maria Sharapova graces the front covers of any number of British magazines for men and women. She is a role model for her sport and for her sex and that is a great thing. She's the right kind of role model. She is an athlete at the top of her game, who also happens to be a stunning looking person, and there's nothing wrong with that wonderful combination.

If those people don't happen to come from Britain, but they happen to be the best in the world at what they do, then that is the thing we should celebrate, and, hopefully, that is the thing that will inspire our young people to want to be as good as them.