Retrofied - A Blast From the Past!
A letter from the editor
Remember us?
If the name ‘Retrofied’ rings a bell, it’s because we were a print magazine crafted with care by people who celebrate nostalgia. Each quarterly issue brought readers the kind of content we wanted to read ourselves covering ‘80s and ‘90s TV, toys, books, movies, fashion, food, video games plus more! Centered around a specific theme, each issue touched on cultural touchstones big and small locked away in our collective memories.
Well, that’s in the past.
Creating and publishing Retrofied magazine with our talented contributors remains one of my proudest achievements. What we crafted together was truly something special. Admitting the financial realities of publishing a print magazine in a digital world was a tough pill to swallow and I admit I felt defeated to end publication. Honestly, it took some time away for me to come to terms with that initial heartbreak. I now realize, however, that while the print version of Retrofied may be dormant for the foreseeable future, the foundation of what we built together is too special to give up without a fight.
What’s next?
I strongly believe that Retrofied can still exist as a prestige online publication. Our strengths have always been talented writing, vivid design, and thoughtful commentary. That’s going to continue. We don’t see a printed magazine in our immediate future, but online deep-dives, emotionally powerful essays, and rich oral histories are.
Stressing quality over quantity, we’ll aim to publish new pieces regularly on our website (redesign launching in April). We’ll be using our Substack to publish more short form pieces, sending out regular “Retrofied Weekly Rewind” emails that highlight retro-related news, products, and stories we stumbled across in the prior week [past email newsletter subscribers may recognize this as our previous “This Week in Retro” posts].
What can you do?
Read, share, and subscribe. We'd love your help with this fresh start. While some mainstream outlets are cutting staff and ceasing publication, others are leaning into their specific niche and are supported by their dedicated readers. Everything’s free right now, but once we gain some momentum, there will be an opportunity for a premium (paid) subscriber tier with exclusive content. If you want to support us directly, we still have a few copies of our original print run available for purchase. Get them before they’re gone forever.
Don’t touch that dial.
The media landscape continues to change, but we're ready to find our footing and bring the past into the future. I think there is still some nostalgic magic left, don't you? Care to join us on this adventure?
Stay tuned for an exciting new beginning!