We somehow missed this interview with Cornerstone Promotion heads Rob Stone and Jon Cohen when it came out a couple weeks ago, but we felt it was too important not to share. You probably know Cornerstone as the shadowy outfit behind The Fader, the magazine for white hipsters who wish they were black—but not black like, 50 Cent black, more like TV on the Radio black—that somehow ends up promoting all the bands and products that Cornerstone reps. Funny, that! It's all part of their strategy of constantly marketing to their target demographic:

ROB: We really started The Fader as a magazine to promote our website, TheFader.com. At that point the magazine was just the way to get the word out on that.

JON: We had talked about the concept of Fader.com and the magazine and Rob just said, "I don't care what it takes, we're all going to make a magazine." Mind you, we had no publishing experience; we really didn't know what we were doing in the publishing world. It was Rob's spirit and the fact that he rallied everyone in the middle of summer to really get it done. We got it done and it was very thin and flimsy. But we got a much better response than we anticipated. Our idea was, maybe there's enough business here and it's cool and maybe we should do it again. On the second issue, we were able, through our various relationships, to land a pretty significant cover. The first was Funk Master Flash. In the second issue we did a cover called Three Kings, and it was at a time where rock and rap were really converging. We had Reverend Run from Run DMC, Zack de la Rocha and DJ Premier.

Sounds lovely. We suppose working there is just an endless parade of free stuff and cool music! Oh, unless you happen to inadvertently-and-not-really insult one of the brands that your company is stealth marketing in a major newspaper. Then working for a marketing company that puts out a magazine is suddenly not so cool, right guys?

Fountain of Youth [NY Enterprise Report]
Earlier: iFired

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