Magic Mag from Prague: a 400-page Czech showcase heads to London

Publisher Danuše Siering, owner of Black Swan Media, has launched the premium project Magic Mag from Prague — a 400-page “calling card” of modern Czechia for an international audience. In mid-November the magazine will be presented in London, and it will then appear in the best bookshops of Amsterdam, Berlin and Vienna.

When Danuše began inviting well-known figures from Czech business and culture to take part, she feared they would refuse. She was wrong: many busy people at the very top joined the project without any payment. “To my surprise, I found that a great many people, despite their very senior positions, agreed to take part,” she says.

Siering has lived between Berlin and Prague for several decades. She presented Magic Mag from Prague to the world at the Frankfurt Book Fair — the biggest event in the global book business, where Czechia was guest of honour this year. The publisher also brought there a new book, Buch über Bücher (“A Book about Books”), an unconventional look at Czech literature of the past hundred years featuring thirty authors. The new magazine is a continuation of the Czech-German publication N&N, which Siering produced earlier.

What is inside. The English-language edition covers art, literature, design, business and technology. It features work by Bára Prášilová, Míla Fürstová, Klára Hosnedlová, Antonín Kratochvíl and Josef Koudelka. Original texts were written by, among others, Radka Denemarková, Tomáš Halík and Lukáš Sedláček.

An editorial board from the business elite. A specially created board played a key role in the preparation. Its members include former ČSOB chief executive Jan Lamser, Kooperativa founder Vladimír Mráz, Siemens head Eduard Palíšek, former Uniqa chief executive Martin Žáček and others. Together they repeatedly discussed what is most interesting about Czechia and made a representative selection. According to Siering, what unites these people is a global outlook and pride in their country: “They can judge Czechia in the context of other countries, they don’t turn in on themselves, they know how to compare.”

Plans for the future. The magazine already has a distributor in London. At the start of next year Siering intends to enter other European markets, and in spring she will decide what comes next — America or Asia. First she wants to assess the situation in Europe and see where interest is highest. The publisher is financing the whole project from her own pocket, but does not want to discuss the cost publicly.

Magic Mag is only the beginning: Danuše continues to look for outstanding individuals, Czech companies and scientists who work abroad but remain out of sight at home, in order to show them to the world.