It wasn’t long ago that nearly all the publications in the world declared print to be dead, and in many ways the medium has been in decline for the past two decades. Instead, the giant space left by this decline is becoming home to an increasing number of niche, independent publications, born out of passion, focusing on a single area of interest.
BSKT is one of those publications. Launched in 2022 in Montreal, Canada, the publication is a love poem for basketball culture. MediaCat Magazine sat down with BSKT Founder Alain Michel Habib, to dig deep into his love for basketball, the challenges of independent publishing, and what mainstream media companies can learn from niche publications.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
It’s nice to meet you. Can you talk a little bit about how you started BSKT? What was the gap you saw in the market and what does BSKT want to accomplish?
I like your question. You said, did you see a gap in the market? The project itself started with pure love for basketball. It’s not a focus group type of product. It was really out of pure love. I created something that I wanted to read. I felt that what was out there was very focused on stats and just photos that you [see on] the internet and Instagram. It just felt like regurgitated content in paper. I wanted something that felt special. I wanted something that felt from the heart and that didn’t feel super corporate. That’s why you feel a lot of a DIY/indie vibe to BSKT.
Yeah, and that comes across from your approach to the content that you publish. BSKT takes a very global approach to basketball culture. You not only talk about the basketball culture of US and Canada, but also highlight stories from various parts of the world, like Lithuania, South Korea, and the Philippines. Similarly, the magazine doesn’t only take an interest in the basketball players or the teams behind them, but the other components of the whole ecosystem as well, like the artists, movies, the apparel. Can you talk a little bit about this comprehensive approach?
Basketball culture is huge. There are different things that you can cover. When you talk about the approach, it’s basically working within your means and with who you can contact at the same time. It’s not a strategy that was super thought-out. And the why — I don’t think that basketball is limited to the USA. There are beautiful things that are happening. I’m very curious. So it combines someone who’s very curious, who’s also very open to everything out there. It was a good thing that I didn’t have LeBron James’ manager’s phone number from the start because it made me work hard to come up with even more original content, even more original stories.
Obviously, we’re getting more known, and people are contacting us. But then at the same time, you have to keep the essence and the values of BSKT, which are based in DIY and giving a voice to the people that are not usually covered in other publications.
I don’t want to say anything against any other publications, but I think a lot of consumers feel that the magazine world is just a more beautiful press release. I think a lot of people, especially the readers, they don’t like this anymore. There’s an example of an experienced journalist that had this story but could never share it with any of the media that she worked for. If you look at the Issue 3, the centre piece called Trading Places, this journalist was a basketball player for 24 hours because she had the old SIM card of a player. But this story that she had, she says she always wanted to share this story, but couldn’t because [she] never found the right media, right publication.
Yeah. I think that’s a massive issue, actually, that all publications cover the same things. I think it might not have been intentional, but how you’re able to bring to the magazine, for example, the creative director of Clippers or people who work at creative agencies that do campaigns for the sports world, that’s really unique, and it’s what makes the magazine so endearing. One of the conversations you published mentions the relationship between basketball and advertising, and how in the ’90s, that relationship was a fundamental part of basketball culture. And basketball was a driver of mainstream culture in those years as well. How do you think that relationship has evolved over the years?
I think that relationship has continued to exist. I believe that advertising has helped tremendously to grow the sport. I mean, there are certain brands that make certain ads that don’t touch people’s hearts. There are other brands that do. I would hope that advertisers and companies who are making ads take a step back and don’t just make ads to talk about product features. Basketball can get very emotional for a lot of people, and you have to research to really understand how it touches people; to be able to create ads that touch people.
Very often, it’s very easy if you’re releasing any product, I’m not going to pick a specific one, but just to talk about the features and the technology. But at the end of the day, people don’t buy products. They buy stories, and they buy things that touch them. Sometimes it’s sad that some companies are pushing more product features, and they’re missing the boat.
But how has it evolved? [It] has continued to help the sport grow more and more. Can you imagine basketball culture without Spike Lee? Can we imagine if Spike Lee said no or didn’t want to make those Michael Jordan ads, would there be that many basketball fans around the world?
What are the challenges of publishing for a niche community?
The challenges? It’s hard to be creative. When I create an issue, to me, it feels like a music album — the challenge of being better than the last issue. When I say better, I mean to surprise the readers, to continue to have original content. Yes, the most recent issue, number four, had some big names or names that are associated to bigger companies, as you mentioned with the Clippers and also the Director of Archives for Mitchell & Ness. But the interviews kept this DIY indie vibe to it. The reason why I call them ‘A Conversation With’ is because I want to have a conversation. If I’m just rewriting what the press release says, I’m not having a conversation.
Let’s answer your question. To maintain the high level of creativity and to surprise the readers. Number two, distribution. Like every independent publication, distribution is not easy, especially in our case. I really want to reach a lot of people around the world because I feel it will help BSKT to get more different stories because the more you connect to the people around the world, the more they’ll want to share their story. But distribution is definitely a challenge.
Three, as you can tell, you have a few copies — we don’t have any ads. The challenge in number three is that we’re in talks with a lot of companies right now to collaborate. There are special edition issues that we’re in talks with for some companies. There are a couple of teams that want special edition issues. They like what we’re doing, but obviously, teams have different levels to get approval. It takes time.
Finally, what do you think mainstream media companies can learn from independent publishers?
What they can learn is that niche is the future. Most of the mainstream generalist media inspire themselves from the niche. I see a lot of basketball players in Time magazine or on the Time website. I see a lot of more mainstream generalist media incorporating a lot of basketball. I think Wall Street Journal, the most recent cover, has Angel Reese and A’ja Wilson.
In terms of mainstream niche media, what can they learn? I would say it’s hard. It’s hard because I can say more heart-driven content, more heartfelt content, but at the same time, I think it’s a lot more stressful to work for a mainstream niche media. There are a lot of deadlines. There are deadlines with us, but it just feels a little more stressed. I don’t know if you can inject a lot of heart when you’re super stressed.
Featured image: BSKT