Interview w/ JENKEM Magazine’s Ian Michna | The DIY project that kicked down skateboardings mainstream media
Jenkem Magazine is probably the best website doing original content in skateboarding right now. Can you think of a better one? Every other one, Thrasher included, is a slave to the advertiser. With the downfall of print came the avalanche of advertorial and none of the mainstream skateboard media sites are immune to it. This is precisely the reason Board Rap exists and Jenkem is probably our #1 linked to website out there. Just about every article they do has some heart in it.
Enough web jerking though. You want to meet the rarely seen and rarely interviewed man behind man…. Ian Michna. The Hundreds blog sat down with Ian and discovered the how’s, why’s, when’s, and what’s behind Jenkem. It’s basically better than you’d ever think. By not being a slave to the advertisers Ian made Jenkem what advertisers want in skateboarding. What a magician!
Here’s a sample:
When did you realize that Jenkem was going to be more than a side project and was catching on?
There are two points that stick out right now. One was that I got really lucky. Most people start something, work really hard, and it doesn’t catch on for a year, two years, five years, or maybe never. I got lucky in that it caught on relatively quickly because I had the chance to interview Jereme Rogers. At the time he had just quit professional skating to do rap. I interviewed him and it turned out really well. When I put it online—despite me being a nobody—it got reposted on Slap and a bunch of other sites and I got 10,000 views the first day. So it’s kind of like when you’re experimenting and something works really well the first time. It blew up in my face and I was like, “Holy shit, it’s possible. Whatever I’m trying to do, there’s a possibility there.” The next two years, I was just trying to recreate that excitement. That was the first time where I saw people could care. Then the next time that I realized it was viable and not just a place to put my lonely thoughts was when we had our first couple of advertisers sign on. Which was about two years after I started the site. I have to give massive props. It was Chase Whitaker at Brick Harbor, Lakai when Kelly Bird was there, and Jim at Deluxe. When those three signed on, I was like, “Oh shit, it’s on!”
Click over to THE HUNDREDS for the interview with Ian Michna, the man behind Jenkem Magazine.
Follow BOARD RAP on Insta for more updates.
