OYSTER COMPANY PROFILE Diving for pearls


As is often the way, success is achieved by those that chug on, keeping their heads down and simply doing things right. Gary Cooper discovers that, despite a quiet outward appearance, Oyster House conceals some real treasures…


G


iven the turbulent history of MI magazine publishing, the casual observer could have been forgiven for not tossing his hat in the air when he heard, in 2002, that an unknown publisher from Devon was launching a magazine solely devoted to the bass guitar. Hadn’t one of the big boys tried that before and failed? Surely there just aren’t enough bass players to make it work? As it turned out, our casual observer would


have been wrong. Bass coverage in the mainstream guitar magazines had dwindled to such an extent – and bass playing has become such a craft on its own terms – that the new Bass Guitar magazine proved to be a success. Having grabbed a finger-hold in one small


niche, Oyster House Media, run by Hugo Montogomery-Swan decided next to turn the same highly focused gaze to another sadly neglected area – acoustic instruments, which it did with Acoustic magazine. Again, the same


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philosophy was applied. Production values were high. Serious writers who knew their stuff, plied their trade via good quality layout, print and paper. Where so many others were struggling to keep standards up, Oyster House made sure its publications oozed quality and the formula paid-off. Today, both Bass Guitar and Acoustic magazines are market leaders. For anyone else, that might have been


enough, but Montgomery-Swan is one of those people who relishes a challenge. When MB Media got into trouble following the second LIMS show and passed its two magazines, Drummer and Guitar Buyer to Graham Butterworth’s Davenport Publishing, Montgomery-Swan moved to snap them up. Enough, surely, for one small firm to digest


for a while? Well, not exactly, because despite the highly politicised backdrop following the MIA’s decision to throw in its lot with Future Publishing for the (later aborted) LMS 2010


Montgomery-Swan: Relishes a challenge and has proved this with the publisher’s recent ambitious projects


show, Oyster announced its own shows: October 2010’s London Drum show, followed by the London Bass Guitar Show, scheduled for March 2011 and now the London Acoustic Guitar Show, taking place in September. As it rapidly becomes clear when you speak with him, Montgomery-Swan isn’t fazed by playing David to anyone else’s Goliath. Not that everything has been quite as easy


as it may have looked, as Oyster House has recently faced the loss of key staff. Editors Ian Croft (Drummer) and David Greeves (Guitar Buyer) are not making the great trek from Ely to Devon, nor is advertising sales doyenne Helen Bavester.


While most publishers would have poached one of the usual suspects as potential replacements, Oyster has recruited two newcomers (Marco Rossi for GB and Jules Tabberer-Stewart for Drummer) to take over these duties.


miPRO JANUARY 2011 37


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