Architecture & Design Press – Top 150
Get your press list off to a good start this year - Beedier has reviewed the most read architectural publications, and has listed them by global reach
The architectural press presents a wide and varied smörgåsbord of thematic, stylistic, and editorial options. Every architecture studio should have its own press list of contacts ready to blast press releases of your latest projects to. A simple excel spreadsheet is sufficient, organised in any way that suits you.
In this article we have given you a head start by listing some of the key world architecture and interior design publications, ranked by their estimated global reach. Check out the table below for information, with website links and main contact emails to get you started.
Press can be categorised in different ways from the established heritage publications, some of which, such as Architects Journal, The Architectural Review, RIBA Journal, Building, and Construction News have been in existence for over 100 years. More recently, the old school press has had to adapt to compete with a range of successful and ambitious online publications, some of which are now very influential with a wide readership – including UK publications Dezeen and Designboom.
Some of the contemporary online publications perform more like databases of project and practice information – allowing individual users to upload projects themselves, which are published unedited. ArchDaily, Architizer and Archello are the most used and read of these publications.
We would advise setting up accounts on these platforms, and go through the process of uploading your key projects for inclusion. This is a quick and easy way of spreading your online presence beyond your own website and social media feeds.
A relatively recent trend in architectural publishing has been that of the monograph magazine of which El Croquis, AV Monographs, an 2G are popular examples. These tend to be a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” arrangement when it comes to publication, and inclusion is prestigious. El Croquis, the most circulated of the Monograph magazines, has only published ten architects from the UK and Ireland since 1992 – David Chipperfield (5 editions), Zaha Hadid (3 editions), John Pawson (2 editions), Caruso St John (2 editions), Sergison Bates, Carmody Groarke, 6A Architects, and most recently, Groupwork.
In most cases, we have provided generic editorial email contact details that you can use for submissions, but it is also worth doing further research on specific writers who you may look to build professional relationships with over time. The large publications often employ a cohort of staff writers and freelancers, who all have their own specific interests – it would be a good proactive piece of research to find out which writers might be specifically interested in the type of projects that you have in your portfolio. Check out the articles already published that align with your design ethos, and find out who wrote them.
We have presented the list ranked by global reach – a figure that was calculated by adding up the publication’s stated printed circulation numbers, social media followers, and unique monthly visitors to their website (data provided by pro.similarweb.com). We will update and extend this list regularly, adding new publications as we discover them.