Dan Rubinstein — founder of The Grand Tourist and former Home & Design Director at Departures magazine — sits down with Fernando Mastrangelo to talk about how design media really works, and why it's changing faster than ever.
Dan turned a pandemic passion project into a 160+ episode podcast and a full biannual hardcover print magazine. In this conversation, he shares candid stories from his years at House & Garden, Surface, and Departures, breaks down why the old magazine business model died but great storytelling didn't, and hands out real, tactical advice for designers trying to get press today — no publicist needed. They also dig into the collapse of the design fair model, whether "collectible design" is really just decorative arts with a new name, the K-shaped economy reshaping who's actually buying design, and what's happening behind the scenes in the gallery world right now.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
02:14 What old-school magazines got right
04:35 House & Garden, Surface, and Departures
07:34 His "Devil Wears Prada" moment
08:16 5 years, 160+ episodes of The Grand Tourist
09:37 Is the magazine model broken?
12:01 Media is getting "atomized"
15:33 Personalities vs. institutions
17:44 Building a brand, not just a podcast
19:11 Podcasting as the new radio
20:00 Interning at The Sally Jessy Raphael Show
23:13 Defining The Grand Tourist as a business
24:46 From podcast to hardcover magazine
28:07 "Prolific, not comprehensive"
29:43 Lessons from Murray Moss
34:00 Is design's center of gravity shifting?
37:09 How young designers get press now
39:24 Real advice for landing coverage
44:16 The death of the design fair model
45:19 What's next for The Grand Tourist
50:12 Defining "collectible design" today
55:06 The K-shaped economy of design buyers
58:05 Inside the gallery world's growing pains
Guest: Dan Rubinstein, founder of The Grand Tourist thegrandtourist.net Instagram: @danrubinstein
Host: Fernando Mastrangelo, Design Discord Follow, rate, and subscribe if you enjoyed this one — it helps us bring on more guests like Dan.
