By this point you've probably seen or heard about King Shit, the new skate magazine recently unleashed across Canada. (If you haven't, go read my interview with King Shit founder Ryan Stutt here.) What you may not have heard, however, is that King Shit is going to have a sister publication of sorts, entitled King Snow. Like King Shit, King Snow will be a free magazine, available in shred shops and other distribution points where you can find such free things across Canada. King Snow is already online, and will give you a taste of what to expect until the first issue is released this coming fall. And yes, in case you haven't figured it out yet, King Snow will be about snowboarding.

As a veteran media man, if I do say so myself, I decided to dig into this particular nugget of information to learn more. At the helm of King Snow, and under the guidance of Ryan Stutt, is seasoned (and I mean that in that nicest possible way) snowboard scribe Natalie Langmann. While at Snowboard Canada, I was Natalie's editor for many years, but the tables have turned: Natalie is now an editor herself, and has been parachuted into the world of deadlines, contributor management, and the oh-so-sweet mix of stress and pleasure that comes along with assembling a magazine.

Like King Shit, will King Snow become the new self-proclaimed "king of all snow mags"? We'll have to wait and find out. But in the meanwhile, I knocked on Natalie's door (not literally, of course) to find out how the new venture is going thus far.

Natalie Langmann looks into the future... (Jonathon Kirby photo)

You guys are launching a new magazine at a time when the economy isn't the best and a lot of people probably think you're nuts. So what gives?

Basically, it came down to us looking to the future and knowing we personally wanted to see a change to what was already on the newsstand. As a company or a freelancer, you can't count on what was successful and what was working for you in the past in the terms of media. Heck, the New York Times is struggling because they haven't tried to embrace what is happening now. Print magazines have had to cut back on content everywhere, in size and shape, and in advertising terms, but one thing will always remain true: You kill print media, you're also killing artists, graphic designers, snowboarders, journalists, editors, photographers, and so-on down the line. You need to ask yourself: Do you want a piece of what snowboarding is all about, and do you want to keep it alive? If not, then all those great tales of the people that make up this sport that we love and all their photos will end up lost. We want to keep snowboarding-media alive, but put a fresh new twist on it. Are you ready for it?

So tell me about it... What's going to make King Snow unique? Can you give us a preview of what to expect?

Free to the masses. How's that for a great start? We are taking all concepts of templates and trashing them, and we are picking riders for who they are and not what they are, and we are portraying the riders in a way that they want to be seen-as real people with interesting lifestyles. "We are taking the board out of snowboarding."

Who can we expect to see contributing? Oh, and good score on landing Crispin as the photo editor, I must say.

Yeah, Crispin is awesome. It's funny, we agree on more things than we know. I'd say Crispin and my roles have stretched across the board; we work as a team and come up with content ideas on our own or together. As for writing contributors we have chosen the best of the best, but I am always stoked to hear from the unknown writers. Eric Greene is on of our strongest contributors; expect great things from him. Andrew Hardingham, Dave Rouleau, and Jesse Huffman are penning some words for the mag, as well. I am still hounding my old buddy Colin Whyte; he is someone who I have always looked up to. We have a few others that we have up our sleeve, but you will have to wait till the first issue of the mag to come out.

When is the first issue dropping? And where can people expect to pick it up?

It drops this fall, and it will go to all the skate, snowboard shops, cool hang-out spots and restaurants across our nation.

Describe your reaction when Ryan called you and told you had the gig as the new editor.

I was riding on the hill when Ryan emailed me on my Blackberry about what he was doing with King Shit. He said he needed to talk to me and signed his email: Ryan at King Shit. I emailed him back and signed it: "my shit didn't stink either". I think that's why he picked me; he knew I had a way with words. [laughs]

Honestly, the first thing I did was call my dad, who's been an editor for over 30-some odd years, and asked him for some advice. His response was as follows: "What took you so long; you told me you were going to do that 15 years ago when you first moved to Whistler?" I guess if you want something bad enough, and if you work your ass off to get what you really want, it will eventually come your way.

OK, so you've been writing for a while now and shredding for a long time... Now that you're at the helm of a new magazine, do you feel prepared for all the challenges you're facing?

Am I ever! I look back at some of the crap that I used to write and shake my head. Ok, I admit that I am creative and can spin a good tale, but when it came to proper punctuation back then I would put commas where they didn't belong and it took me a while to figure out the proper usage of an em dash. It took me taking all my old submissions and comparing them with what editors -- like you, Matt -- had changed for the print version. That was years ago; I now own a library of Canadian/ American dictionaries, The Chicago Manual of Style, On Writing Well, and I can list a million more text-books and style-helper books that I have spent endless days researching. I have taken editing courses at SFU, and I also interned at frequency: The Snowboarder's Journal last summer. I can only aspire to have as much writing style as Jeff Galbraith one day; except, you won't ever see me hunting turkeys in the hills of Bellingham with a deadline burning a hole in my back pocket...just a deadline burning in my back pocket.

Have you had that dream/nightmare yet, where you're on deadline and your hard drive crashes with all the entire issue on it and you lose everything?

Had a dream? Geesh, that has happened so many times in my life; not to mention, my dog ate my homework, again.

What's your favourite distraction been while putting the first issue together to take a break from the stress?

My husband is a huge distraction, but I love him for it, and for being totally understanding when I can't golf, ride, or jump in the lake every day of the summer. He makes me remember that I am still human and that I need to take time out. Normally, I would head to my cottage in Bralorne to avoid distractions, but that side of the valley has been engulfed in a massive forest fire for the past few weeks. I am sad to think about all the people and animals that are losing their homes. That has been a huge distraction.

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