The traditional media landscape in Britain today is, to put it lightly, quite scary. It is increasingly right wing, and out of touch with the thoughts and fears of most people.
At the same time, it is dying. The Mirror Group's latest offering, The New Day, lasted a paltry ten weeks - it was the first stand-alone national newspaper to be bought out since the early '80s. And it will probably be the last.
But this is opening up a space for new ideas: new places of debate and new small focused independent titles. Obviously, a large part of this is taking place online - the Huffington Post being just one example.
But there is also an explosion of print media. At the center of this explosion is London, where hundreds of small titles are published and consumed. These are magazines that start conversations rather than tell people what to think. They are also beautiful items, like LPS - antidotes to our throwaway culture.
But, though we don't want to be negative, we think there's a space in this market that needs filling. For a woman's magazine that attracts more than one age group and does not focus on one gender alone.
Yet a lot of titles are still following the same formula that the women's magazine should be strictly for women about issues that concern women only - as if such things exist. This is divisive. But if change is to come about, dialogue between everyone is necessary.
It feels like even the independent market contains too many publications that portray women as paradoxical creatures, either offering perfect incarnations or them or berating them for being, well, women.
Many rely on an ugly sexualisation, using sex to sell, while leaving the issues that make many of us, women especially, uncomfortable around sexuality and nudity.
Against this backdrop, we wanted to create something that celebrated women, rather than using them. A smart magazine that offered a female perspective on the world and issues that concern us all. Women make 50% of the world's population, are everything from politicians to farmers and care about economics, politics and our future. We are interested in so much more than fashion, make up and handbags.
A magazine that went beyond an obsession with the unreal, with celebrities and 'must-have' lists. So, LYRA was born. Because if you can't find what you're looking for, you have to create it yourself.
LYRA promises deep and meaningful socio-critical debates, to be of a very high quality, to publish journalistic and investigative writing. To analyse our times.
It will not be complacent in the face of apathy. Because it is this apathy that fuels the vast number of social, political and economic problems we face today.
We wanted to make a magazine that would give each individual hope and an understanding that, in our little and kind way, we can create a change.
Co-written with Jago Rackham, Editor at