The Story was a digital magazine about storytelling. Running from 2021 to 2025, it deconstructed texts big and small to see how they worked, placing everyone from authors to spin doctors under the microscope.
In 2025, that version of The Story died – only to be reborn in glorious print just six months later.
Like its digital predecessor, the print version of the mag is about all things storytelling. But it’s also its weirder, nerdier, a little more off-the-rails. You can buy a copy at our online store, follow along via our monthly-ish newsletter, or visit this here website, where the odd print story will eventually surface online.
The Story is published by Fireside Agency, an Australian comms collective in Melbourne and Byron Bay that uses storytelling to help those doing good in the world. They make magazines and do other creative projects just for the hell of it, really.
What the critics have said about The Story:
“A nice edition to the Australian newsstand.” — Monocle
“A literary magazine with a difference.” — Stack
“Beautifully designed and crafted.” — Daniel Docs
Editor
Chris Harrigan
Chris is the former editor of Smith Journal and a freelance writer whose work has been published everywhere from frankie to Junkee to (if you include his tweets) Buzzfeed and New York Magazine. He helped found The Story in 2021.
When he's not editing this magazine he can be found at Fireside, working with not-for-profits and for-purpose organisations to produce custom publications and editorial campaigns.
For tips on writing nonfiction, he recommends John McPhee's Draft No. 4. For books that are, in the year 2024, probably a bit too played out to recommend but which are nevertheless still good, he suggests The White Album by Joan Didion.
Publisher
Ben Hart
Ben is the founder of Fireside, a communications agency that helps for-purpose organisations tell their stories and create positive change. Before heading up his own agency, Ben worked in politics, advising leaders across all three tiers of government, and as a journalist, writing for The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian and producing radio for ABC 774 and Radio National.
Storytelling is Ben's stock-in-trade. After being named Young Journalist of the Year at the 2000 Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards, Ben came to see the potential of stories to change people's minds and explain the world. That's why he founded The Story, to help others understand the power of narrative to create change in business, politics and beyond.
Contact us
Got a story to tell? An article to pitch? Just want to say hi? Hit us up at hello@thestory.au
Roles
Design and development
Additional Development
The Story is funded by—but editorially independent of—Fireside, a communications agency for those doing good in the world.
