Journalist and editor Kristine Fonacier launched her writing career in the golden age of magazines, and her freelance work as a music journalist quickly took off. Ten years in, she found herself questioning its relevance.

“I was doing rock-and-roll journalism. After your hundredth party, you begin to wonder if you’re really contributing anything to society.”

This triggered a career recalibration that included 18 months of volunteer work in Guyana, an experience that informed her editorial decisions when she came back to the publishing world and built a broad body of work that spanned business, politics, culture and travel. 

As editor-in-chief of Esquire Philippines (she’s the first female editor in the title’s 80-year history), Kristine led an editorial shift that featured fully-clothed middle-aged women on the cover and called out misogyny in its pages. She helped the country’s youngest billionaire write his first book. Then out of a desire to read and tell travel stories about the Philippines that were not stereotypical listicles about white-sand beaches, she co-founded Grid Magazine, an independent title still running today that has found a new revenue stream during the pandemic. She is currently editor-in-chief of travel title Smile Magazine.

In this interview, Kristine spells out the traits that helped her build a versatile writing career, how to turn a passion project into a sustainable business, and why she looks for attitude over talent when hiring writers.

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