New year, new Skinny: Introducing The Skinny Northwest

“Why don't we have one of these?” I mumbled to myself in September 2011, flicking through a copy of The Skinny while propped, hungover, against a bit of tree in Black Medicine on Nicolson Street.

In Edinburgh on a tenuous work trip – purportedly covering the Fireworks Concert for the classical music magazine I was editing, but essentially bunking off to watch massive sparklers bounce off the castle walls, do some drinking and have a good long look at Dolly the Sheep in the National Museum – I had, as on many previous occasions, picked up a copy of the mag to guide my every move through the city that weekend.

Perusing it with the usual mixture of absorption and frustration that we don't, at home in Manchester, have anything providing a similar range and depth of arts coverage – sure, we've got a thriving blog culture (that sounds a bit, uh, medical, sorry) and a number of specialist zines, but nothing combining a comprehensive guide to what's on with articles that dare to offer readers something meatier than a couple of paragraphs and a whopping big photo – I wondered if anything would ever come along to fill our Skinny-shaped void.

Well: be careful what you wish for over a mug of hot stimulant, because just over a year later I seem to have found myself, um, editing a brand new edition of The Skinny. Launching in April, the Skinny Northwest will cover Manchester, Liverpool and the Northwest region, with 22,000 copies distributed to more than 400 venues across the two cities and beyond. Erk.

The new Skinny will dish up the variety and quality of features, reviews, previews, news and listings that you've come to expect from its Scottish parent, but with a distinctly local flavour. There are so many individuals and collectives doing genuinely innovative things in Manchester, Liverpool and further afield, and I want this to be their magazine. A platform for artists, writers, photographers, musicians and more to showcase their work, the new Skinny will provide a space to share opinions and inspiration, and discuss, argue, obsess over and celebrate the million little elements that go into making a vibrant arts scene and cultural underground.

It seems that The Skinny has always been a collaborative effort, made by and for people who love their region and its culture, and as such we are in the process of putting together our Northwest team: if you'd like to be a part of it, whether as a writer, illustrator, photographer, section editor, ear-bender or otherwise, check the Get Involved page at theskinny.co.uk/about/get_involved to see available positions or email lauren@theskinny.co.uk with your ideas. Once I've finished blinking slowly and deliberately, I'll get back to you.