Michael Hollett, Editor/Publisher

Michael Hollett is co-founder and co-owner of NOW Magazine and Now Communications Inc., and has been Editor/Publisher since NOW's launch in September 1981.

Hollett retains an insatiable interest in culture and politics, travelling the world to cover stories for NOW, and attending international music and film festivals. He regularly contributes to both the news and entertainment sections of the magazine.

He contributes opinion as well as feature articles to the news section, and has been an outspoken commentator on police and city issues and Toronto's Olympic bid. He is the founding music editor of NOW and still plays a hands-on role in the department - from assignments to editing, as well as writing regular music features and commentary.

Some of his interview subjects have been Rush, Woody Harrelson, Neil Young and he has reported from behind the scenes at the Junos and the SXSW music festival, among others.

Hollett was born in Oakville, grew up in Toronto's Flemingdon Park, and has lived in Ottawa and Montreal. He went to York University where he studied English, engaged in left-wing campus politics, and edited the student newspaper, Excalibur.

Before starting NOW, Hollett edited small-town community newspapers in Orangeville, Caledon and Georgetown, picking up a nice stack of newspaper awards along the way.

Hollett is proud of NOW's independent status. Coming from a newspaper family - his parents and grandparents were journalists - he loves battling big media and enjoys challenging the daily mega-corporations' representation of news, culture, opinion and life.

"In many ways, NOW is a throwback to the turn of the 19th-century when cities of any size had at least a half dozen independent papers, most of them owner-operated, with widely divergent viewpoints, " says Hollett.

"But despite drawing on rich, feisty and fun journalistic traditions the paper is fundamentally about today, about NOW."

Hollett is directly involved in many aspects of NOW and NOW Communications, including the magazine, the website, and book publishing. The North by Northeast (NXNE) Music Festival and Conference - of which he is a founder and director - keeps him deeply involved with music, in addition to his writing duties.

He is a proud member of the Black Stokes in the Downtown Toronto Men's Hockey League.

Hollett lives in Toronto's Riverdale neighbourhood and has three children.

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