how are you?

Had a very pleasant evening last night at the launch of the final print version of Masthead. Caught up with some old friends, made some new. And of course a common topic of conversation was the state of the world and the state of the magazine industry. Everyone seems a little nervous – it's tough. And I just wanted to ask you how you're doing? How are you holding up? Whether you've lost work, have seen cutbacks or have managed to hold on, it's all a little scary. Even those who feel secure in their jobs can't help but feel that maybe they should be worried, even just a little, because hey, you never know.

So how are you? What's on your mind? What are you thinking? Leave your comments or just send me an email (vangerwen at gmail dot com). I'd love to hear from you.

working hard or hardly working?

With layoffs galore and companies asking staff to take unpaid vacations or cut down to four-day workweeks, a lot of editors are likely wondering how to get everything done with fewer people in less time. (Maybe next week I'll blog about how to go about doing that...)

So it struck me as a little funny to be reading an article in the New York Times about occupying yourself with busywork in the hope you won't get sacked.

"[W]hen business is verrry slow and the possibility of layoffs icily real, looking busy is no joke. In retail and real estate, restaurants and law offices, many workers are working hard to look necessary — even when they don’t have all that much to do."

It makes sense that this habit would evolve in industries where business has slowed down – where customers and clients are quickly becoming scarce – but in magazines, even when ad pages are down, you still have to put out the issue. I would think the challenge for us is how to manage an increasing workload; am I wrong? Is anyone out there mastering the art of killing time?

Regardless, everyone is working harder to keep their jobs. Just try not to be obvious about it.

"Experts on workplace behavior say that mustering a token show for the boss can backfire. If a worker isn’t already regarded as diligent, 'This is a bad time to manage the impression that you’re a hard worker,' said Robert Giacalone, a business school professor at Temple University. 'There’s fear out there, and that fear generates suspicion among people in power that workers are trying to manipulate their images because they’re afraid.'"

goal: fail miserably

I'm not sure if it's absolutely necessary to set out to fail, but at the very least, you need to be willing to land in the mud every once in awhile.

As Seth Godin points out, "Think about how often your goal at a conference or a meeting or in a project is, 'don't screw up!' or 'don't make a fool of yourself and say the wrong thing.' These are very easy goals to achieve, of course. Just do as little as possible. The problem is that they sabotage your real goals, the achievement ones."

If you're satisfied with mediocrity, then do just that: set yourself to achieve safe goals like avoiding embarrassment. But if you want for yourself even something slightly better, don't be afraid to stick your neck out, doing whatever it is. This advice isn't anything new. You may have heard...

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll lad among the stars."

"Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail."

"Success comes to those who are neither afraid to fail nor discouraged by failures."

job hunting? watch your attitude

If you've been looking for work and feel like you've been getting nowhere, you might want to reevaluate your approach. The Guardian has done some research and discovered there are some key differences between "aces" – those who find work within four months of beginning their search – and the rest of us, "chasers". To ensure you're in the first category, the newspaper recommends adopting these seven strategies for finding work more quickly:

1. Think more positively. Your attitude – whether you're optimistic and can visualize yourself in a job, or negative and desperate – will likely come across in your cover letters and interviews. Make sure you're broadcasting the right message.

2. Be more proactive. Research your prospective employer thoroughly and ask questions – it will show you have a genuine interest in the position.

3. Milk your friends and family for contacts. Network, network, network. You don't know when, where or from whom you'll hear about your dream job.

4. Speculate.Look for jobs beyond the employment listings and send applications to companies, even when they aren't advertising positions.

5. Be decisive. Know who you want to work for.

6. Do more. It comes down to odds: apply for more jobs and you have a higher chance of finding work.

7. Embrace the digital age. Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and blogs to research prospects and to advertise your goals and talents.

assignment letters past and present

When I was cleaning out my desk and trashing files from my computer as I prepared to leave Style at Home, I was faced with the decision of what to keep. Perhaps because I have aspirations to teach a magazine course or two one day, I like to keep copies of some of my better assignment and fix letters – they might come in handy as examples in the future. Or perhaps, after I become a world-famous ;) editor, they'll be published in a biography of me a la Harold Ross (read an excerpt of Letters From the Editor). (Grand aspirations, eh?)

There's another reason to keep a selection of your editing correspondence, though. On her blog, one-time Chatelaine editor Rona Maynard writes of how she's grateful to have had the chance to read an assignment letter she wrote to Antonia Zerbisias back in 1979.

I had taken great pride in the letters I composed back then. I used to see myself as the Max Perkins of fashion magazines for the under-35 set. Yet I hadn't thought to save even one of those letters. That Antonia had (along with the entire dossier) seemed almost too good to be true. And so, within hours, I was face-to-face again with my young self, and hers.

Rona also mentions how assignment letter writing has changed:

These days few editors bother with detailed assignment letters. Instead they send contracts designed by corporate masters to head off expensive copyright disputes. When I sit down to write a magazine piece and review the marching orders, they're just that: length, deadline, a few terse lines of summary. I rarely feel that I'm engaging with a sympathetic reader who understands the power of the word. We've entered an era in which many young writers have never experienced the surge of motivation that an editor's letter can unleash.

And I wonder, has it changed so much? I certainly have seen and even written these short, perfunctory assignment notes, but only when working with writers who I've worked with before, and on stories of the type they've written before, when writing it all out really just seems redundant. But in general, have we become lazy – do we dash off assignment letters with little care?

will tweet for work

If you use Twitter, you might want to consider it as part of your networking strategy. On his blog Scobleizer, Robert Scoble offers some tips on how to utilize Twitter, Facebook and blogs in your job hunt. Here's a taste:

• Your blog is your resume. You need one and it needs to have 100 posts on it about what you want to be known for.

• Remove all friends from your facebook and twitter accounts that will embarrass you.

• Demonstrate you have kids and hobbies, but they should be 1% of your public persona, not 99%.

• Post something that teaches me something about what you want to do every day. If you want to drive a cab, you better go out and take pictures of cabs. Think about cabs. Put suggestions for cabbies up. Interview cabbies. You better have a blog that is nothing but cabs. Cabs. Cabs. Cabs all the time.

• On Twitter you can tell me what you had for lunch, but only after you posted 20 great items about what you want to do.

Hat tip to David Hayes.

a few words on business cards

I'm not sure if I've said this before, but you should always have business cards, even if you don't currently have a job. Trying to network without one is unprofessional (scribbling your number on a piece of paper – yuck), so I recommend getting a small batch of personal ones printed up, which doesn't have to be very expensive.

When you design yours, consider leaving off your "job title." I was handed a business card the other day that had just the fellow's name and contact info on it, like an old-style calling card. (No, the one shown here is not the one I was given.) I appreciated that there was no clunky description like writer/editor. This solution is particularly useful for those who wear many hats, like maybe you moonlight as a DJ.

dream job found

To escape the cold, I'd give up magazines for a job like this:

Tourism Queensland is seeking applicants for the best job in the world! The role of Island Caretaker is a six-month contract, based on luxurious Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. It’s a live-in position with flexible working hours and key responsibilities include exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef to discover what the area has to offer. You’ll be required to report back on your adventures to Tourism Queensland headquarters in Brisbane (and the rest of the world) via weekly blogs, photo diary, video updates and ongoing media interviews.

Other job duties include feeding the fish, cleaning the pool and collecting the mail. Salary is AUD $150,000 (approximately $124,200 CAD) for the six-month contract, plus return airfares, accommodation and transport on Hamilton Island, plus travel to other Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

Competition is fierce, though. Reuters reported that there's been so much interest in the position worldwide, the site advertising the job couldn't handle the traffic and crashed.

to be or not to be: specialist vs jack of all trades

A reader on PoyterOnline's Ask the Recruiter wondering about the pros and cons of specializing in one area got me thinking about developing your niche.

Eventually, most editors and writers develop their own specialty, whether it be a preferred topic or format (say service or profile pieces). On one hand, it's terribly important to be adaptable, especially at times like these when jobs seem more scarce – the more you can do, the more options you have. But the flip side is that becoming an expert at something can make you extremely desirable for jobs requiring those skills and knowledge, which could give you the edge over any competition.

The solution is to find a balance: develop a niche that you're passionate about. You'll become a sought-after expert while doing something that stokes your fire. Meanwhile, make sure that the skills you acquire while building your knowledge are ones that are transferable. For example, fashion may be your love, but mastering the art of writing those short, snappy pieces of copy describing product (how many ways are there to say stylish?) will serve you in most women's and service mags.

let readers in behind the scenes

People love behind-the-scenes exposés, so why not give your readers the inside track on how your magazine gets put together. Have the editor-in-chief or even an editorial assistant or intern reveal some of the ins and outs of daily life at a magazine through a blog. It's a good way to build your brand and the personality of the staff, and connect directly with readers. Here are some magazine blogs (some good, some not-so-good) that at least in part actually talk about putting out the magazine, and not just about products related to their content:

• Shape-ing Up With Jenna (Shape)

• The Fashionable Life (Fashion)

• Real Living (Real Living)

• Eye blog (Eye), see posts here and here.

• The Flare Intern Blog (Flare; not recently updated)

• Storyboard (Wired)

Suggest your faves in the comments.

from internet to print

With the exodus of print to online, it's nice to see an interesting twist on the movement. As posted on magCulture, duo Ben Terrett and Russell Davies have taken a selection of blog posts and Twitter feeds and published them as a tabloid newsprint publication to beautiful effect. Surely it's not a viable commercial solution, but the creative thinking about form is possibly the type of thinking that could stave off the end of print (if you in fact believe the end is nigh). Print is not the internet and the internet is not print. Put in the effort to make print enjoyable, to make it an experience unlike another, and readers will stick around.

strategies for holding on to your job

The most recent ezine of The Creative Group features two articles on what you can do to remain a valuable employee.

are you sabotaging your career?
Though not every question is relevant, this quiz will help you figure out if your reaction to certain work situations is keeping you from getting ahead. Can you do a better job of preparing for your performance review, do you recognize and seize opportunities, how do you handle hostile coworkers?

how to manage an increased workload
Magazines have been doing more with less long before the economy hit the skids. To stay sane when your boss piles on more work, try some of these strategies, like learn more details about the project, prioritize and ask for help.

creative resumés

One of the big challenges with a resumé is how to make it stand out, and one way to do this is to get creative. One friend of mine replaced standard headings like "work experience" with "what I've done" and "education" with "what I know." I've seen one resumé done in the form of a magazine. And then there's this Facebook-style resumé posted on Steve Pratt's blog.

Of course, it's always a good idea to exercise caution when getting creative with your resumé. Think long and hard about whether your plan is appropriate to the job you're applying for – you don't want the recipient to be creeped out or think you're crazy. And unusual resumés can reek of effort. But have courage: if yours is in sync with the publication, its content and its voice, as well as relevant to the position, then you could make a lasting impression.

staying in vogue

An interesting article in the New York Times posits that Vogue is quickly becoming irrelevant.

Vogue has become stale and predictable, and it has happened in spite of some of the best editors, writers and photographers in the business. And it has happened in spite of a leader [Anna Wintour] who “only cares what readers care about,” according to a long-time staff member.

The article outlines some of the magazine's strengths:

For all the fantasy in Vogue, especially the fairy-tale kind produced by Grace Coddington, the creative director, and Annie Leibovitz, the magazine is actually quite serious. There are things to read, long pieces, from writers with distinct voices: Julia Reed on politics, Jeffrey Steingarten on food, Sarah Mower on the Paris collections.

And unlike many of her rivals, Ms. Wintour, who declined to be interviewed for this article, has largely resisted the pressure to break down content to lists and small bites. Though this faster, drive-thru approach to editorial consumption may be what more people want.

According to a writer at Condé Nast, who requested anonymity because he works at a sister publication, “Anna’s two great talents are that she understands her readers and she speaks with this incredible authority to advertisers.” Indeed, as the writer points out, Condé Nast, having monopolized high-end magazines, has a rather odd relationship with luxury advertisers — which is that these advertisers cannot afford to go somewhere else, bad economy or not. Luxury brands haven’t yet found a formula for success in digital media. Their relationship, then, with Condé Nast creates an “interesting ecology,” as the writer put it. “They keep each other in business.”

Some of Vogue's weaknesses:

Yet, in 2008, Vogue’s ad pages were down 9.6 percent, Mediaweek said, compared with an average 8 percent decline for other fashion magazines. Rivals like Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, which have adopted a pell-mell style that encourages value-for-money nibbling, have fared better. The very qualities that set Vogue apart — consummate fashion judgment, a comfortableness with ideas in the shallow pool of celebrity and weight-loss articles — now seem to be narrowing its view, like an aperture shutting down.

There are too many stories about socialites — or, at any rate, too few such stories that sufficiently demonstrate why we should care about these creatures. What once felt like a jolly skip through Bergdorf now feels like an intravenous feed. To read Vogue in recent years is to wonder about the peculiar fascination for the “villa in Tuscany” story. Ditto staff-member accounts of spa treatments and haircuts.

The article continues:

To ask what works in Vogue is in a sense to ask the same of all fashion magazines. Many do not seem to know how to relate to women in their 20s, except to throw celebrity pictures and clothes at them. Although the median age of its readers has hovered around 34 since Ms. Wintour became editor, in 1988, you don’t feel that the magazine has considered how changes like social networks and Web-based subcultures have influenced women’s ideas about themselves. This lack of awareness is reflected in Vogue’s pages.

The piece concludes with a few reasons why it would be hard to replace Wintour (as rumours late last year suggested), including this strength:

Editors of Ms. Wintour’s generation, like the designers they champion and the photographers they protect, have a depth of knowledge not easily reproduced.