blog: interns anonymous

Here's a blog for all you past and current interns (that's pretty much everyone in magazines, right?). U.K.-based Interns Anonymous shares the stories of interns from all sorts of industries, including journalism and publishing. Horror stories, success stories, encouragement, debate — there's a little bit of everything. And although the blog is not magazine specific, you'll find a lot to identify with. Check it out.

from pitch to print: the evolution of a story

Wired magazine has embarked on an exciting experiment to reveal the complete process behind the making of a feature story. Posting on the Storyboard blog, every step of the creation of a feature profile on screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, from the idea for the blog (watch below) to the assignment letter to the rough draft and beyond, will be chronicled online. Love it, love it, love it.





[Thanks to Rebecca Zamon who posted about this on the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers listserve.]

new ryerson course on online editing

Ryerson University has added a new course to it's continuing education program in magazine publishing. Creating Website Editorial, taught by Best Health web editor Kat Tancock, will provide "students with a valuable understanding of web tools and opportunities to workshop appropriate content for them. It also addresses the most common strategic, logistical, and business-related challenges that come with producing great magazine websites." The course also has an accompanying blog.

what i learned at MagNet part I: texas monthly editor evan smith on how to diversify your offerings

It's a busy week for magazines, what with Mags U, MagNet and the National Magazine Awards. Yesterday I attended a session at MagNet called "Survival of the Fittest: A guide to the Multiplatform Universe" with editor and executive vice president of Texas Monthly Evan Smith. An entirely entertaining presentation, Smith had these nuggets of wisdom to share:

• Publishing a monthly is a bit like chain-smoking: as soon as you're done with one issue, you butt it out and light up another, without a pause in between.

• We are no longer magazine companies, we are content companies. It doesn't matter how that content is delivered, whether we offer it via print, tv, radio, internet, mobile, events...

• The balance of power has shifted. Audiences want content whenever and wherever; they will not sit around waiting for the next issue to come out in a month.

• Print and online audiences are not the same people, the demographics are different. Think about whether you really can sell them to advertisers in the same way.

• Directly engage your readers by being there in person, through conferences and events.

• Offer a point of view. The strongest media have something to say.

• "Readers bite back – hard." If you're going to offer yourself up to reader comments through blogs and the like, be prepared for some nasty comments. And suck it up.

• You must be a multitasker. Magazines are not simply hiring writers anymore – they're looking for bloggers and tv personalities, too. You have to be able to do more than simply sit down and write.

• Everything is your competitor. It's not just about the other magazines in your category anymore. You're competing with television, the internet, billboards and golf tournaments. They are all vying for viewers, they are all vying for advertising dollars.

• "Quality control is (inevitably) a casualty." You have to operate more quickly and it's not reasonable to impose 20th century methodologies – fact-checking, extensive editing, etc. – on 21st century delivery systems like blogging.

• Credibility is what will save us. When we're competing against 14-year-old Joe Blow blogging from his basement in Ottawa, the authority of our brands is what will draw readers and advertisers.

blog: copyblogger

A colleague just told me about the CopyBlogger blog. It has lots of great tips on blogging, all intended to help you get traffic, gain subscribers and attract links.

blogging for readers

Last night I attended CSME's spring mixer on blogging (see earlier post). Among many other interesting tidbits, the idea was raised that magazine blogs may be at odds with the very nature of what a blog is. (I'm sorry, I can't remember who said what, so consider due attribution paid equally to the three panellists, Douglas Bell, Heather Mallick and D.B. Scott, with some of my own thoughts mixed in.)

On one hand we have the blog: Immediate and visceral. Casual and conversational. Sometimes controversial. From the gut and unedited. On the other hand we have the magazine: Carefully choreographed over months. A well-managed brand. And definitely edited. So can a magazine that's so used to managing its brand relinquish control, which is arguably necessary to build a good blog that attracts readers? Are the blog's that magazines are coming up with too much in line with the magazine's mandate and not enough in line with what the readers want? Have magazines come to terms with the fact that a publication's audience and a blog's audience can be, usually are, two very different beasts? Are magazines forgetting the most important thing of all: readers come first?

event: CSME mixer on blogging

CSME's next mixer, on April 24th, is all about blogging. Douglas Bell of Toronto Life's Spectator, D.B. Scott of the Canadian Magazines blog, and Heather Mallick of HeatherMallick.ca talk about the ins and outs of blogs. Apr. 24, 6 pm, Bar Italia (582 College), $15 members/$30 nonmembers.

blog: magCulture

Two of my favourite books on magazines – magCulture and Issues – are by Jeremy Leslie. I just stumbled across his blog about magazine design, which covers some great cutting-edge publications.