create your own job

There's a lot of chatter these days about the the death of the current publishing model. Recent grads are looking for jobs in an industry landscape that's very different from when they entered school four or so years ago, and veterans are clamouring to keep on top of the sea change.

Some of the more entrepreneurial types are saying screw pounding the pavement, I'm making up my own job and launching my own site. (Ok, most of them aren't giving up their day jobs, but they're not relying on climbing the career ladder to get to the top, either.)

Mashable talked to five ink-on-paper pros who have gone digital and compiled their tips for creating a startup journalism site. They cover startup costs, advertising and sponsorship, tech and design, and audience development. So, if you're eager for the next entry on your resumé to be publisher/editor/writer/designer/ad manager/tech support, you might find some useful tidbits in How To Launch Your Own Indie Journalism Site.

recommended reading: we love magazines

I've posted before about international independent magazine symposium Colophon. There's a companion book to the Colophon2007 event, which I've just finished reading, called We Love Magazines. It's worth picking up.

The book is split into two halves: the first part contains chapters on covers, advertising, and developments in design and production; key events in the independent magazine world (like the birth of New York magazine and when Ray Gun used Zapf Dingbats as the font for the body copy of one story); and interviews with the creators of magazine like Coupe, Frame, and this is a magazine.com. The second half is an index of independent magazines worldwide, which also appears updated on the website.

If you're at all interested in magazines beyond the big consumer glossies, take a look. I particularly enjoyed the opening chapter, "The Eternal Spirit of Adventure," written by professor Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni. In it he quotes Amir H Fallah, founder and creative director of Beautiful/Decay, who echos something I've always said I love about working in this industry:

"It's a great feeling to know that the project is ongoing and that you have the freedom to continually refine it. I think that is one of the best things about publishing a magazine. If you make a mistake in one issue, you can fix it in the next."

international and independent

For some insight on how the little guys do it, check out the website for Colophon, an international symposium on independent magazines that's held every two years (the next is March 2009). In addition to interviews with the makers of small magazines (it's not clear if the interviews are with the designers or the editors), the site features an extensive directory of magazines from around the world.