I was born a Windy City girl, but my heart has always known that the excitement of Manhattan is where I was meant to be. This summer I spent 12 weeks with Hollywood Life and got to know the culture and inner workings of the city -- though being 20 limited my fun sometimes. So when it came time for the Magazine Club to head back there, I was more than ready to visit the place I will soon call home. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week our group of 24 eager Magazine students visited 17 different publications. The following was my line-up.
The offices at ESPN were a lot more casual than a normal newsroom -- including a large poll at the center, signed by dozens of athletes that have been interviewed by the publication. It was great to start off the trip with this visit, because they had a great atmosphere to work in. Of course they take what they do seriously, but their focus is not on pleasing every reader. "If [they] don't like, we've got another one coming in two weeks," said Gary Belsky. He also went on to talk to us about how he really wanted us to take advantage of the contacts we made on this trip. According to him, we all deserve to be published if we're got a story to pitch but very few of us every take the initiative to make the call and get our foot in the door.
I was disappointed that we didn't get to see the offices at Esquire, but meeting with them really opened my eyes to the fact that not every magazine is standard to what we talk about in class. Day in and day out we discuss the importance of reader-driven content, design, etc -- at Esquire, they really seem to care less about what the reader wants. Tim told us that they like to force change and designing for that starts early. They don't care who likes their publication, because they want to do what they want do -- and that's final. Apparently they're doing something right with that mindset, because they are obviously tremendously successful.
At first thought, I didn't think I would enjoy the visit to Popular Mechanics. I'm not a mechanic, I don't love science and I honestly knew little about the publication other than that it was referenced in the Friends episode when Rachel was applying for jobs in season one. But of all the magazines we visited during this trip -- their design was BY FAR my favorite. It was creative with bright colors and interesting divisions between stories. There were a number of infographics and illustrations, which I proceeded to recreate in my mind as to how to create it in Illustrator -- such a designer thing to do. And with that design, they told us to "embrace the fundamentals" but to also "embrace the chaos."
If you're looking to get into sports journalism, Richard Dimack (former sports editor for the Columbia Missourian, by the way) said to "know how to tell stories about sports, if you don't love it you'll be bored." Hence, it is highly unlikely that I will ever work for Sports Illustrated. But one thing he told us that I did take away was this: "Where did you go to school? We don't care. How did you do in school? We don't care. Clips are what matter." As graduation quickly approaches I have looked back and compared myself to the person I was when I graduated high school. I was the straight-A's girl with the perfect GPA and the list of extracurriculars that could make anyone dizzy. In May I won't graduation with a perfect GPA, but I do know I'll have a kick-ass portfolio to show off.
A group of 12 magazine journalism students visit a magazine very much driven by fashion -- what do you first? Take them to the fashion closet -- and, trust me, the fashion closet at Marie Claire is wonderful. A little cleaner then I expected, but still filled with shoes and bags and dozens of racks with designer clothing. I will have you note (because we discussed this topic during our meeting with them), that the cover I've selected is one of two. I knew it happened, but there is actually one cover for the subscribers and one cover for the newsstands. Why? Because selling a magazine to someone that doesn't subscribe is a lot different that impressing the readers who receive the magazine in the mail each month.
I'll be honest, sleep deprivation took over while visiting American Laywer early Friday morning -- and I don't have much to say on the visit other than that they were definitely more open about the possibility of internships and entry level jobs right out of the college gates. Because it is a trade publication the publication puts out an number of different magazines with a very narrow target audience.
We got a double dose of magazine offices when we visited both Men's Health and Women's Health. And with that double dose we got to see a number of different personality types that go into collaborating these two publications and putting out a number of different additions to the actual magazines -- i.e. Eat This, Not That! They told us that we'd start with FOB once we land a job after graduation, which is a start -- and that aside, we've made a good choice with magazines because there's more job security. This visit was probably the most beneficial for me because they really got into what it takes to get a job after graduation: be searchable on Google (they want to see you interacting with the wonders of the internet), typos matter (so have a friend look at it, many friends), address the topics of location and your willingness to move (don't assume they know you'll move for them), be immediate with the important information (name, school, what job you want), etc. I have worried about where I'll really end up because there are so many different people we're expected to attract via our resumes and cover letters, so it was nice to get some clear answers from the people that will eventually look to hire us.
As if the 20lbs of magazines we all were taking home wasn't enough -- the editors at Real Simple were so generous as to also send us home with a Wedding issue AND a cookbook -- my first cookbook I can call my own. And the fact that it was given to me by one of my favorite magazines makes it all the more exciting. The editors there were so wonderful to speak with and really emphasized our roles as interns in the future. "I don't want an intern that really wants to be at Time, I want one that wants to be at Real Simple," said Jacklyn Monk, deputy managing editor.
Being back in New York instantly made me remember this past summer -- 12 weeks at Hollywood Life and 56 clips later I realized that I could see my future after graduation. At a number of the publications we visited on this trip they told us to work hard at our internships and come prepared to do a million things and do them well. It wasn't until I walked back in to Suite 9A -- home of Hollywood Life -- 7 months after saying goodbye, greeted by hugs and happy hello's, that I knew I had done a great job as an intern. It was privilege to bring Magazine Club there and to show them what I had been a part of for the summer. When I worked there, Hollywood Life was still a baby -- only 6 months old -- and I walked in to growing publication last Friday. It was great to see how far they had come in 7 months and it was wonderful to be welcomed back. Who knows...maybe I'll return at more than intern this summer.
It's so surprising that Esquire cares so little about what its readers think. I feel like that's the opposite of what we've learned at the J school. But I guess when you think about it, Esquire has some really great long pieces of journalism written by some well known writers and many readers come back to them each month, so they must be doing something right.
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