Alums on camera

Magazine alums are comfortable in video format. Wendy Naugle (’96) was on the Today show December 15, comfortably telling Al Roker how to make smart choices with Christmas eating. Wendy was amazing, of course. Even made Al laugh. And gave great information.

Meanwhile, Abbey Klaasen (’02) introduces the “3-Minute Ad Age,” a daily video news show on adage.com. Abbey is the cool, crisp, lively anchor of the program. My favorite was the December 5 segment with NBC’s Brian Williams who spoofs new media hype.

Nice work, Wendy and Abbey.

Time's Top Ten Magazine Covers of 2008

In what so far appears to be a successful attempt to appeal to every magazine junkie in the country, Time has selected the top ten magazine covers of 2008.  

Writer Arthur Hochstein offers a background and an interpretive narrative on each selection.  Cover number one was The New Yorker, November 17, 2008.   Number four is Entertainment Weekly's delightful parody of The New Yorker's controversial Barry Blitt cover showing the Obama fist bump.   Number seven is Interview's September 2008, a glittery pop-art illustration of Kate Moss.

We have the EW and Interview covers in the Center's current display in Meredith 111. 

 

Waste trees; save your career

A recent grad shared the following experience and thought the rest of you might benefit from her perspective:

As a research editor, I fact-check articles, making sure everything is fair and accurate. I've learned that the best way to communicate changes or concerns to editors is usually through e-mail. Why? Because then there's a written record that I've done my job. If I tell an editor something really important over the phone, but it doesn't get changed for whatever reason, there's no record of that phone call. If there's any issues, I'm left stammering to my boss, "I swear I told the editor about this. Really." I've become a little insane about my e-mail habits: I save or "bcc" myself on almost everything now. Furthermore, I print out e-mails that are especially important and put them in my file for whatever story I'm working on.

This all sounds super paranoid, right? But honestly, if something goes wrong and an editor doesn't want to look bad, guess who's a really easy scapegoat? The young, fresh-out-of-college fact-checker. It sucks, but it happens.

And it almost happened to me earlier this week. Two editors called me down to talk about a story. I grabbed that story folder and headed into the office, and they started being all like, "Why didn't you tell us about XYZ earlier? Why is this just coming up now?" And I very calmly said, "I sent you an e-mail about that a week and a half ago." Blank stares. So I opened my story folder, and—this was so awesome—a copy of that e-mail just happened to be the very first thing in the folder. I whipped it out, set it in front of them, and then they were the ones left stammering. Bam! Awesomeness. I tried really hard not to gloat as one of them was muttering, "Oh, yeah, um, I must not have read this carefully at the time." Later the other one sent me an e-mail to apologize.

Would it have been as effective if I didn't have a hard copy of that e-mail? No. So I'll keeping using up paper and killing trees as long as that habit keeps saving my ass in ridiculous situations like the one above. And this comes in handy in other situations besides fact-checking. If you're writing an article or helping to set up a photo shoot, it's nice to have the instructions and later communications in writing, just in case there's any confusion later on. Sometimes after a meeting or lengthy phone call, I'll type up the summary and e-mail it to the editor with a note like: "Just want to make sure we're on the same page here and I'm understanding everything."

The only exception to my e-mail rule is if the information is legally sensitive. If I write something in an e-mail that says, "I don't think we should print this because it could be libelous for x, y, z reasons," that e-mail could be used against me and my company in court if we got sued for that story. Even if I didn't save or print it and everyone I sent it to deleted it right away, it lives on in the company's server. E-mails can never be completely destroyed, so I always have a verbal conversation with editors about legally sensitive matters.

Fun stuff, right? But you'll be surprised by how professional little things like this can make you look.

Hands on progress

On the heels of the passage of Proposition 8 in California, coverage has focused on our lack of progress on giving equal rights to gays and lesbians. It may be good, though, to see how far we have come. The covers here give some perspective.

The first two, ten years apart, demonstrate that magazine editors, when faced with the prospect of illustrating gay issues, went no farther than the hands. Be safe. Stick with symbolism, not actual people. Heaven forbid we should look at faces. Time’s cover is from 1979. Newsweek’s is from 1990. Not much progress in the intervening 11 years.

Also, not much originality. At least Newsweek did not ask “How Gay is Gay.”

Fast forward to People magazine August 2008. Look at Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi’s wedding. Faces and everything. Just like real people celebrating their wedding.

Life.com Archive to Launch Soon

Margaret Bourke-White. Alfred Eisenstadt. Gordon Parks. W. Eugene Smith. Those of you familiar with Life magazine know that these are some of that famed magazine's famed photographers. Now you can see their photos and more than ten million images from the Life photo archive. The new Life site--Life.com--Your World in Pictures--will launch in early 2009.  It is co-sponsored by Getty Images. 

Here's how they're planning to make money from this venture: Images will be directly linked to the sales site QOOP.  Getty Images will handle licensing for commercial purposes.  So it will be a fun site to browse.  And, Time Inc. hopes some of those browsers become buyers.


 

Time Magazine's FDR/Obama Cover: An Eerie Gimmick

This cover bothers me. It’s the November 24, 2008 Time magazine, with the cover line, “The New New Deal: What Barrack Obama can learn from F.D.R.—and what the Democrats need to do.” The cover story, “The New Liberal Order,” is by Peter Beinart.  

Time’s managing editor Richard Stengel says the story suggests that Obama might restore order in the way FDR did, by forging a liberal majority. “Liberalism is about regulating,” he says.

All that sounds great. I am all for order. I respect FDR.  And I respect Obama.  So why does this cover bother me so much?

For those of you not glued to cable news and Internet, the cover uses an original image of FDR, with Obama’s face Photoshopped into FDRs.

I find it eerie and a little disrespectful.  I am comfortable with the connection—most historians credit FDR with helping to pull us out of the Great Depression.  Americans looked to him with hope and supported him by electing him to four terms of office, making him the only president to be elected for more than two terms. In 1951, the 22nd Amendment imposed a two-term limit on the presidency to keep that from happening again.

So the magazine's overt message is solid.  It is the image itself I find troubling. It takes our new president-elect, a very serious man, and makes him look a little like a 1930s playboy. In FDRs time, that cigarette holder—or whatever it is—and hat may have looked dapper and sophisticated. Today, they look silly, and they make the president-elect, who has great promise, look a little less than himself.

Photoshopping is a great tool for cleaning up photos. Should it be used to replace one president's face with another on a major magazine?  What an odd question to even have to ask. The clear answer to me is:  "No."  That's a gimmick.  It's neither good design nor good journalism.  And it certainly is not good photography, if it is photography at all. 

Magazine Cover Design: Newsstand vs. Subscription

Look at how Ladies’ Home Journal changes its cover to appeal to two different audiences: newsstand buyers and subscribers. The cover photo is identical.

The newsstand cover (below) has:
• far more cover lines—on both sides, so it doesn’t matter if other magazines on the newsstand cover the left, right, or even the bottom.
• varied typography, both in color and size. The giant “Paula Deen’s Halloween” is designed to grab you from two to three shopping carts away.
• a number—essential, in magazine lore, to grab the reader quickly and to imply value.
• the barcode, which drives art directors nuts. Not the prettiest cover element.

The subscription (above) cover has:
• more subdued typography—the same size, with no giant cover lines.
• an airier look—the buyer has already signed up, so no need to charm her with numbers or multiple sell lines.

Drake Wins Another Pacemaker

Drake walked away with another Pacemaker this year—for Drake Magazine. The judges were complimentary about Drake Mag, of course,  but also made some great comments about Think. You can read details here. Some excerpts:

Drake Magazine, Drake University School of Journalism. Of the many good magazines I saw, this one had a sophistication and comprehension of magazine structure and design that were not equaled elsewhere. The cover, a simple but elegant graphic based on words and a geometric background, was inviting and clear. The index, on a two page spread, echoed the cover graphic, and elegantly presented the total contents — front of the book, well, and back of the book — in clear and size-appropriate order, with the four well stories visually predominant but the other elements quickly grasped, and easily found in the magazine itself. At least one of the well stories was a new and surprising subject to me: diabulemia, in which diabetics forgo insulin injections in order to lose weight. A fashion/cultural comment feature called Girls Gone Mild (a bit of a cliché in a headline these days) was fun and interesting. A piece on on-line universities was informative. And the fourth well piece, on video games, took a sharp look at their impact on study habits. I was especially impressed by the attention given to the front and back of the book sections, and by the elegant transitions between these sections. Bits & Pieces offered cultural observations, a brief book review, news snippets (a story about how hedgehog safety resulted in a safer McFlurry container) and other short items. The back of the book, like the front, featured a number of clever short items under catchy rubrics: Spare Change (stories about personal finance), Folks, Say What (an article about students experimenting with a robot baby, as a family planning exercise). Photographs throughout were fine, though this was not the magazine’s strongest element. But altogether a really impressive effort, beautifully designed, with a coherent clear editorial mission.

Think. Drake University. There were three good entries from Drake, but I was impressed by the unabashed advocacy in this one. The issue includes a surprisingly opinionated editorial letter on the need for America to get back in touch with the world. This viewpoint is carried out in the articles, book reviews, short takes on consumer buying and global responsibility. It’s not to everyone’s political taste, but I admired the forthrightness of it.

Obama on Time and Newsweek

Here's the first of the historic covers.

Tina Fey and John McCain in Life Magazine: 2004

Life magazine editors in 2004 had an eye for a political pair--they put John McCain and Tina Fey on the October 15 issue that year. (At the time, Life was published as a newspaper supplement, one of its many incarnations in a long history.)  The cover line:  "Why We're Voting: Inside the booth, with Tina Fey, John McCain, Manny Ramirez, Andre 3000 and other upstanding citizens."  In her interview, Fey says she is a registered independent and, when asked her preference for Bush or Kerry, she notes,  " Comedians should keep it to themselves so they can make jokes about everyone."  Prescient, Tina.  And McCain says his daughter was irate with him for endorsing George Bush in the 2004 Presidential election.  "I've never been so angry at you," she told him.  Prescient as well.

The cover caption reads, "Fey straightens out McCain."

One big difference between Fey and McCain's current running mate, Sarah Palin: wardrobe.  Tina is wearing jeans and a blazer that, while they look great, were probably not part of a $150,000 outlay.

How To Write a Letter of Application

Recently, I had a chance to read letters of application from several talented students. They did quite a few things right; they did a few things wrong. Let’s talk about both.

Salutation
When you are applying for a job, don’t get too cozy. Never use a person’s first name unless that person suggests it.

Use the proper prefix. I am not Mrs. Prijatel—I am, indeed, married, but I do not have my husband’s name. Students have it easy with me and could simply call me Professor Prijatel. In other instances, use the safe route and go with Ms. or Mr.

What do you do with a person with a name like Dana? Or what happens when this current crop of Dakotas and Taylors gets into the workplace? Take advantage of the wonders of Google and look the person up. Chances are great you will find a gender-specific reference. Look at the organization’s website and you might find a photo there.

Information
Make sure you give enough contact information—address, phone number, email address.

How to Start It

Don't begin with "My name is...."  I will see that in your contact information.  Start with, "I am applying for the position of blankety blank, which you advertised in the Des Moines Register.  I believe I am the right candidate for the job."  Don't tell me you "would like to apply."  Just apply.

List Your Qualifications

Tell me what you can do for me, not what I can do for you.  Give me your credentials and show how you can make my life easier.

Details
Edit your letter and then edit it and edit again. It should have no errors.

How to End it
Let the potential employer know where, how and when to contact you. And make sure you are accessible. You can also include a line such as “I will contact you later this week to see if you need additional information.” And then contact them ever so politely, with a well- written email or a highly professional phone call.

And remember: Always put your best foot forward for even the most mediocre jobs. You’re making a contact and contacts build networks, which lead to jobs.

Format
It is easiest to use block format—everything flush left:

Your name
Address
City, State, Zip
Phone number
Email address

Dear Ms. Whozywhatsit:

I am applying for the position of blankety blank, which you advertised in Sunday's Des Moines Register.  I believe I am the right candidate for the job.

Give your qualifications.  Offer details and examples.

Tie your qualifications to the job.

End with a note that reiterates your interest in the job.  Consider offering to contact them within a week or so.

Sincerely,

(Your signature here. And remember to sign it.)

Ima Napplicant

“Monetize” Should Not Be A Word

Merriam Webster lists this fingernails-on-the-chalkboard word as a transitive verb originating around 1879. Nearly 140 years ago some clown began talking about monetizing whale bones or some fool thing. Modern clowns are talking about monetizing Internet content or other fool things. It should stop. This is an awful word.

DEAR PEP: How High Should I Aim In My Job Hunt?

DEAR PEP: I am graduating soon and am starting to look for a job. (In this economy, wish me luck.) My question, though, is at what level should I aim? I was a Meredith apprentice my junior year and had an internship in New York the summer between my junior and senior years. I am now freelancing at Meredith. I held various editorial positions on Drake Magazine for three years, and am an editor on 515 this year. —GRAD TO BE

DEAR GRAD: You’ve prepared yourself well for a competitive market. Editors today do not have the time to train young editors—they need people to jump right into their jobs. Your Meredith and New York experience sets you apart from most new grads. You’ve already proven yourself at the editorial assistant level, so look for assistant editor jobs. Those often require 3-5 years experience, but folks with fewer years out of school often snag those jobs if their school years were as productive as yours have been.

It is essential though, that your letter immediately prove that you are already a professional, so the HR person who filters these things doesn’t throw you into the “no” pile as too inexperienced. Explain what you did at Meredith and in New York. Be specific. Show don’t tell. Start with an anecdote about being on a photo shoot or having to bat out a last-minute article when the page count changed.

Recognize, however, that New York magazines might be less receptive to your years of experience than good old Des Moines and they might expect you to start as an editorial assistant editor, no matter what. So don’t ignore those jobs if you’re heading to the big city.

Your best bet is to contact your old employers and let them know you are graduating and would love to be a full-timer. It startles me how many new grads assumes people already know this. Editors are busy. You need to remind them you’re out there and eager to join their staff.

And good luck. Yes, this is not the best time to hunt for a job. You might have to be more aggressive and plaster the world with your resume more thoroughly than you would have had to a few years ago. You have a great portfolio, though, and a huge edge over other new grads.

Drake's Magazines Once Again Finalists

Of the 18 national Pacemaker finalists, two are from Drake--Think and Drake magazine. The Pacemaker is the Associated Collegiate Press's top award--its equivalent of an Oscar. Go, Drake. And congratulations to the staffs of these two quality publications. See all the winners here.

Shut Your Motor While Kissing

Where is a woodburning editing tool when you need one?  This sign is at the entrance to Old Faithful Inn, but signs like it are all over Yellowstone National Park.  Either they have a real problem with folks smooching with their engines on, or somebody needs to learn to spell. 

Recent Grads Find Jobs

Editor and Publisher reports that, even in an uncertain economy and with significant layouts throughout the media, recent journalism grads are, indeed, finding satisfying jobs.   The story reports data from a University of Georgia study that indicates a healthy job market for newbies.   I am wondering who is studying how well more seasoned folks are doing--those in their 40s and 50s.  Are media cuts hitting them harder? Anecdotal evidence points to a resounding "yes" to that question.   Does anybody know of hard numbers on that?

Drake Tops First Batch of Student Magazine Awards

Drake-produced student magazines were winners in the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass communication Student Magazine Contest:

•Think won first place in General Excellence.

•Think won second place for Editorial

•515 won third for Editorial.

•515, Think and Drake Magazine all tied for second place in design.  (Odd, huh?) 

•Chelsea Hottovy won second place for a Service and Information Article for "How to Act
Swell in Every Situation" in 515.

All winners will eventually be online. .  I will post a link when that happens. Awards will be given at the AEJMC annual convention in August

News of the Magazine Sequence

I have received emails from several alums asking what is happening in the magazine sequence at Drake, so I ‘m doing my own news release here.

Angela Renkoski has left Drake to move to California to be closer to her sons. Some of you have wondered what this means to the sequence, given my retirement. Never fear. It is in good hands and the future is looking rosy.

Lori Blachford, who took over for me when I became director, will be a full-time faculty member for the 2008-09 school year. She will continue shepherding 515 Magazine and teaching magazine writing and will also take over as coordinator of the Meredith Service Journalism Apprenticeship Program. Lori was previously managing editor of Country Home magazine, so her Meredith roots are solid. She had been teaching part-time so she could finish Drake’s new Master of Communication Leadership degree.

Jeff Inman, who has taught JMC120, magazine freelance writing, for four semesters, will also teach magazine courses full-time for the 2008-09 school year. Jeff is a freelance magazine writer who just completed a Master of Arts in Education degree at Drake.

And Jill Van Wyke now teaches JMC91, magazine editing, plus a section of the capstone course, which produces Think Magazine. (Both are cross-listed with news-Internet courses.) Lori, Jeff, and Jill are all excellent teachers. Students consistently rank them as some of the best in the J-School.

I will also return part-time for the year, as director of the E.T. Meredith Center for Magazine Studies. In addition, I will chair the search committee to find permanent replacements for Angela and me and will do some fundraising. I will also be on hand to help Lori and Jeff in whatever ways they need. This will be a one-third appointment. I am looking forward to being back in the thin of things.

In terms of fundraising, we’ll have more information on how some of that is going, but the sequence is looking great, with some new financial support, plus the steady and welcome help from Meredith Corporation at the E.T. Meredith family.

Google 1, Print 0

Earlier this month, Scott Karp, of Publishing 2.0, posted a discussion on the disconnect between magazines and the Web, telling a story about chasing an online piece published in The Atlantic. It is funny, but sad, demonstrating how even our best print publications have a wobbly relationship with their Web sites.  I suspect many of you will relate.  Publishing 2.0, as a whole, is fun reading.  As is The Atlantic.  (The article Scott was pursuing is "Is Google Making Us Stupid?")

Jobs for Recent Grads, Seasoned Pros

I just received this from min (Media Industries Newsletter) and thought I would pass it on.   Let me know if it works/has glitches/whatever.  PEP

Recent Graduates :
Ready to show the Media Industry that you are the next big thing? Then visit min's Job Center today and have your resume placed at the finger tips of the best Media employers!

Employers/Recruiters:
Be the first to find highly qualified recent graduates by posting your openings on the min Career job board. Resumes are being updated everyday!
Special Savings: Post your entry level job today using the promotional code "Grad", and save 15%!

For more information, contact Job Board Coordinator Rachel Smar at 301-354-1613.

Check out these top listings:

Art Director, Traditional Home, Meredith Corporation
Manager of Events Marketing, TechInsights (a division of United Business Media)
Manager, Digital Media, Verizon
Plans Merchandiser - Magazine Division, Hanley Wood LLC
Regional Sales Manager, Ziff Davis Enterprise
Business Manager - Fiber Division, Interweave
Audience Development/Circulation Manager, Crain Communications
Online Editor, Advertising Specialty Institute
VP, Editorial Director, PC WORLD

Dear PEP: Portfolio and Emailed Samples: Should They Be the Same?

I’ve landed myself an interview for an associate art director position. I am stoked, as I have been wanting to get back into magazines, and this is my first portfolio showing. What are your thoughts as far as what I should present in the printed portfolio in comparison to the e-mailed work samples? Do you think they're expecting entirely new content or do they mostly want to discuss what they've seen and, when applicable, review it in its printed & bound form? —Looking for Work in All the Right Places

Dear Looking: If you have any excellent additional samples, include them in the portfolio. But if what you already emailed is your best work, just go in with the printed versions and let them digest those. You are right that they will be ready to talk about the whys and hows of what you already sent. Never add samples just for bulk—only include top-notch work.   And good luck.  PEP

Negotiating: Silence Can Be Golden

There’s a basic rule of negotiating that the person who speaks first loses. For example, you’re offered a job at $75,000, and that sounds like a salary you could be more than happy with. Don’t jump right in and accept it. Be quiet for a bit. You might say something like “Uh, huh,” with a pensive intonation, just to be polite and let them know you heard them. In some cases, if the person offering the job really wants you, the silence might make him uncomfortable and he might fill the void with something beautiful like, “We could, of course, look at the benefits package and see what we could do there.” If, however, they also know about the keep-quiet rule or they’re not that needy, they can wait you out. At that point, start talking and go ahead and accept.

Still, it is worth trying. The silence should be only a few seconds.

Silence is no benefit, however, If the offer does not meet your requirements in terms of salary, benefits, job duties, or anything else. In that case, you have to speak up and make your terms known. Preface your requests with something like “I am really interested in this job” or “I was impressed with your company,” or “I enjoyed meeting with you and your staff and I think I would enjoy working with you.” Then add the “but….”

“As you know, I am making $75,000 now and would really need more incentive to move.”

“That’s quite a bit less than I had been expecting.”

“I was hoping to be president, so I am not sure I can accept the vice-presidency.”

If you cannot negotiate a higher salary, see if you can talk about benefits—more vacation, flexible hours, 401K additions.

Silence can help with other negotiations as well. Say you are at an impasse with your boss on whether an article idea is strong or not. You have made your point. She has made hers. Neither of you is ready to give. Rather than just cave, be quiet and give her a chance to cave first. It can work.

DEAR PEP: Should I start with the Web or print?

I am graduating in May and planning to work abroad for five months starting in the fall, so I've been applying for internships for the summer until I go. Luckily, I ended up with two choices. I was offered a job at a Web magazine and a city magazine. The Web magazinet seems like a better internship career-wise—it's an editorial internship with lots of writing opportunities and a chance to  help with a redesign. The print magazine internship is primarily research and fact-checking.

So, my question is how important do you think the opportunity on the Web is for landing future jobs? I know Web experience is so valuable these days, so I'm having a tough time
deciding. — New Grad


PEP Says: Congratulations on two fabulous opportunities. I do not think you can go wrong in your choice.

The Web is the future. And the thing is, most people in management have no idea what it is or how to use it or why they have it--only that they have to because everybody else does. I think the Web mag would be excellent experience to prepare you for a field that is going to define the future.

The city magazine, however, would also be hard for me to turn down. If I were going to go to a print publication, it would be a city magazine. So that is a fabulous opportunity in a different direction and it will prepare you well in a traditional medium that is, I think, enduring no matter what some pundits say.

I think you need to ask yourself which fits you best. Which gives you entry into a world where you really want to spend your time? Your career is going to go in marvelous directions and you are going to have challenges and opportunities we cannot even imagine now. So go where you think you will have the best opportunity to grow the way you want.

Good luck with the decision.  And enjoy your time abroad.

Simple Site

Kaelin (Tripp) Zawilinski (‘06) recently set up a portfolio site  that’s an excellent example of simple yet effective. If you just want to get your clips out there and don't need a whole lot of hullabaloo, check it out. “Because most of my clips are online, I thought this would be a super simple way to show off my work,” Kaelin says. “I just used the iweb program on my mac, bought the URL and then a friend is hosting it for me on his server. It took me about 2 hours to set up.”

Kaelin was recently promoted to Decorating and Crafts Editor at bhg.com.

Esquire Covers At MOMA

Here's a reason to head to New York's  Museum of Modern Art within the next year:  "George Lois: The Esquire Covers" will run through March 31, 2009.

George Lois created some of Esquire's most memorable covers—Richard Nixon getting new makeup after his disastrous debate with JFK, who looked cool and calm while Nixon sweated; Svetlana Stalin with a drawn-on mustache; a composite cover of four different versions of heroes (JFK, Castro, Bob Dylan and Malcolm X).     

Lois designed 92 covers for the magazine from 1962 to 1972. The exhibit features 32 of them.

Mags launch social and professional networking sites

Forbes magazine online has launched a social network through which you can chat about "any topic from stocks to wine." This comes on the heels of other networking sites in Business Week (tied to LinkedIn) and Fast Company.

Companies use sites like LinkedIn for recruitment for full-time jobs, freelancing, and special consulting. The magazine sites add to the equation by allowing execs and interns alike a place at the virtual table.  They also automatically come with the added credibility of the magazine brand.

Writing newsletters online

Freelancing.com hosts several newsletters related to freelance writing and editing, including the Ed2010 weekly scribble and others from the Poynter Institute and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. It is one-stop shopping for industry news, although the site is annoying, with lots of ads. At least they're not pop ups, though.

Freelancing 101

Media Bistro has a discussion going about the merits and challenges of freelancing—the initial question being, “How long does it take to succeed at freelancing?” The discussion deals with how to get started, the benefits of a specialty, the income you might likely make, and how to manage getting gigs.

I would add:

• The Internet makes my specialty—health and medical writing—far more possible than it would have been even ten years ago. I can find medical research that would have been inaccessible to me because I do not live in a city with a medical research university or center.

• The Internet also improves access to experts. I can find emails for major researchers, give them my pitch by email, and add a spiel about my own university experience, which gets some of them to talk with me, as most have some sort of university connection. They can also Google me. One health researcher recently told me he turns down most media requests, but I looked like I knew my way around. He might have meant I looked old, who knows. Still, a well-crafted email with biographical information, which is what I send, can do wonders for access. Far better than a phone message that is by nature pretty abrupt. Of course, some folks still do not use email, so that means I have to develop a well-crafted phone spiel.

• Gizmos like Skype make international calling cheap and easy. You sound a little like Darth Vader, but people in New Zealand are usually understanding when you explain you are calling on your computer. You can even record your conversations.

• It is really easy to get lazy. I have a home office and I get myself in here every morning just like a real job. The afternoon is easy to fritter away, though, especially if I go out to lunch. Still, I am sort of retired, so I think I should have that latitude. But I still feel lazy.

• It is far easier to take good care of yourself when you are your own boss—usually. I get in my daily yoga and my daily walks, and it is easier to schedule around myself than to work around meetings and office hours and other things that require you to be at an office in nice shoes.

• I do sort of complain now when I have to “dress up” to jeans instead of my usual sweats.

• It can be difficult to balance the too-busy times, especially if you get assignments you really want to do. I have had a couple of months that were a tad stressful, but that was because I had a problem magazine I was working with, not because I was working a lot of stories. I dumped the magazine and lost that stress. And $2000 a story. So I have a hole to fill in, or a budget to realign. That’s no way to get to Machu Picchu. But the stress of the magazine was more than I thought was healthy. (Bad editor, bad planning, bad editing, slow payment.)

• I feel less isolated now that the weather is nice. Cabin fever can be a double-whammy when you are in an office with you alone.

• If you spend too much time writing things that you do not enjoy—things that just pay the bills—you might want to reconsider your approach. Good freelancers are strategic—working their way bit by bit to the types of assignments that challenge and reward them with more than just money.

• You have to be your own IT person.  I have a son, daughter and son-in-law who introduced me to Skype and got me started with some cool electronic stuff and who can help me with my random, "What the #@!%$#! is going on" sorts of problems.  And I am in awe of the Apple geniuses at our local Apple store.   Still, nothing can match having the IT guy come in and just fix what you need while you go out for a cup of coffee.  

Tanner's Inner Ugly Betty

Tanner Stransky (2005) has just published a handy little book, Find Your Inner Ugly Betty: 25 Career Lessons for Young Professionals Inspired by TV Shows.     Tanner takes incidents from shows like Betty, The Office, 30 Rock, and How I Met Your Mother—plus his own experiences as a professional newbie—to demonstrate how to act, or not act, when you want to get a foothold on the career ladder.   It's  a helpful and concise primer on entering the workplace, full of on-target tips and real-life examples and written with Tanner's usual lively style. The Des Moines Register did an article about Tanner and the book this week.  When he in not channeling his inner Ugly Betty, Tanner writes for Entertainment Weekly.   Meet and greet Tanner during Relays week at East Village Books, 510 East Locust St., Des Moines at 5:30 p.m. April 24. He will give an author talk at 6:30 p.m.    

An Editorial Guy in the IT World

This could be the answer to Meredith editors’ dreams: Phil Morgan (‘94), an editorial staffer with a talent for design, has joined the company’s IT department as a business analyst for content management. Why in God’s name would Phil do such a thing? He has always been a man of many hats, wearing his technology beret with as much panache as his editorial top hat (think Eustace Tilley of The New Yorker).

“I’m excited about the opportunity to be more focused on the type of work I really enjoy—database development and automation tools for editors and designers—but also nervous about working within IT, ”he says.

Phil jokes that it sometimes seems that Meredith’s IT department would like to refashion the corporation to be “a technology company with a very large publishing support group.” He plans to change as much of that as he can.

“I hope to work from within to change the culture. I’ve had plenty of first-hand experience with the current relationship between IT and editorial departments within the Publishing Group. So if I can bring a bit of perspective and a better sense of customer service, I might be able to do a little good.”

An IT guy who understands editorial and design? We see a lot of recent alums with these dual skills, but Phil has been in the workplace long enough to be at a level to really make a difference.

Big Bad Boss

In a comment on the last post, Mark Harbeke ('01) recommended Big Bad Boss, a great site that offers insights into dealing with devils who wear Prada. Check it out.

DEAR PEP: My Boss Went to Charm School with Simon Cowell

My boss is a bully. I often wonder if I have thin skin, or if he's really a bad manager. He tends to easily dismiss my ideas in front of the whole staff, mull about it for a bit, then come back later and present the same ideas as though they were his own. He harpooned me in my review, asking me if I was speaking ill about the magazine to the advertising folks at a trade show we were working. Funny though, because I had the flu and was not at the show. He is the most difficult, egotistical person I’ve ever met, professionally or otherwise. He makes others miserable as well, so it is not just me. It is amazing how we put out such a great product—it’s a pretty dysfunctional staff. I have been here only six months and I’m not sure I want to start a job search again. Should I stick it out or start looking? — NOT READY FOR AMERICAN IDOL

DEAR IDOL: People who are overly driven by their egos tend to actually have some level of insecurity. It sounds like Boss Man is a little intimidated by you and needs to put you in your place to settle his own fears. If he were confident of his own ideas , why challenge—then swipe—yours? Or make up bogus accusations in your review? What you do about all this depends on how well you can work in this environment. Ask yourself: Does he make me question my talent or my skills? Is my work suffering, so that I have less respect for the finished product? Do I feel like I am being reduced professionally rather than growing? Does he make me overly anxious? If so, it may be time to get out of there.  But remember: Always go toward something good, not just away from something bad,  so wait until you have another job that is a good match.  If, however, you like your work and are proud of it and still feel like you are developing and growing professionally, then it could be worth sticking it out a bit longer. If you do stay, you obviously cannot avoid the boss, but you can avoid internalizing his nastiness.  When he's a jerk, take a deep breath,  put on your most professional face, and rise above it.  Don't try to argue with him if he is being unreasonable, but do continue to offer your ideas, even if he steals them.  Ultimately, it will be clear that your smarts are strengthening the magazine, and that reality is what is important, not how he sees it. It is always good to have reality on your side, which you do and he doesn't.   Let your work and the rewards of the magazine  be your motivators.  Ultimately, you can control how much power he has over your thoughts and feelings, even if he does control the big red pen. This is a big challenge—it is extremely difficult to not let somebody else’s negatives influence how we see, or live, our lives. But difficult people are everywhere—too often in the corner office—so learning to deal with them is good practice. The best thing we can do is keep their bad attitude from influencing ours.  Plus, it is always possible to outlast him. Perhaps you can start sending his resume elsewhere?

DEAR PEP: My Magazine is in Bed with the Advertisers

I just started at a trade magazine covering a relatively small industry. The publisher and sales guys run amok in terms of giving away editorial in exchange for ads. Everything from company profiles, Q&As, smaller department features, the works. So far my proudest accomplishment was convincing the publisher to let us run advertorials with the words "advertiser sponsored content" on the page. Before that, they were disguising advertorials as bylined feature stories. Is this dilemma a bigger one for trade magazines than consumer mags? How does a new editor fight it? My previous magazine worked out a compromise with the sales guys -- we relegated BOB and FOB sections for news briefs and new product announcements and let the sales guys give preferential treatment to advertisers in those departments. In exchange, the sales folks had to keep a hands off attitude about the feature well.

Should I draw a line in the sand? Am I breaking some journalistic code of honor by going along with it, to ensure I'll receive a paycheck? —AAACK

Dear Aaack:

Yes, unfortunately, this is far too common among trade publications. You have taken a great first step in getting advertorials labeled as such. This is a standard recommendation in the ASME Guidelines for Editors and Publishers.   ASME (the American Society of Magazine Editors for long) includes business publications as well as consumer. The introduction to the guidelines says:

“For magazines to be trusted by consumers and to endure as brands, readers must be assured of their editorial integrity. With that core conviction in mind—and the overwhelming support of its members—the American Society of Magazine Editors for over two decades has issued guidelines to make sure that the difference between advertising and editorial content is transparent to readers and that there is no advertiser influence or pressure on editorial independence.”

What’s more, ASME says, “Advertisers should not pay to place their products in editorial pages nor should they demand placement in return for advertising. Editorial pages may display and credit products and tell readers where to buy them, as long as those pages are solely under editorial control.”

The American Business Media has an  Editorial Code of Ethics  that also covers advertising-editorial conflicts. Under their “general editorial code of ethics,” they pledge to, among other things:

•Avoid all conflicts of interest as well as any appearances of such conflicts.

• Maintain an appropriate professional distance from the direct preparation of special advertising sections or other advertisements.

• Show the distinction between news stories and editorials, columns and other opinion pieces.

• Accept as their primary responsibility the selection of editorial content based on readers' needs and interests.

Plus, there's a great book out that covers all this. 

So, I suggest providing your boss with a copy of the ASME Guidelines and the ABM Code in a nicely-worded presentation, acknowledging the magazine’s (unfortunate) tradition and the (equally unfortunate) economy but suggesting you work together to make some minor (for now) modifications to be more in line with professional standards.

Then change bit-by-bit, one small battle at a time, one advertiser at a time. Don’t try to completely reinvent the rules overnight—although that would be great in an ideal world. In this real world, you make more progress if you look less like a threat to a cozy status quo. Promote the idea of special FOB and BOB sections, as you did on the previous magazine. That was for the same company, so there is corporate precedent there. Do one department a month or so, so the change seems small. You’ll see the progress over time. Sort of like paving a road—you do it one stretch at a time and pretty soon you have an interstate. Then watch out for raccoons.

On Platform Agnostics and Disappearing Gatekeepers

Mary Stier, president and publisher, The Des Moines Register and Paul Leavitt, Washington News Editor of USA Today, were also on the Task Force on the Future of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. (See post on the task force .) Their comments related to newspapers, but they were pertinent to what is happening in today’s magazines. Leavitt and Stier have since moved on to different pursuits.

Stier said that discussions at The Register about the changing nature of the newspaper industry revolved around the following concepts:
• From process to platform: Information is not merely a story that goes through numerous editors and then is published, but it’s “platform agnostic” and can be used in media from newspaper to magazine and online.
• From us to them: It’s all about the consumer, not the communicator.
• From me to we: Readers want to participate in the discussion through virtual communities.
• From monologue to dialogue: The media are no longer the gatekeepers.

Leavitt said that the “new paradigm” at USA Today is: Write for the Web, update for the newspaper.

Will Magazines Float in The Sinking Economy?

In this current economic mess, I have often thought about how our over-consumption has caused us such grief. Yet, that consumerism is what drives many magazines, so it is a little difficult to be too critical of spending patterns that keep our careers going. Still, moderation is a good thing, and I hope we have learned that overbuilding and overspending have serious consequences.

We see more and more green products advertised, so that gives me hope for the industry and society as a whole.  How nice it is to be supported by products that do good.

Yet, spending is embedded in the American psyche and few of us are so holy that we don't fall into the "I gotta have it" trap, and the goods of our desire are not all that good for anything or anybody.   I just bought a pair of jeans and am really pleased at how they look—they do a nice job of showing off all the weight I have lost. And my reaction to this pleasure? I think I need to get another pair.

That is not moderation, is it? Advertisers love that about me, though.  Until they realize I am way too old to be demographically significant. No matter my age, my desire to have more and more helps stoke the economic engines quite nicely.  As long as I have the money to buy, I will continue to stoke, but I have always been a tad stingy, so the Madison Avenue had better not depend on me too much.  I am more generous in green expenses. I spend an inordinate amount on organic food and we're planning to beef up the solar power at our cabin--and get a new compost toilet. 

The economy also got me thinking about how magazines have weathered these types of storms in the past. During the worst economic downturn this country has seen, the Great Depression, magazines continued publishing—some even were started then. Esquire magazine began publishing in 1933, during the depths of the Depression. The New Yorker started in 1925, four years before the stock market crash,  and continued throughout the Depression. In fact, it had a shaky start and didn’t really gain momentum until the 1930s.

The Atlantic and Harper’s continued giving readers perspective on their world throughout the Depression. In 1932, The Atlantic published an article by John Maynard Keynes, titled, “The World’s Economic Outlook.”

The economy, then, can even help magazines by providing content about...the economy.

Naming names: When is an editor not an editor?

What does a magazine editor actually do in today’s multimedia world? Is the title—editor—still appropriate, given the varied responsibilities these folks carry on their shoulders? Meredith publishing vice president Jack Griffin doesn’t think so. Griffin recently told Folio: magazine that Meredith now hires “content strategists” rather than editors.

This may be a case of language being a little late in naming change, with editors having long ago taken on more varied, demanding, and complex roles while their titles have remained the same. Editors know their days of “only” managing copy and sending the book off to the printer disappeared with Murphy Brown, if they ever existed at all. Yet the title "editor" has endured. When Meredith advertises, its job listings call for editors, just as it has for nearly 100 years, and it is not likely to change that title. Nevertheless, the reality has vastly changed at Meredith and at publishers across the country.

Here’s some of what today’s editor juggles:

• Working with the publisher to manage the brand, which means presenting to current and potential advertisers and, often, dealing with media requests as varied as being on TV to overseeing special events. This includes some role in developing ancillary products.
• Maintaining the title’s budget, often a 7- or 8-digit responsibility.
• Managing the staff.
• Overseeing the editorial and design production—at all levels—of the magazine and, often, its Web components.
• Creating some content on her own, which may be limited to an editor’s letter, but might also include a feature or two or a blog.

Much, perhaps all, of this is stategic. It is also creative, intuitive, and socially and culturally engaged. That's today's editor.

Last year, the SJMC had a discussion with industry leaders about the future of journalism as part of the Task Force on the Future of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. At our first meeting in September, 2006, Don Peschke, president and founder of August Home Publishing, said that for many years his company thought of itself as a magazine publisher, but he soon realized it is a multimedia company.

Peschke says August Home hires people who are specialists in producing content but also generalists who are adept at thinking of a variety of ways to communicate that information. The challenge of these people is in establishing and understanding the interconnection between all media so that readers, viewers, and listeners can get the information they want the way they want it, he said.

This means that editors are now editors-plus—as those of you whose jobs have grown far beyond a 40- or 50- hour workweek know all too well. Editors still must be well versed in the old-fashioned values of writing and editing within an ethical framework, but they also must have a broad understanding of all media and their audiences.

Peschke said new graduates must specialize in some specific skill—writing, editing, design, Web production—when they start their careers, but as they move into leadership positions, they must become generalists who can see the big multimedia picture.

There are few strictly print editors anymore. Most at least have some Web responsibility—blogging, creating linked content, writing and editing online pieces, developing value-added information. No matter what we call them, editors have to manage a multitude of content types and do so strategically. And creatively, intuitively, and with social and cultural engagement.

Those of us who love words prefer the title “editor,” of course, partly for its graceful simplicity, but also for the legacy it implies. We want those who head today’s magazines to follow in the steps of history's great editors like The New Yorker’s Harold Ross or Glamour's Ruth Whitney.

Titles aside, today’s editors will leave their own unique footprints in the magazine history books— most likely a mass of varied tango-like steps, representative of the media complexity that requires them to dance lively just to keep up. No matter what they are called.

Wonder Magazine Dogs

I am extremely proud of and impressed by the Drake men's basketball team, which the local media are calling the Wonderdogs, for those of you living elsewhere.    They're doing a great job and it is marvelous to see them on ESPN and, this afternoon, CBS.

Still, where are the national media when Drake magazine students consistently win top national awards?  I suppose televising an editing session just wouldn't sell, huh?  DeSchepper lops off a dangling participle!  Collins follows by replacing a passive verb, but Walters challenges her with a full sentence recast.  Nelson tries a gerund, but the group blocks "ing" words. Stransky throws a free association!...

Ask PEP: How do I survive an acquisition?

I found out today that my magazine is being shuttered because of our recent acquisition. They want me to be considered for a senior/managing editor job for a sister publication based out of the same office. The editor apparently likes my work and wants to give me latitude to add some life to the magazine. It's called Dull As Dirt•, and it's as dull as it sounds. It would be a pay raise, though. And I'd get to stay put and at least job hunt later if I don't like it. I just really, really loved my current boss and the hot air•• industry and all the perks and bonuses and junkets that went with it. I'll have to find out if there's a way to get around non-compete policies and maybe freelance for the other hot air books just for fun. Or maybe I'll just have to take up a fun new hobby, or pursue other areas of journalism in my free time. 

Is the rest of the publishing industry in the tank right now too? Are editors often thrown into completely foreign beats? Successfully? How long do I give it before I jump ship? I guess it's a good way to diversify my resume.

I think I'm going to look for some wine!  —Not Dull in Illinois

[• I made that up: PEP. •• And that.]

PEP: The industry is, in fact, in quite a flux. The Web is taking over more and more; the economy has publishers frightened; advertisers are too often allowed editorial control and have never been known for the publishing acumen; and all this had led to the death of some formerly strong magazines. Conde Nast, in fact, just announced the final death knoll of the venerable HG, which had been struggling but was finally killed off because of Conde Nast’s acquisition of Architectural Digest. This was a bit of a twist—usually the magazines that are acquired are the most at risk, not those already in the publisher’s line.

Anyway, hang on for a while and see how the dust settles. You are right to check into the non-compete and see what freelancing is out there.  It is always good to have another outlet.  I think that is one reason blogging has become so popular.  It has a quicker turn-around than gardening and doesn't give you poison ivy.   It stinks when something wonderful goes sour, so you have my sympathies. I am truly sorry to say that you are not alone, however.   

Still, this is far from hopeless. It sounds like you are well respected in the company, and that is nothing to take lightly. I mean that very, very seriously. And, yes, editors are often thrown into completely new territory. Some thrive, some settle, some founder. It just depends on a variety of things, but you seem to have the ingredients there to thrive. If not, you have an enhanced resume that helps you go elsewhere. Don’t move too quickly, and especially do not move out of fear. Try to make your moves toward something exciting and challenging rather than away from something unpleasant.

And consider meditation or yoga rather than wine. Namaste.

Alum to alum: National Geographic Traveler Promotes TrustyPony

In her National Geographic Traveler blog , Katie Knorovsky (06) highlighted Berit Thorkelson’s Web site, TrustyPony. Katie had read about Berit’s site on PEP Talks. A nice blog-to-blog move. Sort of three degrees of separation in the blogosphere.

Re-enter re-enters

The Des Moines Register ran an article today about the I-80 Re-entry Job Fair for ex-offenders. It reminded me of re•enter magazine, which we did for The Annie E. Casey Foundation in 2004. So, editors Angela Paneck Dahman and Angela Daunis (and art director Karen Scherer, assistant editors Callie Dunbar and Chandni Jhunjhunwala, photo editor Erika Nortemann, editorial coordinator Betsy Rubiner and a staff of talented writers and designers), take another bow for the continued influence of your work. In my happy version of the world, somebody kept a copy of the magazine and said, "We need to follow this up with something." The job fair was that something. And nobody can talk me out of that happy version.  We were agenda setters of the best kind.

And I didn't realize re•enter magazine lives online, but here it is .

Talkin' 'bout your generation

In her WorkinProgress blog, Bridget Nelson writes about Millennials and asks what changes I have seen in students through the years. I posted a comment there, but also thought I would continue the discussion here.

Some thoughts on students through the years:

Students as a group have always had strengths and weaknesses and I frankly spent little time wondering how to group them. Sociologists make their living doing that and ad people love those demographics. The rest of us, though, see people with broader strokes. My students were generally hard-working, smart, funny, creative, concerned about broader issues, respectful yet spunky, and just nice people. Yes, there were exceptions, but I didn’t worry too much about those folks.

I wonder if the Drake SJMC attracts its own breed, and that does not include the lazy louts and ego-driven brats we read about. We have always expected a great deal out of our students, so people who do not want to commit to that amount of effort and can’t play well with others probably don’t apply to the program or leave early on. Some do stay and are miserable, making the rest of us miserable, but that applies to Boomers as well as Millennials.

The SJMC is big enough for opportunities but small enough that students have to work together, which means some of the crazy Millennial—or Gen X or Gen Y or whatever—traits are smoothed out by rubbing against other students’ personalities.

As many of you may have noticed, I don’t suffer fools gladly, so students who are not up to snuff would probably have stayed away from me, no matter their generation.

When I first started teaching in the 1980s and early 1990s, students were more into following the system than students of the 2000s were. I am not at all sure that is a bad thing, largely because the system has changed so much.

As director and as a professor in recent years, I did get complaints about how students dress, and I think that might be something to take seriously. I got a lot of comments about women’s blouses being too tight or too low cut. I also heard complaints about too casual dress—such as flip-flops in the office. I always hated to pass these comments on to students, but I did, so if I didn’t tell you to keep your breasts from being a focal point, you were fine.

I have lived my entire life with the Boomer stereotype. I wonder if the Millennial generalization will be as enduring.   It gets old, I tell you.  And so have the boomers.

PEP

Sending samples to editors

So, let’s continue the discussion about online portfolios. I chatted with four Drake alums, who provided some great perspective on how to manage samples and queries online.

This discussion is with:
• Amanda Repine (’02), senior producer, BHG.com.
• Samantha Thorpe (’95), editor, Country Gardens magazine.
• Lou Rocco Centrella (’00), designer and writer.
• Catherine Staub (MA '97), founder of Lexicon Consulting.


PEP: If a writer or designer does not have a Web site and wants to approach an editor electronically, how best to do that? Send a representative attachment or two? How many attachments are too many?

AMANDA: I would send a file or two (keep it small or zip it so you don’t clog the person’s inbox) with a note that she can send more samples upon request.

SAM: I request 2–3 clips to be sent as attachments in an e-mail from an editor. I prefer to see one long piece and one short to get a sense of their writing style. That leaves me the option to ask for more. Of course, attaching a resume as well is a good idea. The clips should relate as close as possible to home/garden content in my case.

LOU: Quick advice:
~Keep attachments to a minimum.
~Use a low DPI for email attachments unless printing is a necessity.
~Don't send attachments over 5 megabyte. Under 1 megabyte is ideal to
people you do not know.
~Technical mumbo jumbo: GMail (Google) allows attachments up to 20
megabytes but they're one of the least restrictive. Some email
providers won't allow attachments over 1 megabyte. In these case you
can compress files with a ZIP program and split attachments across
emails, but this means the recipient would have to piece it back
together (not ideal).

CATHERINE: My preference is looking at a Web site. If someone doesn’t have a Web site and approaches me electronically the most I’ll look at is 2 attachments with an initial inquiry. If I like what I see, I may request to see more. But I don’t want unsolicited inquiries with a bunch of attachments.



PEP: Is it time for me to tell folks to get a Web site? New grads, of course, have all kinds of Web goodies. Even people who graduated 6-7 years ago, though, are behind in Web skills. They’re still doing fine in a print world, but who knows if that will continue. (The future of the media, however, is not what I would like to discuss right now.)

AMANDA: While I think it’s very beneficial to have a Web site for potential employers or clients to access (esp. if you’re aiming for potential clients) it could also harm you more to have a poorly constructed web site than to not have a web site at all. If you’re in doubt of your web skills and really want a web site, hire out your professional site. If you want to gain new skills in web design, keep another site where you can play and develop pages.

LOU: I would say yes, a Web site is ideal for everyone. When I send a resume or a sample, people want to know more information about me. I would prefer to point them to my website where I control the content instead of them searching the web for God knows what they'll find. On the website you can put up previous articles, samples and other information about yourself.

SAM:: I think a Web site is a great idea. I need one myself. But I think when you contact an editor, it’s still a good idea to attach one clip and then give the Web address. That way I know the person is trying to make it as easy as possible for me to check them out. The Web site should be easy to use and simple to navigate. The “clips” section should be simple to find.

PEP: Those of you with Web savvy, is there anything on the Internet that is an easy first step for less savvy people who want at least a basic page with some simple samples? Where do these people start?

AMANDA: There are hundreds of sites that will tell you how to create Web pages – do a Google search, find a free place to learn (freewebs.com) and just start playing around. A blog is another great way to learn new technology.

If you’re serious about creating a professional site, surf the web for sites you admire and compile a list or urls. Talk to a web-savvy person and find out what kinds of technology are being utilized for the sites. There may be a basic components you could pull onto your own site with little effort or skill. More complicated code could require hiring a professional developer to create the features you want.

LOU: I recommend Google Pages . It's free and the page builder is easy to use. There are pre-built templates (Think PowerPoint) but it's also flexible enough to get more advanced with HTML code. You get a lot of space (100 megabytes) to post all the documents and photos you desire.

How to post samples online

Tracey (Doyle) Gorrell (’96), asks:

I've noticed more demand in the marketplace for an electronic or online portfolio to show and attract potential employers. Do you (or any other alums) have any suggestions or advice in this area? I work primarily in print, have never been a web designer (and never wanted to be one). Surely, there's a better solution than attaching a bunch of loose and random PDFs to an e-mail.

I asked alums, and their answers are in the next post. Tracey, though, answered her own question pretty well. That’s what I love about Drake grads!  (Tracey is a graphic designer/marketing coordinator for Syngenta Flowers in Lisle, Illinois.)  Her answer:

I did some poking around, stumbling upon coroflot.com and Creativehotlist. I was familiar with Creativehotlist as a job board, but didn't realize designers could post their portfolios there.

Between those two sites, I'm leaning toward Coroflot because I think the site looks a bit more professional and better organized. I posted a question to LinkedIn Answers and got a couple of responses from designers who recommended Coroflot, but I would also be interested to hear from any Drake alums who've used it.

PEP asks: So, has anybody out there used Coroflot? What do you think?

Berit's Pony: A Web site that works

Berit Thorkelson (’95) has ridden her TrustyPony all the way to a cool gig with Budget Living magazine. The pony is Berit’s Web site—trustypony.com, with the tag line “cool stuff for travelers.” It’s a fun and savvy concept—Berit finds travel goods that appeal to her, tries them out, and features those that pass the test on her site. She gives the goods on lots of goods, but my favorite remains this tiny Airstream trailer.
.
The genius of Berit’s site—and where Budget Travel comes in—is in the “For Editors” section. Here, editors can see samples of Berit’s travel-goods columns and order their own package of art and editorial. Berit’s already done the work; the editor just gets to shop.

Budget Travel found TrustyPony and contacted Berit about writing gear-related columns for them. Her first appears in May.

This is a nice example of how to use a Web site to have fun with your own interests and get cool writing assignments to boot. Berit developed the idea based on her travel writing experience for publications like Midwest Living, the Minneappolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, and the Chicago Tribune, She’s the author of “You Know You’re In Minnesota When…: 101 Quintessential Places, People, Events, Customs, Lingo, and Eats of the North Star State.”

How to ask for a raise

The Time Inc blog, “Work In Progress: A Daily look at life on the job,” which I wrote about in my last post, has an excellent piece on how to ask for a raise.

Check it out. Lisa Takeuchi Cullen has some sensible advice for those of us who are clumsy in the give-me-more-money category.

Ask PEP: Paranoid About Blogging

This is a new feature in which PEP answers questions from students and alums. Or anybody who actually asks her.

Tonight I stumbled across an excellent blog. I love everything about it, even this entry on her Aeron chair. (We have one in our office that's been orphaned -- quite the anomaly for an office of seasoned scavengers!) But probably my favorite reads were entries where she actually talked about her own job/employer [Time Inc].  But now I'm perplexed. Since when did blogging about work become an act a journalist need not fear getting fired for? And even more perplexing, when did employers begin not only sanctioning, but also actually sponsoring this type of activity?  As much as I would love to blog about my job, I wouldn't dare. I don't think I'm being overly paranoid, or am I? —Missouri Alum


PEP SAYS:  You are not being paranoid. People have been fired for blogging about their employers. The blog you mention, though, is in its own safe category for a few reasons.

First, The writer, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, writes about workplace and business issues for Time magazine and Time.com, so her blog is a logical extension of her job. The sassy attitude and tone of the blog appeals to the younger readers Time so desperately needs.

Second, and most important, Cullen doesn’t write about Time Inc. all that often, but when she does, she's pretty soft on the company.  Yes, she criticized the SI swimsuit issue, but that is hardly a new complaint.  And in one of her first posts, she wrote about getting sick and having great insurance, then contrasted her experience with that of a friend who didn’t have coverage. Made Time look quite appealing. When she is critical, she usually refers to past jobs.

Employees get into trouble with blogs for the same reason they get into trouble elsewhere on the job: poor judgment and being at odds with the corporate culture. Employer-sanctioned blogs are seldom a problem because the standards and expectations are usually clear on those beforehand. Things can get dicey with a personal blog if you’re not careful, though. Some suggestions for keeping your professional self safe:

• Learn company policy. Blogging is getting common enough that those HR folks are often already there with a handy set of guidelines. If not, by asking about policy, you’re already out in the open, which gives you an edge in the honesty department. HR may try to discourage you, just out of their own sense or corporate conservatism, but assure them that you’ll be the professional online that you are in the office. If that causes them to shudder, you have bigger problems than a blog.

• Do it on your own time. Blogging while you’re supposed to be page editing the issue that closes tomorrow is just not wise, no matter how profound your blog might be. Blog it at home.

• Be professional. Don’t air company dirty laundry, and be careful about the clean stuff. Don’t mock people or policies—in blogs or elsewhere.

• Think twice—at least—before you mention the company name in a blog. Is it really necessary to your point?

• Remember that a blog is a public conversation. You may be sitting in your apartment with the cat on your lap, but folks around the world—and in the corporate suite—can read your words once you hit that “publish” button.

Alumni News: Liz Muhler

Ragan.com, a public relations site, just highlighted Liz Muhler in a story on how she used her magazine experience to make Walgreen World magazine—the Walgreens corporate publication—read like a consumer mag. I’d like to give you a link, but the article is for members only—harumpth.

Liz, a 1998 Drake magazine graduate, was editor of Walgreen World magazine from 2000 to 2006. She left the magazine when husband Abe got a university teaching gig in Brooklyn, where they now live with toddler Daniel. Ragan quotes Liz:

“My background was in magazine journalism, and I brought a lot of consumer magazine experience with me when I came to Walgreens, Knowing what sells on the newsstand helped me tweak Walgreen World so it would be more like a consumer magazine than an internal publication.”

Here’s why Ragan says the magazine works (in a list that lacks parallel construction):

• A concise but conversational tone keeps readers informed and interested.

• Bring readers into the pub through multiple feedback channels and by featuring their editorial talents occasionally.

• Achievement-oriented stories boost support from the front line and the C-suite.

Liz continues to freelance with Walgreens, most recently on their first-ever social responsibility report.

Alumni News: Eric Dahl

On the first day at his new job, Eric Dahl learned that the startup Web site he just joined as editor had been acquired by Monster.com. Affinity Labs, which runs career-oriented sites like GovCentral and ArtBistro, became part of the Monster umbrella on January 4.

Eric’s home is TechCommunity, aimed at…well…the tech community. Eric acknowledges that the name does not exactly sing but he hopes to “do something about that.” His job is to give the site focus: “I'll be generating as much content as I can on my own, making deals to share stories with other sites, highlighting good contributions from community members, and moderating member discussions.”

One appeal of the new position was following a stellar boss, Steve Fox, formerly of Omni, PC World and InfoWorld, who recruited Eric. Since graduating from Drake in 1999, Eric had been at PC World, ending up as senior editor.

“After eight years at my first job out of school, it was probably four years or so past time for a change,” Eric says.

The moral of this story:
• A good boss is well worth following.
• Your career will take you in directions you may never have considered, so be open to new ideas and, especially, new media.
• It pays to be an expert in a content area.

The Blue Pen Special

In my career as a professor at Drake, I think I read somewhere between 8 and 10 gazillion student-generated words. Maybe more. Still, I am amazed at how many student articles are still lodged in my mind. They pop up in my consciousness every now and then. Lately, for example, I have been thinking about Kaelin’s profile on Keno Davis, which she wrote before he was formally considered his dad’s heir. At the time she wrote it, I was snarky about the idea of the son automatically inheriting a cool job. Obviously, Keno earned the position, and as I told Kaelin recently, she was ahead of her time.

Why are these things still in my head? Possibly because weird things like to hang on between my ears. Possibly because students’ writing is a part of them and therefore part of the overall memory package they left behind with me. In sharing their writing, students shared something quite personal with me.

In my editing, I tried to respect that personal connection. When I first started teaching, I edited student papers with a purple pen, but then that seemed too girly and opened me up to “purple prose” comments. I moved to green and finally ended up with Drake blue. I purposely chose anything but red because I wrote a lot of comments and did not want students to panic when they got a paper back that looked like something from ER. Ultimately, I learned, the color did not matter. Comments are comments, no matter if they’re in puce or chartreuse.

I always tried to be careful to write positive as well as critical comments and the positive were often easy. Occasionally, I had trouble coming up with something, so I resorted to “nice idea,” but I at least made the effort, knowing that writing, like all art, can be painful to create. (I must admit that I think I made more of an effort than some students, but those are not the ones I remember.)

Now I am on the other end of the pen, as a writer. And I am often surprised by how often I get no comments at all when I hand in an article. My articles often run much the way I wrote them, so the editors must like them. And they ask me to write more.

My son and I talked about this the other day. He’s also a writer, and he said he seldom gets comments from editors either. They use his pieces, also as he wrote them, and hire him to write more, so they obviously like them as well.

Do editors just assume we know the pieces are good? Didn’t anybody ever tell them what happens when you assume?

Then, yesterday, I handed in a piece, and the editor emailed me immediately. “This looks terrific…it’s in excellent shape…a pleasure to read,” she wrote. This perked me up so much I felt totally pitiful. Another editor recently told me she appreciated all my hard work, and that was good as well; that article--on chemobrain--was hard. And, in saying that, the editor gave me a nod while still not committing herself to any evaluation.

This isn't insecurity or an overactive ego. It's just that writing is largely a solitary profession, and hearing something from an editor is often our only feedback.

At least in the classroom, I knew students got my jokes if they laughed at the right times, and I knew I was losing them if they were looking off wistfully toward Olmsted.

My son and I have taken to sending one another our articles for comments. That’s pretty cool—sort of like Tom and Keno Davis without ESPN. (Drake should hire Josh to replace me—and move Drake to Bulgaria.) I just sent him a piece I wasn’t happy with. He made great comments, and he started with a positive: “This has good information.” And, while that seems forced, I had been worried about how substantive it was, so his note was a step above “nice idea.”

I understand that editors have too little time to get the job done, and that means rushing to get the piece edited and off their desk. In the process, they don’t always think of sending off a simple “good job” or "thanks for doing this" note. Those who do have happy little writers. Pitiful, but happy.