Thicker than my laptop

Let’s just stop worrying about print dying for a moment and take a look at the Dec/Jan issue of Monocle. Although I always seem to be talking constantly about the magazine, it’s with good reason.

Sure, this month is the double issue, but at 314 pages in length, it’s proving that print is certainly not dead – we’re just doing it wrong.

While the rest of the print world is cost cutting and skimping on reporters, Monocle’s recruitment page tells an entirely different story.

The dream of a magazine publisher is to create a brand which is so good that the shelves empty almost too quickly to be filled again. I get the feeling that Monocle is making that dream come true for its publisher Pamela Mullinger.

Quite a dated article now but an interesting look at Virtue, the media branding arm of Vice Magazine in the New York Times.

Mr. Smith, meanwhile, said that although Vice editorial staff members are consulted about marketing and advertising campaigns, the editorial content in the magazine remains independent. Still, he disputes the notion that editorial staffs should be enclosed in a cocoon.

Source:New York Times [nytimes.com]

I was recently in a meeting with someone. We were sat on two couches in wide, open room with massive windows and a beautiful view of Cardiff outside.

“What do you want to do long term?” he asked.

“Uh. Not sure,” I replied.

Truthfully, it was the first time in years that anyone had asked me what I wanted to do in life rather than what I was doing at present and it took me by surprise that I didn’t have an answer.

Until the age of 21, I was sure I was going to be an evangelist/pastor. No jokes.

Now, at 23, I have an entirely different life to 21 year old me. I edit several magazines, have a wide base of freelance clients, I have a journalism postgraduate qualification from one of the world’s best journalism schools. I honestly hadn’t thought about my goals in years.

But now that he had asked…

Goals have become blurred

What I realised is that in fact, I hadn’t thought about it because I didn’t need to think about it. Vision is important but not at the cost of doing things. While other people have been thinking about what they wanted to do with their lives, I have launched two magazines, developed communities around those projects, made money from them, become influential in those fields and much more.

The worst possible thing that you can do in life is to become so worried about what you are going to do long term that you’re frozen into not doing in the short term. 

My experience, as I’ve already noted, is that when at 21 I didn’t know what I wanted to be anymore, I stumbled into journalism. By the time I had realised I was pretty good at writing features, I had also stumbled into publishing.

Currently, publishing is the most appealing thing for me. Building brilliant brands, commissioning fantastic journalism, changing the way that people see magazines and magazine websites.

Wherever I end up, I know I’ll always be interested in what I do.

That’s my goal: interest.

While it might be a promising idea and have some great possibilities, entrepreneurial journalism will probably fail if it continues as it is now.

While there have been some incredibly exciting developments, there are really two things that go wrong with ‘entrejourn’:

1. Arrogance – Confidence is OK, bravado is acceptable but denunciation of experienced journalism professionals (commercial and journalistic) as dinosaurs or clueless just alienates people.
2. Inaction – While we’re busy coming up with new ways to make money or make journalism pay, there are people who are actually becoming better at journalism. They’re awesome!

But it’s not all doom and apocalypse, I think that if we address those problems, entrepreneurial journalism could actually work.

Still, it’s just my opinion.