An Entertaining Way into the Magazine Business

When I first sat down and Michael Koretzky started talking, I was looking at his tie-dyed t-shirt, his suit jacket and the whip he was holding in his hand. Not typical attire for a speaker, I would assume. Little did I know this was probably the best workshop I would attend all week; this man is a genius. Even the way he talked was interesting, because he knew his audience. This is what he stressed through the whole workshop: if you are writing stories  no one cares about, it is because you don’t know your audience.

He talked about entertainment journalism. He asked us questions to see what we knew. He asked how many newspapers there were; he said 1,800 newspapers are published daily and 7,600 weekly. He then asked how many magazines were published. The answer is 19,000 nationwide.

He stressed knowing your audience, but the subject he felt is most important is collaboration. You need collaboration in order to maintain a great publication. The designers and writers need to collaborate. When collaborating, staffers throw around ideas and debate them in a constructive way. He said not every one of our ideas will always be used, and that’s okay.  We need other people’s ideas to influence our own. 

Design has to influence content; he made a point to emphasize.

Writing like you would normally talk is how he says to write. Trying to sound cool doesn't work and no one wants to read it. If you are writing about pop music, you need to write about an artist that everyone else likes. People do not want to read about the people that they do not know. He talked about music, film and food reviews and how to make them more interesting. A lot of people write boring review statements such as “this is good because” or “this was horrible because.” He said to write how you would speak to someone if you wanted to tell them that it sucked, or was great, in your own words. People want to hear or see things that stand out to them, or that they can relate to.

DON’T FEAR ASKING DUMB QUESTIONS! He laughed and yelled while saying this, and he was so right. After asking what you think is a dumb question, you may find out other people don’t know the answer, either. If you don’t know what something means, other people probably don't, either. Your 'dumb question' could lead you onto something great.

The last few things he mentioned were:

1) Covering crap – some silly things may be big topics to others. You never know.

2) Take credit for everything you are involved in. This includes managing a project or helping someone find sources for a story. You did that!

3) Previews are always better than reviews.

4) Broad is not interesting; specific is fascinating.

-Catherine Flood, ‘13
Editor-in-Chief