When Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell planned to get married in January 2001 at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, they faced all the usual dilemmas. They worried about the caterers. They worried about the florists. They worried about the reservations.
Except for one difference – they weren’t preoccupied about which businesses to choose, but rather if any business at all would service their ceremony. After all, the reverend presiding over them planned to wear a bulletproof vest. When Bourassa and Varnell stepped up to the altar, they became the first homosexual couple in North America to declare themselves wed in holy matrimony.

Their ceremony sparked a legal controversy that culminated in the June 10, 2003 Ontario Court of Appeal decision to legalize same sex marriages. When Bourassa and Varnell took their vows, “It was an issue finding gay-friendly service providers,” says Bourassa. But now that the honeymoon is over and the confetti has cleared, wedding-based businesses everywhere are starting to see profit potential in the relatively untapped market of gays and lesbians wanting to get hitched.

The wedding magazine business is no exception. Next year, Brandon Jones, publisher of Wedding Essentials, will launch the first wedding magazine targeted directly at the homosexual market. Wedding Essentials for Same Sex Couples will be a semi-annual publication with a controlled circulation of 25,000, and will be distributed as an insert in the biweekly tabloid, Xtra. Although Xtra is a national publication, the Wedding Essentials guide will be distributed only in the Toronto area. The decision was based on the advertising market. “The wedding business is a local business,” says Jones. “People in Toronto aren’t interested in a wedding photographer in Vancouver.” And with Wedding Essentials’ business and strength already established in the Toronto area, the choice was natural.

According to Jones, the magazine will be similar to straight wedding guides. Its content will be based on how to host a formal wedding. However, Wedding Essentials for Same Sex Couples will also deal with issues such as how to address problems with homophobia in families. “All wedding publications tend to look at marriage through a soft focus,” says Jones. “This will be more tongue and cheek.”
Jones has tapped into a niche market, judging from the response he’s received. “I’ve had emails from all over Canada and some advertisers have really embraced the idea,” he says. However, many in the gay community have doubts. Bourassa himself would rather see gay couples more integrated into mainstream society. “I would hope that gay people are more reflected in the straight publications,” he says.
Ryan Porter, deputy editor of fab, the Ontario-based monthly gay magazine, doubts if there’s a need, noting that it’s mostly the woman in a straight marriage who does the wedding planning. “I don’t think gay guys put that much thought and organization into their weddings. They fly by the seat of their pants,” he says, adding that lesbians may be different.

Although a same-sex wedding publication may do more to garner acceptance of this non-traditional marriage, Porter worries it’s not the right path. “The closer gay marriage looks to straight, the easier it is to accept,” he says, “but gay marriage should be distinct from straight marriage.” However, he notes that there has been considerable commercial interest in the subject of same-sex marriage. In fab’s August wedding issue, advertising doubled the previous year’s revenues. The profitability of that issue is one reason fab has decided against including Wedding Essentials for Same Sex Couples in their distribution. “Advertisers love the idea,” says Porter.

Everyone, it seems, is starting to realize the potential for advertising bucks from this market. It’s obvious Jones himself is. The only question is if Wedding Essentials for Same Sex Couples will address the important issues that face these couples who are trying to wed. For Bourassa, looking back on his own experience, this is what’s really important. “I hope businesses remember where they got their opportunity,” he says.

What the heck is a psychotope? I’m looking at a press release for an upcoming group show called Psychotopes at the YYZ Gallery. Not only is the event within the circulation area of the community newspaper where I work as an arts editor, but it looks like the subject matter might be local as well – a double score on a slow arts week. I ring up the gallery to find out more, and the receptionist puts me through someone named Katie.

“A psychotope is… um,” I hear pages rustling, “… a way to turn urban spaces into alternate realities.” Her voice reminds me of child at a spelling bee.

“Yes, that’s what the release said, but could you elaborate on what that means?”

“Um….” There is a long pause.

“For example, what will the pieces look like?” I prompt.

“Um… I….” Another pause follow by a deep sigh.

“Maybe if you could give me some background on the artists in the show?”

Silence.

“Katie? Are you still there?”

“Can you call back tomorrow?” comes the now meek voice. “I’m having a bad day.”

o o o

Often looked down upon as frivolous by hard-news journalists, writing about contemporary art is a challenge precisely because of the discipline’s lack of cold hard facts. In the world of installations, video art and works most Canadians wouldn’t hang on their walls, what one sees and what it means are often two different things. Furthermore, especially where contemporary art is concerned, the curators and artists behind the exhibits, are often so mired in the realm of the abstract ideas behind the works, they make for lousy sources.

“You’re dealing with sophisticated people with very sophisticated ideas about what they are doing,” says The Toronto Star art critic, Peter Goddard. “There is a point where it is almost impossible to translate them.”

But, if a lay audience is to understand the works without being there, translate they must. Unpretentious newspaper critics like Goddard and NOW magazine’s art critic, Thomas Hirschmann, do this by side-stepping the academic jargon prevalent in most Canadian magazines about the art world. “No gargantuan words,” says Hirschmann. “If there is a theory I try to explain it in a direct way,” adds Goddard. Furthermore, each writer puts the works they review in a modern context, borrowing analogies from popular culture and showing how an exhibit plays into or doesn’t play into our society today.

Yet, with no hard and fast rules, how critics perceive the works they write about is subjective. In The Painted Word, Tom Wolfe’s chronicle of the history of contemporary art and with it the rise of the art critic, the author argued that without articles to give abstract act credibility, it ceases to exist as art at all. But if the popular meaning of modern art starts with the critic where do the critics get their meanings from?
Goddard says the exhibits he writes about often already have a buzz about them within the arts community. “If something is taken very seriously by a bunch of people then you have to look at it,” he explains. “You don’t have to agree with its reputation, but you do need to approach it with an open mind.”

Most mainstream critics only write about a small portion of the total exhibits they attend – usually forgoing younger artists still developing their technique, for those who are more established. “It’s like sports,” explains Goddard. “These people are professionals. They know how to play the game.”

With technique and craftsmanship a given in their choice of subjects, what the critics write about ultimately comes down to how they feel about the works they are viewing. Nontraditional art often tests its audiences, not just intellectually, but often on the level of personal gut reactions. Unfortunately, few newspaper reporters, trained to stick to the facts, are comfortable writing about the murky world of their own emotions. Newspaper arts critics, especially those with backgrounds in some form of art, are the exception.

“When I was a kid learning classical guitar,” says Hirschmann. “I played with my heart more than my brain, and so it is with art.” Preferring to call himself a lay critic – “I hope my column is read by people that don’t usually care much about art. That’s its purpose” – Hirschmann believes that everyone should have an opinion about art, and “nobody should ever be dissuaded from engaging art because of a lack of education.”

Hirschmann came to the field from a non-theoretical background: he studied philosophy in university and began his journalism career as a business reporter for The National Post in 1998. His love of art, he says, stems from a high school class in modernism, some time in front of the contemporary collection of a friend’s father and a trip to Europe spent alone in galleries. Hooked on the subject, Hirschmann convinced his editors at the Post to let him write a weekly visual arts column to beef up the paper’s otherwise scattered coverage of the field.

Goddard, the Star’s art critic for the past three years, also came to the field from another arena of study. After completing a degree at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the now white-haired writer got a job as one of Toronto’s first rock critics. Art galleries were a way to kill time on the road. “I would interview The Who in Chicago at 11 a.m., but their concert wouldn’t be until 8 p.m.,” says Goddard, “so I would spend the day checking out the galleries in the city.”

Although Goddard had always had an interest in art – he has over 20 years of notebooks chronicling his thoughts on various pieces – a highly visceral experience encountering four large Picasso canvases during a visit to Paris’ Beaubourg Gallery made him realize there was more to this than he was aware of. “I went around the corner and I almost started crying,” he explains. “I’m not a Picasso fan, but it moved me. I can’t say how or why. This was pure me looking in it and it looking at me.”

And that, ultimately, is what good art should do. As Goddard says, “It engages you and creeps under your skin.” Its power lies not in the abstract theories behind it, or even on the lines of the canvas, but in how it comes together and affects its audience on an almost intuitive level.
Thanks to critics who make modern art seem more accessible, more and more people are being affected. As Hirschmann says, “the greatest compliment is when I hear that someone who normally wouldn’t be interested in art, went to a show because of my review.”

Still, not everybody understands that it is okay to trust their own perceptions when it comes to contemporary pieces. As for Katie? When I called back the following week, she had quit her job. Perhaps, even for her, the art had become meaningless without explanation.

This is the first thing I see when I open up my email one Wednesday morning in January: “Hey, you might want to write in and double our chances!” My boyfriend has caught Conan O’Brien fever, a highly contagious affliction that has swept across the GTA. Symptoms include compulsive email checking, fingers permanently crossed for luck and constant complaints of, “Where are my tickets? Where are my tickets? Why the hell don’t I have tickets?” Since then, I have obsessively been checking my email for that congratulatory message offering me the coveted tickets. As of the week of taping I’ve still received no reply.

My boyfriend Mike Paris, however, is much luckier than I. Or rather his mother is. About a week after the first round of Conan-themed emails from him, I receive an instant message: “Keep an eye on your email today. They’re sending out confirmations about Conan,” it continues. “My mom’s got a pair.”

My startled, wide-eyed response: “You’re joking.”

“Yeah,” he says. “Your boyfriend has a date with his mom.”

The hype surrounding the late-night talker’s imminent visit to Toronto has erupted into full-fledged Conan-mania. Four episodes of Late Night with Conan O’Brien are being taped February 10-13 at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre. The 1,000-seat venue is five times the size of the show’s regular 200-capacity New York studio, yet tickets are hard to come by. Since the contest was announced in early January, over 50,000 ticket seekers in Canada and the U.S. have requested tickets, prompting NBC to initiate a random ticket lottery to allocate seats to fans. “Eager Conan fans have been emailing and phoning us for weeks,” says Peter Soumalias, the organizer of O’Brien’s visit, in a press release. Each winner is awarded two non-transferable tickets to a show, but you’d never know it looking at the line-up around the theatre for O’Brien’s February 11 appearance.

A line of roughly 300 promotional ticket holders – won from television and radio contests – stretches down Yonge Street. Another line of lucky lottery winners wraps around the side of the building and lines Queen and Victoria Streets. People of all ages stand shivering against the Bank of Montreal building on Queen Street. Each line includes a woman carrying a stuffed dog in a pink dress – wearing a pearl necklace and with a cigarette dangling from its mouth – ready to offer her up to Late Night puppet Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. But then a rumour starts to circulate – a few hundred more tickets have been distributed than the theatre can accommodate. Ticket holders will get in but won’t be guaranteed seats, as overflow guests will watch the live show via a closed-circuit television in another room. “We don’t want that,” says Barbara Paris, my boyfriend’s mother, waiting in line on Queen Street, still confident they’ll have seats in the theatre.

Long-time O’Brien fan Andrew Abercrombie, a 25-year-old retail manager from Toronto, entered the draw a month ago. “I’m a big fan of Conan and consistently watch the show,” he says. “I’m proud of Canadians, but Bullard doesn’t hold a candle to Conan.” Unlike Canada’s home-grown late-night host, whose show was recently cancelled due to low ratings, O’Brien’s visit is officially being hailed as a plan to boost the city’s battered reputation after last summer’s SARS crisis.

Despite the huge number of fans and the positive effect this visit may have on the city, there are a few people who would like to see O’Brien pack up and leave town. The federally funded Toronto 03 Alliance and the Ontario Ministry of Tourism collected a combined $1 million in taxpayer dollars to offset the cost of bringing O’Brien and his crew of 100 to Toronto, a sum that NBC reportedly would not cover. O’Brien says that the show is being produced on the cheap and that it is up to Canadians to decide how their tax dollars are spent.

O’Brien’s line-up includes top Canuck talent including Mike Myers, Michael J. Fox and Will & Grace star Eric McCormack as well as musical guests Nickelback and Barenaked Ladies. Apart from the northern stars that made it big in the States, how will this New Yorker be able to show America what Canada is really about? “He’ll probably do some Canadian-themed stuff,” says Abercrombie. “He likes to make fun of Canadians now and again. But I can’t really speculate.” Soumalias also thinks that the shots at Canada will be a big theme in the shows. “I hope they lampoon us the whole time,” he tells The Globe and Mail.

For diehard fans willing to brave the frigid Canadian weather to increase their chances of being part of the studio audience, a small number of standby tickets are held at the theatre entrance each day. But these one-per-customer tickets don’t guarantee admission. Abercrombie likes the odds, but admits missing work isn’t worth the numb fingers. “If I didn’t have to work,” he says, “I would certainly be in line for tickets.”

The trailer for Veronica Guerin is jam-packed with action. Bullets fly and cars speed through the streets against a backdrop of chilling music. At one point, Cate Blanchett as reporter Veronica Guerin says of risking her life, “I don’t want to do it, I have to do it.” The ominous tagline flashes across the screen: “There is no truth without risk and no change without courage.”

But when National Post movie critic Katrina Onstad reviewed the film, she didn’t buy the hero angle. “I couldn’t believe anyone could be that stupid,” she says. “She was violating Basic Reporting 101.” In the film, reporter Veronica Guerin chases drug dealers for a story. In one scene she even shows up at a drug lord’s home, demanding an interview. Even after being shot, she still pursues her story and is eventually murdered.
Journalism has been a prevalent film topic since the silent era. In the 1930’s journalists began appearing as main characters, mostly in screwball comedies like The Front Page. It wasn’t until the 1950s that the character of the heroic journalist really emerged. Reporters were portrayed more as private eyes who solved mysteries. A classic example is Humphrey Bogart in Deadline U.S.A., starring as the tough-talking, streetwise managing editor Ed Hutcheson.

It was the 1976 film All the President’s Men that epitomized the on-screen image of the heroic journalist. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein respectively, the two reporters who famously uncover the Watergate scandal, which leads to Nixon’s resignation. “The film impressed upon people the idea of journalism as a heroic crusade,” says Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail. “People began to see it as a significant social job to have.” Following the release of the film, there was a surge in journalism school enrollment. “The film venerated the press,” says Onstad. “Suddenly people wanted to be these great heroes.”

Jeremy Schneider, a post-graduate broadcast journalism student at Ryerson University, is one such person. While studying English literature at Western University, he got into films “big time”. He was particularly inspired by Broadcast News (“It shows you that a good anchor looks the part and is the part”), and like many before him, All the President’s Men. Echoing a line from the film, he says “[It] made me realize what journalists can do when they’re hungry.”

Towards the 90’s, however, films began to treat journalism contemptuously. Around the same time, polls were showing that people regarded journalism with low esteem, and this cynicism was reflected at the cinema. One 1999 poll suggested that 75 per cent of Americans think reporters are “biased, inaccurate and prying”, and over 40 per cent claim to have lost faith in the media . There was also a lot of dirty press going on at the time, especially with the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Now, journalism tends to be lumped in with corporate media.

TV journalists are a popular target. In 1994’s Natural Born Killers, sleazy tabloid reporter Wayne Gale (played by Robert Downey Jr.) promises to make serial killers Mickey and Mallory big stars. “The media is now shown as a cancerous villain,” says Onstad. “We’ve been reduced to hand-wringing bad guys.”
Of course, there are exceptions. Films like Veronica Guerin and The Insider, both based on true stories, are a throwback to the journalist-as-hero image seen in All the President’s Men. In The Insider, Al Pacino plays a 60 Minutes producer, Lowell Bergman, who is trying to convince a former tobacco company employee, Jeff Wigand, to talk about the company’s malpractice on air. Wigand is anxiously reluctant at first, but Bergman convinces him, then tries to shield when he is threatened by the company. Bergman emerges as a valiant protector. However, Onstad notes the film is another example where “the journalist is really a cop”.

Few Hollywood films come close to portraying the day to day life of a reporter. If you ask Toronto Star critic Peter Howell, The Paper is the only film that ever came close. “I felt like I was seeing myself onscreen,” he says. The 1994 film is actually about two rival papers (one of which is modeled after The New York Times) and gives the viewer a real sense of the hustle and bustle of the newsroom. “Movies tend to emphasize the extremes,” says Lacey. “You never see a movie about a real estate reporter or the person who covers city hall.”

Typically, the reality of being a reporter is sacrificed for something more dramatic. “The details of the profession get glossed over because they’re not as romantic. The reality is that you spend most of your time on a computer alone, or trying to get people on the phone,” says Onstad. She was quick to note that in Veronica Guerin the reporter never uses a notepad or a tape recorder. “You always see these ‘stop the presses’ clichés. You never see someone working hard on a story only to have it spiked,” says Star critic Geoff Pevere. “No one realizes that you’ve always got a pitchfork up your ass from your editor telling you what he expects you to write,” says Howell.
Usually actors will do almost anything to create an authentic character, from starving themselves to living on communes, observes Howell. Unfortunately, when it comes to portraying journalists, they rarely research their roles. “For almost every cop movie ever made, you hear about how the actor went and spent a week riding in the police car, drinking bad coffee, and hanging around the jail,” says Howell. “But when they play journalists, they base it all on what they’ve experienced.”

If this is true, it’s no wonder actors have a negative view of the same media that hounds them for quotes and photographs. It is this “paparazzi-style” of journalism that Howell feels is fueling society’s negative attitude toward journalists. Ultimately, Howell says, the people who care most about how journalists are portrayed in films are journalists themselves. “I know that if I was asked to play a sheet metal worker or a ballerina I would never get it exactly right.”

Besides educating actors on the demands of being a journalist, Onstad suggests that people who make movies should concentrate less on making them heroes and more on simply making them human. “They should slow down the pace so the character isn’t held hostage to explosive scenes,” she says. “There should be more concern about turning them into people.” She says Shattered Glass ( an entry at the last Toronto International Film Festival and now in wide release, did an excellent job of portraying Stephen Glass, the young journalist who fabricated his articles. “You really got a sense of his motivation,” Onstad says. “With Veronica Guerin, you knew nothing about her from that film.”

Movies of note

The Front Page (1931)
A top reporter for a Chicago paper is about to leave the profession, until his editor convinces him to cover the hanging of an insane murderer.

His Girl Friday (1940)
A newspaper editor, about to lose his wife and former employee to another man, tries to get her to write one last big story.
Memorable quote: “I just said I’d write it, I didn’t say I wouldn’t tear it up!”

Citizen Kane (1941)
Following the death of a multimillionaire newspaper tycoon, a reporter interviews his coworkers for a retrospective.
Memorable quote: “Rosebud.”

Ace in the Hole (1951)
A reporter is bored with his work until he discovers a man trapped alive in a mine. He then prolongs the rescue efforts so he can write stories and create a media circus.
Memorable quote: “I can handle big news and little news. And if there’s no news, I’ll go out and bite a dog.”

Deadline U.S.A (1952)
A tough editor (Humphrey Bogart) tries to complete an expose on a gangster…before his paper is sold to a commercial rival.
Memorable quote: “That’s the press, baby! The press! And there’s nothing you can do about it! Nothing!”

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
An influential New York columnist is determined to break up the engagement between his sister and a jazz musician. He hires a sleazy press agent to do the dirty work.
Memorable quote: “Here’s mud in your column!”

All the President’s Men (1976)
Two Washington Post reporters uncover the Watergate scandal that leads to Nixon’s resignation.
Memorable quote: “They’re hungry. You remember when you were hungry?”

Network (1976)
After being fired, an aging TV news anchorman announces his intention to commit suicide on air, and his further mad ravings are exploited for ratings by the network.
Memorable quote: “Television is not the truth! Television is a goddamned amusement park!”

Absence of Malice (1981)
A prosecutor leaks a false story about the son of a dead Mafia boss. The reporter who picks up the story is cleared under the absence of malice rule in libel law.
Memorable quote: “You had a leak? You call what’s goin’ on around here a leak?! Boy, the last time there was a leak like this, Noah built hisself a boat.”

Broadcast News (1987)
A network news producer must decide between a talented reporter and a flashy, handsome new guy who represents “entertainment news”.
Memorable quote: “He personifies everything that you’ve been fighting against. And I’m in love with you. How do you like that? I buried the lead.”

Bright Lights, Big City (1988)
A small-town boy gets a magazine job in New York, where he gets swallowed up in the fast-paced culture of alcohol and drugs.
Memorable quote: “There’s a certain shabby nobility in failing all by myself.”

Natural Born Killers (1994)
A pair of serial killers are wrongly glorified by the mass media, elevating them to cult hero status.
Memorable quote: “Repetition works, David. Repetition works, David.”

The Paper (1994)
A tabloid editor, fed up with long hours and low pay, considers an offer to edit a more respectable rival paper that is suspiciously like The New York Times.
Memorable quote: “You wanna cover Brooklyn then cover Brooklyn! But let me tell you something, it’s a little tough to do from a barstool in Manhattan.”

Up Close and Personal (1996)
Woman tries to get work as TV reporter. Handsome boss hires her. Reporter and boss fall in love.
Memorable quote: “Some people in this business get jaded because it’s always the same awful stories. And it is the same stories – but they’re happening to different people.”

The Insider (1999)
A 60 Minutes producer tries to get a former tobacco company research biologist to go on air and talk about the company’s malpractice.
Memorable quote: “I’m Lowell Bergmann, I’m from 60 Minutes. You know, you take the 60 Minutes out of that sentence, nobody returns your phone call.”

Almost Famous (2000)
A 15-year-old Rolling Stone writer follows fictional band Stillwater around on tour and tries not to let his new friendships get in the way of telling an honest story.
Memorable quote: “He was never a person, he was a journalist!”

Veronica Guerin (2003)
A crusading Irish reporter goes up against drug lords for a story, and is eventually murdered by them.
Memorable quote: “I’m a reporter. I’m supposed to be writing about things that matter.”

Shattered Glass (2003)
In this true story, a fame-seeking young reporter fabricates more than half of his stories, and is eventually exposed.
Memorable quote: “Even Woodward and Bernstein went out for a burger now and then, and they won the Pulitzer.”

Like any self-respecting journalist, Tony Walsh has a ritual for soaking up the day’s news. Every morning, Walsh (at www.clickableculture.com) pours himself out of bed, pours a cup of coffee and pores over 24 of his favourite blogs. As a blogger and freelance writer for Shift’s online magazine and Exclaim! magazine, it’s his job to keep up with tech developments. His interest in weblogs makes journalistic sense. But reporters with non-tech beats can also use weblogs to snag or break a story – despite the new medium’s reputation of substandard self-indulgence.

Weblogs, or “blogs” for short, are online diaries. They’re updated in a chronological, CP-wire kind of way, with the most recent entries filed above older material. The entries take on a captain’s-log feel, and some might be two lines while others take up two paragraphs.They may be produced by individuals or groups, and the content may be professional (ex. reviewing journalism-related Web sites) or personal (reviewing last night’s bad date). Blogs first appeared in the mid-1990s among the tech elite, but the introduction of new software (www.blogger.com) made it easy for the average internet layman to publish and update theirpostings as often as they wanted.

Critics of blogs argue that the “blogosphere”(the catch phrase for the immense online network of blogs) is fraught with journalistic landmines, including dubious credibility and delusions of grandeur. Well, so is traditional journalism, with the most recent example being Jayson Blair’s serial plagiarism at The New York Times.. There is also the question of readership: if you build a journalism blog, will they come?

They will if your name is Andrew Sullivan (whose blog is found at www.instapundit.com). In the heady days following 9/11, Sullivan’s blogs dismissed U.S. foreign policy as a cause of the attacks and influenced the way gaggles of journalists and politicos squawked about 9/11. In a London Times column, Sullivan suggested that opponents of the war mount a “fifth column” on the Internet, as he had. Masses of people followed suit, dubbing themselves “war bloggers.”

But not everyone has the noble banner of the Times flying above them, and the blog movement is still evolving. “Very few people read [most reporters] weblogs,” says Rachel Ross, technology reporter for The Toronto Star.. “Very few people even read journalists’ bylines, especially in Canada.” The National Post) columnist Colby Cosh (whose blog is at www.colbycosh.com) agrees, but adds that the small audience is “a journalistically aware readership,” comprising editors, politicians and business heavyweights. It’s an insight that hints at the underlying importance of blogs, as shown in the Sullivan case: when the right people take journalists’ blogs seriously, those blogs can indirectly shape public opinion in the mainstream media.

The question, then, is which blogs deserve to be taken seriously? First, the credible blogs won’t read like Leah McLaren’s columns in The Globe and Mail. Good blogs will avoid the “too much information” syndrome, which Ross describes: “If you have too many friends in media, you start to get an elevated view of yourself,” she says. “You think people will be interested in you beyond the newspapers.” Walsh agrees, saying the best blogs “have a lot of information, but don’t talk about their cat or the fight that they had with the girlfriend.”

Though they don’t take on the structure of formal articles, Ross adds that good journalists’ blogs will revolve around the reporter’s beat, incorporating analysts’ reports and other reporters’ findings. But good blogs won’t read like financial statements, either. According to Cosh, they’ll also have personality and the literary standards of regular newspapers and magazines. At their best, journalists’ blogs can even usurp traditional media’s power. “Journalist blogs are in between alternative and mainstream media,” says Walsh. As stories break, blogs can be among the first to give minute-by-minute updates from grassroots, ground-zero perspectives that traditional media can’t.

It’s a role that Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian expatriate living in Canada, plays well. His English and Farsi blogs (found at www.editormyself.com) serve to anchor reports coming both in and out of Iran. Their influence on fellow Iranians is such that the Irani government is trying to block them. “He’s a voice from the inside,” says Walsh. “He’s online sending out information, but he’s got bombs falling all around him. What better way to get information?”

Good blogs keep mainstream media in check by, in effect, watching the watchdogs. “[They] give feedback and accountability to the mainstream news,” says Cosh. They can also aid other journalists’ reports. “Sometimes they’re good starting points for stories,” says Ross. “They can be a measure of public opinion, but they’re not [in themselves] sources.”

Like all journalistic media, blogging has an Achilles’ heel or two. “You’re working without an editor, and the problems with that are obvious,” says Cosh. “You put yourself at risk of saying absurd things.”

The issue of credibility continues to dog blogs. Like the little brother who lives in his older sibling’s shadow, Walsh says blogging will be overlooked in favour of traditional media – at least for a while. “[Journalism] is a reputation-based media. Mainstream media has an ironclad, monolith reputation of being infallible. People trust them no matter what they say.” He continues, “Any information you get from the Internet, you’ll scrutinize it more. If CNN said that the moon turned blue and was crashing into the earth, people would believe it. But if a blogger said it, no one would.”

New forms of journalism always need time to prove their worth – and their weaknesses (Truman Capote’s 1965 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood still has its sceptics). Who knows? Daypop might eventually be required reading with The New York Times. But until then, coffee-guzzling, tech-savvy journalists like Walsh just need to keep blogging along.

In all likelihood, writing and editing hip-hop magazines won’t instantly unlock the door to the “bling bling .” It’s harder than it seems, as it presupposes different skills. According to Kristen Asklund, who contributes toUnderground Sound Magazine, an online urban magazine, in order to be successful a writer needs “a good handle on hip-hop terminology, an understanding of musicology and a familiarity with urban history and culture.”

And maybe a bulletproof vest and a pair of Kevlar underwear while she’s at it. Two of rap’s biggest stars—Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.—were gunned down in the mid-1990s, victims of an alleged, all-out East Coast versus West Coast war between rappers and their hangers-on (Shakur hailed from California and Notorious from New York). More recently, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs was arrested on weapons charges after fleeing a gunfight at a New York City nightclub. In October 2002, Jam Master Jay, the pioneering turntablist behind influential rap trio Run-D.M.C., was shot in the head in a recording studio in the New York borough of Queens.

In spite of the violence that is often glorified by the culture, hip-hop has outlived the thinking that, in its early years, slighted it as a mere fad. More than a genre, it is now the dominant commercial force in the music industry. “Urban music—rap and hip-hop—are definitely increasingly popular in North America,” says Daryl Rodway of Urbnet Communications . “Rap and hip-hop albums are outselling rock, country and classical albums and generating billions of dollars in revenue.” Thanks to this ubiquity, a rich vein has been opened up for the magazine industry to exploit. There is an abundance of ad-packed glossies in the U.S., the leaders being Vibe, The Source and XXL. North of the border, considerably more modest publications like Pound, Peace and Word () lead the pack. Like the rappers they cover, they range broadly in substance and quality.

“The slickest and most professional American publications are Vibe and The Source,” says Jessica Linnay, a freelance hip-hop journalist, “which mix profiles of rap stars with articles on politics, economics and fashion.” In the December 2003 issue of Vibe, for instance, you’ll find a piece on the rape of female prisoners by male corrections officers. A few pages later, you’ll see a fashion spread with models mugging Santa Claus.

Canada’s Pound magazine is comprised of similar content. The December 2003 issue features an article on prisoners of war, followed by a fashion spread portraying graffiti artists outfitted in clothing by Phat Farm, Timberland and Stussy. Phil Vassell, editor and publisher of Word Magazine, says, “The biggest difference between American and Canadian urban music publications is the market size and recognition that there is an urban consumer with high disposable income.”

The focus, both north and south of the border, remains on the rappers themselves who, one can’t help but notice, are almost always photographed scowling. “Rappers are professionals when it comes to looking cold, hard and mean,” says Tyler of Full Spectrum Graffiti an urban magazine published in Vancouver. “If you’re going to call yourself Hittman or MastaKilla or Ghostface Killah, you can’t very well walk around grinning likeRaffi.”

Or speaking like Raffi, for that matter. Expletives are fired off like automatic rifles, and some magazines simply publish the barrage verbatim. Others have adopted odd techniques to incorporate swearing. For example, The Source writes out the word “fuck,” while Blaze magazine prints it in lighter type, as though it’s been half-erased by the resident staff brownnose.

No hip-hop magazine censors the infamous N-word, which appears frequently. Some editors, like XXL’s, seem to believe this slur—used by their subjects as everything from a friendly greeting to an insult—is okay as long as it’s spelled “nigga.” For example, New Orleans-based rapper Turk described to XXL his relationship with former record label Cash Money this way: “A nigga realized that niggas was playing him,” he said. “If we do get together it’ll be about business. Ain’t no hangin’, ain’t no clubbin’ together.”

Copy editing at a hip-hop magazine is a bit tricky, as rap has developed multiple spellings for various words. Editors need to remember that Snoop spells his surname Dogg, while Top spells his Dawg. They have to keep in mind that “the” is spelled “tha” in Tha Eastsidaz, but “da” in Da Godfather. They also have to keep track of the correct plural form of the omnipresent n-word. It’s spelled “niggas” in The Source but “niggaz” in Pound.

Editors-in-chief have a tough job, too. Sometimes, rappers dissatisfied with stories about themselves, pay a visit. Blaze magazine’s former editor, Jesse Washington, was beaten by the bodyguards of one dissatisfied rapper and had a pistol pointed at his chest by another.
Sometimes a letter to the editor just won’t do.

Nicole Cohen and Melinda Mattos were told from the beginning that publishing a feminist magazine for teenaged girls would be a challenge. Although creating an alternative for Canadian girls is a noble venture, a magazine critical of its usual bread-and-butter would have to be creative in terms of funding.

Mattos says they had some idea about how the magazine industry worked but soon found there were no clear entry points or set rules to starting a magazine. Much of what they learned from classes at Ryerson University and from lunch dates told them that publishing a magazine would never be something that earned them a lot of money.

“It’s frustrating because a lot of the resources are very inaccessible to newcomers to the industry,” says Cohen, managing editor of Shameless. Cohen points out a workshop called Professional Publishing Program held by the Canadian Magazine Publishers’ Association which costs $3, 450 even if you are a member – and membership generally comes as a perk of being employed by a large magazine that can afford it – or $5, 250 for non-members.

Grant money seemed like a great option for the small enterprise. It would help them cover publishing costs and help them to create mock-ups for potential advertisers. However, many of the grants that Shameless looked into, such as the one from the Ontario Council for the Arts, were available to new magazines that had already published one or more issues.

When they found out about a new award for start-up magazines (grant money is generally awarded to established magazines) from the Ontario Media Development Corporation, they worked hard to create a mock-up and recruit people for the positions of publisher, sales rep and art director, which were required to apply for the $75, 000 grant. Unfortunately Shameless was not one of the lucky start-ups to receive the grant money.

So instead, to cover the costs of publishing their first issue which is due out with 5, 000 black-and-white issues in spring of 2004, they will rely on more fundraising events. They raised $2, 200 at their last fundraiser in September at Tranzac, which featured Toronto indie bands The Sick Lipstick and The Creeping Nobodies who played to an all-ages crowd.
Convincing small businesses to advertise with Shameless is difficult without having done solid market research to prove circulation numbers. Shameless of course doesn’t have the budget to conduct extensive market research. It’s also difficult to get advertisers to sign on with a magazine that hasn’t published an issue yet. “How do you get money for something that doesn’t exist? We have no tangible product to show yet,” says Mattos, executive editor. Without corporate backers, Shameless can’t make a fancy mock-up to show advertisers.

Because the usual avenues of brand name hair supplies, makeup products, and fashion are not viable, Shameless’ sales rep Colleen Langford hopes to target independent businesses in Canada for advertisements. Unfortunately, small businesses can’t afford to take out huge advertisements or pay a lot of money. For comparison, Shameless’ rate for a half-page black-and-white ad to small businesses for $550 CDN while YM magazine, aimed at the same age group as Shameless but with different interests, sells the same space for around $53, 000 CDN to large corporations with huge advertising budgets.

Shameless has signed on with Doormouse Distribution and will be in Pages, and possibly even Chapters. They hope to reach teens by placing their magazine in places such as independent record and clothing shops, health food stores, coffee shops, restaurants, concerts. The Shameless team plan to have a booth at the Pride Festival and also at Word on the Street. They also look to Emily Pohl-Weary as inspiration who took her magazine Kiss Machine on tour and did readings to gain exposure.

Presently there isn’t another progressive magazine out there aimed at teen girls in Canada quite like Shameless. Cohen and Mattos truly believe there are teens out there who need it and will support the magazine.

So what the fuck do you do with a cultural studies degree anyway? Get into social work? Bartend? Start another degree? Design or advertise?
Firing up a magazine isn’t normally at the top of any broke grad’s list of options, but in the spring of 1999 it’s what McGill University students Malcolm Levy and Jarrett Martineau decided to do. Why not? Magazines weren’t the pricey venture they had once been, especially online.

Levy and Martineau were cultural studies majors, DJs and poets. They wanted to found a publication that would reflect multiculturalism from a Canadian perspective; something that would recognize the global culture that shapes today’s 19-to 34-year-olds. The result was Capital magazine. It first saw the light of cyberspace in October 2000 under parent company Capital Media, which has since grown into a media production and publishing company.

Though Capital magazine is geared towards film, online media, technology, music, animation, reviews and art, a political edge winds through its photo essays and fashion spreads. Originally, Capital’s headquarters were located in Vancouver’s Gastown, with smaller home offices in Toronto and Montreal. However, as staff spread across the globe and interested readers joined their community of culture watchers, Capital’s editorial base grew. It now has offices and distribution in Tokyo, Warsaw, New York and London. Internet chat rooms and video conferencing make online editorial meetings possible. Travel expenses and international conferences aren’t exactly part of the budget yet.
Mainly because there is no real budget at this point. The magazine made the leap from online mess to printed mag without much funding. Ads have been its main source of revenue since 2002, and launch parties, arts events and a limited subscription base make for a little extra cash, but most of Capital’s revenue is eaten up by the next issue’s production.

So don’t even ask about profit. It’s hard to make any when you’re not charging. Levy says it’s important to generate readership through a free magazine in the beginning. Controlling circulation means editors hand-deliver copies to the cafés and record stores its readers frequent. The downside of this approach is that it equals “zero” in terms of contributors’ wages. Right now, staff pitch help as much as their day jobs allow. Capital’s 25 hardcore volunteers from around the world bring material together to print 10,000 copies every four months.

Birthing a free, ad-dependent magazine in Canada’s harsh magazine marketplace seems risky, considering dozens of publications fight for the same dollars, but Capital has a little advantage. Its creators are also its target market – they know which campaigns they’d buy into, so they’ve got a pretty good idea which ones their readers will buy into as well. And the readers crave indie like ravers crave candy. For example, Capital fans don’t go for Nike ads. They want Habit and Pharsyde fashion, institutions like the Canadian Film Centre and record labels like Active Pass. Capital focuses on ad agencies that need to come off as authentic in trying to appeal to a crowd of skeptical, urban hipsters. Advertisers trust the editorial that hawks their ads and editorial trusts the advertisers that finance it. It’s a game that comes down to mutual trust between hustler and buyer.

Graham Withers hustles a good game. As Capital’s Toronto-based publisher, Withers is the advertising department. At 26, his scratch of charm, glitch of optimism, beat of enthusiasm, and genuine looking – if occasionally misspelled – advertising package are enough to convince advertisers that Capital is the market they want. Of course, full-page spreads selling for the low price of $1,600 each don’t exactly sour the deal. Companies know Capital readers can see bona fide versus bogus, and they know Capital fans trust the ads. And since a run of 10,000 copies (95 per cent of which are circulated in Canada) costs around $11,000, advertisers take the chance.
It could be a stupid game to play. It’d be easy for a company like Puma- one of the magazine’s few big advertisers – to suggest a “you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours” deal. And there have been occasions where record labels have advertised with Capital simply because writers have reviewed their releases. Right now, the ad/editorial relationship is reliable, but if Capital starts hurting for cash, Withers might agree to review an event in exchange for an ad. You can bet your Pumas, though, if the event was crap Capital fans would read about it.

Or write about it. Capital has a for-the-people, by-the-people edict. Artists, DJs, writers, film buffs, directors and random readers from Capital cities write the magazine’s reviews and articles. Since most aren’t writers by trade, ideas sometimes come out awkwardly, but observing the conventions of grammar isn’t the point.

The point is to build a community around seeing the world through new lenses. First-year tics aside, the magazine delivers reality and relevance to a pretty big crowd. In three printed issues, Capital has gone from 32 to 48 pages, and its Web site gets 400 hits a day.

So much for social work, bartending, going to school (again), designing or advertising, why not just start your own culture? That’s what the fuck you do with a cultural studies degree.

I loved my magazine internship. I worked full-time: fact checking, occasionally copy editing and writing a monthly column with another intern. I was never paid, but I didn’t care. I learned how a magazine is produced and I got experience I could put on my resume. I suppose this was payment enough. Did I expect to get a job there when I finished the internship? Well, I hoped I would if I worked hard, but on my first day of training, the intern I was replacing told me not to expect one and that they didn’t create new positions for interns to fill. Oh well.

A lot of journalist hopefuls realize internships are the best place to learn about magazines. But most internships don’t pay (or pay very little) and most magazines expect interns to work full-time. An intern either has to have a guardian angel footing the bill or slave away nights at a part-time job. More interns realize there isn’t a guaranteed job at the end – so is it worth it?

eye Weekly production editor Bert Archer seems to think so but he was frank about the magazine’s compensation. “It’s three months of free labour for whatever they do,” he says. Though eye hires interns from all backgrounds, the main criteria are their ability to write, listen and come up with ideas on their own. Interns have written everything from small band reviews to cover stories. Archer says he makes it very clear that interns may not be hired afterwards, but he does point out that more than half the staff were once interns.

From Canadian Business magazine to Saturday Night to The Walrus, interns are expected to work full-time, fact checking articles, researching and generating story ideas. Many interns work extremely hard in hopes that an employer will keep them in mind if a position where to ever open up. “I know that they are trying to keep costs low while they establish themselves,” says Rebecca Silver Slayter, an intern at The Walrus. “I would hope that should they need someone sometime down the road they’ll remember me, I’ll certainly express my eagerness to stay in any capacity when I finish here, but I’m not counting on anything.”

Silver Slayter considers herself lucky. The Walrus pays its interns a generous $2,000 a month, courtesy of support from the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation. While internships can be a path to a career in magazines, she also says they sometimes can be a roadblock because many entry-level positions are being replaced by unpaid internships.

Luba Krekhovetsky, managing editor at Canadian Business, says interns are a necessary part of the magazine, but doesn’t want anyone to get their hopes up. “We’re pretty clear with people at the beginning that their chances of getting a job here aren’t that good,” says Krekhovetsky. “We have a pretty stable staff here, so we try and be clear about that.” Canadian Business also has an internship program that pays reasonably well – $1,500 per month. Former Ryerson Review of Journalism editor Will Seccombe is happy to be interning there, and he isn’t disillusioned about his chances of getting a job at the end of the program – he knew the internship wasn’t his ticket in.

But not all interns end up jobless. Claire Cooper, head of research at Toronto Life magazine, managed to get a job there after her internship. Cooper started as a photo editor for a year and half and then took the job as head of research in November 2003. She, too, didn’t expect to land a job – she was lucky a position opened that she was able to fill. As head of research, Cooper hires and manages interns. Like her, most come in knowing that there isn’t necessarily a job at the end.

So is it worth it? Well, for certain people, internships – even unpaid – can be rewarding. Most interns, if interested in working at a magazine, come away feeling like they’ve been given some responsibility and real work experience.

Diane Hall and her husband Gerry Brown had a busy February. So busy in fact, they could only spare a few minutes for an interview about their new project. As the publisher and founder of one of Canada’s newest magazines, they’ve spent countless hours at the office getting the publication ready for its March launch.

It seems fitting that a couple is behind this publication. The magazine’s title is short – just the number “2” – but it gets to the point. It’s a magazine for those with a significant other.

Hall came up the idea over a year ago while working at Wedding Bells, the popular magazine for couples getting hitched. “I was thinking, marriage no longer defines a relationship, but there’s no media to address the issue,” she says. And she’s right. The first magazine of its kind, 2 targets the 2.4 million couples in the 25 to 34 age category, which also happens to be an attractive demographic for advertisers. “This age group likes to spend their money,” says Hall, “but they’re smart consumers.” Many make major purchases like homes and cars, and advertisers are well aware of this. In its inaugural issue, 2 landed over 22 pages of advertising, a not insignificant feat for a start-up magazine.

Not everyone is convinced about 2’s instant success, though. Fraser Sutherland, author of The Monthly Epic: A History of Canadian Magazines, is dubious about the magazine’s target audience. It seems hazy, as readers may not consider themselves to be part of the demographic. “It’s hard to define yourself within a 10-year age bracket and being in a relationship,” he says.

Hall and Brown hope the magazine will take an irreverent look at coupledom, with fun service pieces about sex, money, décor and travel. However, the first issue’s humour is forced. At the front-of-book, writer Michele Sponagle makes unsuccessful cracks about everything from “dog doodie” to “wedgies.” Despite this, features about home buying and going into business as a couple speak directly to the twenty- and thirty-something crowd.

Although 2 magazine has a broad mandate to cover everything that concerns couples, one thing it won’t emphasize is children – except for the occasional column like Holy Shit, I’m a Parent! This, says Becky Melski, a 22-year-old newlywed, appeals to her. “Not everyone in a relationship is looking to have kids,” she says. “I’ve never seen anything like this and I’ll definitely take a look at it, out of curiosity.”

Planned circulation is close to 100,000 for the 84-page quarterly. Of this number, 36,000 will be sold on newsstands and through subscriptions. The remainder will be distributed by controlled circulation through the Hudson’s Bay Company gift registry. Sutherland worries that giving away 60,000 copies this way might undermine the magazine’s credibility. He says controlled circulation “is like a giveaway. It feels fluffy and frothy, like a glorified flyer.”

Editor Neil Morton disagrees. “We’re directly targeting our audience,” he says. The former editor of the now-defunct Shift magazine, Morton is ecstatic over the reaction to the first issue, saying it has exceeded his wildest expectations. “Readers are buying it already and our peers are digging it too.”

“There was really a void,” says founder Hall. “Lots of companies are now marketing to both sexes, and I thought, why not magazines?”

Well, one reason might be that guys and girls aren’t necessarily interested in the same topics. Melski says she’s not convinced her husband would take to 2. “I know Eddie wouldn’t pick up a magazine with décor and travel features in it,” she says. “He might be interested in the sex, but even then I don’t know.”

Forget circulation and blurry demographics. The magazine’s biggest challenge will be to win the war of the sexes.