Derek Finkle doesn’t think Canadian freelancers are getting what they deserve. The former editor of Toro will be officially launching the Canadian Writers Group on May 11. The group has 50 freelancers signed on now, and the plan is to at least double that number by the end of the summer. It’s not a union. It’s one of those good ideas you wonder why it never existed before. Since the fall, Finkle has devoted almost 50 percent of his time to his agency that will relieve writers from negotiating their contracts with editors – separating business and writing. If the initial buzz was any indication, a lot of writers are excited

Who can join the group?

Well first of all they have to tell the agency that they’re interested in joining. So it’s not like we’re randomly picking people out of the ether. But we’re making selections mostly based on who they write for, which says where they’re at in terms of their career. And second, the type of writing they do.

The idea really started last summer when I was at the National Magazine Awards in early June, listening to Charles Oberdorf receive his lifetime achievement award. He actually spoke about the problems in our industry in relation to freelance writers. He said, that most Canadian consumer magazines still pay freelance writers about what they were paying 35 years ago when he was a young freelancer. A few exceptions only pay about 25 to 50 percent more than they did then, while the cost of housing in Toronto, for example has multiplied by 400 percent.

And things haven’t really changed despite the fact that we’ve been in a pretty good boom time for a decade or more, up until recently. But one of the huge problems for freelancers, being independent contractors, is that they don’t have much power at the negotiating table because there are so many other people who, theoretically, could replace them. And that’s why so few freelancers even try to negotiate. The truth is, there are a number of very healthy successful magazines that have increased revenue significantly over the last decade or more, who are still basically paying the same thing that they paid when I started in the early nineties.

Why do you think that is?

I think one of the fears that a lot freelance writers have is that there are all these other hungry new freelancers, flooding the market every year. And I actually don’t know if that’s true. When I talk to people who teach at Ryerson or places like Ryerson, or when I talk to students who are at Ryerson or just graduated from Ryerson, there’s a very small percentage of those students who actually become freelance writers. The reality is, to make it as a freelance writer, it requires almost perverse perseverance.

And I think, unfortunately, a lot of even established freelance writers have a kind of inferiority complex that’s been drilled into them over the years-one of many reasons why they don’t negotiate very well.

So how do you think the Writers Group can change this mentality?

Overall having someone looking out for their best interest. It’s very hard for a writer to have a difficult conversation with an editor without fearing that their going to be cutting themselves off from potential employers. Basically, it’s a fear of rocking the boat. We’re talking about perfectly reasonable requests, but the fear is that they will b seen as difficult.

If you have an agent who’s representing 120, 200 writers that that publication is going to have to deal with on a regular basis, the whole dynamic of that relationship is completely different. Ultimately and hopefully we can start to change things. It’s worked pretty well in the book world. It’s worked pretty well in the film world. It’s worked pretty well in just about every other creative field you could think of. So I don’t really know why it wouldn’t work as well here. And an agent can say things that writers are very reluctant to say.

I have heard the clichés that newspapers and magazines are dying for the last four years. The comment usually stems from someone I see as a non-believer-who doesn’t understand the power of reporting or great writing. I put my faith in journalism, but have still faced unexpected and unpleasant complications.

Shortly after interviewing Marco Ursi, the editor of Masthead Online, I played back the recording only to hear the eerie hum of static and distant mumbling. I started to panic. None of my interviews had properly recorded. The little device that connects my tape recorder to the phone had malfunctioned. I frantically rushed to the store where I had bought it, expecting an in-out transaction. I was informed they no longer carry this item. Eight stores later, I was still empty-handed. I was left without options and without hope-for my story and the future.

Is the journalism industry becoming as defunct as the equipment? Then I realized, even though technology scorned me, it is key to promoting journalists as brands. And strong brands weather recessions. To get ahead in any industry, not just journalism, reputation makes or breaks a career.

Branding, for the journalist, is about marketing yourself as a product so your name is readily identified with a specific type of service or writing style. You might keep a blog where your commentary has evolved into expertise, or you may have published several books in one area of interest.

Last April Craig Silverman, author of Regret the Error and co-author of Mafiaboy, published a post (“Freelancing the Future”) about changing the way the freelancer does business. He writes, “We often define ourselves by the brands we work for (‘I write for The New York Times,’ etc.), rather than making those brands a part of our identity. Someone will tell you whom they write for and expect that name brand to tell you something about them. Freelancers need to create their own personal brand-something that can attract clients in this Googleized world.” In other words, it’s professionally responsible to develop a reputation via your own means. You don’t want to be the phone tap-known for becoming obsolete.

Shortly after his blog, regrettheerror.com was launched in October 2004, he was encouraged by a Canadian literary agent to write a book. While the blog was about a selection of errors, the book was about investigating accuracy. It took his blog into another spectrum- he was now getting paid to do what he previously did for free. “It’s essential to build a brand people can identify with,” he says from his home in Montreal, “It’s about presenting a view of yourself to the world that reflects what you want to be.” His post emphasizes delineating yourself as a journalist first, and then as a publication’s writer second. As Ursi points out, in most cases you can’t be a brand all your own, you still need a publication to either employ you or publish your work. “How are you going to make money?” Ursi asks. But still find a niche and make it your own, while making your expertise valuable to a publication.

Charles Montgomery, award-winning author of The Last Heathen, is known as the Happy City Guy because he has written extensively about cities all over the world and has pursued stories across four continents. Branding can backfire if it starts to limit the opportunities that may be available to a writer. “This so-called brand goes both ways,” he says, “Some editors don’t call me anymore to write travel stories or service travel stories.” But, he says, if an editor is thinking of a piece on a specific city or cities of the future, his phone rings. Montgomery says becoming limited is natural in the journalistic realm, especially when you specialize in one area.

Becoming successful in one area helps you become known as that type of writer, says author Brian Payton. But if your interests shift, the opportunities may not follow suit. Luckily for him, venturing into books paid off. “With pay rates, it’s good to think in terms of longer projects,” he says. Diversifying the media in which you’re able to work in is a step closer to assuring you’re more financially secure and employable. “In this climate, the more skills you have, the better off you’ll be,” he says

This is easier said than done. “Every journalist wants to build a name for themselves,” Ursi says, “But, only a handful of people can obtain that.” Ursi rattled off Canadian writers Andrew Coyne and Malcolm Gladwell, two journalists who have successfully created brands for themselves. It’s almost unnecessary to list Gladwell’s resume because his New Yorker articles have allowed his name to speak for itself. Similarly, one might think of Jan Wong and her eyebrow-raising column “Lunch With”, without solely identifying her with the Globe.

Building a brand is not an overnight process. Once you’ve determined an area of interest you need to write. A lot. Transforming features into books is one way to start forming a strong reputation. As journalists we know the majority of information we have for a feature is never seen by our readers. All those extra scenes, anecdotes and background can be used to continue to the story in book form. To further associate yourself with a particular writing style or topic, ensure you can be easily found online. Besides having a website, a blog is a useful tool that allows you to self-publish and generate publicity. If what you’re writing about is interesting and important enough to start people talking, your name will be associated with those ideas. For example, D.B. Scott has become very well-known through his blog Canadian Magazines, which reports daily news about the magazine industry.

But having a blog or books also doesn’t guarantee you work. “The market just keeps getting more and more crowded,” Ursi says. The challenge still remains the same, with or without brand.

I never actually wanted to be a journalist. When I was in Grade 11, my parents sat me down and asked what I wanted to do with my life. I said, “I wanna rock.” Much to my dismay, Dee Snider didn’t appear and throw my dad out the window the way he did in Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gunna Take It” video. Instead, since my math and science marks were in the low 60s, and I had always been a good writer, my parents and I decided journalism school seemed a logical choice.

But I had never interviewed anyone before, and when I started to, it never sat well with me. I overcame my initial shyness, but I felt I was interviewing people solely because I needed sources and quotes. Focusing on magazines changed things, as I pitched stories I wanted to write, and talked to people I found interesting. But even after a great 25-minute interview, I knew I’d never write half the things I heard, and an editor would significantly shorten what I turned in. Even this story’s a lot shorter than what I first wrote. That’s why I’m not sad it’s my last piece of journalism.

So I’m back to the question my parents asked me: What do you want to do with your life?

I seek help on Ryerson’s Alumni career day where former grads share career advice. While many students are hoping to win a free iPod Touch from a grand raffle, I’m not here for electronics.

A name catches my eye. After establishing we’re not related, I ask Graeme Harris how he used journalism to break into the corporate world. Putting aside his BlackBerry, Harris tells me he too graduated in a time where there were a financial crisis, suggesting I read up on the early 1980s when overpriced oil and tight monetary policy led to economic disaster. But he worked part-time at the Bank of Montreal, and freelanced for magazines such as Canadian Business, until he started full-time with the bank in 1986. Since then, he’s held various communications and media relations positions with BMO, RBC and his current employer UBS. He adds that public relations people think journalists make either the best or the worst employees.

Not all PR jobs are corporate though. Donna Varrica, a Concordia University grad, left journalism because she didn’t like reporting on tragedies. Ironically, she was working for her alma matter in 1992 when professor Valery Fabrikant shot and killed four of his colleagues. Her handling of the Fabrikant affair helped prepare her for her current position as director of communications at Dawson College where in September 2006, Kimveer Gill killed one woman, and shot 16 other people. For nine days straight, she dealt with up to 125 media requests a day, many from CNN, MSNBC and other international outlets. Her schooling helps her understand journalists’ needs and she’s shocked when PR people send three-page news releases to the media or hold press conferences for minor events. “Unless you’re Celine Dion or the [Montreal] Canadiens,” she says, “in this town, you don’t have a news conference.”

Then there’s Tyler Kustra who works for the Library of Parliament in Ottawa. The 28-year-old studied journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax. He also decided to pursue a double major because economics was his second love. He later earned a master of economics at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Today, his job is to make politicians look smart, so he provides MPs with concise analyses on the effects, and pros and cons of government programs. Although there are plenty of economics grads out there, most can’t communicate as well as Kustra can. But he says it takes more than a journalism degree to work in the civil service. “Everyone here has an advanced degree, so they wouldn’t even look at my resume if all I had was a bachelor of journalism.”

Bill Killorn, another double-degree holder, studied international relations at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick and journalism at King’s. Now the domestic program director at Journalists for Human Rights, he doesn’t think the papers are completely necessary. “It’s all about how you carry yourself and interact with other people,” he says. Still, the job is an ideal fit for him because it combines all his schooling. He also feels NGOs are ideal for recent grads seeking work experience. “This isn’t one of those internships where you’re sent to get coffee,” he says, sipping a hot chocolate from Starbucks. “At an NGO, interns get to do the things we would pay someone to do, if we could afford to pay them.”

Great work and no pay? Sounds a lot like the magazine and online journalism internship postings I keep getting in my inbox. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to work for free. And when magazines offer unpaid work, it seems to send the message that only the rich can do what they want.

But there are, of course, some folks who didn’t start wealthy and love their jobs now-people such as Justin Kingsley, vice-president of bleublancrouge, a Montreal-based ad agency. After graduating from journalism at Concordia, he became a national sports correspondent for The Canadian Press in Toronto, covering pro sports and the Olympics. Eventually, he went to Parliament Hill, where he was the government spokesman on the sponsorship scandal, and became Prime Minister Paul Martin’s press secretary for a year. “I’ve always stayed in one field, and that’s communications,” Kingsley says. “And if I had to be even more specific, I’d say strategic communications. And what gave me the foundation for that is journalism school.”

After a nine-year-old girl died in a house fire on Sandy Bay reserve north of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, cbc.ca was one of the first to report the tragedy. As soon as the story went up, user comments began popping up on the site: “Native people do not have the knowledge to look after a house” and “… the house went up completely in 15 minutes due to the large amount of alcohol in the building.”In a news conference the Southern Chiefs Organization, which represents dozens of bands in Manitoba, publicized its grievances over the offensive comments on cbc.ca. The event was sparked by a complaint the SCO received from a resident of Sandy Bay who discovered allegedly ignorant or hatred-filled comments were going unmonitored.

The organization asked the provincial government to launch an investigation into CBC’s Manitoba website, suggesting charges should be laid against the public broadcaster, which, in some members’ opinions, should be held to a higher standard than other news organizations. Lyndenn Behm, SCO’s communications coordinator, says there’s been no apology from CBC since the posts on February 11. He says Aboriginals, First Nations and the residents of Sandy Bay also deserve an apology.

The response

CBC’s approach to its online comment sections is to provide as open a forum as possible for an exchange of views. But spokesperson Jeff Keay says, “We’re rethinking that now.” He adds that the broadcaster isn’t sure it sees the value in the discussion due to an “excessive degree of intemperate commentary.”

Online news providers are not held to the standards of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), so sites must develop their own guidelines and make individual judgment calls based on the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and libel laws. This can mean a choice between curbing free expression (and losing traffic) or allowing potentially defamatory comments (and being legally vulnerable).

The legal area concerning online user comments isn’t just a “grey area,” says Bert Bruser, media lawyer for the Toronto Star, “it’s a mess.”

Value of user comments to journalism

Mathew Ingram, communities editor for The Globe and Mail, encourages journalists to use and experiment with the comments sections. One of his colleagues who has enhanced her stories this way is Globe reporter Tavia Grant. She has reacted to new information from readers by doing more interviews and then updating her article for a more accurate picture.

Ingram acknowledges that some people use comments sections to vent or ride their hobbyhorse, “but there are people out there who do know something about the story you’re writing about, and who have valuable knowledge, perspective or comments.”

Monitoring online comment sections

CBC outsources the moderation of its comments sections to Manitoba-based ICUC Moderation Services Inc., which deals with the over 200,000 posts made on cbc.ca each month. ICUC says its services work within its mandates of its clients, including trendy companies such as MuchMusic, Coors Light and Calvin Klein, as well as CTV and the Government of Canada.

On the other hand, most of globeandmail.com is semi-moderated, says technology editor MattFrehner. A comment is flagged only if a reader finds it offensive. Flagged comments are reviewed by an editor who either accepts or removes them. Frehner says roughly 85 to 90 percent of stories are semi-moderated, but there are closed stories as well, especially ones dealing with court cases that could be jeopardized by information posted online. The Globe also asks journalists to check for unsuitable posts but moderating 100,000 comments every month is unrealistic. As Frehner says, “You can’t spend your entire day reading comments about the conflict in Israel.”

Despite the dangers, open forums-be they comment sections or live chats-increase traffic. Frehner says that when the Globe hosts an open discussion, with someone such as the political columnist Jeffrey Simpson, there is a huge spike in user participation.

Meanwhile, Neil Sanderson, assistant managing editor of thestar.com, says that his paper’s site receives around 2,000 comments a day and employs five in-house moderators. From a variety of educational programs (none with a background in journalism), moderators are trained to check for 18 different problems, ranging from hate speech to libel. Sanderson also says reader comments are valuable because “from a philosophical point of view, the media depend on freedom of speech. We can’t exist any other way.”

Still evolving 

Roger D. McConchie, a B.C. lawyer practicing internet and defamation law, recommends that online news organizations apply the same rules to user comments that they use for daily print retractions. That could mean publishing an apology on the site or on the page where the “hate speech” or libel has been flagged as well as eliminating the offensive comments from the original article.

While Canada’s internet laws have improved in the last 10 years, news organizations still must work on balancing openness with their own regulations. So the struggle to provide forums for lively and insightful discussions without being interrupted by ignorant and unconstructive comments continues. “I would have never imagined five years ago how widespread and serious the problem for individuals who are defamed has become,” says McConchie. “It’s just grown topsy-turvy.”

Peter Edwards had two choices on September 6, 1995, he could either cover a story about a line-up for swimming lessons at Mel Lastman Square or he could drive to Ipperwash Provincial Park to investigate the shoot-out between police and First Nation protestors. Edwards chose the park. If it turned out to be nothing, he would just go home.

Instead, for the next 13 years, Ipperwash consumed theToronto Star reporter. During a night raid of Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nations’ protest to reclaim land appropriated by the government in the early 1940s, a police sniper shot protestor Dudley George. The shooter was convicted in 1997 of negligence leading to the death of an unarmed man, yet the penalty was only community service. George’s family filed a lawsuit, and an inquiry into the death, advocated by Dudley’s brother Sam, took place in 2003. Edwards wrote several hundred articles on Ipperwash and, in 2001, published One Dead Indian:The Premier, the Police, and the Ipperwash Crisis, an examination of the role of the OPP and the provincial and federal governments in George’s death.

Edwards spoke to the RRJ Online about his experiences covering Ipperwash, recent coverage of First Nations communities and lessons the media still has to learn.

On the media’s misrepresentation of Ipperwash:

Peter Edwards: [When I arrived,] the first thing that really hit me was the 100 or so First Nations people there-they were really, really nervous. I was the only white person and I stood out with these two cameras on my shoulders. I was curious about the reaction and how, very quickly, people decided that I should be standing out front, because the police won’t shoot a white person from the Toronto Star.

What I was hearing on the radio wasn’t what I was seeing. If [the protestors] have guns and they’re so threatening, why are they so afraid? And why are they thinking the safe thing to do is have a white guy floating around front? [The radio broadcast said] it was an “isolated incident” but when I got there it looked more like a military operation. I remember being really rattled when I saw someone with camouflage paint on his face and a camouflage uniform, with a submachine gun, running around in the woods -and that was the police’s side!

On media arrogance and ignorance:

PE: I was stunned at the deep level of racism…. I don’t know how many times I heard the phrase “thoseIndians.” The idea that people can, out of convenience, make all First Nation people the same is pretty arrogant and pretty dumb. It’s about keeping the [story and its facts] from going beyond what you absolutely know. People aren’t just a bunch of statistics. If someone is breaking the law in a particular community, don’t just target the community-and don’t say those. Sometimes we can subtlety put race in there so much that we slam a whole bunch of people when it’s really only one individual.

On covering the unfamiliar:

PE: When it comes to communities, we have to report beyond crises; we’ve got to talk to people on a day-to-day basis, not just when something terrible happens. It’s not that you can’t write the story, its how you write it. You can’t just quote the first person you talk to-you have to poke around the community to get a broader look. You can’t just take one person and make them a representative for everybody. In fact, some of the people we should listen to more are the ones that don’t shout or aren’t slick, but speak from the heart. We should look for those people instead of the smoothies who have a need to be in the media.

On representing a community:

PE: One thing you find with First Nations reporting, a lot of people will speak for themselves, but they won’t speak for the community. There’s a lot of sensitivity in the community-you wouldn’t speak for your mother or father, and you don’t overstate your own importance. With one kid who knew a lot about what had happened at Ipperwash, the way to get him to talk was to talk to his parents. Once I did, the kid became totally co-operative-without the parents, he wasn’t saying boo. There are real cultural differences, like respect for elders, so every time you do a story, it’s a fresh challenge.

On the media’s suggestion that members of the Yellow Quill First Nations community want Christopher Pauchay-the Saskatchewan man whose two daughters froze to death on the reserve-to heal through traditional practices instead of going to jail:

PE: I would want to know, and I’m not criticizing, which members? Because journalists can go into any community and find any opinion they want. I can find someone who believes Elvis is still alive and J.F.K. is working in a diner in Scarborough. You can find people to say whatever you want them to say, it’s just whether you’ve accurately represented the community. I don’t know whether they talked to a Chief, or social services-who work in the band with personal problems. If it’s someone who’s really in touch with things I would take it very seriously, instead of a person that’s just being flippant.

On advice for covering First Nations:

PE: There are still failings, there will always be failings in everything [the media] does. The biggest thing is to listen, listen to as many people as you can and stay open. Just remember that your job is to go and find the truth.

Matt Blackett is sweating. Dressed in a sports jacket, dress pants and running shoes, he examines a speaker to plug in his iPhone. Time is running out. Soon people will arrive at the reception showcasing thinkTORONTO, Spacingmagazine’s urban design ideas competition. Tonight, most of the posterboards on the exposed brick walls of the gallery space are blow-ups of 23 pages from the Fall ’08-Winter ’09 issue that featured the best of the contest’s more than 100 proposals for improving the city’s streetscape.

The issue also celebrated Spacing‘s fifth anniversary and Blackett is confident the magazine will be around for many more. He has good reason to be optimistic. While many others are scaling back or folding, Spacingis expanding. This March, it launched Spacing Radio, a bi-weekly podcast exploring urban issues. And, motivated by the success of its Toronto and Montreal blogs—which attract up to 7,000 and 2,500 unique visitors per day, respectively—the magazine expects to roll out Maritime and Vancouver versions this year.

Spacing and a handful of other small publications, including Broken Pencil and Geez, stand out in the current economic situation. They are accustomed to pinching pennies, so hard economic times are nothing new. Since they are often non-profit, operate with small staffs, boast circulations under 10,000 and rely on grant money, they’ve developed innovative ways to survive.

To attract readers, they cater to specific audiences ignored by larger publications. “In the last 50 years, niche publishing has been the area where magazines have their greatest strength,” says magazine consultant D.B. Scott, who commends these three publications for their tight focus. Spacing covers city issues, architecture, and geography; three-year-old quarterly Geez, which has an activist vibe not typical of religious publications, largely caters to the faithful who are disenchanted with organized Christianity; Broken Pencil is for and by members of the indie arts and culture community.

Being so specific can generate loyal readers, crucial because most small publications receive little or no money from advertisers. Broken Pencil‘s ad revenue for 2008 was about $5,000, for example, and Geezdoesn’t even have advertisers. But no advertising revenue means no advertiser influence.

Readers are more committed to these magazines because they feel part of a community. Broken Pencilbrings together readers at Canzine, an annual Toronto zine and indie arts fair, where existing devotees interact and the publication pulls in new ones. Last year, Canzine had 150 vendors, including Spacing, which sold its popular Toronto subway station buttons (in just over four years, the magazine has sold over 100,000). Geez holds an annual sermon-writing contest, soliciting non-preachy thoughts from readers’ personal pulpits. Last year it received 101 submissions under the theme “30 Sermons You’d Never Hear in Church.”

The web also helps generate publicity and connect readers. As circulation manager at The Walrus and publisher of Shameless, Stacey May Fowles has experience with big and small publications and says that while larger ones rely on direct mail and other traditional methods of promotion, small ones tend to take advantage of online resources because it’s all they can afford. Spacing uses Facebook for event listings, contest notices and other call-outs. “We used to get about 200 to 250 people to an event,” Blackett says. Now it gets about twice that. And instead of relying solely on professional photographers, the magazine uses the photo-sharing website Flickr, allowing readers to upload images that might make it into print.

Although Geez has a blog, it isn’t integral to the magazine the way Spacing‘s is. Instead, co-editor and co-publisher Will Braun says his magazine sells more copies based on quality editorial and physical features—100 pages printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper, perfect bound, and square-like. Geez also focuses on provocative photography and illustration. Images in the recent Winter 2008 issue included photos of a banner proclaiming “We are all Iraq,” shopping carts dumped in a river in an otherwise beautiful nature painting and a double-page spread of a log cabin with caribou antlers piled atop its roof. Similarly, Spacing managing editor Todd Harrison says his magazine’s newsstand sales are “astronomically high”—about 90 percent of its paid circulation of 6,000—in part because its landscape shape often means better newsstand placement: retailers tend to place it in the front rack because they don’t know where else to put it.

Although some small magazines are holding up in the current economic circumstances, the pressures are great. Last year, Maisonneuve won an honourable mention for Magazine of the Year at the National Magazine Awards, but suffered a close call when it tried to expand. After a strong start in 2002, it moved to a large downtown Montreal office two and a half years later; hosted three shows featuring art exhibits, rock concerts and mini massage parlours; and in 2006 was in contact with a publisher about launching a city magazine. The deal fell through. But then, for unrelated reasons, Maisonneuve had to let staff go, printed fewer copies with fewer pages, and eventually moved to a room in the editor’s apartment in west-end Montreal, reducing its costs by 60 percent.

The rapid expansion “really was not good for the magazine because it started losing a lot of money, and the magazine itself started to suffer because it wasn’t getting due attention,” says Marco Ursi, editor of MastheadOnline, who estimated Maisonneuve‘s circulation was around 10,000. Now it’s more often closer to 5,000. Founding editor Derek Webster admits the magazine grew too quickly and the layoffs were disappointing, but “the results have paid off.”

Being small is no guarantee of success, though: Ascent closed in early 2009, Mixx stopped producing without any announcement and Frank folded last year. But not all publications that go under are victims of the recession and some may slowly die for several years, says Claire Pfeiffer, ex-project manager at the former Small Magazines office at Magazines Canada. “The loss of one advertiser could be the nail in the coffin.”

Scott notes that closures are usually due to underfunding, rather than too few readers or poor editorial. Fortunately for small magazines, he also believes, “People are much less likely to give up their fascinations or their passions in bad times. And they normally have more time to work on a magazine when they don’t have a job.”

Paul McLaughlin, freelance journalist 

Vanity Fair and Maclean’s

I’m a huge Vanity Fair fan. Maclean’s, despite its political leanings, has improved incredibly since [editor] Ken Whyte took over. So I like it very much. I think it used to be a pretty boring magazine. Even though I don’t have the same political leanings as Whyte, I think it’s a much more interesting magazine and a great Canadian magazine. And I’m hoping that, under [editor] John Macfarlane, The Walrus will become a better read than it used to be. It all depends on the cost, doesn’t it? But I can’t live without Vanity Fair. That’s my favourite.

Stacey May Fowles, publisher, Shameless and circulation manager, The Walrus

None

I don’t think I’d pay for anything online. I want to pay for something I can hold in my hands. I think digital editions are a terrible, terrible idea. I want to say that I would pay for it because I want people to do it. But I wouldn’t and I love magazines like nobody. It’s very sad and very honest. That’s like three martinis honest. Maybe if you gave me a membership to something exclusive, and as part of that I got a digital edition of the magazine-maybe. But to pay for a digital edition of a magazine? No, I wouldn’t do that.

David Hayes, freelance writer

The New Yorker, Toronto Life, New York Times Magazine and Mojo.

If the print version wasn’t available or if they started charging for the online version, I would likely pay for those. I’m accustomed to everything being free online. Most magazines are free-not all, but enough that you don’t have to pay for them.

D.B. Scott, consultant and blogger, Canadian Magazines

Among others … Toronto Life, Harper’s, The Atlantic and Geist (maybe)

I wouldn’t pay for most magazines online unless they give me sufficient value. I’m not going to be an early adopter. I’m not going to be the first one to pay for a magazine everybody else is getting for free, and I think that’s a big problem for magazines.

I would be more likely to pay for a magazine if I believed that the magazine was getting the majority of its revenue from its readers. And I think that the business model based on advertisers driving magazines is probably broken-and more or less broken for good. We’re in the transition period. My hope is that 10 years from now there will be a lot of magazines that are carried 60 to 70 percent by their readers. If I felt that about any of these magazines, I would be more inclined to pay a reasonable fee to be a subscriber.

We’ve spent four generations convincing people that a magazine is worth no more than a high-end greeting card. That’s got to stop.

Graham F. Scott, editor, This Magazine

Toronto Life, Spacing, Maisonneuve, This Magazine, Good magazine, The Walrus and The Guardian Weekly

It depends what the model is. I would not want to pay by the year. If I could pay $15 a month to get all of these magazines, I might do it.

I think the physical is important. I think ink on paper is worth it. I like carrying it around with me. I like being able to flip through it. I don’t think the quality of the story online from print has to change. But I think the [online] price should go down because everyone knows that online costs less to deliver and consumers aren’t stupid. They know that you can’t charge the same price for something that costs 95 percent less to produce.

Ian Pearson, freelance editor

The Believer,Fly Fisherman and The New York Review of Books

It’s hard to say because I used to read Salon a lot, and then when it added the pay element and became very commercial, I stopped reading it. I did pay for The New York Times Plus but then it stopped charging. It wasn’t working because people didn’t want to pay. It would definitely be something specialized. I like the fact that Maclean’s online is free. I don’t read Maclean’s in print but sometimes I’ll go to its website and look up an article. If it charged for that, I would never do that.

I like The New York Review of Books, but I don’t subscribe to it because I hate having too much paper coming into the house. So if I could pay $20 a year to subscribe online, I would. Even though they’re long reviews, it’s something that’s quickly readable online. And if you want to, you can look up something from three months ago, or if you’ve just read a book or want to know about a book.

I read Andrew Sullivan’s political blog for The Atlantic a lot and he’s constantly pointing to Atlantic articles. But there’s something about those lengths of article that you really want to read to in print. Again, I don’t subscribe to it. I’ll pick up an occasional issue.

Conan Tobias, managing editor, Canadian Business

The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired (maybe) and Entertainment Weekly

Any magazine that I read on a regular basis now, I would probably read online if it wasn’t available in print. But I don’t want to read it online-I want to read it in print.

I work in magazines. I like print-for longer stuff especially. I just prefer reading it at my leisure, where I want, in print.

I could see Entertainment Weekly going online. I don’t think The New Yorker or Vanity Fair could go online entirely just yet. But I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 10 years.

Marco Ursi, editor, MastheadOnline

None

If I have to pay for something, I’m going to buy it in print. If The New Yorker folded and I could only get it online, then I would think about paying for that. I’m not a print romantic but with The New Yorker, the experience is about reading the magazine. Flipping to the back and the front, and the layout and the organization of the print magazine are very important to my relationship to it. I read a lot of magazines, but I don’t have a really committed relationship with any other magazine.

I’m kind of saying things that the editor of Masthead shouldn’t say, but as a consumer, my perspective is different. I’m 26. I’m Gen-Y, apparently. So I’m used to getting things for free. I used to buy three CDs a week. I buy zero now and I download all my music illegally-I pay nothing for it. I go see a few concerts and I justify my contribution that way. If there was no way to download music, I would start buying things again. Magazines, that depends. If there are free things online versus paid things, I’m still going to choose the free things until they become so shit that I can’t take it. I know everyone wants to start charging for content, but Masthead tried it and it failed. I think it’s a stupid idea. You charge for print, you don’t charge for the web.

In late October, Masthead magazine, the self-titled “Magazine About Magazines,” announced its demise. Then in December, after receiving a number of requests to keep the magazine’s internet counterpart, MastheadOnline, alive, North Island Publishing Ltd. said it would do just that. The RRJ asks editor Marco Ursi about the switch to digital-only, how magazine layouts can survive online and what happens when his one-man team takes a sick day.

On new additions to the website:

Marco Ursi: The changes have yet to fully manifest themselves. Soon there will be something called the “Masthead Special Report” appearing monthly on MastheadOnline. They’re going to be PDFs of some of our regular features—such as the Tally, the Top 50 and some of our surveys, such as the Production Survey.

We’ll lay them out in Quark. They’ll look like a magazine. People can print them out if they want, and read them commuting or on the couch or you can read them online, on your screen. We’re going to have ad space within that PDF to continue to find ways to monetize the website.

On new online content:

MU: We’re adding two new blogs. [Circ Without Shame] is about circulation by Stacey May Fowles, who’s the publisher of Shameless and the circ director at The Walrus. She’s one of the young, up-and-coming circ people who has a lot of experience at small magazines. She has a different perspective from someone like Scott Bullock, who wrote “Circ Matters” for our magazine. He comes more from a big-magazine background. Her point of view will be different and interesting.

The other blog is going to be Cover Shots, which was a regular feature in the print magazine, where we lay out two covers side-by-side, and have some art directors, circulators, editors and publishers critique them on their relative merit in both the artistic and sales side.

On missing the print format:

MU: Doug [Bennet, publisher of Masthead] will definitely tell you about the value of holding something in your hands. Graeme Smith [The Globe and Mail‘s chief Afghanistan correspondent] was quoted on J-Source saying, “I don’t get misty-eyed over newsprint.” In some ways, I’m kind of like that. I’m not a print romantic. The web, especially for something like <em>Masthead</em>, works just fine. You get your news, information, opinion, analysis. The medium itself … has been around for all of my adult life, so I’m used to it.

On how to present visually online:

MU: We’ve been thinking a lot about how to incorporate stuff like the “Masthead Special Report.” How do you do that online when you don’t have a print magazine to lay it out on a double-page spread? This is the kind of material that doesn’t really work on a blog format, which is essentially our layout style. So how do you present it? That’s where the PDF idea came in. So thinking about things like that, the design of the site, because when you’re adding more things, the question is where do you put it?

On archiving Masthead:

MU: [Digital service provider] Texterity has come to us and said, “We’d like to archive the last two years of Masthead into digital editions.” We said sure because our readers get the benefit of having our back issues online and, in digital-edition format, it’s searchable. I definitely like the search function on the digital editions as someone who’s seeking out information sometimes to look for background on a story.

On whether there’s been a shift to a younger audience:

MU: I hope not. Publishers are our audience, first and foremost, people who are in the business of magazines. And editors, of course, are relevant in that they produce the content that makes the magazines what they are. We’re still a business magazine. That said, I know there’s more young people reading because it’s free now and I’ve posted some things on Twitter. But we’re not aiming for a younger audience. We’re aiming for the same audience as our magazine&mdash;people who are in the business of magazines.

On ad sales:

MU: I’ve heard while chatting with some people that, in some cases, online ad sales are doing well because the advertisers have cut their costs. “We’re not going to advertise in print but we might be interested in advertising online, since the ads are cheaper there.” There’s also, in general, a shift for advertisers to want to be online because that’s where people are spending so much time. A two-fold thing.

The recession, though, in general, has caused low spending in all advertising sectors. So magazines will feel that.

On the biggest challenge thus far:

MU: Being sick is pretty crappy. I say that jokingly, but if I’m sick, and I’m not able to do the stories, there’s no one else to do them. People have an expectation that there’s going to be at least one news story on MastheadOnline a day. So the week I was sick I had to do second-hand reporting on something from home with a sinus headache.

Five years ago if the editor was sick for a couple of days and there was only a print magazine to worry about, the editor might have gotten away with it. Not anymore.

The March 2009 issue of This Magazine will premier a redesigned look that accommodates the vision of the latest editor, Graham F. Scott. The position of editor at This Magazine offers a great opportunity to put your own mark on a magazine that already has an established readership. This may be great for Scott, but from a subscriber’s perspective it’s not always the best thing to happen to a favourite read. Most editors only stay at This Magazine for two to four years before moving on to something else. Scott took over the position in August 2008 from Jessica Johnston. There have been five editors at the magazine in the last decade. “One would hope the editorial vision and mandate of the magazine would be strong enough to carry it through,” Johnston says of the turnover.” This [Magazine] does have a very loyal readership, but it’s true that some periods are editorially stronger than others. There are ups and downs.”

Working at a small Canadian publication offers many challenges in itself. “Often you are required to work an unsustainable amount of hours for an unsustainable amount of money,” says Johnston. At some magazines it is this combination that leads to the burnout and subsequent turnover of editorial staff. With a constantly evolving masthead and the vision for a magazine changing with every new editor, it’s difficult to maintain readership and produce a high-quality publication that can compete in today’s market.

Besides turnover of staff, another dilemma small magazines face is the reliance on volunteers. “It can be tough on the editor having to manage a volunteer staff that is prone to fleeing after only a few months of hard work for little or no money,” says Johnston.

Burnout Blues “The lines between personal life and professional life got really blurred, and I realized after several years that I didn’t have any hobbies or outside interests anymore—publishing the magazine ate up all the “spare” time I might’ve had,” says Shameless magazine’s co-founding editor, Melinda Mattos who held this position until spring 2007. “By then we realized that we had both exhausted ourselves to the point that we couldn’t do it anymore. It was really tough deciding to pass the reins over to a new editor and publisher. But, it felt like the right thing to do, both for the future of the magazine and for our own sake,” says Mattos. Shameless operates on a small budget, and depends on an entirely volunteer-driven staff that fit working on the magazine around their full-time jobs. “At first, it was energizing to be working on a project I really believed in, even if it had to happen in my spare time, sitting at my computer in my pyjamas at 3am. But working the equivalent of two full-time jobs gets exhausting,” says Mattos.

“You need to delegate whenever possible. Capitalize on people’s good will for the magazine,” was Johnston’s advice to Scott when he took over the editor’s position at This. Although there is a lot of work required “people are really eager to be involved,” says Scott. “Part of that means choosing the right people and choosing a job that works for their skills and their schedules,” he adds.

Even though there are some challenges working at small magazines, many people are still drawn to this medium. “I think many of the folks who gravitate to small magazines do so because they want to make a difference somehow. They want to reach a specific community, or create one. They want to engage with our culture and with politics in a way that’s just not sexy enough for the mainstream newsstand,” says Mattos.

“People don’t plan on staying forever. They [staff members at small mags] learn the skills and how to do the job and then move on,” says Canadian Dimension associate publisher James Patterson. His own publication however, proves an exception. Almost all the editorial work gets done by founding editor Cy Gonick, who has been working on the publication for nearly 46 years. Gonick also works with a collective group of freelancers and an editorial board. Given that he has been in charge of editorial since the magazine’s conception, there haven’t been too many dramatic changes in terms of content. “When there is turnover in senior roles there is a big change because whoever takes over the role wants to make an impact,” says Patterson. “Readers are quick to pick up on changes and turnover of editors can mean a change in the readership,” he adds. This doesn’t necessarily spell disaster for these publications instead it does create the opportunity to gain a larger audience, but only if done right.

“Small magazines in Canada give a specific voice to Canadian interests. Maclean’s can’t cover everything, although they try every week,” says Patterson. “Unfortunately, editorial burnout and high turnover are the realities of working at a small magazine in this economic climate. Everyone is overworked and under-paid. It’s a tight-rope act trying to find a job that you believe in that also pays the bills. There always seems to be some sacrifice required—do I want to sell out and pay my rent or maintain my integrity and starve?” says Mattos. “Neither of those options sounds particularly appealing.”