February 23 Recap: QSR Magazine

Sam Oches, Associate Editor

QSR Magazine

@SamQSR

About QSR:

·         Founded in 1999, based in Durham

·         B to B Magazine (business to business) writes for the industry

·         Covers the business side of the fast food industry

·         Got its start as a KFC franchisee newsletter

·         Thirty-year-old family-owned publishing company (Fine Books and Collections is another one of its magazines, QSR is the primary publication)

·         Stands for Quick Service Restaurants (a fancy term for fast-food)

·         Encompasses anything that is not table service

o   Concessions at a hospital, college campus, sports event

o   Fast casual (Panera, Chipotle)

o   Quick service (Wendy’s, Chick-Fil-A)

·         Audience:

o   Jim skinner, CEO of McDonalds

o   Bill Morton, CEO of Panera

o   Top industry people

o   Store managers

o   Consultants and lawyers

·         Write about:

o   Industry News

o   Feature Content

o   20 original stories for every monthly issue

o   Interns write one story a week

o   Advice on how to run a fast food restaurant ( How to do things better, how to save money, how to “wow” your consumer)

·         Leading Quick Serve Industry Publication

·         QSR takes it beyond the news

·         Ultimate goal is to help quick serve restaurants save money and succeed

·         Qualified subscriptions based – must be qualified to get the publication and subscribers get it for free

·         Three or four features a month, three columns

·         Writers go to all the trade shows

·         Works three months ahead of time (working on the May issue now) Features start earlier, sometimes. Therefore, they can be working on three issues at any given time between assigning, editing, and printing.

February 16 Recap: Skype with Kelly Thore

Kelly Thore

Assistant to the executive editor at Cosmopolitan Magazine

About Kelly:

·         UNC alum, graduated in May

·         VP of CAFME her junior year

·         Didn’t always know she wanted to be in magazines

·         Sophomore year joined Blue & White and worked her way up from writer to editor in chief

·         In Cosmo interview, bosses wanted to know most about Blue&White and campus publications

·         Her Internships: Skirt! And Natural Triad Magazines, Pace Communications, Bevello (an online clothing boutique), Three Ships Media.

“Make sure that your experiences are well-rounded. If you think you may be interested in something, try it out with an internship.”

"With your first internship, do whatever they ask, but also absorb everything."

“If you have contacts in the companies you want to work, make sure to keep them. It’s really important to keep relationships alive because you never know”

How she got to Cosmo:

·         Got to know Robin Hilmantel (also at Cosmo) by working with her on Blue & White

·         Took the EA job when Robin got promoted.

o   Took an edit test (she had to write a fake confession, pitch some story ideas, and write an item)

-  Gauges how much of a good fit for the magazine you are

o   Interviewed in New York in their offices

What she does at Cosmo:

·         Does a lot of writing and researching

·         Does the confessions page

·         101 Things about Men

·         Fashion pages

·         Quizzes

·         Assists on photo shoots

·         Pitches stories

·         Has also written a few feature pages, too

February 2 Recap: Skype with Cassandra Zink

About Cassandra:

• Interned at Carolina Woman Magazine
• Got involved in campus publications
• Went on the JAFA trip and set up a lot of meetings with alumni
• Cold emailed editors at magazines she liked
• Interned at Jane after cold emailing the editor there and meeting with her. Was there when it folded
• Interned at NC State Magazine
• Interned at People Magazine (the most intense internship—weeklies are hard)
• Interned at Self Magazine in the beauty closet
• Freelanced at some websites when the economy was going down
• Had to leave NY for about 7 months and then landed a job at First for Women Magazine where she is now an editorial assistant. Covers a lot of things, departments.

Ed2010

• Posts jobs for Ed2010
• Cassandra reports for them – How to be a better EA
• A lot of exciting projects coming out soon!
• Possibility of getting credit through Ed instead of through universities, especially for post-grads
• Always looking for ways to improve—if you have an idea, send it to ed@ed2010 or to Cassandra
• Always goes to the panels and happy hours – “There is always more to learn”
• You have to use Ed as a networking tool. The more you learn and the more you meet people, the better it will help you when you look for your jobs
• Try to plan breaks with the Ed trips
• Follow Ed on twitter/facebook/website!