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!

CAFME's Twitter Picks

Twitter can be an amazing resource. We highly encourage you to create an account! Check out our picks of who to follow!  This is just a starter list!

Cafme-related:
@UNCcafme
@Ed2010News
@SierraPiland (Pres)
@nicoleayang (Sec)
@maryannbarone (VP)
@katecarolina (Treas)
@gLamOLAnd (S. Proj)

Campus Magazines:
@HerCampusUNC
@kscopemag
@bluewhitemag
@uncwellbeing
@uncharted_mag
@PatchworkMag
@dailytarheel
@crdaily

Helpful/Related Clubs & Businesses
@uncucs
@garyalanmiller
@CABJ_UNC
@heelprintcomm
@carolinaPRSSA
@reesenews
@foliomag
@FishbowlNY
@InternQueen
@HerCampus
@USATODAYcollege
@UNCJSchool
@iamcassandra
@SND

@NYWICI

@fashionista_com

@HearstCorp

@JOMCParkLib

@rtburg

@mashable

@pubcoach

@NiemanLab

Past speakers/magazines:
@LaraCasey
@iloveswmag
@MTH2011
@chapelhillmag
@ourstate
@TheSunMagazine
@indyweek
@NATriangle
@zengerle
@tnr
@UtheMagazine
@QSRmagazine

Complete list of national magazines to follow on Twitter

January 19 Recap: U the Magazine

Cindy and Pam

U the Magazine

Uthemagazine.com

@UtheMagazine

Have a blog: http://uthemagazine.com/Blog_Issue_1.html

About the magazine:

• Both Cindy and Pam came from publishing, Lone Wolf Publishing
• Found a niche to create a magazine-- college community hasn’t been tackled in the way they thought it could be
• Stared in April, first issue came out in the fall
• Third issue is out, the fourth is at the printer
• Publishes 5 times a year, no June/July issue because of summer break
• 15,000 copies per issue
• Distributes at colleges around the Triangle – Central, Peace, Meredith, NC state, Durham Tech, etc.
• Cindy and Pam do it ALL – layout, editorial, sales, etc.
• No office – Cindy and Pam work out of home, work via email

The content:

• Some columns and reviews dedicated to local flair
• 3 to 4 feature articles
• Always looking for topic suggestions
• Magazine tries to be careful about showing any bias to a school—their first issue featured a cover girl from UNC, second cover was of the NC freedom tunnel. Neither issue was picked up as much.
• “We have to entice our readers”
• Try to over-assign articles in case someone doesn’t meet a deadline—can pick and choose
• May hang on to articles they like for future issues
• Look within articles to find what will go on the cover
• Pay upon publishing if you submit an article
• Articles are general to the triangle, but can have more town focus, too. Reviews, for example, are split between Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham
• Article can be proposed by the writer or by Cindy and Pam.
• Topics are sometimes proposed, but the writer can decide the angle
• Throw out ideas and interns go from there

 

Advertisers:

• What fuels the magazine are the advertisers...so the editorial must agree with advertisers
• Free magazine because of advertisers
• Includes coupons in the magazine – good advertising tool. Advertisers know where they came from, that their ad is effective
• Sometimes will involve advertisers in publishing since it is funded by them, but don’t want an “advertorial” style
• Story loses value when it gets too much to be about one person/company

Internships:

• Have editorial internships available
• Don’t limit themselves on number of interns.
• Would love to have an intern to ask challenging questions: U Said column
• Want a lot of variety in interns
• Send in a resume and a sample or two of something you’ve written
• Would like to see if there was someone out there who had an idea for a unique column or a unique feature article or blog feature, etc.
• “No idea is a bad idea”
• “This is for students so you guys are going to know better than us what is of interest to you”
• Internships for graphic designers, web designers, too.

The Big Apple of their eye

An article from a CAFME student on alumni, New York City and magazines.


The Big Apple of their eye
From Tar Heel Town to Manhattan, UNC-CH journalism-communication alumni take the Big City

By Alyssa Bailey

They fell in love with New York City during the summer.

John Zhang, ’07, was an intern at MTV. It was May 2005. He was a college student, working and enjoying his first taste of freedom. The days were long. The internship was unpaid. His home in Gastonia, N.C., was a flight away.


But he felt the energy that pulled him in. “Everyone you meet has different ideas,” Zhang said. “There are so many ambitious people. At a certain point, you feel inspired by that, the energy and the talent.”


Three years later, Maria Ward, ’11, came to the city. She worked at Seventeen magazine as a rising sophomore. She has returned to New York every summer since.


“With New York, you either get swept up in everything or blown down,” Ward said. “You either love it or you hate it. I loved it from the start.”


Zhang and Ward are two Tar Heels gone north. Zhang, who now works as a marketing manager at MTV, is one School of Journalism and Mass Communication graduate of hundreds in the Big Apple. Ward, who will graduate from the school in December 2011, is one student of hundreds who can’t wait to join him.

And for both, in just one summer, the city that serves as the unofficial capital of the media industry stole their hearts.

January 12 Recap: Jason Zengerle

Jason Zengerle

Senior editor, The New Republic
Contributing Editor, New York Magazine, GQ

Before the meeting, we read: Sorority Row

About the story:

The Sorority Row article came about from a 10-word wire blurb.

· “There’s no such thing as an original magazine article”

· “You depend on newspaper writers and wire writers for your ideas”

· “You want to read newspaper articles where, when you’re done with them you say, “Wow I wish I knew more about that.’ Those are the good magazine articles.”

Zengerle started researching Melody Twilley, then pitched the idea to editors.

He knew a professor at University of Alabama which led him to Twilley.

· “It’s really helpful when you’re doing a story like this to know a guide—someone who knows the issue and can introduce you to people and tell you things about the story”

· “Find someone who is willing to give you the time to lead you around and take you to all the parts of the story.”

· “Just ask them what are probably the most mundane questions. These stories rise and fall on this level of detail”

· Interview and quote people who can stand for something larger, look for peripheral characters (like Robert Turner)

Structure of the story:

When you’re writing a really long piece you need to be able to hook the reader

· Create a sense of suspense, why do you care about it?

· “Does Twilley actually make it?”

What do you put in the middle?

· Wanted to talk about the history of the University of Alabama

· Wanted to get into the history of the Machine

What made the story significant:

The segregation at Alabama has more long-term power since Alabama is so insular

More about Zengerle:

· Art history/political science major at Swarthmore College

· Started a magazine in college with a friend, hoping to be like Spy Magazine and Might Magazine

· Loved The New Republic in college and high school

· Applied for internships there every year in college and never got one

· Got an internship at Newsweek after college – was a mistake, they confused his application with someone else’s.

· Then applied for an internship at the American Prospect which got him to the New Republic.

His normal day:

· Never a typical day

· Works from home with conference calls, hasn’t worked in an office since 2000

· Reading looking for stories, reading about that story. Look up people, create appointments, etc

· The stories are always best if you actually go to the place. But do a ton of phone reporting before you go to get background information.

How long does a story take?

· Usually about 2 months on average

· Over 3000-4000 words can take at least 3 months

· Sometimes a year, especially when requesting documents from federal agencies

· Magazine writers have the luxury of time.

Other:

There is always a struggle between what you know and what you can write – off the record/on the record

“The great this about this job is that you have this license to find out about what you want to find out about and people, for some reason, will tell you.”

Working with interns:

Good attitude goes a long way

Not thinking you’re above something even though you usually are

But it’s useful to see how reporters report their stories and see how they’re put together

New York Magazine and the Atlantic Magazine have the best web content – “not just an afterthought.”