wisdom of the pages

So the big question is: "What's new in New York?" Well, I've been hard at work reading nothing but magazines and blogs, listening to awesome lectures and exploring the Big Apple. I've seen Wall Street, Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty. I've eaten a huge slice of pizza at 1 a.m., and listened to mariachi music on the subway. I have not gotten lost, mugged or honked at. That's all good news.

I've gotten free copies of New York magazine, Bust, Wired, Rolling Stone, SELF, Esquire, People Style Watch, Parents, Women's Health, Conde Nast Portfolio, More, Traditional Home, Vogue, InStyle and Time Out New York. I've decided that once I settle into a job and a pad, I'll be subscribing to Bust, CN Portfolio, Blender and Adbusters. I think it's a good combination that exhibits my personality, but mostly they are just the only magazines I've read cover-to-cover and wanted more. I haven't had a real subscription in a while -- at some point I was getting RedBook, although I don't know why. I used to get Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Spin, Lifetime and Cosmo, and long before all that of course it was YM, Seventeen and American Girl. It's about time I invested in some magazines I really care about. Especially because I feel a lot more emotionally attached to the medium than ever before -- and even more so than I ever was to newspapers.

I've picked some favorites from the speakers, but they've all been pretty fantastic. I've learned so much stuff that I wish had been addressed in college. I can't wait for universities like Auburn to catch up to the publishing future. There's so much more excitement now. When I think Auburn journalism, I think black and white; when I think new media, everything is in color. I'm either brainwashed or just really, really, really doing the right thing for myself. I know newspapers do lots of great things on the Web, but they have definite limits. They can't stretch those limits like magazines can. Even the book business is experimenting with video "book trailers," which I learned today on GalleyCat.

I have so much going on in my head right now that it's hard to keep it all straight. So I think I'm going to spend some time typing up my notes from the past two weeks. But not before I share some more wisdom from magazine pros. This time more on the serious side, if you can decipher it out of context.

Young people are "heat seekers."

New magazines fill a "white space" in the market. (Not unlike how Athena filled her "blank spaces." Hmm ... )

You can hire a "voice doctor" if your writers have the wrong tone.

Editors are sometimes disappointed to realize "it's still just a magazine."

A magazine is a "meal" for readers. What would you rather eat?

You can enjoy a story without even reading it if it's designed well.

"Ads are like children. They're all beautiful."

"Anything can be done. You cannot be held back by what you don't have."

The well is a sacred space.

"People want to know more than what's on the surface. The deserve more because they are smarter."

Don't live in the past.

Search-engine optimization is a "cult science."

"The classic image of the blog is the 22-year-old sitting at home in pajamas saying bitchy things."

Comments are much more interesting than letters.

Flash looks cool, but it doesn't drive traffic.

"It's a very sober environment."

Consumers have been empowered to advocate brands.

"Choice is not the enemy."

"Don't assume tried-and-true will continue to perform."

"TV is icky."

You have to compete with yourself so no one else does.

People don't want supermodels anymore. They want celebrities they like.

People don't read web content at home in their precious leisure time, they read it during stolen moments at work.

There is a difference between telling someone, "Stop eating before you're full," and telling them, "Leave three bites on your plate."

"Tri-quarterly" = we "tried" to be quarterly, but it didn't always happen.

"Knitting is a lot more lucrative than feminism."