Life as a Magazine Editor

SONAR issue 2

writingfashionandculture:

    

As mentioned in previous posts, one of our third years - Jess Bishop - is editor of the campus magazine SONAR, written for students by students.

Released every quarter, issue 2 is available at collection points around the university from today and is yet another promising read!

Featuring exclusive interviews with Zoe Ball and the Military Wives Choir. Plus more delicious recipes and insightful features including one on the Olympics.

Collect yours from Solent library or the Andrews building now!

Issue 2

I’ve sent issue 2 to print and I can’t wait to see it in real life. In issue 2, you can find an exclusive interview with the Military Wives Choir, BBC Radio 1 Zoe Ball and much more! Stay tuned…

SONAR magazine Issue 1

writingfashionandculture:

The first issue of SONAR magazine is now available around campus. Grab your free copy from the IT suite or the Student’s Union and see how our very own WFC girl Jess has handled the role as editor!  

Me and issue one.

Stylist Editor interview.

As I said I would, I have an exclusive interview with an Editor. Stephanie Wood, Online Editor at Stylist magazine.

A simple Q&A. 

Enjoy.

How did you get to where you are now?

I studied Sociology at Durham which didn’t really tie me to a specific career path. I spent a summer doing work experience at the PR department of a fashion label in which helped land me the job of PR Assistant at ASOS after I graduated. After two years doing that I decided I wanted to switch sides to editorial, a decision that happened to coincide with the establishment of ASOS’s editorial department, so I took on the role of Online Fashion Writer. I worked hard – online editorial content was only just coming into its own, so there was so much to learn and get involved with - and ended up as Email Editor before moving on, first to a digital agency and then to Stylist. I was lucky to be able to do so well at just one company, but it’s all about hard work, experience and having a passion for what you do.

 How long have you been doing your job for?

I’ve been at Stylist precisely a year today – and am leaving tomorrow! I’ve decided I’m ready to take some time off, and so am heading off travelling for five months in the new year. But I’ve been working online for just over six years.

Do you enjoy it?

Growing stylist.co.uk has been challenging – it had only just launched when I joined, so there was a lot of growth to achieve quickly – but I’ve really enjoyed the last year as I’ve learned and achieved so much. Plus we also get sent a *lot* of cake…

What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

Typically I’m keeping one eye on the day-to-day running of the website, making sure we’re jumping on to breaking news stories, covering the right sort of thing, ensuring stories are going up as planned, etc, whilst the other eye is on long-term projects – things like our plans for next season’s London Fashion Week, or content we can run to tie-in with upcoming special issues of the magazine. Oh, and checking the website’s traffic figures pretty much every hour on the hour!

What is the best thing about your job?

It’s always changing – being an online editor means you can respond to things instantly, so you never know what each day might bring. Plus I love being a part of something that feels genuinely exciting and where you are a big part of the successes and, with Stylist and its parent company, Shortlist Media, still being relatively new, that’s definitely true.

Issue One - Complete.

I can’t believe how far I have come within this last month.

Without sounding too big headed, I have gone from strength to strength. I am extremely proud with how much I have done with the magazine and how amazing it is going to be. I have high hopes that it is going to be a successful publication.

Since I last spoke to you all, I have had a few dramas. My Graphic Designer had pulled out at the last minute, which left me to design the whole magazine, yep that’s right; I had to design 52 pages in 3 days!! As well as my university work, and working in a hotel and sub editing everyone’s work. To say I was stressed is a complete understatement. At the time I didn’t think it would be going to print at 9am on the Monday morning, but it did and I am extremely proud that I made it. (pat on the back to me).

So yes, Issue One of Sonar Magazine has gone to print and I am extremely proud with myself and the rest of the team for getting it together. It is due back from the printers on Monday 12th December. I will of course be uploading a few images of the magazine when it comes back, because as you can imagine I will be showing it off. 

Jess ♥

Being professional…

How exciting, my business cards have arrived. Here is an exclusive image of them. You are the first to see them, I haven’t handed any out yet so feel privileged. 

(Sorry about the poor quality of the font colour, Tumblr seems to change it when I upload the image).

Jess ♥

True Ingredients.

Last week, I went on a day trip to London to interview a Hip Hop band called True Ingredients. I had previously met them in Orange Rooms, a cute bar/club in Southampton and asked if I could use them in a feature in the magazine. They happily said yes and invited me to their penthouse studio in London.

I had a wonderful day in London, yes I did get lost, but seriously, is a country girl supposed to make her way on tubes and not get lost? Despite getting lost many times, I finally managed to make my way to their studio, with a little help of google maps on my iPhone. 

They are a lovely bunch of people, very welcoming, extremely chatty and they all had a great sense of humour. I was only there for about an hour but within that hour it felt like I found out everything possible about them. They spilt a few secrets about their new album, which i’m very excited about.

Once the magazine has been printed, I will share with you the feature I wrote for the magazine. Until then, you will have to wait…

I have uploaded a music video of them so you can get a taste of their music, hope you enjoy it.

Jess ♥

Check them out - www.trueingredients.com

Things are finally picking up…

Things are finally picking up, the magazine is being produced, we have our quotes from the printers and all the feature articles have been submitted. Yay! It is finally becoming real, Sonar magazine is being created, its official!

Proof reading the articles I have been sent gets me more and more excited at the fact I’m an editor and I will have a magazine in my hand with my name printed in a couple of weeks. This time last year, I was contemplating quitting university, journalism wasn’t what I expected it to be, and I was extremely homesick and generally just wasn’t enjoying the new chapter in my life in Southampton.

Now look at me, a successful third year Writing Fashion and Culture university student and an Editor of a magazine!! AN EDITOR. As my parents have always told me, ‘you can do it if you put your heart and mind to it’. They are true, I really can do it.

Life as an Editor is extremely stressful, people think it’s an easy job but it really isn’t. Now I completely understand why Editors in the real world express how hard it is, and you really do have to have passion in your job. I’m sure many people wouldn’t apply for the job if they really knew what happened behind the scenes. People look at it as a dream job, it’s not. Well yes it is, but it’s a stressful dream job. Maybe it’s just me who is finding it extremely stressful because it’s the first time I’ve been an Editor. I can only learn from now.

Jess ♥

Check out our online blog - http://sonarmagazine.co.uk/

Update!

Plenty of emails have been swapped, meetings have taken place and I have become extremely stressed. Yep, that’s right, my Editor job role has finally taken place.

Being an editor is a lot like I thought it would be, time consuming, stressful and a good excuse to show off my new title. Since Thursday 20^th October 2011 I have attended many meetings, sent a large amount of emails and have had a few conversations with people out in the ‘real world’. I feel like someone special, someone in the industry, not just an undergraduate student at Southampton Solent University. If anything, I spend way too much time researching and planning the magazine rather than writing essays for my university work. I really should get my priorities right and put my university work first.

Trying to get my team of contributors to write features to a deadline is a lot more stressful than I thought. Having to pester them to write a feature with a maximum word count of 500 words seems like I’m asking them to climb Mount Everest in 24 hours. I don’t think they understand how important it is to have work completed and sent to the editor by the date that has been set.

Anyway, enough about the contributors, we still have a long way to go with the magazine, we need to find a Graphic Design to produce the magazine, we need to find companies to be advertised in our magazine and last but not least, we need to spread the awareness of the magazine and get the word out there.

If you are interested in Sonar magazine feel free to contact me and I can give you more information. My email address is – offline.editor@sonarmagazine.co.uk.

Jess ♥

Becoming an Editor.

Being on a degree full of trainee journalists I believe it is everyone’s intention to become an editor of a high glossy magazine like Vogue or Elle. However I have a different view on it, I believe being an editor of a successful glossy magazine is something that I can see way in the distance. Getting to that position seems almost impossible.

So, I thought I would start somewhere smaller and aim to become the editor of my university magazine ‘Sonar’. I have been writing features for the publication since starting my degree in 2009. 1000 copies are printed and distributed throughout the university aimed towards the student audience.

Starting my third and final year of my degree, I thought it would be a perfect chance for me to elect myself into this position. Having just under a year until I graduate I decided I had better start gaining as much experience as I can within the journalism industry before I go into the ‘big wide world’.

Advertised throughout the Students Union at Southampton Solent University I noticed they were looking for an editor of the magazine. I had thoughts, second thoughts and third thoughts about whether or not I should put myself up for elections for the role.

I had faith in myself and decided to fill out a nominations form and hand it in. The vice president informed me that nominations would close that week and I would have to attend a meeting where I would have to read out a two-minute speech about why people should vote for me.

Thursday 20^th October 2011 was the day, the day I found out! The day I became the official magazine editor. 

I nervously sat in a room full of students, waiting for my name to be called to read out my proposal. The lady in charge, Vicky, read out the job descriptions of each role that were up for elections. These included: Offline editor (my role) Online blog editor, Finance and Marketing co-ordinator and Sales co-ordinator. She then called out the names of everyone who put them self-forward for a role.

‘Jess Bishop for offline editor’ my name was called out and my heart felt like it was beating 10000 beats per second. I honestly have never been so scared. I nervously stood up and read my speech as to why I would be perfect for the position. The two minutes I had to sell myself for felt like a lifetime. After stuttering and pausing for breath, I managed to complete my speech.

I was then asked to leave the room with one other nominee Lizzee who had her speech before me. We were both running for the same role, which made the conversation awkward when we were left together outside the room. We were asked to leave the room whilst the other students voted for who they wanted to become their editor. Seconds passed and we were asked to walk back into the room. I looked around at people’s faces to see if anyone could give away the fact I had won by smiling at me but everyone had the same natural face.

‘And the new editor is……………..Jess Bishop, well done Jess’. Woo I had won and I was extremely thankful for everyone who had voted.

Jess ♥

Next blog post - The life of an Editor.

Welcome.

Hello and a warm welcome to my blog ‘The life as an Editor’. I, Jessica Bishop am a 20-year-old Jersey girl, studying Writing Fashion and Culture at university. I will be taking you through my journey of being an editor of my university magazine, a brand new role position with lots of goals and aims that I have to achieve. 

Blog posts to look forward to -

+ Being an Editor

+ The life of an Editor

+ An interview with a current Editor

+ Comparison between a student magazine and a mainstream magazine

Enjoy!

Jess ♥

I would like to say that I may use images that aren’t my own, I will not take ownership of these images, I will reference where applicable.