Trade Pressed

We interview a lot of people, but unlike some newspaper reporting, the profile feature article needs to get to the core of the story subject — find out what makes a business owner tick. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just ask, “What makes you tick?” And the subject went on for 20 minutes on what makes him/her really article-worthy?

Doesn’t happen. So what do you ask to really get the good stuff? I just heard a good one — What two or three things about your business really keep you up at night? What’s your favorite interview question?

I’m upset that I missed National Grammar Day (isn’t every day Grammar Day?), but I still want to talk about Grammar Girl’s post on Top Ten Grammar Myths. My first reaction is that endorsing the split infinitive and ending sentences in prepositions is a travesty, but her arguments are too good. With the advent of user-generated content, isn’t it time print journalism just started talking the same way our readers do?

No matter what the AP Stylebook says, there are people out there who think “whom” is a made up word. Like Creed on The Office (after an ad, gotta pay the bills).

I’ve been obsessed with one topic the last few weeks and I’ve been trying to think of a more professional way to talk about it than just arrrrgggggggghhhhhhh! I guess I failed. Ethics.

ROP pages are down, everybody knows it. At my company, it feels like we’re finally satisfied that this isn’t just a “market fluctuation” and new types of ad programs are being formulated. Great! Maybe.

I thought these packages would focus on the Web and Internet projects — cool ways to get more information and more types of information to more people. It’s not going that way, though. We’re entering the golden age of the advertorial. Barf. The days of separation of church and state are gone.

So, dear reader, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much does your company follow the ASBPE Code of Ethics or similar? There has to be a way for my magazine to make money and for me to keep my ethics.

The push to Web 2.0 is on everywhere, and at our company, a lot of people are hot for Web video. Everyone wants to design pages to accommodate video, we have people hunting down video applications, but not many people are stopping to ask where all these videos are going to come from.

Personally, and I hope my opinion does change someday, I’m not too hot for video. We’re having enough trouble meeting quotas for copy. I don’t think readers want to tune in to hear me drone on about something just to meet some Web standard. Plus, I don’t want to be on camera.

Sure, we could interview people/readers for our Web video, but our company isn’t set up with the budget, personnel or training for this type of work.

And I don’t watch too much online video, anyway. I find video players have compatibility issues about 60 percent of the time. I’d much rather just read than have to watch. Unless it’s the talking baby commercial from Super Bowl Sunday.

Here’s how introductions to new people go for me: Someone asks me what I do for a living. I say I’m a magazine editor. The person’s face lights up and a broad smile spreads.

“Oh really? What magazine?”

“It’s a trade magazine called …” I’ve already lost my audience. How about a little respect? My job is important, after all! Over the holidays, for the first time ever another person asked me for career advice. She’s 28, studied art in Europe for years and is now looking for a job — writing. From the look on her face, you’d think I killed her puppy when I told her the best game in town is the trade press (OK, so this isn’t exactly New York).

And this week, the scariest prospect of all is upon me: career day. So to prepare myself, I’ve composed the top 10 reasons trade press is awesome:

10. No math. Well, some math. But no math for math’s sake.

9. Free coffee. Maybe this isn’t an exclusive to the trade press, but it’s good.

8. Free travel. I’ve seen so much stuff I never would have without the trade press.

7. Free swag. Pens, notepads, coffee cups, t-shirts and the occasional gym bag.

6. Monthly deadlines. Or weekly. Better than daily. Which reminds me …

5. No city council meetings. No explanation necessary.

4. Fame beyond your wildest dreams. In the industry, anyway. I’m a semi-celebrity. Especially during the aforementioned travel.

3. Stet. Does the average person know what it means? No. Do I? Yes. It’s like a secret society.

2. Being around other people who laugh at bad grammar, too. And who also have an addiction to good pens. See #7.

1. Full-time writing job. You can’t really argue about this one. It is pretty nice to be making money for putting pen to paper

And there are millions, millions more reasons.