Zombies

New York City- Forbidden Planet a comic store located on 13th and University presents various new forms of literature you might have missed. You may have passed by it on the way to a more “legitimate” store for books The Strand just a block away. But next time take some time to stop by. You may find out there’s more the stores have more literary commonalities than you first thought.

If in fact you do stop by and don’t notice the rise of zombies, you’re probably hiding from their bloodthirsty quest to take over classic literary works. These mash-up novels combining literary works that are under public domain with pop culture monsters took off with the publication of Seth Grahame-Smith and co-author Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The book, which takes the classic, Pride and Prejudice story line and blending it together with exactly what the title stated, zombies, created an entirely new genre labeled mash-ups. The works however aren't what many would likely know as mash-ups. Instead of the musical mash-ups which in many cases are simply taking vocals from one song and combining them with the beat or music of another isn't the goal for these works of fiction. These mash-up authors try to stay away from simply putting two opposites together just to make something that sounds new.

"What many readers fail to realize is the complexity of the work that goes into creating a mash-up novel," says Zac Evan's, 23, a staff member of Forbidden Planet a New York City based comic store. "It's really opening up a new realm in which very modern ideas feed on classics.” There is a shifting in the way books are both written as well consumed.

What you can expect from a novel such as Grahame-Smith's is close attention to the original works with close to 80% of the books writing being that of Jane Austen. The mash-up isn't throwing away the original text completely but rather using it as the foundation on which the author builds a new and accurate portrayal of the novel, but inserting zombies made profound a literary statement. Jane Austen’s original is thought of as an untouchable work literature, but Smith’s incorporation of zombies made us aware that we need something more to keep these books alive for the reader. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a classic work of fiction that has been taught and re-taught, read and reread until the book has become just what Grahame-Smith has put in. We are constantly trying to keep these books alive for readers but it in doing so only make them undead and not truly alive as they once were.

The book as of April 9th, 2009 rose to the third spot on the New York Times best-seller list and the readers can expect a sequel as well as multiple other adaptations fro other classics by various authors. These works became a popular read which opened the floodgates to even more books from this genre being created. As the book’s popularity increased we saw a shift in how we can approach classic works of fiction. These literary mash-ups are not the only a new form of writing. With new ways of writing continuously being brought to life we need to question how literature is going to be revitalized and moved into the modern world.

It may come as no surprise that in Japan another literary shift is taking place. This movement is not about altering classics but how the books actually written. What have emerged are books written through text messaging. These full-fledged novels called keitai composed by the furious thumbs of young teens, which eventually turn into full-length hard copy books. What's even more astonishing is the success they’ve generated.

In fact according to the LA Times the 15 year old author known as "Bunny," a popular author for the genre has sold 110,000 copies of her book Wolf Boy x Natural Girl, and generated a gross income of $611,000. In fact, according to London’s The Independent, five of last years top ten selling novels in Japan were originally cell phone generated. The popularity of this new genre at first was thought to be un-noteworthy, but the rise and prevalence of them as legitimate works of fiction has propelled the genre to just as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies recreate how we think about writing and the consumption of literature.

"In a new modern culture we are ingesting both fiction and nonfiction alike in very different ways and it seems to be a very natural progression for writing," said Nkosi Bandele a literary professor at the New School University in New York, who went on further to talk about the necessity of creating new forms of writing in order to keep the art moving forward. That these works should be taken seriously whether or not they were written using another texts words or on a cell phone, each form has its merits and values.

These books, which can be read via cell phone, are just the cusps of a changing way in which books are being consumed. Now with the recent development of Kindle, an electronic device much like an ipod storing books and other texts digitally, making works more easily accessible and fitting to the modern reader. With each new form comes a new way to both interpret and read works both modern and old. Literature is changing and readers are eating it up.

Being Thin Doesn't Always Lead to Eternal Happiness

With the increasing number of obese Americans, officials believe being thin leads to depression not being overweight

Every January, millions of Americans create one goal for themselves to to achieve in the new year: to lose weight. The American standard of beauty evolves tall and lean individuals and although it’s nearly impossible to choose your desired height, it is a choice to choose your desired weight. A choice many Americans attempt to try.

With the obesity rate in the nation rising, many health officials are concerned about the well-being of many Americans. According to the FDA, obesity has quickly risen to become one of the causing factors of fatality in Americans due to poor diet; which contributes to the diagnosis of a numerous diseases including heart disease, cancer and kidney failure.

According to the American Obesity Association (AOA) nearly 34 percent of adults are obese, more than double the percentage 30 years ago. The number of obese children has increased also, to 17 percent and is the highest in the nation’s history.

Now that more Americans are aware of their poor diet choices and high-caloric foods (due to the government PSAs and advertisements advocating healthy diets) more and more are looking into extreme dieting as an alternative to fit in society standards. In a poll conducted by the American Psychology Association (APA) in March, 41% of their new patients were diagnosed with depression because of poor self-esteem. The irony of it all is that, psychologists also discovered that the depression is a result of the patients weight loss and not weight gain.

The pressure to remain thin is a tough one, just ask Franchesa Marino, 21, a student at Boston College. Besides studying sociology, she is active on the school’s division I volleyball and softball teams, and having recently lost a significant amount of weight she feels the pressure of being thin. “Honestly, I was happier when I was overweight because I didn’t have to live up to the standards of being thin, I get my weight checked on a weekly basis because of sport requirements.” She says. “It’s strange, I think I deprive myself so much that having so many limitations on what I can eat is making me miserable.”

With obesity rates still on the rise, as well as low self esteem, is it really better to be thin? Last November, British supermodel Kate Moss caused controversy worldwide when she said “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” in a an article for Women’s Wear Daily. The quote garnered tons of attention because it came just weeks after fashion officials in Paris, announced their decision to use models that weighed at least 115 pounds. At 5’6 and 105-pounds, Moss was accused of glorifying a view of beauty in the fashion industry that contradicts the typical lifestyle of the average person.

Inger Hustrulid, 30, a registered dietitian and nutritionist at Foundations Family Nutrition in Massachusetts, believes many Americans are happiest when overweight because they don’t deprive themselves of comfort foods. “When your dieting you’re constantly thinking about food because you’re always hungry, whereas when you’re overweight eating isn’t constantly running through your mind” she says. “People are happier because they eat the foods they want and don’t feel guilty about it. Thinner people try to maintain their figures so if they do occasionally slip on their diets, they feel guilty, overeat and become angry at themselves about it.”

Negative body image plays a huge factor in obesity, especially among adolescents, according to Chris Godfrey, a psychology professor at Pace University. “There’s absolutely no win in being overweight or thin. If overweight, you’re at a health risk and if thin you’re a greater risk of developing low self-image because you’ll never find satisfaction because you compare yourself too often with other people.

The physical appearance doesn’t coincide with the interior body appearance for a lot of individuals. With Hollywood A-Listers such as Jessica Simpson, Hilary Duff and Beyonce embracing curvaceous figures, the definition of beauty in America is slightly changing. Simpson, Duff and Beyonce have each lost a significant amount of weight in the past (Simpson for Dukes of Hazard, Duff for an album Dignity and Beyonce for Dreamgirls) and each publicly opened up about the grueling process of losing the weight and not feeling good about themselves.

Jessica Simpson has seen it the worst as she was photographed during a concert appearance last year with a more plump figure. She was ridiculed by the media, but confessed that she is a lot happier now then she was in her thinner days and is more comfortable in her own skin. She even has adopted a new philosophy “eat whatever makes you feel good.”

Socialite Kim Kardashian is also known for her curves as well as Jennifer Lopez. Kardashian however, endorses a product with GNC called QuikTrim which is a 14-day cleanse intended for those in desire to lose weight. Kardashian has gotten quite a bit of criticism for her endorsement deal for QuikTrim because she along with her sisters Khloe and Kourtney advocated positive self-esteem amongst young females and endorsing a quick-solution weight loss product contradicts all the positivity they implied they had for their curvaceous figures.

Then there’s model Lizzie Miller, who garnered tons of attention last fall when she posed nude for a Glamour magazine editorial. Thousands of models have posed nude for magazines for years and even Glamour magazine has had their fair share of naked models, but there is one exemption that sets Lizzie Miller from the rest: she’s a plus size model. Miller, 20 who wears a size-12 (size-8 and above is considered plus-sized) admitted in the magazine that she is comfortable in her skin, whereas a few years ago, she was uncomfortable in her own skin. A few years ago she was a size-4 catalog model.

Miller believed that her poor self-image was due to the fact that she was never accepted in the modeling world. Where a standard size is two, Miller was a four, where most models were 100-pounds, Miller was 110-pounds. Although the differences are uncanny and small, the effect of an extra ten pounds can do a lot to a person self-esteem. Miller says “I constantly struggled to be the same size as the other models, it drove me insane.” “Now that I’m considered a plus-size, I’ve accepted myself. I don’t care about how my weight compares to others because I’m happy and healthy and that all that really matters.”

The APA believes that women, who aren’t overweight are more pressured to maintain a healthy weight than the women who are. In the same study which concluded that 41% of new patients suffered depression courtesy of weight loss; it was also discovered that 29 of that 41-percent think that weight gain is more noticeable on thinner individuals. They believe that if thin people put on weight, they are often ridiculed about it, then if an overweight person gains a couple of pounds. Americans who have recently lost a fair amount of weight, are often pressured as well to maintain their new slim figures; and become prone to mental and eating disorders such as manic depression and binge eating.

Renee Whitten, a 48 year old secretary at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston struggled with her weight since she was a teenager. Last summer she decided to test the odds and get gastric bypass surgery. By January she was already down 80 pounds. Although she is no longer classified as overweight, Robinson was happier in her own skin. “I had a negative body image and I thought that losing weight would change that,” she says. “I actually regret losing so much weight. I can no longer eat the foods I love and my stomach hurts even if I try to.”

Although it’s quite obvious that negative body image leads to low self-esteem, it’s not so obvious that the many individuals who experience low self-esteem are people who are considered thin by society’s standards. The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a statistical measure used by the World Health Organization to determine a person’s body weight. In the United States a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 kilometers is considered in the healthy range and any BMI over 25 km is classified as obese and is at risk for heart diseases and diabetes.

A five-foot-three woman who weighs one hundred and forty-five pounds is considered overweight because she has a BMI of 25.7 km. A five-foot-seven women who weights one hundred and forty-five pounds is considered a healthy weight, with a BMI of only 22.7 km. Although both women weigh exactly the same, the five-foot-three woman is classified as overweight in health standards, where the five-foot-seven woman is considered healthy and at normal weight.

Inger Hustrulid believes that figuring out BMI can negatively affect a person’s self-esteem because what is considered obese in health standards can be acceptable in beauty standards, which is obviously contradictory. “If someone is unaware of the fact that they’re overweight, they have a higher chance at becoming obese and an even higher risk of developing diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.” She says, “BMI, only measures the ratio of body fat based on the height and weight of a person; so people who seem thin can have a relatively high BMI, which has a few negative factors. One is that they’re unaware of their potential risk of obesity, and the other is that once they find out their BMI percentage they can develop a series of depression and self-hatred. if they’re not happy with the results.”

Happiness is based on self-love an individual has for his or herself. If a three hundred pound man is satisfied with his appearance then society should accept it as they would with one and sixty pound man. Being “skinny” isn’t desirable if millions of Americans are depressed over their appearance. Chris Godfrey thinks that it’s a combination of the mental and physical health, that make up a healthy individual. “Being extremely thin or extremely obese doesn’t have a positive effect on the individual or the society around them. He says. “Accepting yourself and following proper diet is probably the best solution in solving the depression-weight fiasco.”

The AOA is on the same note as Godfrey. In the past year, the association has been advocating for physical health more than usual (with the rise of obesity rates) and their efforts are proving to be successful making an affect on Washington D.C. First Lady Michelle Obama has been concerned with childhood obesity and is taking steps to overturn the nation’s obesity rates in adolescents. President Obama and the U.S. House of Representatives have also joined the AOA’s efforts in eliminating American obesity by passing and signing a healthcare reform bill in March. The bill provides health insurance for all Americans (which include mental health services) and caloric guidelines for chain-restaurants and fast food places across the country.

Hustrulid is a bit more keen to push Americans into starting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle which includes a proper diet, regular exercise and possibly meditation. “Self-satisfaction often starts with the physical appearance. Americans need to change their eating habits and develop effective exercise habits.” She says. “From there, positive self-esteem comes in, since exercise has proven to have positive mental effects on individuals.”

Weight measurements on a bathroom scale shouldn’t make a huge impact on the lives of Americans as it does. With near perfect physiques on movie stars, models and athletes it’s evident that low self-esteem can be caused by a desire to look like your favorite actor, athlete or musician. Just like the average American, these individuals face the same weight debacles, and probably worse since they work in competitive environments and are surrounded with tons of enablers, money and accessibility to cosmetic surgeons, nutritionists and personal trainers. If being thin is about extreme dieting and constant unhappiness than the increase in American obesity is starting to make a hell of a lot more sense.

School Lunch Warriors

Something new is hitting the lunch trays at New York public schools- vegetables. Fresh vegetables, you know, those colorful things that come out of the ground. School lunches were once synonymous with highly processed foods that hardly represented their original ingredients. But recently, at some New York City Public schools, not for profits and the Department of Education have redesigned menus and collaborated with popular chefs to jazz up the grub and tighten the relationship between kids, food, and what they eat.

The need to change school lunches did not come out of nowhere- recent studies have shown that the United States has been getting less and less healthy- kids being no exception. According to the Center for Disease Control’s 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Survey, 18.1% of kids ages 12-19 are obese. In their study from 1976-1980, only 5% were obese. Seeing as school is one place most kids eat at some point during the day, New York City is leading the pack by trying to make at least one of the day’s meals fresh and healthy.

While the US Department of Agriculture sets the nutritional standards for all school lunches, in New York a combination of work from the Department of Education’s School Food program and different not for profits have been meeting those standards while working to better the health and decrease the obesity rates of their students.

The New York Coalition for Healthy School Food is one of those not for profits. The Coalition was started to push a legislative resolution to implement a new standard for school lunches- to provide one plant-based entrée in every school lunch so anyone opting for a veggie option isn’t stuck with the side salad. Amie Hamlin, the Executive Director of the program, was asked by concerned public school parents to write and organize the resolution.  Well good writing and organizing Hamlin must have done, as the resolution was unanimously passed by the New York senate. Hamlin said the plant-based lunch makeovers are soon to be on plates in 24 schools.

The Coalition teamed up with Candle 79, a vegetarian restaurant on the Upper East Side, to make fresh vegetarian dishes that hopefully appeal to students. During the past school year the Coalition has been running a pilot program and working with Candle 79 at the Future Leader’s Institute in Harlem. The program has included a revamp of the school lunch menu, as well as classroom education about nutrition and a free once monthly family dinner night.

The Coalition has had to work with the Department of Education to meet nutrition standards. Hamlin said the New York Department of Education’s School Food program is doing well compared to other states. “They use no artificial colors, preservatives, or trans fats. It doesn’t necessarily make food healthy, but it’s a good step.” Hamlin said. And on working with the Department, she said, “Considering it’s such a bureaucracy, they’re fairly easy to work with.” The Department certainly has a lot of ground to cover- New York City is the largest school system in the country- feeding kids at 1600 schools every day- now that is no small feat.

With the schools on board, the next step in providing healthier food for schools is getting the kids to like it. David Sapphire is the coordinator of the New York City Green Market’s Learn it, Grow it, Eat it Program. He works with students from four high schools in the South Bronx at various community gardens. Despite being offered a fresh lunch cooked on site, a lot of students refuse it and walk down the road to get fast food. “It’s not so simple,” Sapphire said, “It’s a comfort thing. They’re not used to vegetables as their meal.”

To make healthy, vegetable focused food a comfortable option for kids, getting the family on board has been recognized by organizations as a rather important step. Hamlin’s Coalition’s once monthly family dinner night provides dinner as well as education material and coking demos for the entire family of any students who want to attend.

Hamlin said the dinner nights have been full of excitement, and success. “Recently the mother of a student got up on the table and twirled around because she had lost 15 pounds.” Hamlin said. “She said to everyone, “You can do it too.” And it was because she learned about all the sugar in soda during the family dinner nights.”

At the moment, not every school is working with organizations such as Hamlin’s, and still has improvements to make. Juliet Tam, a teacher at the Bronx Leadership Academy in the South Bronx, said, “I went to check out the school lunch recently. It was awful, I would never eat that stuff.” Her students said they never eat it either, and bring a lunch instead.

Perhaps not all kids are thrilled with what they are being fed, but according to Chef Jorge Collazo, who collaborated with the Food Network’s celebrity chef Rachel Ray to redesign lunch menus, New York is working its way up the school lunch ladder. “Schools are very complicated places,” Collazo said, “It takes a lot of awareness to change. Some people make criticisms without understanding the context.”

While not every New York City public school has had the help of notable chefs and additional organizations, there is a future of health seeping into the scene, and with any luck, there will be no lunch tray left behind. 

New York City and its Dogs

In 2006, the United States Census Bureau reported that there was a 72.1 million pet dog population. With the millions of people in New York City, and its close quarters, New York City dogs have become an important part of the landscape. Another important factor of the New York City landscape is parks. Combined with parks New York City pets, and their owners help to shape a charming personality and subculture of the city.

People in New York City are notorious for caring for their pets, says Tessa Huxley, of the Battery Park Conservancy, “we have more dogs living in the area, than children, and we have forged a lovely little relationship”.

As evidenced by the multitude of pet shops, dog groomers, and doggy daycares in existence the dog community is flourishing; with still more cropping up. This past Friday, Citipup opened its doors to 8th Avenue pet aficionados, complementing the Veterinary Hospital and grooming station just off of 8th avenue on west 18th street. Downtown Doghouse, on 18th street caters to the pet community, and even recognizes dogs before their owners.

One dog owner speaks to this, "There is a definite New York City park dog community because the dogs need to be socialized, and they get to know each other, it's different than the suburbs." says Terry, with her dog, Betty.


Coco Pecroni, buyer and manager of Downtown Doghouse says, "We have been in business for seven years, we keep notes on all our dog customers, and we can tell if a dog is not himself". She says there is a flourishing dog culture, especially in Chelsea, with the 23rd street dog run being a contributing factor.

"If I look out the window, I'll see 10 dogs walk by in 10 minutes"

Newly opened Citipup manager, Leo Malheiros, speaks to the demand of pet stores and local dog shops. "We took a hit when the economy slowed at the beginning, but, we still sell dogs because people still need love".

Malheiros says, "My parents have been in the business for 15 years, this is a good neighborhood, we work with the vet on 18th street." Again, the dog community is forging its way within the city; this has much to do with location, and park access.


City parks have become an important part of dog owner's lives. As parks such as Washington Square Park are remodeled, it has become apparent what a big part of the city is influenced by these new facilities. The dog run sits almost directly across from the newly erected playground, it puts into perspective New York City residents priorities.

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has provided owners with a comprehensive guide of rules and regulations regarding leash laws and all manner of other dog related concerns. The city website has a list of dog run park facilities according to what Borough the owner resides in.


What is striking however, is the city parks that make the decision not to be dog friendly. One such park is the Highline, the newest, uber trendy city park to open, does not allow dogs. When asked to comment, the man on the phone, who declined to give his name, said he thought the reasons were pretty obvious, citing walking traffic and the above ground layout as determining factors.

"I think it is horribly discriminatory and I do not go to the highline for that reason." Said Terry, a Dog owner walking her dog, Betty in Washington Square Park.

In fact, though the city is doing its best to accommodate its pets and owners, the exclusion of dogs from city recreational facilities, has many owners taking issue.

"To be honest, lawns are dog free, it makes it harder because we would love to take her more places." Said Sarah, Tom and their dog Annie.

Whether justified or not, the decisions parks make help to shape the feeling and openness of a park. City parks are supposed to be somewhat accommodating to all, shaping the experience of the city itself. When the park experience feels unwelcoming, or unaccommodating, the public is likely to get upset.

"It would be nice if they would just trust pet owners a little more," Sarah lamented.

Geoffrey Croft, of New York City Parks Advocates, is on the fence about dogs and parks. “There are several different issues, one being that we do not have properly existing laws for dog owners at parks, another is that many dog owners simply do not understand non-dog owners”.

“I have had a woman tell me that her dog pays taxes too and that it can go to the bathroom on the lawn where a child may be crawling”.

Croft maintains that the laws must be changed, and a balance put into place. “We have the most expensive dog run in the country here in the city, I have certainly tried to help people establish a space for dogs in parks where there is none, I work closely with the community to administer the establishment of better and more dog runs on a daily basis”.

“Some dog owners have a huge disconnect with reality, which makes it hard on all of us.” Croft reflects that the change must begin with an understanding.

Paul Columbia, founder of NYC Dog Walkers has an interesting philosophy on dog people and park behavior, his musing were zen. “Just like anything else, we have to draw the line, shorten the leash”.

“We go on 100,000 dog walks per year, and we try to respect the parks and space, I really believe if you do unto others, as you would do unto yourself we can all coexist, personally, it would be better is people were less absorbed”


“The owners I deal with are very pleasant and we understand each other”, Columbia notes, as he reflects on the different dogs he has dealt with. It seems that in the New York City dog subculture, the few owners who are negligent set a negative tone. However, those who are involved in the dog community understand that only a few dog owners are ignorant and the dog culture of the city is quite fun and playful.

Stefan Marchione, Arsenal Reception at the New York City Parks and Recreational facilities maintains that most parks are very accommodating saying that the health and safety of humans comes first, and that most issues are demographic. “Our rules are put in place by the Department of Health, we simply implement them, and the parks that do not allow dogs off-leash are simply geared toward different activities”.

The fact remains, that though some parks may be exclusionary or less accommodating there are many city parks to choose from and each has a certain charm that sets it apart from the rest. Dogs are a large part of this charm, and the city’s appeal is shaped by this unique relationship it has with its dogs.

Buskers on the Internet- Building Community

In the British Columbian town of Nanaimo, there is a crowd building around several musicians who are playing music on the street. A man with an accordion, a singer, a guitar player and whoever comes to play is welcome. The musicians do not ask for money today, which is unusual, because these musicians are self proclaimed buskers. These musicians make money by playing shows in public spaces. Some of them play for a living others play for extra cash. MC is the accordion player. He is a big kind looking man with graying hair and bold features, his voice is deep and soft. C has brought the group together to protest the town’s change in bylaw. The new bylaw states that all buskers must audition to receive a $20 license for performing in public according to the Nanaimo Daily News in August 2009. This show is to protesting the ban, and though they ask for no money, the spectators give anyway to show their support. MC created a blog he calls ‘busking Canadian-like.’ Everything the audience needed to know about the busker protest is on that website.

In a traditionally individualistic lifestyle of a street musician, ‘Busker J,’ or MC is one example of the many buskers who have created websites as a reference for fellow street musicians. Many buskers have found that a community is easiest to achieve online. Of the Internet, Mr. C said, “I keep in contact with buskers all over the world.” It’s a very unique phenomenon for buskers to have a structured support. The English term ‘busking’ or, as many Americans say, ‘street performing,’ is ancient. On street corners people have been exchanging their art for money through centuries. They have also been using their art to speak their opinions of government in city environments where they can easily be heard.

The Internet provides a new way to communicate because it does not have the same power from the government that takes form in these bylaws like we saw in Nanaimo. Along with the rest of the world, Internet is changing the way buskers interact with each other and their audience. The lonesome, individualist community of buskers that once stood alone or in small groups on city streets all over the world, has found their community on the web. Busking sites online give information that include the different state laws of busking and advice that includes where to busk and how to get the most tips. Where, in the past the law has found ways to usher buskers into criminality, the web offers a safe haven.  Matt of Australia gives tips on the best places to busk at his site buskerworld.com. “You always have to write down where you go- because you’ll always forget” Matt says on one of his youtube.com advice videos. Street Arts and Buskers Advocates is another site that offers a long history of busking including laws, and stories that go back to the 1960’s. Stefen Bead is a street performer and the founder of the Street Arts and Buskers Advocates web site. The site is embellished with little cut outs of blue performers at the top, and an extensive inventory of history and laws in scattered cities all over the globe.

The lore of busking and its actual history has been interwoven into a tight knot of fact and fiction, because the practice is so ancient and vast. However Mr. Bead was boasted as "the national authority on the history of busking." Stefen Bead is a hard accented Bostonian with a soft but powerful way of going on lengthy speeches about the importance of busking politically and socially. Righteously he said "Since the beginning of time there have been street performers." "It's the street musician's job," he added, "to question society." Similar to Mr. Bead, busker, MC runs buskerworld.com on which he sells a course on how to make a living by busking. “[Busking] is much more regulated now,” he said. “The general public is more supportive now than ever before.”

The history of busking compiled online makes the lineage of buskers fascinatingly mythical. Performing in the streets was born from political advocacy. By definition a busker makes art in public spaces to procure money. The word "busker" comes from the Greek word 'buskin' which were shoes worn by actors in ancient Greek and Roman tragedies. ‘Busker’ also has a derivation from the Italian verb 'buscare' meaning to gain, search for or wander. The verb has not last its meaning in the English coined word for street performers, for many musicians travel around the world on money they earn from busking everyday. A busker or street performer comes in many forms in the city. Street performers range from opera singers, to jugglers, acrobats and fire breathers. However, the most popular form of busking is in the street musician- an instrument and a song. Mr. Bead went on to say that busking was and still is a political movement through art. It has been political from the Ancient Greeks to the French Revolution and the 1960's. “Every generation takes on the streets,” he said.

The busker has always been at the fringes of society, just outside the law. Street Performers began singing political poetry or "libelli famosi" in the streets of Rome between about 450-451 B.C. Street Performers were also taken form in gypsy musicians and fortunetellers. A law was passed in England in 1530 by King Henry VIII stating that any 'fortune teller, street performer or beggar' would be whipped for two consecutive days.' This is according to several websites including buskerworld.com. Whether this piece of information is truth or lore seems irrelevant to the point, which is, a street musician has rarely been understood by the law. All the laws against street musicians have been attempts to plan the spontaneity of the art.

Busking became popular in the US at the turn of the century with blues musicians like Jed Caanon and his Jugstompers. Bands like Jed Caanon played popular songs for money. It was never seen as a 'mainstream' profession, it has been confused with panhandling and begging- as we see in Tudor’s England. New York City Mayor Laguardia passed a law that banned street performing in 1935. It was not until the 1960's when folk singers like Pete Seeger began to play on the streets and Mayor Lindsey lifted the ban. In order to keep the street performing authorized by some kind of outer government organization, it is now strongly advised that people performing in the subways have a license with the Music Under New York program. Music Under New York, or MUNY, is a program that holds auditions for performers of any genre and background to play on the subway platforms of New York (it is still illegal to perform in the subway cars). John Cohen, 77, a former judge for the program and musician who played in a well known band called The New Lost City Ramblers reminisced about the 1960’s and times before MUNY. He remembered the spontaneity of musicians playing on the street “they were just playing in unexpected places” he said, then added with some nostalgia “now the street performers have to be licensed.” However, licenses have never stopped street performers in the past. Jene Giday a full time busker of four years said she never had problems with being asked to “move along” she said, “but some buskers don't evidence much common sense----they use their amps.” It sounds as though they need some solid advice from a man who has been all around the world busking on corners, in parks and on subways for money like Matt.

According to the current public.legalinfo.ny.us website, the current New York law states that a performer should not receive any gratuity for a ‘service’ or performance. This is unless it a “compensation based upon payments received by or on behalf of such member of the public as a result of his employment in the field of show business,” (on the bill section 37.7). Street performers are allowed to play in the street as long as they are receiving money solely for their entertainment.

MC, ‘professional’ busker complained of authorities administering busking and its ever changing, ever confusing laws saying that “the regulations are not monitored properly or fairly...sometimes I just won’t even bother [performing].” Laws like these include fines and the confiscation of instruments, sometimes they are only demands to “move along.” Indeed, with all these laws that appear so random and harsh, it seems that the only people who can grasp and congeal the busking world are the buskers themselves. Buskers use the Internet to organize themselves after a long history of fighting the law on their own. The Internet is a unique invention that has allowed buskers to legitimize themselves.

The British Columbian busking blogger, MC also known as “busker M” has a blog stock full of videos. The videos are short clips of him in an English flag spangled room singing and harping against the laws of busking. The blog advertises to “inspire up and coming artists to freely express their music.” Though it has the low quality feeling of a handmade website, many people have viewed the videos, the site is neither dusty nor ignored by the Internet surfers. Mr. C complains in a rhythmic poem about the laws in British Colombia (and all over the world) on one of the videos called Buskers and the Lawman. This battle cry of the busker community has become more much sharper and organized with these new websites and videos that tie the busking world together for support and to make the practice itself professional.

Texas Board of Ed. Could Delay Vote

For nearly two months, media outlets and organizations have covered the controversial and drastic proposals made by the Texas Board of Education to the social studies curriculum, which is expected to pass on May 21st. There is now a possibility that the Board of Education may delay the vote.

Knowing that Texas is one of the largest buyers of textbooks in the country, so publishing companies tend to tailor their textbooks to fit within the curriculum guidelines proposed, the proposed curriculum changes have caused alarm. Many see some of the hundreds of proposals made by the Texas Board of Education as biased, such as the Board’s decision to replace the term “capitalism” with the term “free-enterprise,” removing the term Democracy or Democratic to describe our system of government and replace it with Constitutional Republic, adding a section to promote “American Exceptionalism” and ask students to identify how “American values are different and unique from those of other nations,” and describing Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee as “heroes.” So radical are the proposed amendments that the Associated Press stated that the Texas Board of Education is led by a “far-right faction.”

But the topic most focused on was the removal of Thomas Jefferson. On March 19th, the Texas Board of Education released a statement in regards to the Thomas Jefferson claim.

“Some media outlets erroneously reported the State Board of Education was dropping Thomas Jefferson from the curriculum frameworks,” reads the statement. “Although Jefferson has been listed in a World History standard, the board removed his name from a list of European Enlightenment philosophers that included John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu and Jean Jacques Rousseau.”

Gail Lowe, the chair of the Texas Board of Education, states “Jefferson was not himself an Enlightenment philosopher, although he was heavily influenced by the writings of these individuals. But to say the State board of Education has removed him from the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) is inaccurate and irresponsible.”

However, the Texas Board of Education has not told the whole story. The original text read “explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present.” It is true that the board voted to remove Jefferson from this section. But in his place, they added Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and William Blackstone.

The New York Times reported that the board “managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century.” While this is as close to reality as the media has gotten to regarding the Jefferson section, even the New York Times missed a key point.

Thomas Jefferson was not just removed from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century. The original language specifically asked students to explain the impact of “Enlightenment ideas,” so the New York Times, and subsequently numerous media outlets, got the story slightly wrong.

But further study reveals why this may have happened and spread. The board did not just remove Jefferson from the section on the Enlightenment. They removed the Enlightenment. The section now reads “explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and William Blackstone,” making the section vague as to its intent.

In regards to Thomas Jefferson’s role in the Enlightenment period, board member Don McLeroy, a self described “fundamentalist Christian” and “young-earth Creationist” with a lively and engaging personality stated “When I looked it up afterwords, in the controversy over that, I kind of favored putting Jefferson back in.”

But when asked why they removed the term Enlightenment, McLeroy changed tone. “We added Thomas Aquinas, you would have to take him out of the enlightenment. I don’t know that William Blackstone and John Calvin were included as enlightenment thinkers, so that’s the reason the term was taken out.”

This action like many others appear to be politically charged. Republican board member, Bob Craig, stated “there are those on the board who wish to promote their own personal political biases on the curriculum standards.” He continued “At the end of the day, if based on my overview of all the input I have received, especially from teachers, if its not what I would consider to be accurate then I am not going to be for it.”

Two other Republicans on the Board of Education, Geraldine Miller and Pat Hardy, are also showing signs that they may decide to delay the vote. If all three Republican board members vote to delay, it will be just enough to stop the curriculum from passing.

But even Dr. McLeroy, considered the most radically right leaning member on the Board of Education, has begun to change his mind based on input. After an in depth discussion about the proposed curriculum, Dr. McLeroy agreed that some points were in fact biased and should be changed. Some of these included changing a section in the curriculum in which Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee are described as heroes as well as referring to the pledge of allegiance as a student “responsibility.”

However, many are calling on the board to not just change some of the standards, but to delay the vote completely, due to the lack of knowledge that some of the board members expressed about their own curriculum. When Dr. McLeroy had the “heroes” section and pledge of allegiance section mentioned to him, he responded “I don’t know why that’s in there. I wasn’t involved in that.” He continued “We’ve had so many things that we have talked about. I just have no idea.”

A Death at the Heart of a Community

The Board of Directors of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers (Saint Vincent's) reluctantly voted to authorize the closure of St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan inpatient services including all acute, rehab, and behavioral health. The vote came after a six-month long effort to save the financially troubled institution, which has operated in the Village for over 160 years.

"We are watching a murder here on Seventh Avenue," Eileen Dunn, a nurse at St. Vincent's for 24 years who heads her union local, shouted to 200 neighbors and co-workers crowding the sidewalk between 11th and 12th streets on Thursday. "These thieves, they have stolen our hospital!" cried Sylvia Rosenberg, 87, a tiny woman who lives nearby. Rosenberg said she had been a patient at St. Vincent's more times than she could remember. She clutched a plastic shopping bag and craned her neck to reach the microphone: "I was a teacher in city schools for 37 and a half years. Don't I deserve to have a real hospital in my neighborhood?"

One of the things that makes St. Vincent's closing so jarring is that it came just two weeks after the new and hopeful national health care legislation passed. Barbara Crane, a big woman with a booming voice who heads the new national federation of nurses, told of standing next to Barack Obama in the White House last month as he called for Congress to pass the legislation: "We didn't fight for that bill so that a major hospital in Manhattan would close," she bellowed.

The shutdown perplexed those who have made careers out of desperate patient rescues. "Explain to me how it is," asked Dr. Ira Wagner, who spent 30 years in St. Vincent's intensive care unit, "that the government can bail out banks, but not a hospital?"

The debate about the perps responsible for this slaying continues: Suspects include insurance companies that low-balled the hospital on reimbursement rates; board members who threw millions at clueless executives and consultants; and politicians who dithered as a crucial community asset slid into a morass of debt.

Whatever the killers' identities, it would be hard to find a more innocent victim: St. Vincent's was the city's first voluntary hospital for the poor, founded in 1849 by a Catholic order, the Sisters of Charity. It aided victims of the cholera and tuberculosis epidemics that swept downtown in repeated waves. In 1911, it treated survivors of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that killed 146 after bosses locked the doors to keep out union organizers; a year later, it took in survivors of the Titanic.

It was church-run, and for years, a morning prayer was broadcast for patients and staff. Conservative archbishops held sway over policies. But by accident of geography, it played the closest of roles in the lives, and deaths, of its many gay neighbors.

The day before the nurses and doctors rallied, several local politicians, led by City Council speaker Christine Quinn, showed up across from the hospital. All were angry at the turn of events, but they had already adopted a fall-back position: that an "urgent care" facility be maintained at the site. This sounded a lot like an emergency room, which is the way some papers reported it. Actually, it's a big step down from an ER. It's closer to what's called a "Doc in a Box": a retail facility to treat problems like flu or mild fractures. Trauma victims, like the kids stabbed aboard the No. 2 train last month who were rushed to St. Vincent's, will have to go elsewhere. They'll either be trucked through uptown traffic to Roosevelt on 59th Street, or cross-town to Bellevue.

"New Yorkers don't know the difference yet, but they will," warned Dr. Charles Carpati, a 21-year hospital veteran who heads its intensive care unit. Last week, he said, a young man having a severe asthma attack was rushed in—a mechanical ventilator saved his life. "He would've died," said Carpati. "That's not hyperbole."

On Thursday, nurses in their red smocks watched as tourist buses fought taxis for inches of space on Seventh Avenue. "Can you imagine being in crisis and having to get through that?" asked John Hiltunen, a 20-year hospital veteran.

Christine Stanfield, who lives on the Village's far west side, wheeled her son, Porter, a year and a half old, in a stroller to the rally. She placed a sign around his legs: "Born Here," it read. "Their neonatal services are amazing," she said. In January, she raced him to the ER after he fell off a slide in the Bleecker Street playground. "I don't know where else I would've gone," she said, shaking her head. The hospital's closing astonished her. "I've seen so many new condos go up, so many new, well-off residents. I don't understand how the population density goes up, the tax base goes up, and the neighborhood can't afford a hospital. It doesn't make sense."

Taxi to the Dark Side

Taxi to the Dark Side effectively portrays the abuse of power that took place during the Bush administration. In the same manner Enron attempted to disguise their financial fraud, military officials during the Bush administration attempted to conceal their war crimes.

The documentary presents the efficient investigation of British journalist Carlotta Gall who tracked down Dilawar’s family and discovered his death was classified as a homicide by US doctors. The medical papers were given to the family in English. It was impossible for them to understand what they said, which worked perfectly for the US. It was not until Gall discovered these papers that the story came to light.

It took one thorough investigation to begin to uncover a fatal crime, just like Mc Lean’s basic question regarding Enron’s profit began the exposure of their financial fraud.

Unlike, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side uses a directly serious tone and puts forth brutal and disturbing images. It overtly presents the abuses committed during war and their inhumane policies of interrogation through torture.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

The documentary does a good job in portraying and highlighting the company’s fraud through irony. It stresses the negligence of financial critics in not foreseeing such an immense fraud. This is done through the use of satire and irony. Reporters Mc Lean and Elkind use particular music choices, such as No Doubt’s Say That You Love Me when referring to the company’s deception in the stock market, and even Enron’s own hypocritical commercial (“always ask why”) to magnify the effect of their fraud. The effect of their documentary is satiric, yet it eloquently conveys the magnitude of Enron’s massive corruption and fraud. They truly convinced America they were the smartest guys in the room.

Enron’s hypocritical motto was to always ask why. This is something financial analysts did not do in evaluating the company’s profits. Analysts would just call Jeff Skilling, believed everything Enron told them. They did not do their job.

The documentary also refers to a journalistic inefficiency on behalf of Fortune magazine who named Enron the most innovative company in America. It was not until reporter Bethany Mc Lean posed the question “how exactly does Enron make its money?” that any journalist truly did his or her job in investigating the company. She took a risk in questioning the company. Even though their numbers did not seem right, she couldn’t pin point there was a fraud. Fastow, their financial advisor, truly made it seem that money was flowing into the company through its transactions with companies he fabricated. To discover the company’s treachery was a true challenge.

The satiric nature of the documentary shifts into a nostalgic tone in the end, as it portrays the downfalls of all of Enron’s executives. As Mc Leans says “they became victims of the their own hubris, victims of their own greed.” Enron asked of their employers to always ask why, yet they never did and ended up losing everything they had.

Reflections On Documentarys

Ask why-

Why did no one question Enron’s moves earlier?

Why did the banks sign on? –There were definitely hints

Why did Enron qualify for market-market accounting?

Where the hell was the SEC?

You’ve told us many times that one of the major jobs of a journalist is to be a watchdog on power and in this case it seems journalist Bethany McLean was really the first person to look critically at Enron. I would’ve been terrified to go up against a company that big and at the time, that successful. I watched an Nzone Tonight interview with McLean where she was asked if she had any doubts or fears about approaching Enron, she said she had plenty, but as a business journalist she had lots of facts and figures to refer her suspicion to. This isn’t much different from any journalist; rather they smell a rat or not, having some support for their lead is a necessity—otherwise there is no story. In the NZone interview Mclean said as a journalist “you have to say what you think and you have to write the truth as you see it,” these are both points we’ve talked about briefly in class, I think another point to add is you have to be prepared that others might not take you seriously or may completely disagree with your angle. McLean in this interview (and I’m sure she had to do some of this in the Enron story) said as a journalist you have to put yourself out of the picture and not take it personally if people don’t take you seriously, it might even be to your advantage if they don’t because then you are not as big of a threat.

The Enron scam made my stomach turn. For one, it’s terrifying that our government seemed to just let regulations slide because the company was so successful—in the documentary there was a phone call in which an analyst asked Skilling why Enron couldn’t fill out a form that many of its competitors filled out showing some of the company’s financial information—Skilling called the guy an asshole. Not only does it make my stomach turn that the Enron’s figure heads had no problem screwing away the retirement plans of hard working employees and fooling the nation but that the nation’s major bank somewhat knowingly signed on with this. Enron really had people under an illusion, analysts were under the illusion that Enron was doing well, convinced by it’s CEOs , the majority of analysts never really never really did the work to find out how exactly the company was doing it. The way the company was allowed to just mess with California was ridiculous, expensive and completely unethical, hearing that Bush was involved with the whole thing does not at all surprise me. I feel that there were too many hints for government officials to have not asked “why” sooner.

Taxi to the Dark Side, was an intense portrayal of the dysfunction amongst the Bush Administration in understanding the regulations of the Geneva Convention and the rights that come with a human life. The story of Dilawar is another stomach wrenching one in which the innocent is captured and killed under the messy regulations of the US army. It’s scary that of the 83 thousand plus detainees less than 1% of them were actually associated with any of the terrorist acts they had been imprisoned for. The tactics that were revoked by the Supreme Court and then carried out by the Bush Administration are disgusting enough themselves, but more so is the fact the majority of experts believe that torture is ineffective. The case of the detainee that falsely pleaded that the “terrorists” were being trained on chemical and physical war tactics in Iraq is proof of this. It is risky and quite terrifying that the Bush Administration would employ such tactics and then upon receiving any information from detainees would run off and act on that information—is this really what started “The War On Terror”? Equally devastating is how The Bush Administration then dumped the blame for the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and other cases on the soldiers themselves, not trying any of the figure heads who had given directions and installed pressure without clear method of treatment or plan.

In the case of Delaware, why was it that the journalists were the only ones to tell the family what really happened to him? This was another incident in which the journalists smelled something fishy and did the research to figure out what was going on. The documentary said that the journalists looked at detainee events and analyzed the connections between them. The part in the documentary that showed emails that had been redacted made me realize just how hard it would be to report on issues like this. It was also interesting (but not surprising) that these were New York Times because in the beginning of class we talked about how The Times released a statement apologizing for its treatment of The Bush administration because in a big way they had really missed the facts. Over all, this really makes me not want to be a political journalist.

TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW

CIRCULATION

we have a relatively small circulation but they are very serious in their interest in history and loyal to many of our magazines.

ADVERTISING
while we seriously seek advertising as a resource, our current operation does not depend on it’s survival. To succeed as any business must we have to expand our income annually thus our goal is to bring in much more advertising as well as circulation.
We came in under budget this year. meaning we expected to loose money but we loss a lot less than the budget we planned.

NEWSSTAND SALES
with many of our magazines we are doing well.

SMALL STAFF
a mix of talent but all hardworking and loyal.

WISE STRATEGY
SMART PUBLISHER WITH DEEP POCKETS
AND A SMART EDITOR IN CHIEF BOTH WITH GREAT EXPERIENCE AND WISE INSTINCTS
Eric Weider comes with experience from a successful publishing family, a passion for history and is willing to invest his time, talent and money to see this company to success.
Steve Petranek is great to work with. Very smart, savvy and knows how to read readers wants.
Lots of valued experience. He created This Old House Magazine. A big success story.

WE’RE about 50 people
> an even mix of cultural, friendly, generous,
smart and talented women and men.
> a mix of ages from early 20s to one 80 I’m 68.
friendly gatherings:
> pizza/ soft drinks lunches in conference room everyone invited.
> various celebrations, cake, coffee, soft drinks. everyone invited.
> editor-in-chief talks to staff meetings pastries & coffee.
> kids and dogs allowed to spend day if necessary.
> ping-pong table
> tables and chairs removed from conference room each Wednesday
for an hour yoga session.
> small groups—a mix of people—from different
magazines/departments go out for lunch to be social.
> free coffee, tea, snacks in two kitchen areas.
> inexpensive vending machines.
> communal newspapers and other magazines.

Eric Weider went to work for his Uncle Joe Weider at Weider Health and Fitness about 25 years ago fresh out of college

Sold exercise equipment and nutritional supplements – body building protein

Most publications did not want to take their ads so they started own health magazine

14 magazine – under direction of Eric (originally just body building with no other appeal..expanding them out to magaizine like SHAPE (1.5 million)

made very successful

In the late 1990s/2001 when magazines were still considered a very valuable property –

“ a company called American Media came along and offered the Weider’s a price they could not refuse”so they sold the magazine

Eric – kinda bored – His father was a Napoleonic scholar- he had a great interest in history

And also video games (most war) – started magazine ARMCHAIR GENERAL

Critical point – war like action, what would you do.

Board game industry -- Avalon Hill

Mentality – pretending you were napolean at waterloo and what would you have done

Eric – 6 times a year

Steve hired as institutional consultant for it

Did not get over 30,000 – couldn’t make enough money to hire its own business side staff, production people, additional ad sales team, circulation director

Key critical support system in magazines weren’t available to them

Eric believed that if Americans knew more about their history and understood it better they would be much better citizens.

Went to newsstand and noticed all of these history magazines – “noticed there was a group of 10 of them that had been cobbled together from two independent publishing companies and purchased by Prime Media Magazine Company

Eric talked to steve and asked if he was willing to work with them to make them better – editorial leader of the magazines

“At the time I didn’t know this but if I had turned down the job he wouldn’t have bought the magazines”

steve agreed but didn’t think it would happen – because Eric wanted the magazines for a very low price, and I (steve) knew that Prime Media would laugh at that price…but he waited until there had been three complete changes in upper management at Prime Media

Prime Media company that owns over 500 different magazines..and for three years in a row they fired their CEO and all of their upper management. After the third year of firing, Eric swooped in and gave his offer – predictably they laughed at him and said no, I (steve) kind of thought the deal had gone away but about 6 months later they said yep we’ll sell it to you. March 2006 Eric bought the company.

By having 10 other magazines, the company could now afford the things it once was unable to have.

Suggested that you close down 5 magazine

“ we decided from the get go that we would not do that. We felt that we had a lot to learn and that all of the magazines had a lot of potential”

but they were in very bad shape. Prime Media had bled them dry of resources and financing.

Within 3 or 4 years if eric had not bought the company, the magazines would have been folded, if not about 8 of them.

“When we walked in the door with them, we faced really primative magazines, that had really been stripped of a lot of resources” STRIPPED OF STAFF

the only way that the 30 or so people working there could produce 10 magazines was to produce them like a factory

so they would have word people who would edit the stories and then hand them over to the art people, who would be the next part of the assembly line. And the art people would design the space, find the art, and plug the story into the art and they would again pass it on to a production team to make sure, you know, that all the I’s were dotted and the t’s were crossed; that the art was going to work and that it was on the page properly, and so forth…and then they shipped it off to the printer. So it was kind of like a sausage factory.

And I turned everything around there. If theres anything that defines whats really behind our success its our devotion to quality. Then we had kind of two choices when we walked in the door. We could have spent 2 to 3 times as much as Eric paid for the company to get all of the magazines up to being serious national publications of great content and great visuals. And that would have cost times what we paid for the company to do that quickly or we could make the magazines better with just good leadership and smart thinking and knowing what we already know about the magazine industry and what makes magazines good and invest some money but cerate much better quality products and then wait for that quality to translate into more advertising more subscribers more news stands sales, and Eric chose to go that direction instead of plopping down 10s and million dollars to go and find the best magazine people that I could find and hire them. And in retrospect I think that was probably a smart decision. Our focus was on quality. Both on appearance, readability and narrative drive. We also did something else which was, well we did a bunch of things, first of all we perceived immediately that we were thought of as war magazines and in order to alleviate that impression, even though you cant change the title of a magazine called World War II to something else , it still is about WWII. We tried to assign more stories that were social history. One of my favorite that ran in Military History as an indication of what we were trying to do was a story about the fact that Napoleons Army was actually a third larger than it appeared to be in number of soldiers. That extra third was women who traveled with the army and in the early 19^th century in France sweethearts and wives would follow their men to the battle set up the tents, do the cooking, create a home so to speak. And then the next day the men would go off to battle and then when the battle was won, everyone would pack up and they would move on again. To me this was a social history story: that napoleons army was really a third larger than anyone thought It was and the other third was women! And that it was these women who were taking care of their men who were going off to battle and who traveled with the army that really made Napoleons army a success. So rather than that being a battle story, like would be typical of a magazine like Military History in the past, we turned it into a social history story in which we showed how the way people were behaving and in ways that you had not heard before – was really interesting and valuable to know. Another thing we did was we went for pure journalism. In other words we tried not to do any article that essentially repeated history we didn’t write about Gettysburg and tell you what happened at Gettysburg in kind of a blow-by-blow thing…instead in order to publish something about Gettysburg, which we do try to do each year because it was such a significant battle in the history of the United States, before we print it we have to find something new and important to say. So we are constantly involved in research and in good journalism to find what’s news. Another thing we do is we create a narrative drive. In other words, there are a lot of stories in science and history publications and other publications that are like our magazine that don’t tell a story. The story does not have a beginning, a middle and end…etc. Another thing that we did is we broke up the sausage factory into separate staffs, so there are separate staffs for each magazine…a very small staff, but there is one for each magazine. And that through the power of the editors likes and dislikes and the other few people on the team, and their likes and dislikes, gives the magazine additude. In other words, most of our magazines reflect the additutes and desires and sort of day to day life constructs of the editors of that particular publication. If I’m editing military history and I’m not interested in the history of France, youre not going to see very much about the history of France just in the pages of the magazine. But if im fascinated by the history of Russia you’re probably going to see a lot of pages about the history of Russia. That gives the magazine a different personality and personality is what you get when you have very specific people who work on one publication.

Our news stand sales have gone up dramatically in these four years. And our renewal rates, in other words the people who after they get the magazine for a year actually fill out a check and sign up for another year is extremely high. In this business there are very few magazines that have what we call a renewal rate that is better than about 50 to 60 percent at best, and we have in the 70s. Our renewal rates are in the 70s. So people have really responded to the changes that we have done with the magazine. And we took Two of our top magazines WWII and Militarry history and put them on much better paper, made color available on every page, we oversized them, and we made them perfect bound which gives them that square back instead of being stapled and makes them more book like. And we quadrupled their budgets. When I got there almost none of the stories for any of the magazines were actually assigned by any editors. What they waited for was bad writers who couldn’t get published anywhere else to send them manuscripts on speculation, and then they would file them. They had hundreds of these kind of stories that they filed away that like bored laywers had written. And when they wanted to put a magazine together they’d just go to the file cabnit, pick out stories with some diversity and variety from the many that they had in there that had kind of come in over the [transom?] And then edit them. And they were horribly written most of the time, and they would do kind of glorious copy editing on them and put them in the magazine and shove the magazine out the door. Our approach has been entirely different. A magazine ought to be fun to read, it ought to be challenging, it ought to be interesting. You should walk away from it feeling like you know a heck of a lot more than before you started reading.

We’ve kept our audience further refreshed. WE’ve gained in advertising revenue. We are selling national advertising now and the magazine never carried national advertising before. Our renewal rates are up. We are amoung a very small group of magazines that have continuously sold more magazines on the news stands in the last 4 years. Most magazines are down about 40% in news stand sales, we’re up 40% over the last 4 years.

Are most sales from News stands?

No, news stands is only about 20% of our total revenue, and about 70% of our revenue is subscribers. Very loyal subscribers. Who have not only stuck with us as we’ve reinvented the magazines – which is a very dangerous thing to do, because you tend to lose a lot of subscribers because its quote it is not their magazine anymore, but they’ve not only stuck with us but they have shown it to their friends and their friends have ordered copies and our subscriptions have gone up.

In our total money coming in the door, we are about 10% advertising income, about 70% subscribers and about 20% newsstand. Newsstand is kind of a leading factor in magazines because if youre doing well in the news stands and your sales are increasing on the news stand it is a direct indication that people are choosing your magazine over other magazines. And if your newsstands are going up your subscriptions will usually follow.

CLIENTEL?

Well we don’t know for sure. We know that they are generally older and the average age is some where in their 50s. They are people who have more time on their hands to read. They are people who did not grow up in an electronic reading enviornment so they prefer to read as opposed to watching television or reading on a Kindle or something like that. They tend to be very well educated. We have an extremely high proportion of readers with advanced degrees and they have relatively high income, much higher than.. we are probably in percentile amoung household income of subscribers who probably somewhere in the 80s. In other words about 85% of all magazines have readers whose household income our lower than ours. Our readers tend to be fairly well off, and they tend to be well educated, and they tend to have the time to read because they are older.

MAGAZINES

American History

Civil War Times

Wild West

World War II

Aviation History

American Civil War

British Heritage

Military History

MHQ – Military History Quarterly

Vietnam

ECONOMY

We have been very successful in getting new national advertising but we have been less successful in getting direct response advertising. In other words, the kind of advertising were someone makes replica WWII bomber leather military jackets and sells them in a magazine like WWII. In other words, these smaller companies that are advertising for specific products. And the reason they call in direct response is they are hoping you’ll call the 800 number in the ad [?]. That was by far the bulk, that was all, the only kind of advertising the magazine had. when we first got there we hired a national advertising sales director and then we started getting ads from the likes of insurance companies and the stuff like that that had a national audience. However, the smaller mom and pop companies that advertise the lot in these magazines have mostly gone out of business from the recession. You know, when someone is choosing whether to order some product they don’t really need out of the magazine or to have enough money to survive being unemployed for six months, they choose not to buy whats in those direct response ads. So a lot of those people have gone out of business, and that has hurt us. We would have, We have not made any money when we bought the company and the company was profitable when we bought it. There is a major investment that we are making in the future, and it does seem to be paying off. We can actually make projections now that we will be profitable within a couple of years. So we think we have taken all the right steps. You cant have the income indefinitely if you don’t have the quality. Quality costs money but the quality will produce results. The problem is it takes a while. When you go out and reinvent a magazine that’s a piece of junk and make it fascinating to read and beautiful to look at, people are not going to knock your door down in the next two issues trying to buy it. It takes awhile for them to become aware of it and to be reintroduced to it and to find it attractive enough to buy. So its always a slow curve. So it has hurt us that so many of our direct response advertisements have gone out of business.

FUTURE?

There’s no question that print is threatened and that print is declining. But in magazines there has been a model that arose in the 1960s and early 1970s and that was greatly flawed and that model was to practically give away your magazine at almost any price, so that you would have very high circulation. And then you could go to a major advertiser that had deep pockets and charge them a lot of money for an ad because it would be worth it to them because so many eyeballs would see it. What we have come to find is that advertisers are more convinced by having a targeted audience than necessarily a mass audience and when they go for a mass audience television is more efficient by large than any kind of print. That is a problem that in general that is hurting magazines. And a lot of magazines are switching their formula. It wasn’t very long ago that you could buy the New Yorker on the newsstand. Just a couple years ago you could buy the New Yorker on the news stand for $2.99 now its $5.99. All our magazines our $5.99 on the news stand and when we went to $5.99 two years ago there were very few other publications that cost that much and our magazines tended to be thinner and frankly not as attractive in many ways because we were just getting our quality feet on the ground and beginning to produce better magazines. The model is switching, and the model is switching to charge the consumer whose reading the publication what it takes to support your company and if what you’re doing is worth that much money they will buy it and you will be successful. And that’s a very new model.

HAVE YOU GONE ALONG WITH TREND?

We are changing all the time. We’re trying to sell national ads instead of direct response ads. Where we are headed is to provide an extremely high quality experience in an extremely high quality publication. And to charge a heck of a lot of money for it. In other words our circulation of most of our magazines is not that large right now and we can go one of two ways: we can keep the prices of the magazines relatively low and grow the amount of overall circulation we have or we could charge a lot more money for the magazines and only those people who think its worth reading the magazine will continue to buy it and subscribe to it. But since we will charge them so much more money we will actually make more money doing it that way. So we are headed for a direction of a high cost publication that delivers high quality. And we think that could be successful.

CONCERNED?

I would say I’m not. A lot of my friends, when I left new york to go work on magazines who are very low circulation magazines that not many people had seen

I love my job.

At Weider History we have savvy, smart leadership
and a group of talented people to share a day with putting out
a product—10 magazines—of which we are very proud.

It's a relatively small collection of good people that enjoy working together
and are able to, and encouraged to spend social activity together in the form of
lunches at nearby favorite restaurants, various catered celebrations in our conference room;
a ping-pong game on the first floor of two;
a free yoga session on Wednesday; and
good talks with colleagues as a regular pleasure.
We learn from each other.
That's what it's like at work.

As I said, I love my job.

Rudy Hoglund, design director

I AM NOT SURE IF THIS IS OKAY, IN TERMS OF ONLY GOING WITH STEVE P (WHO I INTERVIEWED) AS MY SOURCE. HE SUPPLIED REALLY GREAT INFO THAT CAN HELP IN TERMS OF COMPARING THEIR COMPANY TO OTHER LARGER COMPANIES.