So I'm now a newspaper section editor...
 

Alright, after some hard work I'm now an editor at my university newspaper. We have a circulation of a few thousand so it's pretty swish, and I'm editor of the MUSIC section!!!11

Anyway, I'm here to steal some of your ideas. What would you like to see in a music pullout feature-wise. BEARING in mind this is a student newspaper, nothing too hardcore/wilfully obscure.

I'm thinking of introducing a local gigs listings page, a "classic" obscure album profile each issue along with the usual reviews et al. Any other ingenious ideas? PROPER ideas?!!!!!

that's a nice job to land.

congrats!

it must be the power of powdered toast.

do a running "this album SUCKS" feature. that would be sure to make you enemies (and sell more papers).

That's a good idea!

Also, make up bands and write reviews for them. The album, "When You Find Your Love In The Arms Of Some Scotsmen From Hull" by Arthur Hodgeson and The Kneecaps is... sensational..

A joke review would become a funny favorite for readers, so you'd sell more copies for each issue.

I remember trying to do fake reviews for my high school paper but the rest of the staff was all "journalistic integrity" this and "duty to the Truth" that.

Explains why nobody cared about reading the rag.

my father is a newspaper editor.

Jawsome. What does he do to sell papers?

...Don't say sex. Please?


POWDERED. TOAST. ...MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN.

I wish I had a phone embedded in my tongue too. And two slices of toast for a head for that matter.

well, he's not the managing editor, so he has nothing to do with sales. he works for the large regional paper (the Spokane Spokesman-Review), which pretty much sells itself.

you should talk about scissor shock..

This is the job I want when I go to uni next year. A 'Where To Start with...' feature is always good and can be most useful when just discovering a new artist....The classic album feature is a must, Daydream Nation, Funhouse, Spiderland would be a few good titles to start with.

Are you actually interested in our ideas or did you just want to boast to a bunch of faceless strangers?

Yeah, I'm pretty certain the classic albums feature can work - basically at the meetings I'll probably just throw it open to whoever suggests a decent album. What do you mean by 'Where To Start with...' though? Like a guide to a bunch of albums by an artist? I think Mojo do that (they did one on SY once I seem to recall). If that's what you mean it's a good call - I might try developing that. The problem would be space - it'd be like 500 words minimum to be deep enough, right? I'd probably need to expand the section for that, which is risky because if I ask for more pages for the section and wind up not being able to fill them some issues, I *will* get verbally raped. And probably fired.

I was thinking for next issue maybe a feature on feminism through the ages in rock - I've been listening to Bush Tetras and Au Pairs a lot recently and I think it could make an interesting read.


A. Who the hell are you?! Did you introduce yourself on the other thread?
B. What would be the point in that? I'm here to tax ideas from people since I figure people on an SY board probably read loads of music rags and I want to hear what they think worked in other papers. Criiipes...

yeah thats what I mean, Say if we we doing Sonic Youth, a brief history - some essencial albums and a few tracks to check out.

congrats, nice gig.

you could do rocknroll "histories", in installments. bands, movements, genres... installments keep people coming back.

Yeah! Good stuff - maybe like every issue a focus on another movement in music. So shoegaze one week, new weird America the next, golden-age hip-hop the week after, krautrock... and so on? Like a continuing feature?

Hmmm. What about Artist Profile maybe, too? A few hundred words each issue on a lesser-known, up-and-coming band/artist every issue? Like "Getting To Know..." or something.

So, thus far the ideas I'm liking are:

"Getting To Know..." - Profile of a band; history et al, as they release a new album.
"Movements" - I need a better title, natch, but a spotlight on genres/eras in music through the ages - a different scene each issue.
"Random Feature" - I'll leave something open to the hacks to suggest each issue.
Album reviews - duh.
Single reviews - see above.
Live reviews - " ".
Local scene - Probably reviews of gigs and demo tapes plus interviews.

Any other thoughts?

sure, but you could keep people coming back for more when you do "chapters" on each issue, so that interested readers come back to find out what happened. i guess your editor would figure this out?

many XIX century novels were published in serial form in newspapers. garcia marquez's "story of a shipwreck" sold out newspaper editions in colombia for weeks i believe (he was still a newspaper reporter). that's what i was going for.

So the development of one scene over several issues?

yeah one scene/band/movement over several issues. i think that would give you the chance to write in depth and have magazine-quality articles which would be very interesting. plus you could have some great clips if you want to get into magazine writing, show that you can handle long articles.

also, you could do interviews with bands that visit your town-- even email/phone interviews in advance of shows, i'm sure a few would be interested in being featured in the campus paper in advance of their local appearances.

oh hm also (just thinking, perhaps obvious, but... ) get close to the people at the campus radio station if you have one. you could even do profiles of good djs/shows worth featuring.

Interview local bands, bands touring through, etc. Get peoples views on the local scene, thoughts about the future, and the past, etc...

Just Scissor Shock.

I always thought you'd be one!
Congrats