The MFJS Reporter — Winter 2020 M-W

The cramped, brick-lined office of Dr. Rachael Liberman is somewhat unimpressive. On one wall is a small whiteboard with ideas for research scrawled in bright marker. On another hangs a bulletin board with several fliers advertising a slew of events for DU’s Media Film and Journalism studies school and another few scraps of paper proclaiming the merits of feminism and sexual liberation. And at the center of it all sits the modest but very neat desk where Dr. Liberman works.

Here, sitting at this neat desk in a small room in an unimposing stone building at the edge of DU’s campus, Rachael Liberman tries to change students’ lives.

By Sophie Smrcka

Seated in a spinning arm chair, surrounded by the papers and pens strewn across her L shaped desk, Jeannene Bragg sat in her office typing quickly on her computer to finish a few things up. On her walls were social justice posters and calendars filled to the brim with important dates— all in fun colors though. 

Magazines. A publication that is houses some of the most easily accessible content. From the doctor’s office waiting room to the grocery store checkout lanes and everywhere in between, magazines are ready to be picked up and combed through by readers everywhere.

Working for a magazine is both exciting and glamourous. It offers individuals from many different backgrounds an “in” to the profession. Whether you are a writer, editor, photographer, or an executive you help bring a magazines vision to life whether that be in print or, in the modern world, digitalized.

Talia Abbas, who has three years of experience working for magazine publications, can attest to the magic of bringing a publication to life.

“I love it all,” exclaimed Abbas. “The story telling, being able to create content that impacts people in a positive way, working with brilliant editors, getting to meet incredible designers.”

Talia Abbas is a Commerce Writer for Glamour Magazine. Previously a print edition, the U.S. Glamour title is now only a digital publication with the occasional SIP edition. She also has a background of working for Condé Nast since January of 2018.

Born in Chicago and having lived in Belgium and Lebanon, Abbas’ interest in magazines started from a young age. She began to write in Lebanon and continued to grow her interest throughout college where she attended a graduate program in Journalism at Columbia where she was also the EIC of the Columbia’s college newspaper having both an English and Arabic edition.

“I loved magazines since I was a teenager. I used to buy the English and French edition of Vogue and Elle… and collect them. They’d only come out once a month and you could only get these foreign copies at two specific magazine sellers in Antwerp,” noted Abbas.

There are many skills required to work for a magazine that can go unseen. These entail the ability to entice readers and take ideas out of the mind and onto the page.

“There are so many little gears that work in tandem to bring a magazine and its content to life,” explained Abbas. “In general, for any media role I’d say you’d have to be agile, level-headed, have some sort of emotional intelligence, and really, really put your hours in. Hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.”

Abbas’ hard work does not go unnoticed. While on paper she may work 40 hours a week it is almost double that.

“I love what I do so it sort of makes it feel less like work. But it is easy to feel burnt out by 2 p.m. on a Friday or 7 p.m. on a Monday,” joked Abbas.

The average annual pay for a magazine editor in the United States is $51,842 while writers and authors make an average salary of $61,240 annually according to ZipRecruiter. While Abbas notes that this number depends on the publication you are working for and the budget they have, it is simply not enough.

“Let’s just say the salaries and budgets of the 80’s are not what they once were,” said Abbas.

With a mix of marketing appointment, press interviews, writing, story ideation, pitching, pulling data, building newsletters, and more Abbas is growing into the company. This allows her show more emotion and individualism in her work.

“Currently I’m working on a first-person trend piece about feathers because I literally cant stop thinking about them. Pants! Sweaters! Pajamas! Everything feathers, please,” exclaims Abbas. “I also really liked this piece because it’s in my opinion exemplary of what I do, and try to do, as a writer: discover new brands, champion women, and share my own eye and edit of what’s worth knowing about right now style-wise.”

In the technological era, digital media will only continue to grow with more and more being digitalized and becoming online.

“E-commerce is the future and legacy print publications will live on as mythical creatures that also sub as coffee table books,” explained Abbas.

The journalism profession is a rollercoaster of gathering, assessing, creating and presenting information to the public, according to the American Press Institute. Kareem El Damanhoury, who has had more than ten years of media experience in the US and Arab world, can attest to the variety of trials and tribulations that may be thrown at a journalist.

“The main event that got me into journalism was in 2006 when a ferry sank killing about 1,000 people, and seeing how the African nations and media were focusing on soccer and not covering the people who had drowned,” El Damanhoury said in a small white brick office room in the MFJS building.