re- Editorial concepts and up coming articles.
Subject: re- Editorial concepts and up coming articles.
From: Christopher Koulouris <christopher@scallywagandvagabond.com>
Date: 1/3/10, 11:33
To: Dara King <dara@vitalityapothecary.com>, Nicole Durbin <durbinni@gmail.com>,
Caitlin Colford <caitcolf@gmail.com>, Frank Pasquine <frank.pasquine@gmail.com>,
Jenifer Song <jenifer.song@gmail.com>, Jo Tyrrell <jojotyrrell@gmail.com>,
kelly moorhouse <kelly_moorhouse@mac.com>, Ricardo Garcia <RGarcia@redhot-pr.com>,
Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>, Steven Kaplan <kaplan@thing.net>,
Mia Zuccaro <miazuccaro@gmail.com>, farrah sarafa <fsarafa@gmail.com>
Ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to the new year. Every one who has received this email is someone who I regard with fondness and gratitude for having been there with me in the development of this very clever and brilliant magazine. We managed to get through the first year with plenty of accolades, very high regard for our content and all round admiration from many of our peers and the institutions and entities that we seek to provide coverage of.
Running a publication as I can tell you is very hard work and is a labor of love. Not only do i hold my sanity in moments of disbelief and frustration but also the faith that what we have in front of us is a compelling platform that I ask all of you to consider in your aspirations as writers and aesthetes.
I can't begin to tell you of the many personal sacrifices that i have gone through to keep this journal alive and finally a living conscious brand widely respected and admired by thousands of readers (60 000 a month right now) all over the world.
I have gone through homeliness, starvation, being threatened by landlords, attended events with holes in the soles of my shoes, and other series of incongruities that you will all probably read about one day in a book that I'm penning called the 'the reluctant paparazzo.'
That said the point of this letter is to encourage you all to join me in the publications second year and to think of SCV as a forum where as writers you will always be encouraged to have a dialogue with me and our expanding readership as to what your concerns are, what themes you wish to canvass and perhaps what entities/individuals you would like to interview. I would argue that SCV is perhaps one of the most forward progressive journal which seeks to provocate, inspire, enlighten and question current cultural dialectics. If you don't think so I urge you to look around you and see how many other publications can say that about themselves- but then again you probably be writing with us if you didn't think so.
Anyway the point of the letter isn't for the editor, this chap being me to receive kudos from you but to encourage you all to join me in SCV's continued ascent in the media world. As you may or may not know, we will be installing a web/video-TV channel in the near future and I would encourage all of our writers (yes you) to think of ideas, suggestions for possible content that would allow you a new platform in your continued path as writers. As I have intimated I am prepared to go through hell and back to see this magazine through and attain its place as one of the most compelling and most loved journals in the modern day arena. Ambitious? I should bloody hope so!
As we enter the new year as event wise goes it will be quiet, but by February- we will be in very high gear with the Sundance Film Festival, Fashion collections, parties, the Viennese Opera, other charitable entities that we are associated to. That said we have to dig in our heels and in this current time provide some compelling editorial for our readers so as to continue to engage them. To that I ask all of you to consider themes, ideas and figures/entities that you would like to write about keeping in mind the slant of SCV's high brow sensibilities.(even if from time to time we are beguiled by the antics of various media/crack whores out of Hollywood...)
That said I eagerly await to hear idea from you, editiorial submissions/queries and as always the occasional savage predator.
Also let me say from the outset this time last year our readership was anywhere from 500- 1000 impressions a day, of late (Christmas and new year holidays aside...) our impressions are 3000- 5000 a day. Of course this time next year i would like to think our impressions will be 20- 30 000 a day minimum.
As for remuneration, I want you all to know it is my firm desire to see the most consistent and involved of you be rewarded financially this year. This will of course be contingent on the mag booking ads, event hosting revenue and media licensing (for our upcoming video content)- to which I want to spend more time doing now that i am surrounded by some talented writers. I do believe come March our most consistent and high yielding traffic writers (which means I can tell by observing on the back end if you have been pushing your articles) should expect some sort of remuneration going forward as even I as your friend and editor am contemplating going on strike if I don't get paid. But this is media, and one has to realize it is a very crowded field and with no outside investment, but just soul and heart SCV should be very proud of it's position. I do believe that the mag is finally in a position to convert its good will into currency.
Anyway, enough said, i wish you all very well in the future, continued adventures and before I let you go if any of you know of any talented young graphics designer kids let me know (we need 1-2 to help), possible publicist candidates (yes since Sonia decided to leave us I have been doing the pr singlehandedly but I am willing to groom someone out there) and interns please let me know. Also if you know of any other talented writers whom you feel come close to maintaining SCV's pedigree and astute observations please advise.
Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing from you all in the coming days.
Kindest regards and all the best for the new year,
Scallywag and Vagabond: a dissection of pop culture, a platform for the avant-garde, an offering from the arbiters of taste and probing interviews. Imagine; a fusion of editorials from the New Yorker meets the savagery of Gawker with the allure of Vanity Fair.