Hysteria Magazine

“It’s totally fine if you guys can’t come, I just need to know before Monday, when I send out the Monday message, because this IS your job, and you guys are getting paid to be here and it’s good to give a heads up when you’re not going to be in the office. And it’s not like you need to be here every single time, but as long as you’re here for like, most meetings and you’re communicating when you can’t come, then I’m good. Also, make sure you push the Galentine’s party with your team because only like…seven people in the slack have said they’re going even though twenty-nine people have signed up. I would love if more people could come. And make sure you send me your plans for your department meetings each week, maybe on Sunday nights, just so I know what you want to talk to them about. Oh, and make sure you check in with your teams and make sure they know you aren’t having a normal meeting next week unless you really need to do work during the Galentine’s party.”

“Eugenie…I do have to leave about twenty minutes early today because I am working a campus event…but I’ll still be here for most of the meeting, I just have to cover for someone who is sick.”

“It also just helps you guys come in less stressed, because you tend to do things last minute, especially social media and graphic design. I also want to start doing check-ins with you individually…not because I’m worried about anything you’re doing, it’s just to check in. Especially tell me if there’s any special projects you really want to take on this year so I can give my input on them. As for the print, we’re getting closer everyday to the newest issue coming back from the printers. I wanted to make sure that everyone knows when their department’s deadline is for the fall issue. Etta June, you have the content deadline set for March 26th, right?”

“Yes, that way I have a week to edit and make any changes.”

“Yeah, you were smart to do that, my brain would not have thought of that. And then after that is photos, and once they’re done, I was actually thinking, Clove, that graphic design could start laying out pages once content is done and we know the sizing, that way we can get an idea of where ads may go. Like, not doing edits to the pages, maybe just putting the articles in, so it’s easier when you’re making adjustments, instead of it just being blank. And we can go through that together, you and I.”

“Mori, do you have an idea of how many ads we’re going to sell?”

“As many as we can to get a print!”

“Yes, I get that Eugenie, but I was asking Mori because she’s the managing editor and therefore in charge of ad sales.”

“Actually, Clove, she’s not. Kaia gave me permission to take over as head of ad sales, since I’m the editor in chief and therefore the face of the magazine. It only makes sense to have any sponsors speak with me instead of…Morrigan.”

“Did you guys reach out to the companies who purchased ads and sponsorships last year? Do we have their emails or something that we can use to reach out and ask them to support us again?”

“Yeah, so Zuleika actually sent emails out to mo…”

“To all of them I hope.”

“No, not all of them, just most of them. She only sent out emails to most of them, since they were the ones she secured last year. That way they’d be familiar with their contact. I sent out the remainder of the emails since they were handled by the previous ad sales manager. Unfortunately, they were no longer interested in being sponsors.”

“I thought the pride center already purchased a sponsorship.”

“They did at first, but Kaia had to refund them and redo their order form because they decided to just pay for the full page ad.”

“Well, can you check the print edition from last year to make sure you got all of them?”

“I already have. There were only three sponsorships, and six ads, four of which were full page. Maybe if we reinstated the sponsor benefits and made the sponsorships cheaper we could actually sell more. No one wants to pay sponsorship money to only to get a full page print ad and nothing else. I do have another idea though, for how we could get more money for the magazine without selling overpriced ‘sponsorships’. My grandma really wants to be able to buy a subscription to the print magazine like you can with big companies where they send the physical copy to you in the mail. We could cover the shipping in the price and use the extra money towards developing the print issue.

“Yeah, Mori, that’s a cool idea, but we’re not a big magazine company, we’re student-run, so I really don’t think we could or even should do that. After all, big companies don’t even do that anymore…and there wouldn’t be enough people to justify doing it.”

“My aunt actually still gets her favorite magazine in the mail, and she would totally love to get something I worked on.”

“Well, Theresa, if your aunt and Mori’s grandma want a copy so bad, we can make sure to save them one. Now, the idea we need to focus on is pinback buttons. I figured students could put them on their backpacks and give us free advertisement. What else are people going to look at while they’re walking to class? And we could ask around in the community to see if anyone would be interested in distributing them to non-students.”

“Didn’t Evan suggest that at the last meeting…?”

“Oh, well I have some free time this weekend, so I could come up with some button designs…”

“So, GOOD NEWS, good news! I talked to Kaia because I was stressing about ad sales since we didn’t do too well last semester. Afterall, we can’t have a print unless we make some ad sales. And our sales team… it’s a little small, and Zuleika is absolutely pulling the weight. So, I reached out through Kaia, of course, to the guy that does ad sales for the student newspaper. He said he’ll help us get more connections. So, we’re going to have a print no matter what. I’ll enlist whatever help I need to for the print.”

“I’m sure she’ll do anything to print the fall issue, after it’s become her personal resume…”

“What makes you say that, Elsie?”

“There’s a reason no one but me has seen the print yet, Mori. Eugenie’s on the front cover, in the giant middle page spread, and she’s a model for one of the articles. Plus, there are no staff pictures besides her ‘letter from the editor’ photo. Then there’s her article. You know, the one she wrote, took pictures for, and designed herself. It’s the first article in the magazine.”

“What? I thought the middle spread was supposed to be social media’s favorite posts.”

“I know. It was supposed to be, but Eugenie made me change it and put them in the back. I told Kaia, hoping she’d do something about it, but she didn’t even care.”

“I don’t even know why Eugenie went through Kaia to talk to the ad sales guy, Kaia doesn’t even live here anymore, and we share an office with the newspaper, so Laszlo is just down the hall. Sure, Kaia is our mentor, but she’s doing more enabling than mentoring.”

“Hey guys, I also need you to know that we have to get the fall issue ready to go to printers before summer break, that way we don’t have to worry about Clove getting it done, like we did over winter break.”

“Hey Mori, if I know some organizations or local businesses that might want to buy an ad, should I send you their contact info?”

“Technically, since I’m no longer head of ad sales, you should send it to Eugenie. I doubt she’ll do very much with it, though. I don’t think she realizes how hard it is…and I’ve had two more people quit because they don’t like what she’s been doing. Not just to ad sales, but to the whole magazine. There’s only Zuleika left now and she already has too much on her plate.”

“I completely understand, I’ve had someone quit every week since the semester started, not to mention the people who didn’t come back after winter break, the social media team has been absolutely gutted. And Saanvi said if another one of her posts gets canceled that she’ll quit too.”

“Saanvi loves the magazine, though!”

“I know, she enjoys making posts for the Instagram, but she can’t stand Eugenie or how her posts never end up online anymore since Eugenie started canceling anything she doesn’t approve of.”

“The whole point of this was to get ready ahead of time so we could avoid asking Clove to do her job. I think what I said earlier gave the hint well enough.”

“Okay, but like, is graphic design going to do work over summer break like the rest of us, or do I need to stop scheduling articles for a bit?”

“No, we won’t. We won’t be doing work over the summer because we only have a single account that we can use for design work, and since it’s my personal account I don’t feel comfortable giving my password out to other people. Plus, I don’t want to do all the work on my own or prevent my team from getting design experience.”

“I actually have a question…I was wondering if I’m allowed to re-post a film recommendation post from before the rebrand. It could be the start of a series of film recommendations to give our followers consistency and something to look forward to.”

“Mmm, no, personally, I think it would be annoying. I like having fresh, new content in my feed, so that’s what we’ll do. And who wants the same old content over and over again? Not me. Now, one last thing, I know there’s been some issue with communication about photos that hadn’t been taken for articles, and that stock photos were used instead. We should not be using stock photos at all; I don’t like them. So, how do you guys plan to resolve that issue? Clove, maybe you and your team should check earlier than day of that the photos are in the google drive.”

“Well, you see Eugenie, my team and I do look before day of. We even message Theresa and the photo department to ask about the photos, and the majority of the time they were never even taken. I don’t want my team managing the photo department like that. They already have enough to do and that’s not their responsibility. They aren’t getting paid to be managers. Maybe photo needs to learn to upload them by the deadline. That’s why there’s a deadline in the storyboard.”

“…they’re usually very communicative.”

“I’m sure they are, Theresa, but my team and I are always the ones reaching out and checking the google drive and the storyboard. Then they have to rush to get stock photos or anxiously wait on someone to send them photos they can use.”

“Okay, but Clove, if the photos get taken, could we still put them on the website?”

“Yes, but that means we will have to change the photo after the article has been published on the site. My rule with my team is to follow the deadlines.”

“Okay, great! That’s done. Yes, Etta June?”

“I know we aren’t getting a lot of readers for the website articles, and I would like to have more so I was thinking social media could post every article on our Instagram, like the newspaper does.”

“Well then, could I be allowed to post more often? Three times a week is not often enough to post the website articles and the things my team makes.”

“Elsie…as an unbiased viewer, would you want to be following an account that posts more than three times a week? Because for me, that would be a no. I would get annoyed. Now, if that’s all, I’m going to go ahead and leave. Have fun at the main meeting. Oh, and don’t forget the icebreaker question for this week is ‘what is your favorite thing you bought this month’!”