The pen and where the buck stops

Every journalist knows to do a bit of research before heading out on the beat and covering a story. My shortcoming as a magazine writer was not doing my research on the industry I was getting into before delving into it. I knew well enough that it was advertisers who paid the piper, but I was naïve about the little bones that publishers would throw to their patrons.

Depending on the magazine and its own ethics, some of those bones would be small and insignificant (say, a product mention in the tech pages), or they could be quite large and meaty (a two-page article extolling the quality service at a dental clinic in exchange for a free emergency root-canal, which actually happened at one place I worked). I was aware that many magazines operated this way. Where I was oblivious was in thinking that there were many other publications that didn't scratch the backs of its advertisers in one way or another.

Much of this back-scratching happens in those "About Town"-type of items you see in the front of publications – 100-word blurbs about celebrity sightings or interesting factoids that don't warrant a full-blown story. This is where even the most ethical of magazines usually spit their loads after servicing their paymasters. For instance, that photo of J.K. Rowling at a book fair sponsored by Borders isn't really a celebrity sighting, but a little sucking up to the book chain, which is a "preferred advertiser".

I was fortunate enough to do my internship at that's Shanghai magazine, which, at the time, kept a firm line between advertisers and content. But even they had their "about town" pages, and one of my first assignments was to head into the city for a cocktails event one night.

This is what I filed:

City Scene

Caran d’Ache product launch party

146 Words

When the invitation for the Caran d'Ache product launch at the Shanghai Concert Hall landed on our desk, we were intrigued. If we hadn't known that Caran was the Swiss producer of absurdly expensive pens for those who wouldn't be caught dead with a Bic, we might have assumed they were watchsmiths. It was that vague.

We showed up for the mystery event promptly at 7:30 and were treated to an empty, flood-lit runway for 50 minutes. We passed the time wondering, how do you launch a pen on a runway? Finally, three sumptuous models took the stage to play air-violins to loungy classical chill-out tunes.

After their little dance-and-dash, we were again left with an empty runway and cocktails. Ten minutes passed before our curiosity was snuffed and we decided it was time to go. Life’s too short, and after all, it's just a pen.

Needless to say, my snide little masterpiece was not printed. It's worth noting, though, that it passed in silence and I continued to get assignments. I would have been fired had I filed that kind of piece with the Singapore magazine I worked for the following year. Although I had wised up somewhat, I found my non-consumerist mindset to be my Achilles heel in the magazine business. When I edited my company's annual Travel Guide in Singapore, I was tickled that the weak economy prevented the sales team from lining up enough advertisers to turn a profit for the publication. With hardly any ads, I got to stuff the glossy journal full of articles and photos with wanton abandon, and there were no PR hacks on my case to cut the Cambodia article in half so they could paste in an ad for diet pills. It was a dream come true – Conde Nast meets Foreign Affairs.

I sense now that my overall nonchalance toward the people who made my paycheque possible is what spoiled my relationship with that publisher, who ran the company's magazines like advertising catalogues. It was not my job to sell ad space, of course, but my indifference must have been palpable. The previous year, I had written an article about Singapore's cycling culture and quoted a bike-shop manager as part of my research. During that issue's post mortem, the editor questioned why I was giving free publicity to a non-advertiser. Perhaps if I had said, "Sorry, next time I'll check with sales first," that would have smoothed things over. What I did say – "I was just trying to write a good article" (with a shrug of the shoulders and face that probably combined puzzlement with disgust) – set me up for harsher consequences when my naïveté stirred trouble.

My aversion to advertising probably stems from spending my formative working-years at CBC Radio from age 21 to 29. When media is unmolested by the agenda of advertising dollars, its power to bring communities together and stimulate meaningful dialogue is unparalleled. Once you're a part of it, you never forget it. So when I had the chance to shape the content of my own magazines, my only goal was to make them as stimulating and interesting as possible. By the time I was working in Singapore, my ethic was so embedded that I had blinders on. Not only was this my first time working in private media, but also a first for me to be in non-union environments. Combined with the lack of labour laws and the different ways of doing things in a new land, these were more significant elements of culture shock than dealing with day-to-day minutiae in a foreign country.

Back to that's Shanghai. After my little disaster with the pen company, the section editor sent me on another City Scene mission, this time for a TV network. She gave me some gentle counsel: "Be nice to these people. They’re connected with the government."

The event was in a little tea-house, where a table setting had a card with my name on it … and a delicate red envelope containing three 100-yuan bills. Perhaps I’m the type of person who needs things spelled out for me, because, reminiscing on this particular instance, the little bribe made this bit of marketing feel so effortless. I even enjoyed making up the quotes!