fork, I'm 34 and a has-been.
A different kind of hard is exactly right. Less deadline pressure, more space, more time, often better access... But longer stories, a higher writing standard, stories that stand up over time, and really no room for error. The pressure isn't from the clock; it's from a bunch of empty pages that are worth a lot of money.
But to answer the question, Waylon, I started in newspapers, and have never felt any sort of stigma after I made my move to magazines. In fact, the opposite is probably true -- I think, if I can say this without sounding like an asshole, my time in newspapers made me a better reporter and a faster writer than the average magaziner. I turn something around in a week, and people are like, How can you do that? Well, if you're used to turning around baseball gamers in ten minutes, a week feels like an eternity. But seeing as some magazine stories take eight months, a week in that world can seem to flash by in a few beer farts. It's weird.
Now, all that being said, it's a rare writer who can make the adjustment without a hiccup or two. It really is a different art, and it takes a little while to beat some of the newspaper habits out of yourself. I know I took a while to find my footing. But it can be done, absolutely.
Local hero Wright Thompson is a great example of a young guy who worked his way into magazines after doing good work at newspapers.
Unfortunately, the freelance opportunities have been the first casualty of this little downturn we're in, and like Mizzou said, that was once the best way into magazines. It's harder than it used to be (and it was never easy) to convince an editor to pay a stranger to write a story that he's already paying his staff to write. As I've always said, and it's more true than ever: You need to pitch a story that he can't possibly turn down, and that only you can write. It's a tough trick, but if you do that, and then you hit a home run, you're in.
Because it's a small world, magazines. It's tough to crack, but once you crack it, you're part of the gang of thieves. After I got my job at Esquire, I got offers from a bunch of magazines who'd turned me down only months before. They just didn't want to take the chance on me that Esquire did. And, yeah, I wasn't too proud to beg.
Bottom line? You've got to find the guy who's still willing to give a guy a chance, and you have to convince him that you're the guy who deserves it.
Of course, I can say that, because I'm insanely talented.
That's a joke, by the way. I wake up every day thinking that today's the day they call my bluff, and I'm left blowing old fat guys for ten bucks a throw.
