John Green (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} crypticpress) wrote,@ 2007-08-24 10:01:00 |
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Anyone need a... me?
It would seem the news as been sent to (or finally reached) news outlets, so I figure most of you've heard, but in case you haven't: Disney Adventures Magazine has been cancelled.
I can't say it's completely unexpected. When I started at the magazine almost ten years ago, I recall a big meeting about the fate of the magazine within my first few weeks. Basically, the decision seemed to be that the need for Disney to have a kids magazine out there was greater than the need for Disney to be making lots of money off said kids magazine. It's subscription rate was great, and always has been, but ad sales have been on a steady decline. For a long time no one was really worried about that, though (other than of course people in the ad sales department.) So long as kids were still buying the magazine (or, parents buying their kids the magazine), Disney was going to make it for them. And if the magazine was in any real danger, the impression everyone got was that it would be reformatted, restructured, phased out, phased in, or something. At worst, I expected a "This is your last year" kind of scenario, so the "That's it, finish what you're doing and go home" scenario that has happened came as a bit of a shock.
For those that didn't know, I was the Comics Consultant. That title was actually invented for me since I did a lot of work that no single title could encompass. I'd write, letter, and color comics (primarily Kim Possible), some comics I'd do completely (write, draw, color) like Last Laugh. I'd do digital layout and pre-press of comic pages. I'd work with freelancers, make edits, write articles, design logos, spreads, puzzles, make art corrections from anything as simple as a word balloon to redrawing half a page, internal pitches, comic creation demonstrations at bookstores, draw for kids on 'bring your kid to work day'--name anything related to making a comic and I've done it, and I really, really enjoyed it.
While I do freelance for other companies here and there, DA was my number one client and main steady source of income. I wasn't staff there, so with the magazine's closing I won't get any sort of severance or be moved to another part of the company. Which basically means I'm out of a job.
I've got other things in the pipeline, but that was what was so great about my position with DA: I could afford to be working on projects in pipelines. And with the steady work from DA, it didn't matter too much if those pipes were really, really slow. As it is now, I really need those pipes to speed up a bit. Or I need to shove other things down those pipes, or something.
So now I'm looking for suggestions. Does anyone know of what I should do next, or have you heard of anywhere that may need someone like me--for any amount of time and for any job, I'm really not picky.
It would seem the news as been sent to (or finally reached) news outlets, so I figure most of you've heard, but in case you haven't: Disney Adventures Magazine has been cancelled.
I can't say it's completely unexpected. When I started at the magazine almost ten years ago, I recall a big meeting about the fate of the magazine within my first few weeks. Basically, the decision seemed to be that the need for Disney to have a kids magazine out there was greater than the need for Disney to be making lots of money off said kids magazine. It's subscription rate was great, and always has been, but ad sales have been on a steady decline. For a long time no one was really worried about that, though (other than of course people in the ad sales department.) So long as kids were still buying the magazine (or, parents buying their kids the magazine), Disney was going to make it for them. And if the magazine was in any real danger, the impression everyone got was that it would be reformatted, restructured, phased out, phased in, or something. At worst, I expected a "This is your last year" kind of scenario, so the "That's it, finish what you're doing and go home" scenario that has happened came as a bit of a shock.
For those that didn't know, I was the Comics Consultant. That title was actually invented for me since I did a lot of work that no single title could encompass. I'd write, letter, and color comics (primarily Kim Possible), some comics I'd do completely (write, draw, color) like Last Laugh. I'd do digital layout and pre-press of comic pages. I'd work with freelancers, make edits, write articles, design logos, spreads, puzzles, make art corrections from anything as simple as a word balloon to redrawing half a page, internal pitches, comic creation demonstrations at bookstores, draw for kids on 'bring your kid to work day'--name anything related to making a comic and I've done it, and I really, really enjoyed it.
While I do freelance for other companies here and there, DA was my number one client and main steady source of income. I wasn't staff there, so with the magazine's closing I won't get any sort of severance or be moved to another part of the company. Which basically means I'm out of a job.
I've got other things in the pipeline, but that was what was so great about my position with DA: I could afford to be working on projects in pipelines. And with the steady work from DA, it didn't matter too much if those pipes were really, really slow. As it is now, I really need those pipes to speed up a bit. Or I need to shove other things down those pipes, or something.
So now I'm looking for suggestions. Does anyone know of what I should do next, or have you heard of anywhere that may need someone like me--for any amount of time and for any job, I'm really not picky.
