text:
Being a Trans Person in Iran, an Overlooked and Misunderstood Minority
Fatimah Hossaini
Words and Photography by Fatimah Hossaini
Edited by Sharif Safi
In 1986, Sayeed Rohullah Khomeini, Iran's first supreme leader, issued a fatwa, a religious edict, allowing a transgender woman, Mariam Khatoon Malek Araa, to have the first legally-sanctioned sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in the Islamic Republic.
"That fatwa built a legal basis for other transgender people and paved the way for them to undergo SRS … It was a huge breakthrough that allows transgender people in Iran to reassign their sex under the umbrella of law and Islamic jurisprudence," claims Muhammad Mehdi Karimi Niya, a religious scholar who has written about the issue of transgender people and Islam extensively.
Though Khomeini's edict has allowed for hundreds of transgender people to undergo SRS at relatively low costs, the overall situation for transgender people in Iran has not seen much improvement over the last 35 years.
Behnam Ohadi, a psychologist and sexologist, says that in recent years, even the words of Khomeini have not been enough to quell the criticisms and opposition of sex reassignment surgeries.
"There are several movements formed against transgender people… They believe that when Imam Khomeini issued the fatwa, he had been influenced by the psychologists who had conspired to get him to make the declaration."
Adding to the misconceptions and stigmas against SRS is that in Iran many lesbian and gay people are encouraged to get SRS rather than let them live as a homosexual based on their biological sex. It has both caused the number of SRS procedures to skyrocket and reinforced the discrimination against transgender people.
Despite the difficulties, thousands of transgender people across Iran are pushing ahead and trying to live their life.
Saman Nikpey ("Saba") was born in 1994, in Tehran. He is a trans man who has fought a wide range of social taboos and barriers in his life.
"I was in secondary school when I started noticing that I am different from other girls. My feelings, behaviours and interests were different from the rest of the girls around me. Gradually, I started noticing that men don't attract me, and I was more interested in girls. I didn't know and couldn't understand why I feel this way."
He adds that he couldn't share his feelings with anyone; neither at his school nor with his family.
"I couldn't share it at my school, because I was afraid they would kick me out. Despite having an educated family, I couldn't dare to talk to my parents for years. I had to keep my feelings to myself. It was eating away at me," he adds.
Saman hid his gender and didn't talk about his feelings for years. During his second year of undergraduate study, he decided to be honest with himself and started researching and reading about gender identity online.
"I couldn't bear it anymore. I wanted to know whether I am a girl, a boy, or a gay."
He adds, "after weeks of reading, I finally found out that I am transgender. When I learned about sex reassignment surgery (SRS), I was so happy. I immediately talked about it with my parents. My parents strongly objected. It took me four years of insisting on convincing them to at least take me to a medical counsellor. Whatever the counsellor would say about my gender, I would accept."
In their very first session, the counsellor confirmed that he was indeed a transgender person. His father leaves the counsellor's office with anger and still doesn't approve of the SRS.
After a few more years of insisting, Saman convinces his parents and gets his SRS approval from a medical professional. "It broke my parents, but it was what I wanted. I had to do it."
The next step is to finish the very long official paperwork to get approval for the surgery. Saman's SRS has to move up through the courts so that a judge can come to a decision. The judge then asks for confirmation of the legal, medical commission, ending with the court's official approval.
"After 27 years, finally, I could overcome all the challenges, and now I am waiting to go under surgery in a few months. SRS contains many surgeries, but to renew my documents and identity card, two surgeries are compulsory at this stage: chest masculinization and hysterectomy.
The most difficult surgery among all is the scrotoplasty and metoidioplasty, which take a lot of time and are expensive. In Iran, only a few public hospitals cover the costs of such surgeries with insurance. Otherwise, people have to personally pay for such kinds of surgeries which cost a fortune."
Saman says that such surgeries aren't compulsory in other countries to get your new documents and IDs. He insists that he doesn't want to get the surgery to get his new documents. He is doing it because he wants to have a more masculine body finally.
Saman now injects testosterone to grow a beard and voice masculinization. He is yet to undergo the hysterectomy. The injections have increased the density of his blood and weakened his body.
"Luckily, I have good parents who now support me. There have been parents who have killed their children rather than agreeing to an SRS."
"I have a girlfriend now. Also, emotionally I feel so better now," Saman says.
"However, when I walk on the streets with my girlfriend, sometimes people harass me because I am still physically weaker than other men," he continues. "Here, the law won't approve SRS for anyone under the age of 20, because they think anyone younger than that age isn't adult enough. However, I believe that this age should be lowered to 13 or 14 because it's the age that a person can reach sexual maturity."
Maral Muhammadi ("Arash"), was born in 1997, in Ahwaz, Iran. Four years ago, she moved to Tehran.
When Maral was in school, she used to have girlish behaviour and loved to wear female clothing despite being a male by birth. The other students would bully her because of her different interests and feminine behaviour.
" At night, I would put makeup on me and dress like the other little girls. My father would punish me, telling me to behave like a man. I didn't know how to explain to him that inside I am a girl. I am not a man."
Maral now lives with her aunt – after being evicted from her home years back. She tells about her challenges finding a job and working as a transgender person. "I am now working as a telephone operator in a local restaurant. I could get this job because it doesn't require me to be visible to the customers and the public – it is very difficult to get another job than this if you are a trans. Plus, transgender people are so underpaid by their employers."
Maral says that she didn't have feelings for girls since adulthood, and she could find the boys more attractive, despite being a male by birth. "Because of being a transgender person now, whenever I enter any relationship with boys, it doesn't last long. After some time, when I get attached to them, they leave me. It breaks my heart. It's obvious they don't like me because I am a transwoman."
Maral so severely wants to go under sex reassignment surgery to feel her real gender identity, but she says she doesn't have the money. None of her friends or family is willing to support her.
"I am troubled by both the police and the public. I have been put behind bars many times. The police ask why I wear women's clothing when I am a man. Other times they ask why I don't wear a hijab if I am a girl? I'm stuck in a situation where I don't know whether to play a girl or a boy in society. People here don't have an exact definition of what it means to be transgender. When I walk on the streets, people would harass me and film me. It is the story of my everyday life."
Maral says she doesn't have anywhere to go when she feels like spending time outside. There is only one park in Tehran that transgender people can go to safely. Some transgender people go there to make some money through prostitution out of desperation.
"It is really hard for trans people to find jobs. They see prostitution as a way to make money. I can't live such a lifestyle though. I am fortunate to have found a job that pays $70 per month, and I am quite happy with it."
Omid Arta Banaee ("Mahdees") was born in Tehran in 1994. Omid used to wear men's clothing since childhood. He loved to play football and other games with boys. Omid didn't show much interest in the games other girls in their neighbourhood played.
"I didn't know why I had to act like a girl when inside I felt like a boy. I even prayed at night with the hope that when I wake up tomorrow, my genitals are changed, and I am no longer a girl."
By the time he starts to grow breasts at 13, Omid's frustration grows. He had always imagined himself to have a masculine body, and yet his breasts betrayed that image.
Omid went so far as to bound his breasts. In his last year of school, Omid moves in with his grandmother to study in a private school. At this point he cannot hide his desire to be a man any longer. His behaviour starts to draw the attention of the school. Eventually, his teachers place a separate chair for him to distance him from the girls in the class.
The school eventually sets a rule for Omid, forbidding him from talking to the girls because he doesn't act and behave like the other girls. When he graduates, the school introduces Omid to a psychologist.
"I initially couldn't express myself clearly to the psychologist, but later I decided to talk frankly about my feelings. I told him that I like girls and that I've never been attracted to the boys."
The doctor asks Omid if he knows what transgender people are, Omid says no. The doctor goes on to reassure Omid that there are surgeries for people like him.
"When I read about it, I was so happy that I am not alone with this feeling and most importantly, there is a solution."
The doctor tells Omid that he will have a difficult journey in Iran, and advises him to head to another country that would accept transgender people.
When Omid assesses his situation, he decides to move to Yokohama, Japan.He already had a basic understanding of Japanese, and his uncle lived in Japan.
Omid only lasts four months in Japan due to the difficulties of that country and because he was admitted to a well-known university in Iran. Looking back on that decision, Omid says he wishes he had come back to Iran.
Omid attends the university donning a masculine appearance. It only leads to more harassment. "After a year, I had to withdraw. I couldn't bear the harassment."
Even with all these hardships, Omid still couldn't bring himself to get the SRS. He says he was still confused and feared that it could all be an "illusion."
But all that changed during his sister's wedding when his mother forced him to go to a beauty salon, get made up and put on a dress and high heels.
"When I looked at myself in the mirror, I hated myself. It was a strange and difficult feeling. I cried so much that I ruined my makeup. That was when I realized that it's not an illusion; I am not a girl."
After that, Omid has a frank conversation with his family, telling them not to insist that he continue to dress as a female. His parents resist and threaten him with eviction.
"My father and brother had businesses and could help me with the expenses of my surgery, but they told me that now if I am a man, I should go out and make money myself for my surgery".
Realizing his family wouldn't support him, Omid took on odd jobs at metro stations and factories to help finance his SRS. Even after he managed to save up the money, Omid's parents remained obstinate.
"They kept telling me that it's fine for us if you wear menswear, but do not have the surgery."
It was then that Omid fell in love with a supportive woman who saw him through all of his tough times with his family and even several suicide attempts.
That relationship becomes the catalyst for Omid to get the surgery. He wants to be with the woman he loves without complication.
It took two suicide attempts for his mother to convince Omid's father to let him get the SRS. He had his hysterectomy in April 2017. Three months later, Omid also successfully undergoes his chest masculinization surgery.
Omid adds, "It was legally easier to do SRS until 2019, but after that, the government has put a lot of other paperwork in the process which makes it harder than before. Now, I have got all my new documents with my new name and identity as Omid Arta Banaee, and I am currently working in a store – having no more problems. However, being a transgender person here is never easy."
Muhammad Ali Taher Khani was born in 1975 in Tehran. By the time he was eight-years-old, Muhammad Ali already knew he was different from the girls who were his age.
"I always loved to play with boys despite being a girl. Even in our childish games, I used to play the role of a boy or a father. I loved to wear menswear, and used to speak like boys which frustrated my parents. When I gradually grew up, my sexual desires started annoying me. After years of struggle and separation from my family, the medical counsellor confirmed that I am a transgender at the age of 19. Back then, it was much harder to get the SRS approval from officials. After almost seven years, I received the approval to go under SRS. However, because of my breakup with my girlfriend, I caught depression, and I got into drugs. It took me another five years to recover and overcome drug addiction. Finally, when I was 31, I did hysterectomy as the first surgery of SRS."
The expenses of Muhammad Ali's surgery were covered by Imam Khomeini Hospital, a state-owned hospital, which was named after the supreme leader, Imam Khomeini, because Ali proposed the hospital to introduce four transgender people. The hospital could use their ovaries in their laboratories, but the doctors should perform their surgeries for free in return. Ali says it's the least he could do for his fellow transgender people. When Muhammad Ali was 33, he did his mastectomy surgery after his first marriage with another transgender person.
Eight years ago, Muhammad Ali joined Mrs Mariam Khatoon Malek Araa's association – precisely one year before Malek Araa's demise.
"Mrs. Malek Araa had registered the Gender Identity Disorder Association in 1996, nearly ten years after Imam Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1986 – legalizing the sex reassignment surgery. She was the first person to have received the approval of sex reassignment surgery after the Iranian revolution. Before Mrs Malek Araa's demise, she put me in charge of the association. After forming the board of directors – all of them transgender people – I officially took on the job as the association's CEO. When I became in charge of the association, I changed its name from "Gender Identity Disorder" to the "Gender Identity Dysphoria."
Muhammad Ali and his colleagues continue their activities in the building of municipality while back then the traffic and presence of transgender people there were very controversial. They started carrying out several initiatives, organizing different classes, cultural events and therapy sessions.
"We tried to provide any support and information for the transgender people in Iran through this association. However, after a while, we faced many challenges, mainly because of people and neighbours' complaints about the lack of budget. Gradually, our members started losing their trust in the association. All these obstacles made us close the association, and I left it too four years ago because it even created so many challenges in my personal life. In Iran, sex reassignment surgery has been accentuated, but the life of transgender people post-surgery has been overlooked. Transgender people are hardly integrated into society, and they have no job, identity or social security."
Muhammad Ali says that it's essential for transgender people that they should prove themselves to society and use their capabilities at the first stages. They also should gain the support of their families because families do not have sufficient knowledge about transgender people in families and it causes a lot of problems. "The national media and other organizations working for protection and support of transgenders play an important role in social acceptance and integration of the transgenders into society. From time to time, there are suicide cases. False diagnosis, forcing homosexuals to go under sex reassignment surgery and gender inequality are a few reasons for the suicide cases in Iran."
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Olympics-Ice hockey-Finland outclass Switzerland to win women's bronze
By Amy Tennery Posted on February 16, 2022
Ice Hockey – Women's Bronze Medal Game – Finland v Switzerland
BEIJING (Reuters) -Finland launched an offensive assault to overpower Switzerland 4-0 on Wednesday and claim the Olympic women's ice hockey bronze medal, their fourth in the event.
Viivi Vainikka slipped the puck past Swiss goaltender Andrea Braendli midway through the first period to draw first blood for the Finns, who unleashed a barrage of 47 shots on goal throughout the affair. Finland netminder Anni Keisala faced just 15 shots but turned away all of them to record her second shutout of the Games.
"It's always great to play a bronze medal game in an Olympics, but to get a shutout makes it even sweeter," said Keisala.
The Swiss put up an admirable defensive effort in the second period but buckled in the third, as Finland launched their final assault.
Three-times Olympian Susanna Tapani scored a short-handed goal within the first four minutes of the final period. Defenceman Nelli Laitinen later converted on a powerplay chance and four-times Olympian Michelle Karvinen completed the scoring in the final minute.
"We were a little bit more relaxed (in the third period) and we found the fun part of the hockey. You always need to have fun," captain Jenni Hiirikoski told reporters after the game.
"These games are always tough … it's small things that will make the difference."
An elated Finnish team cheered and hugged in front of a subdued crowd inside Beijing's Wukesong Sports Centre when the final buzzer sounded, as some members of the vanquished Swiss team, who last reached the podium with a bronze medal effort in Sochi in 2014, sat slumped on the ice.
"It's hard to sum it up right now," said Swiss assistant captain Alina Muller, who also settled for fourth with her national team at the world championships last year.
"Disappointment… I think we had a really good chance to win a medal here," she said.
While Finland were unable to upgrade from their past history of bronzes, the result marked sweet redemption from a disappointing start to the tournament.
After claiming second at the 2019 world championship, Finland were expected to make an impact in Beijing but lost their first three games after their coach left the country due to a family emergency.
They found their footing to record a shutout win over Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in their final preliminary and beat Japan 7-1 in the quarter-final.
"We had a hard start in the tournament, but I think that's what made this team. We came together and just got better and better," Keisala said.
Finland's win means the same three countries will be on the podium as in Pyeongchang four years ago, with the top two spots to be determined on Thursday when Canada faces off against arch rival and defending champion United States.
The ice hockey powerhouses are the only countries to claim Olympic gold since the women's tournament was introduced to the programme in 1998.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery, editing by Ed Osmond and Bill Berkrot)
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Stop living with the stress of CASL—it is easier to be in compliance than you think.
In July 2014 CASL was enacted to reduce the sending of commercial electronic messages without consent. Electronic messages can be email or text (or forms of social media), which means CASL doesn't affect communication by mail or telephone. CASL also requires consent for downloading software—e.g. software updates for app users.
While there are several exemptions within the Act, resulting in confusion regarding the application in some circumstances, for most businesses it is sufficient to know that most emails and texts would be governed by CASL, so must include the proscribed information about the sender, provide a readily available unsubscribe mechanism and must be sent with the provable consent of the recipient.
CASL has become a familiar word in business because the consequences of non-compliance are significant and everyone can relate to receiving email, text or even software that they don't want. The CRTC receives thousands of complaints every week and several organizations have faced heavy fines or settlements. Yet statistics show businesses are slow to bring themselves into compliance.
This is partly because the obligations are new ones without built-in business budgets. It's also because the legislation seems complicated and full of pitfalls. It is often because there is insufficient education on what to do. Too often, it is because of push back from those concerned about thinning the list of contacts the business has acquired.
CASL compliance has been shown to improve the quality of the lists of contacts for a business because it is forces the removal of those who are not receptive to communications from you. In fact, with the right lists and good engagement practices, many publishers are finding email and text as a renewed cost-effective resource for building business.
What is the risk of non-compliance?
Due to heightened consumer awareness and the ease of lodging a complaint under CASL, the risk of being reported is real. While most of the focus of risk is on the millions of dollars of potential fines and the direct criminal and monetary exposure of individuals who directed the communications, the cost and inconvenience of an investigation alone should be sufficient risk to motivate compliance. As consumer demand grows in the area of privacy, the risk to reputation has become a bigger driver in promoting compliance.
Certainly large businesses with decentralized collection, storage and use practices face a lot of heavy lifting to bring themselves into compliance. But for most businesses, a little focused effort can greatly reduce the risk under CASL and a little education on CASL (and Privacy in general) can ensure that practices and systems are developed in compliance.
Can third parties be compliance solutions?
Many businesses use third parties for email. Some of these take the CASL obligations very seriously with audited/certified practices and therefore present a good way to manage your CASL risk. Yet some are less knowledgeable or careful about CASL, which presents a risk that they will often transfer to you through the service agreement. A careful review of vendors and of the legal terms is needed to outsource your CASL compliance. Remember that CASL makes the sender responsible for compliance, so using third-party lists doesn't alleviate your responsibility. Even when relying on a third party, you will still need some internal education and practices to ensure newly acquired contacts are brought in with the appropriate consent.
What are the basics of compliance?
CASL compliance mandates three things: (1) that you have consent to send messages by email or text or to update software, (2) that you always are clear about who is sending the message with the proscribed information and (3) that you provide an easy way to unsubscribe.
CASL doesn't apply: CASL does not apply to electronic messages sent within an organization or between organizations in a relationship, where the message concerns the recipient. Of course, CASL doesn't affect emails or texts by people in your organization that have a "family" or "personal" relationship with the recipient.
CASL consent exemptions: With many of your business communications, CASL applies to mandate sender information and unsubscribes, but consent is not required. This could allow you to send email or text without express consent if it is in furtherance of an existing transaction, including warranty, product recall, safety information, delivery of products, updates, or upgrades that the recipient is entitled to receive.
Implied consent: In other business communications, CASL applies to mandate sender information and unsubscribes, but consent is implied because the recipient and sender have an "existing relationship." But be careful to keep track of communication sent under this category because your "implied consent" expires two years after a product is purchased or a membership/subscription has expired. CASL also allows you to rely upon implied consent for emails sent to recipients who have conspicuously published or provided his or her email address but, again, be careful because it is only valid as long as the email is still conspicuously published without restriction. Cull your lists or convert these recipients to express consent, which never expires.
What is consent under CASL?
While there may be circumstances in which you wish to rely upon an exemption to consent or implied consent, the most reliable approach to CASL compliance is to ensure you have proof of express consent, which does not expire unless it is removed by the recipient.
that consent can be withdrawn.
Also be sure to make it an affirmative opt-in mechanism, which means checking a box or having to input an email address to sign up for these communications. Be careful with a process that has the email already provided (for sign in or other purpose) and just a notice that it will be used for communications. This would likely not constitute express consent, forcing you to rely upon an exemption or implied consent that may not be available in the circumstances.
The onus is on your to prove consent if it is contested by a recipient or you are investigated, so be sure to keep accurate, updated records of the consent you are relying on for each email or text that you send.
Does your business send email or texts to customers?
Does your business update software—e.g. through an app?
Do your emails or texts include an unsubscribe option that can remove someone from your list within 10 days (and do you regularly test it)?
Do your emails or texts include the proscribed information about the sender?
Do you have express consent, implied consent or an exemption to consent that you can rely upon?
Do you have a fair allocation of risk with your vendors that are relevant to your CASL obligations, whether it services for your email, IT services, storage, list sharing, customer service, etc.?
Do you have senior management involvement, a written policy, risk assessments, record keeping, staff training and a complaint-handling process?
If you have questions about this fact sheet or wish to review some of the concepts as it applies to your business, you can contact me at adriennerutherford@me.com.
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What is a slush pile? The definition changes from person to person, from magazine to magazine, and from publisher to publisher. To most, the slush pile is the towering stack of submissions that were not selected to be published at first read-through. The emergence of online submission managers such as Submittable, has turned this tangible tower into an out of sight, out of mind virtual filing cabinet.
To others, slush can mean "any unsolicited submission," but for literary magazines, (aside from the commissioned pieces) wouldn't that mean that all submissions are unsolicited? Now that so many literary magazines have shifted to online submission managers, there is no real slush pile; instead there are a series of processes in place to sort where a submission "lives" while it's not currently being read, edited or considered. Although having the option to submit your work online has it conveniences, the influx of submissions has increased substantially.
The practices and procedures for reading submissions will differ depending on the magazine, their staffing and volunteer levels and a few other key factors, but the idea is the same: to log and track all incoming submissions and to have readers read and rank EVERYTHING (this is what takes so long).
So then…your gorgeous short story, essay or poem is already labelled slush, before you even hit send. So yes, let's demystify the slush pile because slush piles can harbour gold, too.
If a call opens on November 1 and closes on January 31, is there a best time to submit? The truth is, it does not matter. As long as your submission falls within those deadlines, you are fine. What so many folks do not know (and this is especially true for quarterly magazines) is that when the call is open, the submissions generally aren't read until the call closes. What does this mean? If you submit your piece on November 1, chances are it will not be looked at until at least the end of January. The reason for this is that with quarterly magazines, editors and editorial teams are working on four issues at once, with all of them at different stages of production.
If your piece makes it to the editor and that editor likes your piece but cannot use it, they will usually forward it to another editor for a subsequent issue (it's nice when magazines send you an email letting you know, because this basically means your wait time doubles, and it's important to keep writers updated). Note: this is a process some magazines use, not all.
Most magazines will have first readers and your submission needs to make it past the reader before it gets to the editor. This is the tricky part because even though you may have researched the editor and have a good understanding in terms of what they like and what they usually publish, your submission might not even make it to them. I know that sounds disheartening, but rest assured, if your work shines, it will get published one way or another.
Production time is long. There's no way around this. A lot goes into putting the issue together and a lot of this work goes above and beyond just reading and selecting pieces. Most issues take one full year with four issues in production at once but all at different stages (this is true for quarterly mags). If anyone has questions about production, please post in slack and I will do my best to include simplified answers.
I think it's totally acceptable to reach out to a magazine about your submission if you haven't heard back in six months or longer. But in doing this, be careful with what you are asking for.
Unpaid labour is real. Most literary magazine editorial teams are volunteers or paid small honorariums and do this work before and after their day jobs. Asking a magazine editor to provide you with substantive feedback is not something you should consider doing. You can, however, ask if the rejection was an issue of not having enough space in that specific issue (which is a real thing). Another acceptable ask is if you get an email directly from the editor, you can ask if there were any notes left on your piece that can be passed on. But note, this is rare. Just be polite in your ask and realistic with your expectations and acknowledge the added labour you are asking for.
Due to the shift to online submissions, the number of submissions magazines receive has increased substantially.
Editorial teams are usually working on more than one issue at once in various phases of production.
If one editor does not have space for your piece for whatever reason, they might forward it to the editor of the next issue (or if there's only one editor, they may hold it for the next issue).
There are usually readers who take a first read before deciding to pass it on to the editor.
You can check in on your submission, but be sure not to ask for substantive feedback as most editors are volunteers and unpaid labour is always something they are battling.
Always send your best. Chances are, if it sings, it will find a home.
Yes, but spelling and grammar checkers have limitations. For one thing, they don't check word usage. They might not alert you if you use the wrong word but it's correctly spelled or if you type in a homophone (a sound-alike word, such as pour instead of pore). They often fail to notice missing words and punctuation problems. Spell-checkers set to autocorrect may pick the wrong words or change correctly spelled words that they don't recognize, such as words from other languages. Grammar checkers often misdiagnose complex sentences.
We'll give you just one example of why proofreading is essential. This sentence got a clean bill of health from a word processor's spell-checker: Tizzy beta too halve) gloved und list' then", nerve/ too half loafed aa tall. (Apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson.) There's just no substitute for careful reading by human eyes.
Below is a list of errors that copy editors encounter all the time. It will help you create cleaner, clearer and more authoritative copy, whether you're writing a magazine article, a blog post, a sales campaign or an email.
People often mix these up. Use its to indicate possession: The shop has changed its hours. Use it's when you mean it is: It's nice to meet you. How to remember the difference? It's is a contraction (two words combined in a shorter form); the apostrophe replaces the letter i in is. Try plugging it is (or it has) into your sentence. If it doesn't sound right, use its.
These homophones are a triple threat, but the first two have narrow uses. They're is a contraction of they are: They're outside. Their is a possessive pronoun: I like their outfits.
For other situations, you likely want there.
As an adverb or a noun, there refers to a place or position: I worked there for years or I went over there.
As a pronoun, there introduces the subject of a sentence: There was a cat on the roof.
As an interjection, there expresses satisfaction or sympathy: There, it's done and There, there, don't cry.
It may help you to remember that there contains here, and both words refer to places.
Your is a possessive pronoun: Your keys are upstairs. You're is a contraction of you are: You're a good listener.
In each independent clause, keep your verb tenses consistent. For example, this clause mixes present and past tenses: Ben waves and drove away. It's better to use only one tense: Ben waves and drives away or Ben waved and drove away.
If you have two singular subjects with or, neither/nor or either/or, use a singular verb. For example, this sentence uses the singular verb has: Either Jing or Shan has the book.
In a similar sentence that has both singular and plural subjects, the verb agrees with the closest subject: Neither the dresses nor the parka fits in the closet or Neither the parka nor the dresses fit in the closet. However, not every grammar authority endorses this solution. Some authorities advise writers to provide a verb for each subject: The dresses do not fit in the closet, and neither does the parka.
Collective nouns take a singular verb when the members of the group act as a single unit: The committee has called a meeting. Collective nouns take a plural verb when the members of the group act as individuals: The committee have been debating for hours.
Some pronouns—some, all, more, none—take singular or plural verbs. The verb form depends on the noun that the pronoun refers to. Examples: Some of the food has spoiled and Some of the bananas are mushy.
When treating time, distance or money as a single unit, use a singular verb: Five million dollars is a lot of money. Ten years is a long time.
Some plural words—such as measles, physics and billiards—are treated as singular. For example: Physics is a challenging subject.
Joint possession, or compound possession, means that two parties share something. Add an apostrophe and an s to the second name only: Canada and Japan's trade agreement. Separate possession means two parties each have something, but they don't share it. Add an apostrophe and an s to both names: Canada's and Japan's trade agreements.
A comma splice occurs when a comma connects two independent clauses. Sometimes we use comma splices for effect—for example, Julius Caesar's famous words "I came, I saw, I conquered"—but in general we should avoid them.
This comma splice—I was in a hurry, I forgot my wallet—is an error. To fix it, we could create two sentences: I was in a hurry. I forgot my wallet. We could use a comma and a coordinating conjunction to make a compound sentence: I was in a hurry, and I forgot my wallet. We could replace the comma with a semicolon: I was in a hurry; I forgot my wallet.
Watch out for run-on sentences (two independent clauses with no punctuation between them): I was in a hurry I forgot my wallet.
The results are often confusing or funny. An example: Camping in the woods, the bear startled us. The modifier Camping in the woods is too far from the sentence's intended subject (the campers), so it looks like the bear was camping. A possible fix: Camping in the woods, we were startled by a bear.
Another example: Born in Singapore, his novel was a bestseller. The modifier Born in Singapore mistakenly refers to his novel. The intended subject, the author, is missing, and his is insufficient. Correction: Kevin Kwan, who was born in Singapore, wrote a bestselling novel.
A sentence that features parallelism repeats a grammatical form or word pattern to indicate that two or more ideas are equally important. Parallelism adds clarity and a pleasing flow to your writing.
Here's an example of a sentence that lacks parallelism. Note how awkwardly the sentence reads: Maya loves swimming, marathons and to climb. We can improve this sentence with consistent verb forms: Maya loves swimming, running marathons and climbing or Maya loves to swim, run marathons and climb.
Here's another example of a sentence that lacks parallelism: Adam works quickly and finished the project. It's better if the verb tenses match: Adam worked quickly and finished the project.
Sometimes a sentence that lacks parallelism reads as an interrupted list: The house has leaky pipes, crumbling walls and the heating is faulty. Better: The house has leaky pipes, crumbling walls and faulty heating.
This punctuation habit is a holdover from the era of typewriters. Don't double space after a period. Period.
I often get asked, what makes an Indigenous story different? And I always say the say the same thing. Nothing.
That might seem counterintuitive when we are often reminded about the sensitivity, needed context and previous gaps in stories on Indigenous people and communities. But it's about getting it right and that means striving to cover Indigenous stories with the same investigation, rigour, sensitivity, depth and accuracy as any other story.
The difference is the acknowledgement that as an institution, the media has not done a good job covering Indigenous stories in the past. We have left out details, such as how much a family member loves a missing or murdered love one, or been too gratuitous with other details, like spending the most time on who killed her or how she died. In many cases, we have also got facts wrong, talked to too few sources or worse, not covered a story at all.
Trust has been broken with media and now some are trying to build it back up.
I've been covering Indigenous stories, not exclusively, but often over the last several years and there are some tips I have picked up along the way—often from making my own mistakes.
For some Indigenous people, in particular survivors of residential schools, the sixties scoop or family members of missing or murdered loved ones, this may be the first time they have shared their story because of a lack of trust in media.
Some may have witnessed or experienced a negative interview or had a story published about them or their community that was not accurate or misrepresentative.
Do let interviewees know about your deadline, the treatment of the story and your direction, but be open minded about how long it may take to gather, especially if it is a sensitive story.
I once expressed my frustration with how long an interview with a survivor was taking to set up and not only did I lose the interview and the story but the contact. It was a big reminder that some stories cannot be rushed. I now make a point of being gentle with time.
That being said, you might need to let your editor or producer know that this story might take more time in the gathering stage.
Also keep in mind this may not be true for everyone. I've also had many survivors feel good about sharing and want the story to go out as soon as possible. Others have worked with media before and can help turn a story around in a few hours. Keep in mind, like everyone, Indigenous people do not all have the same experience.
One of the main flaws of the past in writing about Indigenous communities was that they were often presented in an oversimplified way. We saw tropes of Indigenous people as only of the past, only in a cultural lens or bleakly.
We've left out important context that helped to understand a community or person or added context when it wasn't needed.
For example, in an excellent news story about voting in an Indigenous community, two Indigenous youth were featured. It was compelling and powerful. But at one point the reporter questioned the youth about the type of drugs he used growing up—"oxytocin or meth"? It gave the story weight and context about the hurdles this community had overcome, but how often would we ask non-Indigenous people this same question for a story unrelated to drugs and alcohol? Many people of different races have had brushes with and even struggled with addictions but often it's highlighted in Indigenous stories.
I also had a keen non-Indigenous student recently tell me that he was told by another student not to ask Indigenous people about their community as it may be too traumatizing for them. This is an inaccurate assumption, as for one it infers that all Indigenous people are victims, and for two it suggests we should steer away from difficult stories in Indigenous communities. We should strive for balance in our coverage of Indigenous communities and this means being brave enough to cover the hard stories and knowing the value of doing the lighter, more positive ones.
It's a lesson about inserting our own bias about Indigenous people, intentionally or inadvertently, into our storytelling. The tip here is to think about what biases or tropes you are bringing to your stories with your own preconceptions about Indigenous people.
The victim narrative: Depicting Indigenous people or a person as collapsing under the burden of history or current realities, or overcoming tragedies that have no root cause.
The addict and alcoholic stereotype: Exhibiting a person's past or current substance abuse when it is unrelated to the story.
The warrior trope: Rather than looking at concerns as legitimate political, environmental or socio-economic ones—painting an Indigenous person as a trouble maker, or as irrational, even violent.
The greedy/lazy label: Instead of telling a robust story about finances, treaties and lands in Indigenous communities, showcasing a narrow, crude or inaccurate presentation of the issues such as Indigenous people getting free stuff (education and gas are popular errors) or tax breaks.
One of the things I notice more and more is that reporters end up tethered to their desks due to budget cuts or tighter deadlines, so I understand, this is a hard one.
But it's difficult to actually understand the complexity of a community without going there, talking to people there and seeing the state of the community. For example, many reporters had covered a Stolo community close to Chilliwack, B.C. but without ever going there. Most of the reports focused on one chief who was in support of the Trans Mountain pipeline, and from one perspective. But going there showed me a diverse cross-section of the community: some who were clearly against the expansion, others who were for it, but for a vast array of reasons. Going there also showed me just how small the community was, how tight knit and how connected to other communities it was.
Being in a community can also show you the distance it is from larger centres, the challenges it may face to access education, health care and transportation.
Make sure not just to show up, ask permission from a resident (doesn't have to be from the band leadership) and try to plan it around a community event. When I was covering stories about the oil sands in northern Alberta, we planned it around a career fair and a trapping trip.
The biggest, more important piece of advice I can offer, is start to see Indigenous people as not black-and-white caricatures who exist in homogeneous ways, but as three-dimensional, complex and diverse people, with various opinions, ways of life, experiences and values.
An accessible website means that all information found on a web page or web application, including text, images, forms and sounds, must be accessible to physical, sensory and cognitive diversities. As of January 1, 2021, all public websites and their web content published after January 1, 2012 belonging to and controlled by a private, non-profit or public organizations with fifty or more employees must conform to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.0 Level AA (excluding live captioning and pre-recorded audio descriptions). While you don't have to make content prior to January 2012 accessible you will be required to accommodate anyone who asks for alternative and accessible content.
In the 2016 AODA Hotsheet we discussed the importance of knowing how users access your content, staying proactive, and reframing accessibility: "Think of accessibility less as a compliance process and rather as an exemplary design process, the objective of which is to reach people of all abilities." This year we dig deeper into tools that can help you get your site to Level AA and maintaining compliance.
The 2021 deadline is approaching and compliance monitoring will likely become stricter. Reporting compliance should be part of your accessibility goal, both to help you map a strategy to achieve accessibility as well as to avoid fines.
For this Hotsheet we've focused on section 14 of the Information and Communication Standard of the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR) of the AODA called "accessible websites and web content." It is important to understand that there are many other standards within the IASR that include not only the information and communication standards but also the transportation standards and the employment standards, each with their own accessibility requirements. Publishing companies may need to comply with various sections within all three of the standards.
The mandatory compliance report includes 17 questions mainly related to services and built environments (space). The final question of the report encompasses website compliance: "Other than the requirements cited in the above questions, is your organization complying with all other requirements in effect under the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation?" Even though wording doesn't specifically indicate web-related compliance, the broad statement is a catch-all for all mandated requirements.
There are two useful guides to help support understanding of accessibility and specifics of what needs to be done to your site based on WCAG criteria.
A. Perceivable information and user interface includes text alternatives for meaningful non-text content, captions and other alternatives for multimedia, and options to control an audio or video component, for example.
B. User interfaces and navigation that is operable means a person can use a keyboard to move around your site rather than by gesture, mouse or trackpad, and that people have enough time to read and use the content by postponing or suppressing interruptions. It may also mean that the keyboard focus is visible, pages have clear titles and the purpose of a link is clearly evident.
C. A webpage is considered understandable when text is readable and understandable, content appears and operates in predictable ways, and users are supported in avoiding and correcting mistakes (when filling out forms for example). You can support broader "understanding" by providing definitions for unusual words, idioms and abbreviations and using the simplest language possible (or even provide simplified versions); having consistent navigation and prompts throughout all pages to let people learn how to move around the site with actions they can predict; and giving people the opportunity to review and correct content during and after filling out a form.
D. Making sure markup can be interpreted by assistive technologies (such as screen readers) is part of creating robust content that includes a name, role and value for content so that assistive technologies can process the content reliably. "ARIA is the means of supplying names, roles and values for common UI designs that aren't part of the HTML standard, such as tabbed navigation interfaces," notes Alan Harnum, senior inclusive developer at the IDRC. (See "What to Expect in the Near Future 2. ARIA 1.1" below for more info and learn about what name, role and value mean in context of technology here).
This reference tool has a filter to help you zero in on the areas of your website that need to be addressed under the POUR accessibility principles. By setting the filters to 2.0 level AA you will be able to scroll through the approximately 13 requirements to fulfill AODA compliance. Level A has approximately 25 criteria and if you have already fulfilled all or most of them then you are well on your way to being Level AA compliant. And to make it even easier, each criterion displays expandable areas for further information, such as full descriptions, techniques and failures, and deeper information to help you understand the specific criterion.
Figure 1: WCAG's quick reference tool filter tab showing selection options.
WCAG released version 2.1 in June of 2018. "The main goals of version 2.1 are to improve accessibility for mobile, low vision and cognitive differences," says Lisa Liskovoi, designer and accessibility specialist at the Inclusive Design Research Centre. "The focus on mobile is significant because many people use and need a mobile device to navigate their world, so for example in 2.1 it is required that orientation cannot be restricted so users can operate a site or app vertically or horizontally on their device. Complex gestures such as pinching or twisting require alternative ways of performing the action. For example pinching to zoom in also has a plus (+) and minus (-) option that people can select to perform the same function." In her reviews of website accessibility, Lisa often sees that contrast of non-text content such as buttons, icons and other important user elements is poor so that they become very difficult to find. Version 2.1 addresses access to non-text content with a new requirement for better designed contrast and visibility. WCAG 2.1 has been adopted by the European Union but has not been incorporated into any Canadian legislation as of November 2018.
We are starting to see more and more work being done around inclusion of cognitive differences and ICT. Last fall the IDRC (Inclusive Design Research Centre) had the opportunity to organize a workshop that brought together global procurement and accessibility leaders to inform a progressive accessibility policy for the Federal Government of Canada. A key recommendation from the group was the importance of supporting cognitive differences. WCAG 2.1 has begun to incorporate some functional requirements that support cognitive differences, such as giving people warnings about tasks that have time limits. For example, if someone needs to gather credit card or address information for a timed task they are told about the requirement before entering into the timed action, allowing people to gather information within their own time.
ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications specification) is a set of attributes for web markup that "defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities" by adding a semantic layer of information that can be picked up by assistive technologies. For example, it allows users to communicate the functionality and current state of toggles that collapse and expand content, something that is generally only communicated visually. Developers can make advanced Web applications accessible and usable to people with disabilities, especially people who rely on screen readers and people who cannot use a mouse.
ARIA has several updates in the latest version 1.1. Lisa points to sites that use infinite role feeds like Pinterest, where a screen reader doesn't tell a user that the page has been refreshed, something that is easy to identify for a visual user. With ARIA 1.1 there is now an attribute that prompts a screen reader to voice when a page in role feed has been refreshed.
Maintaining sustainable compliance is about embedding accessibility thinking at every stage of your design process by having your practices be inclusive of a diversity of people. The Inclusive Design Guide's insights, practices, tools and activities are resources you can easily layer into existing processes (in particular if you have an agile publishing process in place). Also check out the "inclusive design practice" section on the FLOE resource page for more helpful links.
Here's an idea: consider accessibility as your fourth bottom line in a quadruple bottom line model and you will no doubt be a leader in inclusion.
Thank you to Lisa Liskovoi, Dr. Vera Roberts, Justin Obara, Alan Harnum and the inclusive design community.
UI Options is a tool that allows individuals to personalize web content and other user digital interfaces to meet their needs and preferences. It works by adding to the existing styles of a website or application, and can be integrated into a design with relatively minimal effort.
So you're running a regional magazine—that's great! The good news is, publications that celebrate community and connect with their readership on a personal identity level are more important than ever—and more popular than ever, too. Some of the most successful magazine launches in recent years have been focused around celebrating those unique communities and connection that is built around them—often creating an identity where people may have not recognized their need for one (think Garden and Gun, Burnt Roti, Kinfolk). Great regional magazines spark the imaginations of their readers, who will identify with your message of community and celebration of home.
For established publications, Vividata stats are gold—dig deep into figuring out your reader's habits. (Do they own pets? Are they likely to spend more than $20 on a bottle of wine, or are they more interested in learning about the deals out there? Do they travel internationally, or do they explore the local haunts?) The closer you can get to what makes them tick, the better filters you will have for determining the ideal stories for your magazine.
If you're not a member of Vividata, make your own readership survey, ideally with a great prize attached to generate more interest, and ask the psychographic questions you're wrestling with yourself. Rather than just "How do you like our column by X?" find out what makes them tick as people: what are they passionate about in their communities and in life?
Your online readers and social media followers can also be a source of feedback. While they aren't always the same people reading print and online—so do not assume the info you gather here is the final word—the stats you can garner from Google Analytics will give you a richer picture. And a story that goes viral online can also give you some instant feedback on what people want.
Magazines can be a powerful force in a community. When they get it right, they can both effect real change (see Toronto Life's story on police carding in Toronto, and its after effects) and strengthen a community. Western Living runs a Designers of the Year award program, for example, and the winners of those awards see their businesses change overnight—our readers support them by hiring them. What communities are underserved in your region and how can you reflect them in your pages?
The success of regional magazines is often about reflecting the faces of those people in your community on the page. National magazines can struggle to truly represent all areas of the country, but you don't have to. Whose story needs being told? In Western Living, "people seeing people" can be as simple as ensuring the homes we photograph have the real people living in them, and photographed within them. We highlight local designers, doing work here in our region. People connect with seeing their neighbours in print.
Your head office is just one part of your community, and it is important that you understand the issues and people of importance throughout your region. At Western Living, we have freelance city editors based in every city we write about. They file monthly updates with us about local events, new stores and new people we should be covering and paying attention to. Because we are a design-focused magazine, they will also scout homes for us, and they will attend events on our behalf. We also cultivate relationships with writers across the region who pitch local stories, but having this official, monthly check-in with our city editors keeps us better connected. Bring those writers into your editorial meetings when you can as well—they'll make the brainstorming process even richer.
Ask, Why Now, Why Us?
One of the toughest decisions as an editor is to turn down a pitch not because it isn't great, but because it isn't a great fit with the magazine. This is where both your vision for the publication, and your knowledge of your ideal reader, is all too important. Every story should answer the question, why now—why is this subject or content important to talk about right now, as opposed to last year, or any other time? And it should also answer, why us? Why is this the right fit for your publication—could it better live in a more general interest publication? Does it celebrate or reflect a member of your community that your readers should really get to know? Does it have an angle that only you and your team can properly execute? If it is a no to any of the above, think about what would make it so.
Readers want to be feel a part of the brand. Take Garden and Gun for example. Jessica Derrick, their brand development manager, noted that "They just knew that if we were going to write about music, then our readers were going to want to listen to it." They wrote about Alabama chef Frank Stitt, and then sold out a dinner for 50 people in Birmingham. The magazine starts the conversation, and we as human beings crave the community to discuss and experience it—to live in the world that this magazine has created. These events can be revenue generators for your brand, but they will also get you out in front of your readers and give you another opportunity to know who they are and what stories would connect with them.
Once you have narrowed in on topics that have local resonance, give your editorial team, your readers and your advertisers plenty of advance warning. Your readers (and when they will want to read about certain topics) are your priority, but do not forget to check in with your advertising team for times of year that certain content is helpful for them. If you're planning to do an annual package celebrating the Top 40 Foodies in your region, check in with the sales team to see if there are healthier advertising budgets for restaurants, suppliers, markets, etc. at certain times of the year.
By Linda Thomas Brooks, President and CEO, MPA – The Association of Magazine Media.
Maybe somewhere there is a study on human nature that explains why people have a tendency to pick the latest fad over the tried and true. I, however, have always had a preference for choosing the option with the greatest likelihood of success.
With that in mind, MPA has collected outside, industry-accepted research that speaks to how and why magazine media works.
Consumers' relationship with magazines generally begins with the customer reaching out and saying, "Here is my name. Here is my home address. Here is my credit card information." That is different than every other media channel. When you think about all third-party data appends and cookie data, they don't really know who you are. Instead, they can geo-locate you. They can ping you with a Starbucks message even if you aren't a coffee drinker. They can intercept you and interrupt you.
As a customer reading a magazine, I understand the advertising. I like the advertising. The advertising is part of the experience. It is not an annoyance. The magazine is an invited guest, and the advertiser is welcome as a "plus one." This is validated in Simmons Multi-Media Engagement Study, where attributes like "ads fit well with the content" and "has ads about things I care about" are highest for magazines.
MPA looked at a compilation of outside research done by more than 100 neuroscientists, learning psychologists and cognitive psychologists to understand how people interact with print. What did we find? People process print content with greater focus of attention and with much more intense emotional reverberations than the screen format.
Scientists concluded through eye tracking, comprehension testing and FMRI machines that subjects had less distraction when reading on paper. Paper-based reading also has impact due to the additional sensory involvement—the feel of the pages, the smell of the paper and the sound of turning the sheet.
When subjects were tested while reading paper-based formats, they had higher comprehension and recall. They spend more time with printed pieces and at slower reading speeds, which stimulates emotions and desires. That emotional impact is very important to advertisers because a lot of advertising leans on emotional triggers.
The scientists also looked at preferred reading methods for what they call robust reading—really wanting to understand core material. All adult age groups, including millennials, favoured paper-based reading.
Why does all this matter to advertisers? If you are putting an ad out there, you want to know if your target audience saw it, paid attention to it, understood it and will remember it. All of those things are elevated with paper-based reading.
Any strategic communications planner knows that when you add a media channel your numbers go up. According to Millward Brown, the single best channel to increase all upper and lower funnel metrics is magazines. The Millward Brown study compiled over 150 client studies in four categories—CPG, Auto, Entertainment and Financial Services—and looked at mixtures of media. They found that when print media is in the mix, critical KPIs go up the most.
Adding print is the best way to build awareness and consideration as well as move brand favourability and purchase intent. For example, the Millward Brown research shows that you get a 17% lift on purchase intent when you have print working in your media mix.
Understanding consumer journeys can be complicated, but the idea is always the same: You can't harvest people at the bottom of the funnel, if you don't put them at the top of the funnel first. The single best way to move both upper and lower-funnel metrics is to have print in a campaign.
Nielsen Catalina did a roll up of over 1,400 client studies that they had conducted over a year. They looked at their key metric, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), which measures what you get back for every dollar you put in the marketplace. Magazines delivered a $3.94 return on every $1. The next highest, digital display, trails by more than $1.30 at $2.63.
For clients who already have high awareness and consideration, Neilson Catalina found that high frequency of use and high awareness brands have a much higher frequency of return on their spending in magazine media, a whopping $5.94. Those are the brands that have the highest return on their media spending and should be leveraging print.
About eight years ago, Meredith Corporation did research using Nielsen Catalina for CPG products to look at the results of a specific ad campaign. They boldly promised that if a qualifying campaign does not demonstrate positive ROI, advertisers can have their money back.
Meredith made their methodology available to any other MPA member publisher who could participate, and more than 80 campaigns have offered the guarantee. Some of those were print only and some of those have been multi-format campaigns.
Any guesses on how many times the guarantee worked? How many times clients got a positive ROI? Every. Single. Time. No other media offers an advertising guarantee. What does that tell you?
Not only is magazine media more engaging thanks to its paper format, even digital readers average 50 minutes with each issue. On social media—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—magazine companies are the number one brands and they elicit more engagement than non-magazine brands.
When you look at magazine media audience across all platforms—Print, Digital, Web, Mobile and Video—magazines have enormous reach: 1.8 billion to be exact.
People enjoy print; better yet, consumers are adding other magazine media platforms while still enjoying that tangible copy. If audiences are engaged across platforms, why aren't marketers?
Of the many tasks that the staff (or volunteers) of small or medium-sized magazines must wrangle, financial management is one of the least glamourous, yet most indispensable to the success of the enterprise. Lapses in oversight and management can result in cash shortages and unnecessary panic at tax time or when grant applications are due. Fortunately, a diverse range of affordable software applications are available to assist with some of the repetitive and time-consuming aspects of bookkeeping and financial management. Many of the bookkeeping applications on the market offer an option to download bank and credit card transactions and integrate with other third-party applications you might use to track sales, staff time and expenses. These standard features automate a lot of the data entry required to complete your accounting. Spending less time recording data means you have more time to make informed decisions and plans for your organization. Here are a few other considerations to help introduce financial planning and management efficiencies.
A budgeting tool is a common feature of most commercial bookkeeping applications and most of them allow you to budget on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis to suit whatever reporting frequency works best for your organization. The obvious advantage to building your budget directly in your bookkeeping software is that it eliminates most of the manual effort involved in preparing budget reports. Assuming your books are up-to-date, producing a report should be as simple as selecting a budget versus actual report from the application's menu choices. From there, you can customize the report to set appropriate date ranges, the basis for comparison, and other useful criteria. Or, export the report to Excel or any other compatible spreadsheet to carry out more complex analysis.
Depending on the size of your organization and the nature of activities it carries out, you might find it helpful to create budgets with various benchmarks and measurements in mind. For example, for a print magazine, a production budget that sets out the anticipated revenues and expenses for the magazine on an issue-by-issue basis might prove most meaningful. An online publication might benefit from budgeting for content acquisition and publication separately from its other revenue-generating activities.
These discrete budgets should tie to the organization's annual budget. Think of them as nesting budgets. The figures detailed by the editorial budget should match the corresponding section of the overall financial planning document for the magazine as a whole.
The names for this type of budgeting differ from one bookkeeping application to another, but make sure your software has the ability to subdivide your budget by class, customer, project or fund. Please bear in mind this budgeting feature is usually restricted to paid applications and might entail an upgrade to a more robust plan or software edition. However, you'll probably discover the value of the time saved and improved functionality will exceed the incremental software cost.
Who creates the budgets in your organization? Who makes financial decisions? Who records financial transactions? Who reviews reports and monitors financial performance? These roles likely overlap in organizations with a small number of staff and volunteers to do everything that needs doing, but it is still important to be aware of these tasks and whose responsibility they are.
The budget should reflect the magazine's strategic plan for a fiscal period. For it to do its job, it is crucial that you develop and communicate a plan for its execution. People should be made aware of what budgets or parts of budgets they control and what authority they have to carry out their duties within the budget framework. For the budget to work as a roadmap, people have to follow it and evaluate whether it is doing its job.
One of the chief complaints about the financial planning and budgeting process is that budgets become obsolete too soon to be useful. Circumstances differ from what they were expected to be and the budget loses its relevance. However, it might be helpful to think of the budget in more flexible terms. Plans change, so do budgets.
Once you have established your systems for budgeting and reporting, use the information you now have at your disposal. Run budget vs actual reports regularly so that you know what is going on in your organization's finances in time to address any areas that are not meeting the targets set for them. After you have identified problems and successes, consider how best to correct course. Does the budget need updates to better reflect the evolving realities in your business and publishing environment? Should you delay, accelerate or otherwise revise your plans to avoid running out of cash at critical times or to take advantage of positive trends? Is the magazine heading where it should and, if it is not, why not? What has to happen to align the present reality with the desired outcomes?
An effective budget and management practice should be responsive and flexible. It should help focus and streamline the financial activities of your organization by providing the means to assess whether they are accomplishing their goals and by revealing strengths and weaknesses in the current plan of action. For many organizations it is a matter of shifting the emphasis from data collection to strategy and analysis. Or from an operational perspective, it might make sense to break down plans or budgets into manageable components. Explore the tools that will permit you to dedicate less time and attention to the mechanics of tracking and reporting financial information. Automate data entry where possible to increase the availability and timeliness of your data. Delineate clear roles and protocols for evaluating the plan on an ongoing basis. Refine and recalibrate the organization's goals on the fly instead of reviewing them from an historical vantage point.
Renewals are the most important source in circulation for three reasons: they are profitable; they account for at least three quarters of circulation revenue; and they are a reflection of your editorial content.
Having worked with numerous Canadian magazines for over 20 years, there are definite "Typical Renewal Responses" that differ by magazine type in general, and specifically by source. The highest rates tend to be B2B, especially if there are no competitors; consumer/niche have the next highest rates; followed by consumer/general interest.
Of course, every magazine has different editorial, reader demographics and subscriber life spans, but there's a proven approach to renewing subscriptions that is common for all.
Consider this: If you boost the above renewal rate by two points to 55.51%, this would bring in $290 cash, costs would remain the same, and the end result would be an 8.6% increase in revenue.
The first renewal should get the highest response and steadily decline with each subsequent effort. If the response tail is staggered there's a problem. Perhaps the mail dates are too close together or the price/offer is not compelling, or you haven't mailed enough efforts or each renewal has the same copy and/or creative. Other reasons could be inconsistent frequency or problems with customer service. Editorial is another factor. Did the content change (for better or worse!)?
How many efforts to mail? At least five for most magazines, but the best answer is as many efforts until they become unprofitable. It doesn't matter what the magazine frequency is. Many quarterlies send six to eight renewals. Mailed efforts get better responses than emailed or wrappers. Perhaps because the magazine arrives in the mail and/or a renewal notice is a "response device." Emailed efforts can boost overall response by a point or two, but it's rare that an emailed renewal gets more than a mailed effort. Emails are less expensive, so it is worth adding one or two. Wrappers are cost effective but also tend to get fewer returned than mailed, likely because it's included with the magazine or there's no reply envelope. Telemarketing can be expensive if outsourced but can work for certain types of magazines and sources, especially donor renewals.
Long-term analysis by source from start date onwards provides critical information on when each source becomes profitable. Some sources make money or break even when they start their first issue: agencies, gifts, web and insert cards. Others take two or more years to recoup expenses, especially direct mail and free-standing inserts, both of which can cost up to $30 per order to obtain.
As the cost to obtain each source varies, so too does their renewal response as per the outline below. Note that the "Renewal" source is the subscribers who have been with the magazine for three or more years. They are your best and most loyal readers. You want lots of them. "Conversions" are people who are up for renewal for the second time, i.e. year two. The other sources listed, direct mail etc., are all first time renewal rates.
*Library/catalogue agents renew very well, but not direct-to-publisher. There's a good reason for this: Libraries can get over 800 subscriptions, so imagine managing expirations and dealing with each magazine directly? Ordering through catalogue agents such as EBSCO makes sense. Quite often magazines will not send all mailed efforts to that source. Instead they'll just mail a wrapper effort on the expiration issue which is very cost efficient; the postage is already paid with the magazine mailing.
Donors renewing their gifts tend to renew over 80%. Interestingly, renewing recipients (when their donor didn't) renew quite poorly, and are usually less than 20%.
Another consideration is the subscription lifespan of your magazine. For example, a children's magazine has a short life span, but likely has a large percentage of gift subscriptions making this type of editorial viable. However, you must replace these with new subscriptions more often than a general interest title.
The offer is the next most important factor in boosting response, so try to vary each effort with a mix of price savings using dollars and percentages, and mix up the one, two and three year options but only in the first few efforts. If someone hasn't renewed by the fourth effort, then it's best to stick to a one year only.
Add an offer deadline and/or guarantee.
Include editorial benefits such as a special annual, upcoming anniversary issue, particular column (or columnist).
Every effort should be a "last chance" for something, i.e., for three-year savings, to renew before subscription expires, to ensure you don't miss an issue, etc.
Each effort should be signed by a different person, i.e., publisher, editor, circulation director.
The more efforts sent before the subscription expires, the higher the response.
Consider inserting a buck slip to promote upcoming editorial, gift subscriptions, anniversary issue, literary contests, premiums, etc.
Mail the renewal effort just after they receive an issue.
Some circulation audit bureaus report on renewal rates so see how your competitors are faring.
A UK magazine study tested removing the actual expire issue date on the order form and focused on number of issues to go and found that responses increased.
Have renewal rates declined over the last five years?
For some yes, but for others responses have been stable, especially for trade and niche magazines. The only way to determine the efficacy of your renewal series is to implement a strong compelling multi-effort series and to analyze responses regularly.
There are two types of fact checking: the kind that happens as a step in the editorial process before a piece is released to the public, and the kind that happens post-release, when published stories or videos, social media posts or a public figure's comments are in question. This Hotsheet focuses on checking stories before they're published, but given how prominent "fake news" has become in recent years, it's important for every journalist to be aware of and keep up on the battle against misinformation. For example, the New York Times, Mother Jones, and BuzzFeed are a few of the publications that recently launched "misinformation projects" to identify false online content, in some cases reaching out for help from readers. Fact checker Brooke Borel's FiveThirtyEight article "Fact-Checking Won't Save Us From Fake News" is an excellent primer and opinion piece on the topic.
Up until early this century, many young journalists got their start in Canadian magazines by working as a fact checker. Those jobs are nearly non-existent today given the industry's fading fortunes in recent years. For that reason, it's more important than ever for everyone involved in the editorial process to have an understanding of how fact checking works. Traditionally, fact checking your own writing has been frowned upon. But better to check your own work than to have it not checked at all. If you're an editor, you probably won't opt to or have time to thoroughly check every story that crosses your desk, but knowing what to watch for and where the most common mistakes are made might help you catch an important fact that saves you from embarrassment—or lawsuit.
Fact checking is both a point of pride and a way to avoid being sued. If you're reporting real-life events, it's your duty to ensure the information that you're presenting to your readers is accurate. Relaying false information does a disservice to the reader who paid to read your story, and to the sources who trusted you to tell it accurately. Plus, mistakes tarnish the reputation of both writer and publication. At the same time, while getting someone's height wrong by an inch or two probably won't be noticed by too many people, getting more serious facts incorrect—facts that may end up libeling a source—can land a publication in court and potentially put it out of business.
Ideally fact checking is undertaken by a trained professional: someone with one or more university degrees, a few languages at their disposal, and wide-ranging world knowledge. That ideal, sadly, is not often achievable on the budget of most magazines in the 21st century. Today, checking often is undertaken (if at all) by junior staffers, interns, or freelancers, but the basics still stand: in theory, a fact checker should be a blank slate (checkers never assume to know facts, they check them). But in reality, a checker needs to be knowledgeable, worldly, curious, sharp and attentive, with an eye for detail. The more knowledge a checker has, the better they'll be at their job.
Checking usually takes place once a story has been edited, but before the copy editing process begins. Before beginning the checking process, a checker should discuss their approach with the editor, in the event there are any touchy sources or other potential pitfalls involved. A checker should start by reading the story to be checked two or three times, highlighting every fact. Authors should provide checkers with all of their source material: notes, documents, interview recordings, photos and source contact information, though a checker may still end up having to do some digging on their own.
Each fact should be checked with a primary source. A primary source is the most authoritative source for a given fact: asking a source their age is consulting a primary source; checking that fact with the source's friend is consulting a secondary source. Checking a company's financials via its annual report is consulting a primary source; checking those same numbers via a newspaper article is consulting (at best) a secondary source.
Once checking is complete, any potential changes should be discussed with the writer and editor. (If necessary, a legal team may be brought in to vet the piece for libel or other issues.) Just like every story is different, every checking process is different. There is no definitive norm.
Ideally, check everything. But if you're short on time and resources, be especially sure to check proper names, numbers and consistency of story. Quotations from a source should be checked for the facts they contain, but never read quotes back to a source directly—they may regret something they said and try to take it back. Remember that letters to the editor, opinion pieces, reviews and fiction contain checkable facts too.
Finally, don't stop at the story itself: check headlines, decks, bylines, author bios and captions. Even photos and illustrations need to be checked to ensure that they accurately portray their story.
The Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network.


As symbolized at the recent EANTC interoperability testing event, Aviat microwave radios can help solve the complexity and scalability problems of Carrier Ethernet technology.
Carrier Ethernet (CE) transport networks are growing in both scale and complexity, requiring both vendors and operators to deliver solutions to sustain their growth. To help address this, Aviat Networks recently participated in the European Advanced Networking Testing Center's (EANTC) annual multi-vendor interoperability testing event to validate several aspects of scaling CE networks, among other things.
Increasing CE network sizes increase the complexity of management—especially from a services perspective—when CE services span multiple network domains. The ability to partition management domains and effectively manage alarms that accurately identify and propagate notification of network faults, dramatically speeds up the fault isolation and resolution process across large networks. Utilizing and effectively implementing "Hierarchical Service OAM" in growing CE networks is valuable to overcoming this challenge and was a key area of the recent interoperability testing.
Another critical aspect of growth is dealing with multi-technology—not just multi-vendor—interoperability. As CE networks scale, there is an increasing mix of Ethernet switching, MPLS and, most recently, MPLS-TP internetworking emerging. One potentially complex area that was also tested was validating the operation and survivability of intersecting Ethernet and MPLS-TP rings in a multi-homed topology. The "ERPSv2 and VPLS Interworking" test validated that standards-based G.8032 Ethernet protected rings and MPLS-TP VPLS rings can interoperate, or more significantly "co-operate," to allow complex multi-technology networks to deliver reliable end-to-end services.
To learn about these aspects of scaling and dealing with complex CE networks check out the EANTC white paper for more details.