Personal Media Conference Call by jenny boe ZINES HOME INTERVIEWS: Seth Friedman, Factsheet Five Paul Lukas, Beer Frame Chip Rowe, The Book Of Zines REVIEWS: Lisa Carver's Rollerderby and Dancing Queen Seth Friedman's Factsheet Five Zine Reader Paul Lukas' Inconspicuous Consumption V. Vale's Zines! Vol. I CALL TO ARMS: Zine Books I'd Like to See NOW YOU: Survey: What zine books would you like to see? Join Tripod's Media Savvy Conference: members click here others click here

When is a zine a zine? And what does it all mean? The Personal Media topic of Tripod's Media Savvy Conference became a zine cocktail party for a while, as zinesters wrestled with these questions. Various aspects of zinedom were discussed, along with plenty of first-hand anecdotes and juicy insights. While some of the participants thought the question "when is a zine a zine?" pointless or unanswerable, others joined in the quest for a definition. The intent or spirit of the producer was most commonly cited as evidence of a zine in progress: From: chiprowe I don't think this is hard at all. The difference between a zine and a magazine is motivation. If you're doing a publication with the advertisers or even the readers in mind, you're closer to a magazine than zine. If you're doing the publication strictly for your own gratification (if some other people like it, fine), then it's closer to a zine. Some publications fall in between those two definitions, with features that are designed to draw in advertisers and others that draw in readership, but mostly stuff that's in there just because the editors damn well felt like it. From: randyman For me, spirit is the key here — a zine has an individual spirit, a personality that is truly personal rather than corporate. From: DaronW [Magazines] are there to sell product and give you a little "objective" writing. The Zine has no pretense of objectivity, it's an honest expression. From: hrow To me, a zine is done for self. Magazines are created to sell ad space. The editorial content is secondary and created only to fill the space between the ads. Zines, on the other hand, are created because their editors-cum-publishers have something to say. Some magazines, granted, also can start in this manner (hello, Fast Company!), but the financial realities — and goals — are much more real. From: Bunnyhop It would be tempting to say the difference between a "zine" and a "magazine" is mainly in what the publishers call themselves. In the end, the ultimate litmus test between "zine" and "magazine" has less to do with aesthetics and circulation (desktop publishing and short-run printing advances make it easier to produce attractive publications, if you know what you're doing) than it does with motivations and intentions. (Do you publish to express yourself, or do you publish in hopes of turning a profit?) In the end, though, I don't think it matters all that much. There are good "magazines" and bad "zines," and vice versa. From: Al_Hoff Why the frantic scramblings over categorizing? I'd like to see some discussion on the root causes — why must some publication, especially an "alternative" publication be it glossy or badly xeroxed, fit a label? Can't it just exist? As Calvin Klein says, just BE. (This writer is in no way associated with Calvin Klein or any other glossy perfume.) I dunno — I like to read decent fun stuff. I find little enough time for that, I haven't the spare time to analyze whether the packaging is so suspect (glossy cover, record label ad, badly hand-stapled) that it invalidates what I'm reading. If the writer is doing a sucky job or pandering or shifting his focus in favor of the Absolut lifestyle, I can find that in the *content* of the writing. From: lifestyle1970s The place where the zine vs. non-zine issue really gets to me is when my zines — xeroxed, no ads, personal, circulation in the hundreds — get compared to a glossy-covered, ad-filled, nationally-distributed publication like Bunnyhop or Ben Is Dead or Might. We may all have some kind of personal vision and motivation, but set my zines side by side with them and it's obvious how different they are. Yet to say one REALLY IS a zine and another is not inevitably makes a value judgement, since zines are somehow by definition "realer," "more authentic," "more punk" etc. etc. So I say: Let's call them all zines, but let's do what they do in boxing — have different weight classes! Then we can start making meaningful comparisons like, "Murder Can Be Fun is my favorite bantamweight zine but Heinous is almost as good," or "I think Giant Robot is a better heavyweight zine than Juxtapoz," etc. Of course, while debating these fine points of zinery, there was a lot of log-rolling going on. Our intrepid mediator Tripod_Josh stepped in to say, "OK, time to take off the gloves. I didn't invite you all here to schmooze; this is war, dammit!" Chiprowe rose to the challenge, calling the respondents "long-winded Net addicts" and insisting again that "it's all about motivation." But there was still no consensus on the definition of "zine." So Tripod_Josh rephrased his query, asking instead for the definition of "Personal Media." From: Tripod_Josh Despite Al's comment that we shouldn't even care if something is called a zine or a magazine as long as we like it, I think it's still an important distinction to make ... I think of Grand Royal and Bunnyhop and Thrift SCORE as "personal media": They're by real people who wear their opinions and obsessions on their sleeves. That's a VITAL thing to struggle for in the world, especially when the mainstream media likes to co-opt anything original. That's why I'm so encouraged that a few titles are making the transition into large-circ, glossy publications without losing that authentic quality. From: Olmack "Personal media" speaks more WITH the audience, instead of TO them. In magazines like Rolling Stone, readers are denied a personal connection. Instead, they are being TOLD what's going on and what it's like to be backstage and behind the scenes. The reader plays the role of an observer. Publications that are more personal, hence more zine-like (glossy or xeroxed), tend to assume a reader's familiarity and interest in the subject at hand. The relationship with readers is more casual and inviting. Both types of publications have the ability to inform; the obvious difference is in whether they're talking down to the lowest common denominator to TELL them about something or using a tone that's more conversational and candid to TALK about and DISCUSS something. In addition to the big semantic debates (hrow proposed the term "megazine" for those zines that are harder to separate from actual magazines), the issue of zine "mainstreaming" was raised. Tripod_Josh asked: "Why do you suppose so many zinesters have books coming out right now?" Al_Hoff responded with a list of suggestions/suspicions: From: Al_Hoff Here's some guesses of mine: 1. They're aware of zines. 10 years ago, you had to look hard to unearth zines and you could waste HOURS at parties trying to explain what a zine was. There's been a steady increase in exposure and availability of zines — so it's not unlikely that say some younger staff members at a publishing house (fresh out of some liberal arts college?!) know about zines. 2. Zining is trendy, it can be another hallmark of hip youth like tattoos or bands. With trends comes Bigger People looking to exploit it for profit. And, I really don't mean exploit in a big nasty way. This is the way our society works. 3. When exploiting trends in tiny spaces (say the NYC publishing world) — it just takes one company to get a buzz going, then I reckon others rush to do it too. Again, nothing unusual in this behavior! I love the idea of some old guy in a charcoal gray suit hollering at a meeting, "I don't care WHAT a zine is — just get me one!" (um, I'm making this up based on what I see on TV...) 4. I also think publishers see zines like decent temps. Lemme explain. When I had a real job, I would often hire temps, after they had been working for a while. It was a really easy way to fill the position — you didn't have to do any grim interviewing of 1,000 people, most of whom were wrong for the job, and since they'd been temping in the job you were hiring for, you already knew that they could do the work and would work well in the company. So if you're a publisher and you see a zine, you may already have certain guarantees — the person has proved they can write/draw/think, and depending on the size and circulation of the zine, the zinester has already established that there is a market for the material. This all led to a general discussion of zine "mainstreaming," and what (if anything) that means. Most of the zine writers who have received mainstream attention insisted that it hasn't really changed what they do, although Al_Hoff wryly noted, "I sleep easy knowing if I sold out there's no shortage of folks out there who will tell me so!" Hrow described how his zine, Karma Lapel, once reached a circulation of 500 copies. He cut it back down because he preferred doing the zine at a smaller "intentionally obscure" level: "I'd rather have 10 people who read my zine and get really excited than 100,000 people who read my zine and then line a birdcage." Tripod_Josh is still out there, eagerly awaiting that elusive definition of a zine. Meanwhile, he's thrown out a few more questions: "What is (and isn't) personal media?" and "Why does personal media always seem to die when it gets discovered?" Well, what are you waiting for? Head over to the Media Savvy Conference and talk to the poor guy! Jenny Boe grew up in Berkeley and now lives in Seattle, where she writes, temps, and maintains a Tripod homepage. She has recently rediscovered the joys of the International House of Pancakes. © 1997 Tripod, Inc. All Rights Reserved.