Confessions of a Content Pimp

It’s not everyday that you get to “interview” yourself. I’ve got quite a few years of experience asking questions of others and then writing about them. I think when you interview yourself, though, all that means squat.

Anyway, the challenge was set by Nora Burns (@noraburns), who “Twitter tagged” me to share seven interesting, eclectic, unique, WOW-Who-woulda’-thunk-it?! facts about myself. I don’t think I’m all that fascinating, but since I’m a journalist, I’ll just instead do my best to make it all “sound good.”

Of course, I wouldn’t be a “Content Pimp” worth her weight in commas if I didn’t try to focus on my writing/editing quirks here. First, however, the rules of play must be shared or else I hear this blog may self-destruct. Worse yet — it could be hacked by typo terrorists. (Just shoot me now, if so!) Read ‘em here, and see if you’re among the Tagged!

1. Just call me the Doogie Howsie of magazines. I was named editor-in-chief of CollegeBound Teen Magazine when I was 23 years old. That was back before email and when ambitious, fearless girls didn’t get sidetracked by the online world and instead faxed publishers magazine critiques and an editorial business plan to demonstrate that they really, really, really wanted the job. (I’ve since gotten shuttered out of the magazine world when CB Teen converted to an online-only format in 2007; more how I feel about that in #4.)

2. To this day, I check, double-check, and triple-check the spelling of the word “school” when it appears in something I’m editing. It was way before my time, but there is an old issue of CB Teen that had a ginormous cover line that proclaimed it the “Back to Shool” issue. OMG.

3. I once received a “creative” cover letter from an associate editor applicant that started out, “Hi. My name is Assjack….” and then proceeded to tell me all about the porno magazine editing experience he had (because that would be oh-so-relevant to editing for a magazine targeted at high school kids. Right?!). I don’t know what that was all about either, but whenever I come across an annoyingly off-target journalist or PR person, I call them an “assjack.” (You like that one, don’tcha’, Peter Shankman?!)

4. I’m an equal-opportunity editor, but I have always been swayed by a hand-written thank-you note from a writer or PR rep. Toward that end (somewhat), I LOVE paper, collect stationery, and cry a little bit inside when a print publication shutters.

5. I see typos like that creepy kid in “The Sixth Sense” sees dead people. (Yes, I use that line all over the place in my social media profiles, but it’s so true.) I’m a little “possessed” that way.

6. The older I get, the less I trust my grammar judgment. I used to be able to apply the rules of the English language with no frame of reference; I’d just get it. These days, I find that I need to Google affect vs. effect, further vs. farther, lay vs. lie, especially if I hadn’t had my token cup of decaf for the day. Shhhh… don’t tell my clients!

7. I started out as a newspaper intern in high school writing obituaries. What it taught me: Writing about the dead really makes you appreciate the living, and that no experience is invaluable… even *that* job (we all have ‘em). Mine required I fetch the editor-in-chief’s dry cleaning, straw-up her seltzer at lunch (”with bendy straws only”), and pick up the senior editorial staff’s kids at various busstops. While freezing my butt off at said busstop one day, I made myself a promise to never treat employees like “do-ers.” I take the team-oriented approach instead, committing myself to lead with passion, not sweat (or demand) the inconsequential stuff, and ask of others only that which I wouldn’t mind doing myself.

So you see, I can ask seven of you to take a few minutes out of your ridiculously busy days (or Twittering-about-insomnia nights) to do this Twitter tag — I’m been through it myself…

Jason Kintzler
Lisa at MyThoughtsIdeasandRamblings.com
Chris Brogan
Kelby Carr
Sarah Evans
Brian Carter
Peter Shankman

If you missed it, here are the Twitter Tag rules.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 5:03 am and is filed under 5 W's and an H, Social ME-dia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.