Curb magazine
Journalism 417: Magazine Publishing, is a capstone course in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. It is the only course in the "J-School" that requires an application in order to be selected to enroll. After applying in April 2019, myself and 22 other students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were selected to set about on a crazy adventure of magazine production.
A new edition of Curb magazine is published every year in December by an entirely new group of Journalism students. The publication is entirely student-run, meaning it is written and designed by myself and my classmates. The course has been offered since Fall 2002 and was taken over by Stacy Forster in 2014. Stacy serves as publisher of the magazine as well as a mentor to each and every student. The course takes an integrated, in-depth approach to magazine management, writing, editing and design. It covers the magazine industry from both the editorial and business ends, from concept creation and story development, to advertising and fundraising sales, to page layouts and web design.
Each year, the magazine is remade with its own theme, though the name Curb remains the same. Curb Navigate is built on the philosophy:
"Making choices isn’t always easy, but it can be exhilarating. As we enter a new decade filled with both possibility and uncertainty, CURB Navigate explores how Wisconsinites are rising to the challenge of choosing between diverging paths. The decisions they make now often reflect our own values and identities, which will have ripple effects for years to come. This magazine follows those who are charting the course of Wisconsin’s future — from individual lives to institutional changes."
Reach your target audience efficiently and effectively.
Research shows that magazines are a highly successful medium for advertising.
Motivate customers to act
More than half of magazine readers act on advertisements they seen in publications.
Reach more than just our 10,000 subscribers
Magazines have a high pass-along rate, meaning that each magazine copy will be read by at least two people. Additionally, they are one of the most permanent forms of media, so your advertisement in CURB Navigate will continue reaching audiences well beyond publishing.
Turn your audience into influencers
Compared with users of other media, magazine readers are more likely to facilitate word-of-mouth advertising and influence family and friends on products in various categories.
Be featured in an award-winning magazine
Multiple past issues of Curb have won national awards. CURB Fearless, the magazine from 2018, was a national finalist for the Society of Professional Journalists' Mark of Excellence Award for best student magazine, a distinction the magazine earned in 2012 and 2014.
We mean Business.
Marketing Representative
I was selected for the role of Marketing Representative for Curb Navigate. I worked with a team of five business-minded, money driven individuals throughout the semester. We surpassed our fundraising goal of $12,000 through advertising sales, generous donations and crowdfunding, fundraising events on campus, and SJMC apparel sales. These funds supported the costs printing and distribution of the magazine's publication, as well as all the costs needed for the annual launch party in December.
In this leadership role, I collaborated with my fellow business-team members to ensure that we were on schedule to achieve our fundraising goal. As Marketing Representative for Curb, I developed promotional strategies for our fundraisers, including a late-night bake sale, professional head shots and numerous restaurant give-backs. I took lead on various communication strategies including new crowdfunding initiatives and advertising sales pitches. With the help of my team and my counterpart, Kia, who took charge on apparel sales, we surpassed our fundraising goal before Thanksgiving break, two-weeks before our deadline.
Party Time
One of the business team's tasks is planning and executing the annual launch party to celebrate the newest edition of Curb magazine. Our Public Relations Director, Capri, scheduled the event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's famous Memorial Union. The business team helped her develop an itinerary and communicate with the venue as well as gather supplies and distribute invites to more than 400 guests. The day of the event required a number of physical tasks in order to set up and prepare for the night. I created a looping slide show in order to showcase our journey and hard work throughout the semester. The night was a huge success. Some of the attendees included SJMC faculty, Curb alumni, individuals from the SJMC Board of Visitors, our advertisers, local media contacts and even the individuals featured in our stories!
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Feature Story:
In addition to the tasks I had in my individual role as Marketing Representative and within the business team, each student wrote a 1,800 word feature story that revolved around the magazine's theme: Navigate.
What started as a way to let out some five-year-old energy, quickly became his full-time career. My feature story explores the journey of Oakland Raiders Rookie Fullback, Alec Ingold from his childhood dreams to his NFL fame. A large portion of the piece focuses on how he chose this career path and the hard work he put in to get to the NFL. I am lucky enough to know Alec personally, so writing this story was extra special to me. I conducted interviews with Alec, his parents, his girlfriend, and his childhood best friend. Alec's work ethic and determination has always inspired me and my goal for this story was to share the twists and turns of his journey and struggles with the game of football, all while growing up in Wisconsin. In the words of Alec Ingold himself, "If you want to work hard and you want to really accomplish something that’s pretty spectacular, then you have to work hard for it. It might not be the path that you think you will navigate, but there’s definitely a path for you when accomplishing your dreams and goals.”
View "From Red to Raider" at curbonline.com
Alternative Story
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In order to add some additional creative content to the magazine, each student was also tasked with creating supplementary alternative story forms and multimedia content for Curb Navigate.
For my alternative story form, I wanted to create a simple yet interactive graphic for readers to take a break from the lengthy stories. I created a Wisconsin-inspired graphic on Adobe Spark. I took some of my favorite Wisconsin products, places and people in order to create a "This or That" activity.
Which do you prefer?!
Multimedia
One of the biggest tasks for Curb is creating a brand new website each year which hosts the new online edition of the magazine. In order to ensure there is enough interactive content on the website, each student is asked to create a multimedia piece.
This is where the creativity soared as students created podcasts, videos, Spotify playlists and more. Since my teammate, Kia, wrote a story about cabins in Door County, Wisconsin, I wanted to incorporate my love for the area into this assignment. I developed an interactive map of the TOP EIGHT THINGS TO DO IN DOOR COUNTY, WI for future visitors to explore.
