Ambitious young editors find a place to network at Ed2010

One of the things that makes working in this business such a pleasure is being around friendly, funny, ambitious young people who believe in what they're doing. There may be some awful sourpusses in the business, but it's generally a pretty vibrant place. Case in point is an intriguing and enjoyable website called Ed2010 (that's Ed twenty-10). It's overwhelmingly U.S.-focussed, but it has a Toronto chapter, and it's made up of (to use their own description):

"a community of young, eager magazine editors and magazine-editor wannabes who want to learn more about the industry so we can fulfill our dreams of being in top editing positions by the year 2010."

Ed2010 is more of an underground community than a dues-paying club. Fairly regularly, the members in various cities around the US (and, as we say, in Toronto) get together at a bar for happy hour to meet each other and swap job info, gossip, and tips. It's open to young people (though it seems to be largely young women) and there's no charge (though they ask for small, donations to keep the website running).

There are chapters in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Des Moines, Toronto, Indianapolis, Birmingham, Miami, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, Seattle, Louisville, Austin, Baltimore, Kansas City, Portland/Eugene, and Philadelphia. The New York chapter also hosts panel discussions and Speed Networking.

Ed2010 also an online community reporting the latest industry news, gossip, and whisper jobs™ by sending out a daily email to all our members. They report salaries so you will know how much money to negotiate for when landing a new gig. In other words Ed2010 does exactly what most young editors want and need. They have an Ask Ed column that talks about such vital stuff as moving to NYC, getting a promotion, and the value of temping. Plus they run an absolutely wonderful thing (in theory; we can't vouch for how well it works in practice) called 60-Minute-Mentors where they match members with more senior people in the industry to have coffee and give an opportunity to get burning questions answered.

The Toronto chapter hostess is Kim Shiffman, a senior editor at PROFIT, the magazine for Canadian entrepreneurs. She is also editor of City Dog, a Toronto magazine for urban dog owners. Previously, Kim was editorial assistant at Chatelaine, the biggest women's magazine in Canada. Kim graduated in 1999 from the University of Toronto with a degree in Semiotics and Communication Theory, then completed the Book & Magazine Publishing post-graduate diploma at Toronto's Centennial College.

So far the Toronto group meets about three times a year and involves nothing more onerous than sitting around a table, eating, drinking and chatting informally about the industry, jobs, etc. "Mostly it's a great way to meet others in the industry and makes friends/network," she said.

Intrigued or interested (and qualified as "young")? You can reach Kim by e-mail.