Fulford says when people talk about death of print, they don't mean magazines

A friend attended the Sarah Fulford lecture last night at Ryerson University in Toronto and sends this dispatch:

It was a respectful crowd of mainly students that heard Toronto Life editor Sarah Fulford speak at the School of Journalism's Dean's Lecture Series at Ryerson last night. Apparently, the protest movement that mobilized around her magazine's current cover feature about the murder of 16-year-old AqsaParvez either respectfully avoided the event (unlikely) or never heard about it (more likely).

When one young woman hesitantly asked her about it, Fulford said Toronto Life received "between 80 and 90 calls and e-mails"which were divided roughly evenly between praise and condemnation. And she repeated what she'd said elsewhere, that she was extremely proud of the immigration package and felt that "the most important thing for Toronto Life to be is relevant."

The subject of Fulford's lecture was "In Defense of Magazines: Why They Matter in a Digital Age" and her short answer is they matter "when they're indispensable, irresistible, relevant and current." She said: "When people talk about the death of print, they're really talking about newspapers."

E-readers like Kindle and the Sony Reader, she pointed out, are expensive - Toronto Life costs $4.95 - and don't replicate the tactile pleasures of a magazine's glossy pages. But when asked how important she felt it was for a magazine to be web-integrated, she said "very important but no one [in Canada] has figured out how to financially support it."

Pointing out that New York, the robust U.S. city magazine that's roughly analogous to Toronto Life, has 45 people in its web department, she added:"We have lots of good ideas we think are really groovy but we can't pay people to do them."

At one point, Fulford complained about a very simple and inexpensive kind of technology. She said she thought tape recorders were often so over-used that it resulted in weaker journalism. Over her years as a senior editor at Toronto Life, she said she frequently got first drafts from writers - "even very experienced writers" - that opened with a requisite scene followed by what read like a 3,000 word interview transcription. The reason: "by the time you've transcribed all those interviews you feel like you've done so much work you must be finished."

She encouraged writers to leave tape recorders at home, except when quotes could be so contentious that tape recordings were necessary for legal reasons. A couple of times, Fulford said she liked speaking at Ryerson because she'sasked such thought-provoking questions. One of them was from a woman who asked whether magazines like Toronto Life, which are so prestigious and indispensable to a city, have to always be profitable? Is there a point a company like St. Joseph Media would allow Toronto Life to generate less income, even flatline, but continue to exist because of its cultural significance?

With a rueful smile, Fulford explained that Toronto Life is published "by a privately-owned company so it really comes down to the owner's discretion. I'm sure the owners and directors of the company I work for ask themselves that at every moment."

Going on to talk about the value Toronto Life brings to the city, she added, "But I do work for the company that put an end to Saturday Night magazine."