I'm going to let you all in on a little secret: This wasn't supposed to be my job.
I mean, sure, I wanted to be editor of SPM, but I didn't think I would land this gig so soon in my ASU career. I was ready to be the assistant editor for this semester-pay my dues, learn the ropes and rise up in the ranks.
Long story short, I became the boss and had to learn the ins and outs of producing this magazine issue-by-issue. Sure, my previous editor gave me a 30-minute crash course on how to make sure 10 to 12 pages of SPM goodness reach your eyeballs each week, but for the first couple issues, I was terrified. I studied all of last semester's magazines before the first issue and continuously reference them while editing to make sure everything, down to headlines, photo credits and font sizes, fit our format.
I wanted to be safe. I wanted to follow the rules. I wanted to be good.
Turns out, after one month and four issues of engraining all the rules into my head, I'm already breaking them. I'm ready to be bad.
You'll see what I mean when you flip to our centerpiece this week (pages 6 and 7). What is usually filled with the traditional cover story ingredients-a lot of photos and even more text-we've opted for a more daring recipe this week.
Photographer Matt Garcia's photo story about Robin, a homeless man in Tempe, is an experiment in journalistic and artistic minimalism. You've probably read tons of stories about the homeless epidemic in America, but how many of those stories do you remember? Which numbers, facts and faces can you recall?
Matt's piece does tell a story, but it isn't a story about numbers, law and limits. It is just a simple, provocative portrait of a lonely man who wants to get off the streets.
We're not running this story this way because we dropped the ball and were desperate to make deadline. We are running this story-defying regular conventions- because we want you to see things differently. Examine the photos, Robin's short quips, and even the white space, and realize that not everything always has to be the same way.
And, if you can't handle it ... we'll get back into our old routine next week.
Reach the reporter at spmag@asu.edu.
