Personal Contributions at the Charlotte Observer’s Magazine Department

The July issue of SouthPark Magazine was just released to the public this past week, and I am so excited to finally see my name on a printed, physical copy of my hard work. When I first started my internship, I was thrown right into production of the July issue, which is the annual food issue. My boss, Caroline, who is the editor-in-chief of the magazine, told me which sections of the magazine she would like me to contribute to, and gave me a lot of leeway to decide what I wanted to do with the sections. She familiarized me with the magazine initially by assigning me some minor tasks, which was to edit some blurbs that go in the “Swirl” section, which comprises a few pages of professional photos from recent charity events happening around Charlotte. These blurbs consist of “The Reason,” which discusses what the event was and the reason that it was held, and “The Buzz,” which basically states a cool fact about the event, or why it was such a big deal. I will be writing “The Reason” and “The Buzz” for the August and September issues as well. Caroline also assigned me the “Celeb Spotting” section, which lists celebrities that were spotted in Charlotte over the past month. Once I completed these short, simple tasks, she told me to start working on an article for the “Blvd.” section, which consists of shorter stories that follow the issue’s theme. I came up with the idea to visit a local bookstore and ask about their most popular food books, whether that be cookbooks or memoirs. The owner of the bookstore and I came up with a good list, and I wrote a blurb on each of the six books. A photographer later visited the store to take some photos for the page. 

My next task was assigned to me, as the idea was pitched by someone else in the office, and we all agreed that it was a crucial piece to go in this magazine. This article went under the “Avenue” section, which consists of longer features. A co-worker thought it was important to write something up on the restaurants that have opened in the past year. It really did take days worth of research for me to dig up each and every restaurant, market, bar, and fast-casual spot that opened in Charlotte over the past year. I suggested that we break the list up into sections: fine dining, casual spots, small plates, market and grocery, and around town (which listed restaurants that opened right outside of the Charlotte border).

Finally, my last task for this issue was to come up with a good profile for “Snapshot.” The “Snapshot” feature is the magazine’s back page, and it’s a Q&A with a person who relates to the issue’s theme. I thought it would be a good idea to feature the owner of a food truck in Charlotte, because the food truck concept has become very popular in Charlotte. A co-worker suggested The Dumpling Lady. Zhang Qian is a woman from China who fell in love with an American boy studying abroad and followed him back here to Charlotte. She didn’t have enough money to start a restaurant, so instead she opened a food truck, called The Dumpling Lady. It has become one of Charlotte’s most talked about food trucks.

Because Caroline gave me the freedom to decide what I wanted to do with the given sections of the magazine, I found myself more confident in my work, because she trusted me to create something great that would take up space in her magazine. Of course she provided feedback on my ideas and edits on my work, but I think it is very rare nowadays for an editor of a magazine to tell his or her writer to just go out and do what you want, just bring back something good. On a broader scale, I feel as though leaders provide more structure with their employees because the product of the employees’ work usually reflects on the leader.

I am usually never really confident when handing in an article, whether that be for a journalism class at school or as a freelancer for an online platform or newspaper. Because I am usually assigned a topic to write about, I feel as though my leader has expectations for what I will be turning in to them. And I get discouraged, thinking that I could never produce something that would be as good as what someone else could do. Therefore, I feel like my work is always just OK, or that it could be better, because I’m just a college student and novice journalist, so how good could my work really be? Caroline’s decision as a leader to give me the leeway to do what I wanted with a highly-respected magazine, where my work would be printed and could never be changed or taken out, gave me the confidence that I needed to succeed in this internship. And since then, I have conjured up the confidence to take on additional assignments, and more “challenging” sections of the magazine.

This past week, I finished all of my assignments for the August issue, which is the annual arts issue.