Why we did it

So the first-ever Medium Magazine came out last week. Am I ever happy that it is out. It’s been a long two-month production and it’s great to finally see it out of the confines of my little Macbook screen and out onto campus newsstands.

This magazine is going to come out once a year. At least, that’s the plan. As with every new season at The Medium, there will be a new editorial team next year, and thus, the future of Medium Magazine rests on their shoulders. We laid the seed for future Medium-ites; now it’s their choice if they want to continue producing a magazine or not.

We have a limited quantity of the magazine. If you didn’t get one this week, it’s not because we ran out or because Medium Magazine has turned into some mythic creature that only comes out on full moons. It’s because we will only put out a certain number of copies a week in order to ensure that they remain on stands for a year —read our “Keep it Green” note on the front cover.

We don’t want the magazine to explode on campus for a couple of months, then disappear from everyone’s memory. It’s now a part of UTM’s history and needs to stick around. We want students to see it on newsstands every day. We want students to look forward to next one. If it comes out and only lasts for a month, it will be forgotten. If it comes out and lasts for a year, it will be remembered, and anticipated.

And that’s why we—Editor-in-Chief Alain Latour, Managing Editor and Advertising Manager Michael Di Leo and myself, Creative Director, Designer and Photography Editor—founded this magazine. We want it to be remembered and anticipated. So much of what happens on this campus is either ignored by the apathy of some students or disregarded because we’re too focused on trying to graduate or on writing that paper or on passing that midterm. Medium Magazine will not fall—we hope—into either the apathy or disregard category. It’s a break from what goes on at UTM.

For example, take a conversation I had when I was putting out more copies of the magazine at the Student Centre info booth. A girl asked what I was doing and what Medium Magazine was all about. She told me about what she thought about The Medium this year—how she wasn’t impressed with our coverage of the Student Union. I explained that at The Medium we don’t get paid half as much as other paid positions on campus. I once worked out my hourly rate to approximately $3 or $4 an hour—clearly, it’s about giving something back to the campus, not about money.

She seemed to forget about her displeasure with The Medium’s latest coverage. For her, and I hope for everyone else on campus, Medium  Magazine can be a breath of fresh, air, something students can pick up and say, “Cool. A magazine.”

And at the end of the day, I don’t think there is anything about this project I would change. If there is one thing I can admit though, it was that it was one hell of a learning experience.

We fought, we laughed, and if you read Alain’s editorial, we got rushed to the hospital and cut our fingers slicing onions. But we did it because we wanted to put out a magazine so badly. Ultimately, as corny as this may sound, if you really want something, you go get it. I’m going to quote Alain’s editorial once more, because he said it so well: “Let this magazine be proof that you can use UTM to showcase you, rather than the other way around.”