More on the SU’s demands
So, how are things moving along?
According to President Yeashir, what we were told by another SU officer (the one who dissented against their plans and warned us about it) was overblown – the SU merely thinks that it should see a return on it’s investment in the mag by receiving (presumably supportive) coverage. What they really want is some more page space. As an ex-editor pointed out to me, that’s how it starts; four page,s then six, then eight. And then the uni, sensing weakness, also comes along with a list of demands.
Thing is, it turns out that they’re unusual in getting even the page space they already have. You see the old Comms Officer looked at a bunch of SU magazines as a way of figuring out best practice and, hey, it turns out they don’t get interfered with in like this. A couple of examples:
This is Impact magazine, funded by Nottingham University’s Student Union. Feel free to look for the kind of SU coverage that our SU is demanding; I haven’t spotted any.
This is Leeds Student, Leeds uni’s award-winning rag. They don’t have an SU-specific section either. Funny, that.
Do I think that it is important to cover the SU? Well, yes; I’ve agitated for it before. But a monthly magazine is not the place for something as fast-paced as events and all their complaints would mean something if they had actually tried acting on their concerns before now. By stepping in now and not in the last ten months or so we’ve been working, it’s easy to feel that someone’s trying to piggyback on our success. Especially people who demand to know where am I? in the magazine’s first issue, as if their appearance was axiomatic and not needing a reason behind it.
This kind of content – talking about events and campaigns within the SU, getting their comment on stories – should be for Verve Radio. And this isn’t said as a way of throwing them onto Gareth; I’m making work for myself, as I thoroughly expect to be involved in making those programs.
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There is a Student Council meeting at 4:30 today. The events calender doesn’t include a room, but it’s usually in the Tower Block somewhere.
Confessions of a Sub-Editor 
Mark,
Hope everything gets sorted out soon – last thing I want is to see the fantastic magazine go down the pan.
The council meeting is in CM2-38 at 4:30pm today (Calcutta House Boardroom).
I have the agenda, which I will pass on to you via email.
Plus – I thoroughly agree with you about VR being the main outlet for events and such – we will be able to get instant, up-to-date content out there, whilst the magazine not quite as much.
I would love to do a show much like the Today programme, albeit more friendly to the student demographic, but I’ll tell you about it when we start working up the details.