Please Respect the Information I Am About to Share with You

I am, of course, a long-time subscriber to Pig International (Covering the Pig Industry Worldwide). I teach magazine writing. Thus, I note that trade magazines -- i.e., those directed at a specific industry or trade -- are a primary source of editing jobs and freelance writing opportunities.

Let's get real, youngblood. Maybe you'll end up in a cubicle in the New Yorker or maybe you'll end up at Pig International, 18 Chapel St., Petersfield, Hampshire in the UK.

Either is an honorable choice, and perhaps the latter more than the former.

So I collect trade magazines to show the "littles," and I find the exercise most compelling when I bring in magazines the names of which might bring a smile to a sullen undergraduate face. Today I received this message from PI, as we insiders like to call it:

Dear Reader of Pig International Magazine:

Your opinions are important to the publishers of Pig International! That is why they have arranged for Readex, an independent research firm, to conduct a brief survey of the contents in the January/February 2005 issue.

Our aim is to provide you the best possible publication, a magazine that delivers useful, important editorial material while also providing a resource for learning more about the products and services available in the marketplace.

Because the number of readers contacted is small, your participation is needed for the success of this project. Of course, your answers will be kept confidential and only used in tabulation with others.

To complete the online survey, please visit the following website address:http://www.readexsurvey.net/pig/xxxxxxxxxxxx

I can't believe how kind and good I am. I have purposely omitted part of the URL because some clowns -- I'll say it again; some CLOWNS -- might sign on and spoil the survey, and my whole point in showing trade mags to the kids is not to dishonor those magazines but to expose the kids to career alternatives.

See, I'm saying. Do you really like writing, reporting and editing or do you just want to be a music critic and ponce around with a bunch of so-called musicians with IQs and chest measurements in the low to mid two-digits?!

Back on point. I am not holding this magazine up for ridicule. However, it is sometimes amusing, even revelatory, when we see standard advertising approaches focused quite narrowly. Ads always mirror the audience at which they are directed, and knowing audiences is a basic skill for the editor and the freelance writer.

Lights, please. Here is a link to one of the ads the survey is asking people to judge. And here's another. And here's yet another. And finally the final "pride of the EU" ad.

This will be on the final.