Stories from New York #3 (6 page)

“Hi,
4 Girls
readers and bloggers. You will never guess where we are right now. We’re standing in the office of the legendary editor in chief of
City Nation
magazine, Helvetica Grenier. We’ve just learned that the magazine is being filmed by a crew from a documentary show this week, and it’s possible that
4 Girls
might show up on it! So even though we’ve only been here for about an hour, things are already getting exciting. Stay tuned, and we’ll keep posting video updates with the latest!”

Miko quickly panned the camera around the office to take everything in. Then she turned the camera off. “Are we allowed to show you and your office on our web issue?” Miko asked Helvetica. “If it’s not okay, I’ll just edit that last part out.”

“You’re absolutely right to ask, Miko,” Helvetica said. “You have very good reporter instincts. Yes, you may show all the footage you take in our offices, including any I show up in. And to give you an idea of how we clear that professionally, I’ll have Constantia give you a release form that will serve as
written permission for you to film here. It’s the same form we signed for the
One Week
crew. In return, you four will need to sign a release, too, saying that you agree to be included on the program. Karen has already spoken to your parents to make sure it’s okay with them, so now it’s fully your choice.”

There was a brief pause. Helvetica folded her hands on her desk and stared at us expectantly. She was very clearly done.

“Wonderful,” Mrs. Scanlon said. “This is really terrific for the girls, Helvetica.”

“Oh, yes, thank you so much for everything, and for taking the time to meet with us today,” I said quickly. My mother must have reminded me a hundred times before I left to say thank you to everybody. I still felt a little nervous speaking to Helvetica, but I figured if I was going to get through the next couple days, I’d better get used to it.

“Yes, thank you!” Miko said.

“We know how busy you are,” Ivy added.

The three of us looked at Tally. She looked frozen to the floor but slowly nodded her head. I started to feel a little bad. It was weird for Tally to not be her bubbly, friendly self. We’d only wanted her to be…quieter. I decided I would pull her aside later to help her relax a little more.

“I’ll make sure to get that location information you
wanted e-mailed to you right away,” Mrs. Scanlon said to Helvetica, placing one hand on my back and one hand on Miko’s and applying the tiniest bit of pressure. Time for us to leave. Garamond was already halfway out the door, his shoes still squeaking every time he took a step. We followed him out, single file.

“Have fun, girls,” Helvetica called. “And, Garamond, for heaven’s sake, do something about those shoes!”

“So now we’re going to split up,” Mrs. Scanlon explained to us once we were back in the lobby.

We gathered around her like little sheep, ready to follow her lead. Through the glass doors, I could still see Constantia taking multiple phone calls while typing and pulling out files at the same time. Everyone was so busy! It almost made school,
4 Girls
, watching Kevin, and helping Mom at home seem like a breeze.

“Paulina and Tally, you’re going to come with me to a content meeting that is going on right now. Miko and Ivy, Garamond is going to take you to design where they’re going over some photos from Fashion Week and deciding which new designer might make for a good feature. We’ll meet again in about an hour. Sound good?”

“Yep,” Ivy said. Miko was absolutely speechless
with delight over her assignment. She nodded, a wide smile lighting up her face.

“Great. You’ll be on this floor. Paulina and Tally, we need to go down two floors. All set, Garamond?”

“Of course,” he said, leading Miko and Ivy toward a hallway in the opposite direction from Helvetica’s office. “So you two are going to love this,” he was saying. “We have several very talented possibilities. There’s this new kid whose first line was shown at the tents this year. He’s Turkish, you know, and he uses these delicious colors and silks. The only problem is, he’s just about the rudest person in the entire world! But, oh, can he drape! During the show, he actually told someone to—”

The rest of the story was cut off as Tally and I stepped into the elevator with Mrs. Scanlon. I was sure Miko and Ivy would get all the details for the blog, at least whatever details they were allowed to use. I couldn’t wait to hear more about it.

“So you’re going to sit in a meeting where some of our junior editors and writers can pitch ideas for stories,” Mrs. Scanlon told us. “Helvetica doesn’t go to these meetings. That sometimes makes people feel more comfortable talking about their ideas. I think it will be really interesting for you to see the process. And listen, if one of you has something to say, I want you to be sure to speak up.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling a flutter of nerves in my stomach. I couldn’t imagine any of my ideas would be good for
City Nation
. I looked at Tally. She was practically green, her lips pressed so tight they may have been glued, and her eyes wide as saucers. “Tally, that means you, too. We never meant for you to be absolutely silent the whole time. Just the volume could be lower. Like being in class and giving an answer.”

“Oh, I could
never
say something in a meeting,” Tally told me. “I’d be too nervous in front of all those people.”

“Why, Tally Janeway!” Mrs. Scanlon said as the elevator doors opened. “I’ve seen you onstage in front of hundreds of people singing your heart out. I can’t imagine you being nervous to speak up in front of a few editors.”

“But that’s different,” Tally explained. “That’s acting.”

We were back on the floor where the interns’ office was. The receptionist was busy sorting a stack of mail and waved us through.

“The thing is, it’s all acting,” Mrs. Scanlon said. “Act like you’re not nervous to share your ideas. You’d probably be great at it.”

We walked through a large room of low cubicles. All the desks were occupied. There seemed to be
more women than men, and everyone was typing or talking on the phone or reading. Some seemed to be doing all three at the same time.

“Here we go,” Mrs. Scanlon told us, stopping by a door. “They know we’re coming. Just go in quietly and find a place to sit.”

The conference room was bright and sunny. Ten or twelve people were sitting around a glossy, honey-colored wood table. On the center was a plate of pastries, though nobody seemed to be eating.

“I just don’t think people are going to be interested in another rock-star-turned-activist story,” a slim, raven-haired woman with enormous peacock feather earrings and an emerald-green beret was saying.

There were two empty chairs at the table, and Mrs. Scanlon gestured for us to take them. One or two people looked at me and smiled, but everyone else seemed oblivious to the fact that we’d joined them.

“What about a celebrity playlist?” asked a severe, red-haired woman holding an unopened bottle of water in one hand. “We contact twenty or so big names—actors, musicians, writers—and ask them what they’re listening to. We can do links to all the bands, and maybe have an online listening option on the website.”

“
Vanity Fair
just did that three months ago,” a goofy-looking guy with huge black-rimmed glasses
pointed out. “And not everybody can relate to playlists. What about what they’re reading?”

“Let’s refer back to the memo,” said the woman with the peacock earrings. “We’ve got two areas Helvetica thinks we should be looking at—older readers who want a little substance once in a while and are less tech savvy and younger women who want to know what’s absolutely the latest thing and are very tech savvy. We’ve got surveys that show we’re losing readers from both of those groups. The older readers opt for
The New Yorker
and the younger ones end up buying
Vogue
, or more often, they just choose to go to the Internet for online publications.”

I pulled a little notebook and pen from my bag so I could take detailed notes on the conversation. I’d never thought about reaching different readership through content. I’d have to ask Ivy how we could do this for
4 Girls
. I also wrote myself a note to double-check with Mrs. Scanlon to make sure nothing I might hear about in the meeting would cause a problem if we included it in an article. Were we allowed to mention the names of other magazines? Not that I expected anyone from
Vogue
or
The New Yorker
to care about the
4 Girls
blog, but if there was one thing I’d learned so far, it was to double-check everything. Better safe than very, very sorry.

“Well, let’s not forget this month’s cover story,”
said the goofy-looking guy. “She’s not going to be bringing us much of a crossover audience.”

Tally and I exchanged a look. Were we finally going to find out who the mystery celeb was? At least now we knew it was a
she
!

“True. What else have we got?” asked the dark-haired woman.

Everyone seemed to be frantically searching their iPads, tablets, and phones.

“Ten Christmas gifts for readers on a budget?” someone suggested.

“I’ve seen two of those just this week,” Goofy Glasses Guy said. “And we did it last Christmas.”

Suddenly everyone began talking at once. The red-haired woman rapped her hand on the table.

“People, come on. We’ve been sitting here for an hour, and all I’m hearing are the same basic ideas coming from the same people. How difficult can it be to come up with something fresh? Think multigenerational, think broad spectrum, and think holidays.”

“That’s too broad a spectrum,” said Peacock Feather Earrings. “There’s no common element that will pull all of these different kinds of people in. I mean, what do they all have in common?”

“You could do pairs,” someone said.

Everyone in the room, including me, turned to look
at the person who spoke. Tally immediately smacked one hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

“What do you mean, Tally?” Mrs. Scanlon asked, giving her an encouraging smile.

Tally looked around nervously, like she was thinking of bolting from the room.

“By the way, in case you haven’t all figured it out, these are two of our four student guests,” Mrs. Scanlon said. “Tally Janeway and Paulina Barbosa. They publish their own magazine at their school, and it’s a very good one.”

“Finally! People we haven’t heard from before,” said Goofy Glasses Guy. “So what pears are you talking about? Fruit doesn’t sell advertising.”

Tally had gone very still.
She really
is
nervous,
I thought.

“Tal, it’s only acting,” I whispered, reminding her of what Mrs. Scanlon had said.

Tally gave me a blank look, then suddenly something came over her face. A look I had seen before. Tally had something to say.

“Well, if you wanted different ages, you could approach the celebrities like you said and ask them what they’re reading, what they’re listening to, and what they’re wearing, maybe, but you could also ask them to give you a family member who’s much older or younger and get their list, too. I love to see pictures
of famous people with their parents or kids and hear about them. It’s fun to compare.”

“Hmm,” said Goofy Glasses Guy.

“Write it down,” said the red-haired woman. “It’s not exactly what we need, but if we play with it, it could turn into something. Marina, shoot it around to the copywriters and see what they can mock up. We won’t know if it will work until we can see all the ways it won’t. Something might come of it. Oh, and have them text…I’m sorry, what was your name?”

Tally started, realizing the red-haired woman was looking at her. “Tally Janeway,” she said. “With two
l
s. In Tally, I mean. Janeway doesn’t have any
l
s, although sometimes people think my name is—”

“Have them text Tally Janeway, with two
l
s, for some examples of pairs that would appeal to her as a reader. Karen, do you have her contact info?”

Mrs. Scanlon was typing something into her phone.

“Yep, I just forwarded it to the department,” she said.

“Good,” the woman told her. “Now we’ve spent way too much time on this already, and it’s almost five o’clock. We need to move on to other things. There may be a problem with the piece on the reversible dog coats. The First Lady showed up in a story on CNN holding her dog that was wearing one. They got hit with thousands of requests by the
next morning, and their website couldn’t handle the traffic and crashed. I need someone else to come up with a quirky handmade pet accessory that we can feature instead, and I need it yesterday.”

Neither Tally nor I had any ideas to offer for this or the other stories that came up, like whether an article on gyms would encourage readers or make them feel guilty. I sat quietly taking notes, still hardly able to believe that Tally had just boldly come up with an idea at a
City Nation
content meeting that was the
only
one everyone didn’t hate. Our glimpse at the editorial department had definitely gone better than I expected!