Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, November 12, 1981
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By MARK MURPHEY
Krd and Bl,«k Sufi Writer
The life story of campus magazines
at the University has historically
been rather grim Many have sprung
up over the years, sporting many dif
ferent styles and formats, and every
one met the same fate: extinction
All of them shriveled, withered and
died, soon to be forgotten in the con
tinuous ebb and flow of students at
the University.
About a year ago. a group of
University students decided to give
the idea of a campus magazine one
more chance. "UGAzine" became
the latest in the long line of such crea
tions, first hitting the newsstand last
fall Initial sales were painfully slow
Students seemed apprehensive about
buying a magazine that sounded like
some kind of medicine for motion
sickness It seemed that history was
destined to repeat itself; UGAzine
kept one foot in the grave and
another on a banana peel
UGAzine's writing does not consist of
occasional flashes of brilliance im
mersed in a sea of mediocrity. The
writing style is consistently good
throughout the magazine
Moreover, the wide variety of sub
jects covered shows that the
UGAzine staff is capable of handling
many different story types And il
lustration is one of UGAzine’s
strongest points, and the work of ar
tist Jim Massara crops up in profu
sion throughout the magazine
The photography sometimes
falters <one photo feature looks like it
was put together from scraps left on
the darkroom floor), but for the most
part it is good and in some instances
it is excellent such as the superb
cover photo and a feature story on
Bulldog punter Jim Broadway that
contains some well-made action
shots.
While UGAzine is no Time
magazine — not yet, anyway — it
does have a great deal of potential.
But then a funny thing happened;
UGAzine survived that first year. In
fact, it not only survived — it grew
up The fall 1981 issue of UGAzine is
an indication of that newfound
maturity. There are mistakes This is
a student magazine But the students
seem to be learning UGAzine is
much stronger The writing has im
proved The illustrations are good It
is quite evident that UGAzine has
finished its crawling stage and is tak
ing the first, faltering steps towards
becoming a truly excellent student
publication.
To say the UGAzine is improved is
not to say that it is perfect. There are
flaws, the most readily apparent be
ing a lack of definite direction; the
magazine cannot seem to decide
whether it will be news-oriented,
feature-oriented. University-
oriented, internationally-oriented or
any combination of the above Dif
ferent styles of articles are included
in the magazine in no certain order.
leaving the reader with a sense of
disorganization.
The magazine is a nonstructured
grab bag of literary work Variety is
a good thing, but variety without
organization is a mess
The sense of disorganization is con
tributed to by a confused-looking
layout. Large, distracting areas of
blank space pop up frequently
throughout the magazine, and the ar
rangement of photographs often
leads the reader to wonder which
caption goes with which article.
Disorganization is evident in the
newswriting, as well One article on
the burning of radioactive wastes
contains a claim of impartiality when
it is blatantly obvious that the article
is anything but that. Elimination of
this disorganization would make
UGAzine a stronger publication
UGAzine does have many good
qualities, however. In fact, the good
points by far outweigh the bad.
Unlike many student magazines.
Staff photo/Krinm Wall
UGAzine editor Barbara Farfan
By JAMES WOOD
11 rd iittd Mark Stall Wrilrr
The fall issue of UGAzine is out, marking
the magazine s first annual anniversary
Despite the magazine's minimal allocation
from the University, $1,500 this year,
UGAzine is in good financial shape according
to editors Linda Phillips and Barbara Far
fan.
"Last year we wound up making profits,”
Phillips said. These profits were added to
this year's budget.
UGAzine spent approximately $2,000 for
1,000 printed copies Phillips said. "We re
spending our allocations faster than we had
anticipated," Phillips said. Still, Phillips and
Farfan both feel that the magazine will not
run out of money before the end of the year.
Phillips said that it was the first issue last
year that made money, while the winter and
spring issue only broke even. Out of 2,000
copies of the first issue, only 1,100 were sold
at full price (75 cents). The rest were dis
counted.
The number of magazines printed has been
progressively decreased since last year, and
only 1,000 copies of this fall's issue were
printed. The price is now $1. So far sales have
been good.
But the magazine is not without its pro
blems.
"We still are having problems with produc
tion and layout," Phillips said. Part of the
problem arises during the end-of-the-quarter
production rush, when students working for
UGAzine are preoccupied with exams
Another problem concerns the editors
themselves. Both Phillips and Farfan will
raduate this year. "We’ll be looking for a
new editor next quarter," Farfan said
Funding for the magazine may be cut also.
"Eventually we'U be weaned from Universi
ty funds,” Farfan said. "Next year if we get
any money it will be substantially less,” she
added
Phillips came up with the idea for the
magazine during the spring of 1980. She
worked with Dr. John English, an associate
professor of journalism and the following fall
the first issue of UGAzine (which Phillips
refered to as the "Pooper Scooper" in her
editor's comment) hit the newsstands.
UGAzine's most recent predecessors, the
Georgia Student Quarterly and the Impres
sion, enjoyed only a brief existence — less
than two years for both. UGAzine has only
been out for one year and no matter how-
sound it is now, its survival may still be in
jeopardy.
Both editors feel that the production of
UGAzine is running much smoother this
year. But the question remains will UGAzine
survive without their strong leadership
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