Open source journalism: Watching magazine sausage being made

By Michael Fraase

Thursday, 04 September 2008 08:12PM CST

Section: Media

Making sausageWired magazine has a fascinating online experiment taking place: a weblog documenting the conceiving, pitching, writing, editing, photographing, and designing of a feature article for the November issue of the print magazine. For magazine insiders and readers alike, this is an absorbing peek under the covers.

The editorial side of things will be covered in Storyboard while the design process will be documented in Creative Director Scott Dadich’s The Process. So far, however, the two online publications are mirrors of each other.

The editorial and production processes at most magazines are, generally, quite secretive so this is a big deal. Getting to watch how a major feature for one of the world’s best magazines gets made promises to be fascinating. This was the idea of Senior Editor Jason Tanz who has indicated that everything—or something close to everything—including internal email, drafts, edit memos, and .pdfs of layouts and page proofs will be made publicly available in close to real-time.

One of the best aspects of the experiment is the subject matter: a profile of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Kaufman’s first directorial effort, Synecdoche, New York, is scheduled for a 24 October release and Tanz’s profile will focus on the growth of Kaufman from screenwriter to auteur.

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