What does is Take to be a Writer? ~by Elise Ikoma

It occurred to me that a new writer would be wise to research their own field. Several written publications were contacted due to a recent personal interest in journalism. Someone from the monthly Vancouver View Magazine responded. Mr. M Toren, I looked it up and it turns out that he is an owner of the Magazine: www.vanouverview.net. I conducted a phone-interview with him on CJSF Radio. The following is from a transcription of this interview, October 16, 2007.

E. Ikoma: Tell us about yourself.

M. Toren: I’m 34 years old. I graduated with average marks from West Vancouver Secondary school and started my entrepreneurial trek after and during grade 11 and 12. I am a cereal entrepreneur, and what I mean by that is that my brother and I buy failing businesses and we build them up with various strategies and sell the m for a profit.

E. Ikoma: What made you start to become interested in business as early as high school?

M. Toren: Good question. I guess it’s just something that’s in my blood. I’m not sure, people have asked me that before and I have to say that it’s just that, I took marketing classes in high school. It might have been marketing classes where I found my niche. I love marketing. I thrive on marketing. I’m a sponge and I like to hear everything about marketing and business.

E. Ikoma: Your current venture is now View Magazine, how did you get involved in that?

M. Toren: How did I get involved in it? Well, it is one on the ventures I’ve had. I finally found my passion after the many businesses that I had; I’ve owned a pool halls, I’ve owned cafés, I’ve owned all-natural pet food company that delivered to your door, I’ve owned many different businesses and I owned a printing company called Platinum Express in downtown Vancouver and I was printing out a little magazine in Yaletown, which is where I lived at the time. So one thing led to another and we started our first publication back in 2003 and it was called Yaletown View magazine. I had Yaletown View magazine then Kitsilano View magazine and Coal Harbour View magazine all separately. But I wanted to get more of the market share and that’s what brought about Vancouver View magazine.

E. Ikoma: And when was the first Vancouver View magazine issue?

M. Toren: Two and a half years ago.

E. Ikoma: How would you describe a typical day or week for you at work?

M. Toren: A typical day for me, is I wake up at about 10:30am and I average about 30 conversations or so. I talk to various people to do with the Vancouver View, all of the sales reps I have. Large clients I deal with directly. I answer about 70-100 emails a day to do with the View. I’m a night person. I wake up at 10am but I stay up until about 3am working everyday including weekends, which may sound like a drag but I really enjoy it.

E. Ikoma: And how many people are currently working with you at the Vancouver View?

M. Toren: We have a team of 25 outstanding great people that work with the Vancouver View and we are always expanding our publication looking for more great people to come onboard.

E. Ikoma: Ok, and I know you have many sales reps, but what about the writers? How is the turnover rate for your writers?

M. Toren: The turnover rate is very minimal. When we find a writer that we like we try to create a win/win situation and keep them onboard.

E. Ikoma: Good to hear, so, what do you look for, what kind of qualities do you look for in a writer for your magazine?

M. Toren: We look for a smart, innovative creative people that are self-starters. You know, go out there and find a unique topic to write about and go with it and they keep on doing it again and again. And when one of those topics hits, then we publish it.

E. Ikoma: Which leads to my next question; How do you, or your writers, go about choosing different topics for each issue?

M. Toren: Different topics are chosen by a few different people at our organization. We have a team that looks over all the topics that come in, and we get a short list. The Editor has the final say as to what goes into our publications.

E. Ikoma: Your articles are mostly about Health, Entertainment, Fashion, local businesses such and spas and pet services. What kind of audience are you catering to?

M. Toren: That’s a great question. We are a lifestyle magazine that caters to the target demographic of approximately 25-39 year olds. The Vancouver View is Vancouver’s #1 magazine because we have such a diverse readership. It’s very interactive. People read the magazine, they email you back, email all the writers and they ask questions. And that’s why we’ve started our Ask-an-Expert section in the publication recently, which is getting a lot of people emailing and calling our publication. We have a very diverse distribution of our publication. We deliver our magazine free to any business or resident in Yaletown, the West End, Coal Harbour, False Creek, Grandville Island, Point Grey, Karrisdale, North and West Vancouver and Whistler. We also run all the newsstand all throughout BC at all the Save-on-Foods, Chapters, London Drugs, Superstore, International Youth and BC Ferries.

E. Ikoma: What is your favourite topic to read about?

M. Toren: As I said before, I love marketing and business. If it has to do with marketing or business, sign me up. I love learning about it. I investigate every aspect of marketing that you can read about on the internet, I read about it , all the magazines too. A really good magazine is Forbes Magazine. I love reading Forbes because it has all the good techniques and tricks of the trade. The new stuff that’s coming out in the years ahead.

E. Ikoma: What is your favorite part of your job?

M. Toren: I don’t really consider this a job. It’s a passion of mine I’ve been lucky to find after doing many businesses over the years. Publishing is a sincere passion that I really look forward to doing in the future. It makes me happy doing it every single day and it makes me a better person.

E. Ikoma: Great, all the good luck to you. I just have one more question: What advice would you have for a new interested aspiring writers, or even entrepreneurs?

M. Toren: I would say be creative, be smart, when you’re writing your topical stories being a journalist. It’s very simple, if you know what you’re doing or even if you’re brand new, be innovative and submit them to the right people, at the publication or wherever you’re submitting them to since there are a lot of filter that you have to go through to hit the right person. And once you’ve found that right people always follow up. Follow-up is key and you’ll be successful.

E. Ikoma: All right, thank you!

M. Toren: Thank you!