Andrea MacDonald
A year ago, publisher Cu Van Ha decided to start a magazine. He thought Ottawa needed something written by young people, for young people, to promote unconventional happenings in the city. He knew all about the business and financial aspects, but needed someone to help him with the creative part. He knew the perfect girl to call: Jenni Campbell.
In the middle of an interview with Van Ha, the phone rings.
“It’s Jenni,” he says. “She’s lost.”
Fifteen minutes later, Campbell scrambles through the door.
“I don’t know why I bother getting in the car anymore,” the petite, pretty 19 year old says, plunking herself down on the couch beside Kix, the office cat.
Campbell, who admits to once driving all the way to Manotick en route to her downtown office, is the “the best editor” Van Ha has ever met. After helping publish her high school graduating class’ poetry book, he knew he wanted her to be the editor-in-chief of his magazine.
“She had the same kind of energy I had, so we clicked” says Van Ha, 23. “All the things she’s strong in, I’m weak, and vice-versa. I look to her for encouragement and she feels the same way about me.”
He says Campbell put her personality into the magazine and that’s what has made it so successful; after only four issues, what began as a “booklet” is now being distributed across Canada. The December issue of the bi-monthly Mirror Magazine is the first to be sold nationally to a readership of 60,000.
Van Ha and Campbell sent copies to different national publishers over the year for feedback; the fourth issue caught the attention of national distribution company Gordon and Gotch.
“They thought it was different and took a chance,” says Van Ha. He adds that while going national means the content has to appeal to a broader audience, the focus will still be on Ottawa events and retailers, and promoting this city to the rest of Canada.
A mixture of fashion, art and culture, the 50-page glossy magazine — funded partly from advertisers and partly from Van Ha’s own pocket — provides an alternative to mainstream publications. It features subjects ranging from poetry to street art, architecture to punk rock aerobics, and articles such as Overlooked Hotspots, which explores lesser-known places in Ottawa, and The Couch-Hopping Hobo’s Guide to Living Cheap.
At the helm of this alternative magazine is a girl who knew she would take an alternative route in life, although not necessarily this one.
“If someone had told me when I was younger that I would be working so hard, I would have said, ‘who do you think I am?” Campbell says, feet up on a table. “I wanted to be rock climbing and playing guitar.”
While Campbell says she never expected to become editor-in-chief of a national magazine – “I wanted to get into the nuclear physics business!” – she seems to be a natural. She graduated from Canterbury high school’s literary arts program, where she also edited the school newspaper. She says arts education was a great influence.
“It lets you think outside the box, and what I’m doing is not in the box,” she says. “When you’re presented with your options, it’s not usually ‘go to college, go to university . . . or start a magazine.’ If I hadn’t attended Canterbury and saw what can happen in an arts environment, I might not have tried it.”
The editing business also runs in her family. Her father, Sandy Campbell, ran a newspaper in Cape Breton for 13 years. He says he never expected his daughter to follow his footsteps, but isn’t surprised that she did.
“She’s smart and very determined,” he says. “If she sets out to get something done, she really throws herself into it and gives it 100 per cent. That’s the key. Lots of people will be interested, but not willing to put in the hours and do the grunt work that is required.”
He says he is proud of his daughter’s accomplishments because he knows from experience how hard it can be.
“When you don’t have a lot of money or a lot of wealthy backers, it’s hard,” he says. “As a grizzled (journalism) veteran, I have lots of criticisms about some of the style, some of the editing and some of the stories, but I must say, it’s an impressive accomplishment.”
Campbell is, in many ways, a regular teen. She worries about choosing the right words when she speaks, cuddles her new kitten, and talks about interviewing a former Much Music VJ, whom she confesses she had a crush on.
But Campbell — who received the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award from Child and Youth Friendly Ottawa earlier this year — has accomplished what many her age could only dream, although she would be the last to admit it. She is extremely modest and credits Van Ha for motivating her.
“In the back of my head I thought if I could run my own magazine it would be so cool,” she says. “I entertained daydreams about it but never thought it would happen. But then I met (Van Ha), and when he believes he can do something or when he believes someone can do something, it will happen. He’s amazing that way. Talking to someone who has done things makes you say ‘hey, I think I can do this.’ ”
Campbell says she never let herself hope the magazine would go national, and is very happy and surprised it did.
“I didn’t care if it was 10 copies or 10,000 copies. All I ever wanted was a magazine where every page has something good on it.”
To fill those pages, Campbell chooses writers who write in a specific style; like herself, they are often the ones who don’t follow a traditional path.
“The slackers who dropped high school in Grade 10 are the smartest people I know and can write amazing stuff,” she says. “The tone I’m going for is smart, kind of irreverent and witty, and it’s hard to find people who can write like that. A lot of people who’ve had training in writing, specifically in journalism schools, have a hard time getting out of that framework.”
But there is one drawback to this kind of staff: “They never get anything in on time!” she says. “My job is 90 per cent calling people and harassing them. I even bake treats for people to entice them to get things in!”
Van Ha says his goal when he started the magazine was to motivate young people who have drive, but lack the opportunity to use it.
“We want to make the opportunities for people to get involved,” he says. “We want to break the stereotype that young people don’t do anything, because they do, they just need the encouragement.”
Dan Mackinnon, a Carleton journalism student and regular contributor to the magazine, agrees that it provides young writers with a rare opportunity.
“It opens doors to something completely different, which you can’t necessarily find in organized post-secondary education. You don’t have to worry about typical journalistic style; you can just let your creative energy flow. Also, it gets your name out there and opens you up to a national audience so your stuff gets read more than it would have otherwise.”
But while the staff is made up primarily of people in their early 20s — Campbell calls Van Ha the “grandfather of the operation”— she does not want this to be the magazine’s only appeal.
“Sometimes, we play up the young entrepreneur card, but as a magazine, we don’t stamp that everywhere,” she says. “In five years, I’m not going to be young anymore and neither is (Van Ha), so if we’re going to make something, it has to stand on its own.”
Creating a magazine that can compete with others has always been her goal and she didn’t mind working hard to get to where it is now. But it’s not all hard work, and Campbell says that meeting new people and doing new things is the payoff.
“It’s fun,” says Campbell, admitting that she has, on occasion, used the magazine to bypass long lines at clubs. “We go to all the openings, galas, and wine and cheese parties. Our M.O. is if there’s free food, we’ll be there. The city seems closer; I feel more at home here because I’ve met so many people and I know that there are so many things going on.”
Both Van Ha and Campbell say they’re not sure what the future holds. He wants to get his master’s degree in architecture — his first love — and she says she’s interested in studying law.
But for now, Campbell can’t imagine doing anything else.
“It would probably take me years to work up to another position like what I have now if I went through the regular steps.” she says. “I definitely want to do a lot of other things. But this is our magazine and I love it.”