Annette Stark on <em>New Times</em>

Annette Stark, whom we'd quoted yesterday, emails us to clarify her experience with New Times. We'd greatly truncated her story, and it really deserves further amplifaction, as it does expand on Jon Wiener's criticisms of the New Times management. Also, as Stark writes, we got her quote wrong: I didn't say Andy said we couldn't be trusted. The music editor who was trying to get me to take that test said "Andy feels that magazine writers have no talent and all the work is edited to death." The point is that I had held titles of senior editor, editor-in-chief and executive editor at far better publications than Miami New Times for more than a DECADE including SPIN and The Source when they tried to get me to take that test for a job I clearly didn't want and was also overqualified for. I was working as executive producer at The Source, the most successful music magazine in the country, had freelanced everywhere including Details and the Village Voice, when the Miami New Times music editor called me. He had been calling for a month and I finally took the call. So, after I told him it was unlikely, but I would think about it, he then said he needed me to write four sample articles. I had a ton of clips, cover stories in Ocean Drive, and they still asked me to take that stupid test. So I said, 'What is with you New Times guys and these tests?" That is when he quoted Andy on magazine writers. And I said, "You realize you called The Source?" I had been editor-in-chief at the Apparel News Group, too, which is a weekly. With six regional books in six markets published five times a year, two swimwear books, two bridal and two that covered the junior market called "Best of the West." This is how preposterous and arrogant the New Times organization is. They have no respect for writers and are either clueless about writers and the publications in their own arena or they are so self important that they think they can demean you, offer you a worse job you DIDN'T even apply for at far less money than you are getting at a better publication than theirs and you as a writer are so desperate to be on staff that you won't even notice. One of Stark's more recent pieces for Citybeat is here. Earlier: Wiener & Pals Recall the Good Old Days at the LA Weekly---It's All Jill Stewart's Fault

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Annette Stark on New Times

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