Will BOOM go bust?

When the Saint John alternative paper here launched a Moncton edition, that was too much for the Irvings. They launched their own weekly and by slashing advertising rates forced the owners of here to sell. What will the Irvings make of Moncton's new entertainment weekly?

Scott Bulman, 39, is launching an independent weekly called "BOOM Magazine" on Nov. 9. The paper will be delivered Wednesdays to news boxes in downtown Moncton, Dieppe, Miramichi and on the Mount Allison campus in Sackville. BOOM was supposed to launch Oct. 12, but the outdoor news boxes weren't ready so the launch date was delayed.

This is certainly not the only challenge Bulman will face. He's starting a weekly paper in a province where one company, Irving, owns the vast majority of print media. It was a battle that here, an independent weekly in N.B., lost to Irving last year.

here started in Saint John in April 2000 and expanded to Moncton, the headquarters of Irving's media branch, Brunswick News, on April 1, 2004. Ingrid Deon, here's former Moncton reporter, says that within five weeks Brunswick News launched its own weekly, Metro Marquee, and cut its advertisement rates by half so here could not compete. Eventually here sold out to Irving.

here is still having problems. Editor Miriam Christensen resigned Monday, Oct.3, 2005. She says she wasn't given enough independent control over the paper's news content. "I wasn't comfortable toeing the company line."

Bulman sets out a mock-up of BOOM for me to flip through. He points out the graphic lettering on each page. The letters, in similar font to video games from the '80s, separate the content into sections. They read: 'M' for Music, 'A' for Arts, and 'T' for technology. The paper is 11X15 inches and will be printed on newsprint. Bulman will write an overview of each week's content at the front of his paper. Astrology and My Messy Bedroom, a sex column by Josey Vogels, will appear on the back pages. The paper is targeted to the 18-35 demographic.

Bulman says BOOM is more of an entertainment weekly than an alternative newspaper but it will "have that alternative edge in terms of 'we're going to give it to you straight.'" He flips to the last page where Josey Vogel's face smiles up at us. He says her sex column is one example of the edgy but intelligent content that will appear in BOOM. here does not have a sex column.

Some articles in BOOM will be in French, others English. The bi-language aspect of BOOM is something that Bulman says will be new and unique for Moncton, where there's a large French-speaking population. Statistics Canada's 2001 community profile records Moncton's French-speaking community as 33 per cent of its total population. Halifax's francophone community, by contrast, is two per cent of its total population.

Bulman doesn't speak French. He's looking for both a French and an English editor to oversee the content he hopes to get from 20 freelancers and photographers.

"Legs were cut off"

Bulman thinks that since here was bought by Irving on Oct. 28, 2004, people have been deprived a much needed alternative voice.

"I'm going to pull [here's] audience because their legs were cut off after they were acquired by the Irvings," says Bulman with a smirk as he gestures towards here's news box.

Next to the news box sits another rack holding the English dailies available in N.B. Irving owns all three. Irving also owns many of New Brunswick's weeklies.

Janet Scott, Mark Leger, and Judith Mackin launched here as a biweekly (later it became a weekly) in Saint John. They wanted to cover stories that weren't being covered by other media, especially the local arts scene and youth related stories. Five weeks after here expanded to Moncton, Brunswick News launched Metro Marquee.  

Ingrid Deon says the Irvings were "vicious" when they lowered Metro Marquee's advertisement rates by half to drive here out of business.  "I felt like I was taking on the Irvings the whole time I was working there," says Deon.

After Brunswick News purchased here, they did away with Metro Marquee and moved here's Moncton location into the basement of an Irving-owned building where The Telegraph-Journal is produced.  

The past can sometimes serve as a warning. Miriam Christensen, editor of the Irving-owned here until she quit Oct.3, says if Irving decides to cut the ad rates again when BOOM launches, Bulman will have a hard time competing. But Bulman isn't worried because he says long-term relationships with his advertisers will ensure the survival of BOOM. "I'm looking for advertising clients that are like a close-knit family. You won't see Mr. Irving out promoting his company. I like to go talk to people."

Keeping away from content involving politics and social issues is one strategy that Bulman says he will use to ensure long-term advertisers. He doesn't want his publication to be labelled with any particular political ideology because he thinks that advertisers may be turned off.  

 

Catering to advertisers

Bulman maintains that although he's trying to play it safe with entertainment content, BOOM Magazine will be intelligent, not fluffy. There will be editorial and criticism related to entertainment. He's looking for writers who fit in with BOOM's "edgy and intelligent" theme. Bulman says he's even recruited some here writers who are dissatisfied with working for an Irving publication, though he wouldn't give any names.

Financial issues are a concern for anyone starting a business and even more so when competing with a billion-dollar corporation. Bulman won't disclose the amount of money he and unnamed partners are investing in BOOM to start off. But he does say it's more than $100,000.  Kyle Shaw, cofounder of Halifax's alternative weekly The Coast, estimates a weekly publication would need $150,000 to start in order to make a profit.

Scott Bulman, who grew up in the Moncton area, doesn't have a background in journalism. He doesn't read Irving papers but says they would be the right choice if he needed something for his cats to play with.

He took computer sciences for a few years at the University of New Brunswick but left before graduation because he says he didn't want to work in a cubicle the rest of his life.  Instead he wants to run a successful alternative to Irving-owned print media.  

He is motivated to promote local talent that is not getting media coverage. He says he gets calls from parents of young musicians who are excited about the local arts coverage. He wants those young musicians to be covered in BOOM because they could very well be famous someday.

"Stick it to the Irvings"

Some people are sceptical of BOOM. Ingrid Deon, who now works for CBC Radio Moncton, says that Bulman doesn't seem to care about the journalistic aspect to his publication. She says he also seems to be launching BOOM simply to "stick it to the Irvings" and sell some ads.  

Bulman says that's not true. He's started BOOM from the ground up to appeal to people who want an independent alternative to Irving-owned print media. "The fact that [BOOM] may 'stick it to the Irvings' is only the by-product of them closing their eyes to what people want," he says.    

Deon would like to see an alternative paper with an emphasis on "good, solid journalism" that's not all about business. Bulman admits that he's not very concerned about BOOM's news content. "I'm not looking to win any journalism awards here," he says.

Being entertainment focused, Bulman says BOOM will be more akin to Metro Marquee than to here. Kyle Shaw, editor of The Coast, says Metro Marquee was a "faux alt," a term that refers to a publication that resembles alternative newspapers like The Coast but has none of their spirit and drive. "They sort of look right, but there's something wrong with them." Many of these "faux alts" have heavy entertainment listings and minimal news coverage.

But many people pick up entertainment listing publications, flip through and plan their weekends based on the content. For this reason, former here editor Mark Leger says entertainment listings are a valid type of journalism. "The simplest form of journalism is telling people what's going on in their communities," says Leger, "whether that's in the form of storytelling or exhaustive listings packages."

Many people, including here editor Miriam Christensen, are interested in seeing how BOOM will differ from here, especially in news content. "A lot of [their success] will boil down to editorial," says Christensen. "If they can back up their product with good editorial, offer something different than here, they can compete."

 

Bulman says that though the "nay-sayers" are plenty, he will not change his mind about what he considers a great product. Eventually, if things go well in Moncton, Bulman would like to expand to other cities in N.B. He's also open to changes in BOOM's content if the readership wants it. He says BOOM is like a jar of clay that will be moulded with readership feedback.

Bulman has been working on BOOM for three years. He's excited to finally launch his baby. But tonight he has another baby, his 10-month-old son, waiting for him at home. He says he and his wife are learning to juggle work and home but he's still tired.  "Can you tell?" he asks, rubbing his eyes. "Sleep is for the weak."