Cherubs listen to a presentation by Newsweek reporter Karen Springen in Chicago.

Tommy Alter, of Montclair, N.J., has a special connection to the magazine world.  His father, Jonathan Alter, is a columnist for Newsweek magazine.
           
Alter reads his dad’s publication as well as magazines such as Sports Illustrated, ESPN and Time.  His dream is to one day write his own weekly column for a major magazine.
           
“I love the fact that in magazine writing you have more time to research a topic that really interests you and have time to revise what you’ve written over a few days’ time,” Alter said.

Alter and 87 other journalism cherubs got a crash course in the magazine world during the five-week program at the National High School Institute, and many students said the magazine track is for them.

“When I read magazines, I’m able to get involved in the articles more because the ones I read are focused on topics I enjoy,” Alberto Sandoval, of Fresno, Calif., said.

Sandoval started reading Blender, a music magazine, when he was a freshman in high school and later added music publications such as Guitar World and Guitar Player to his reading list. Sandoval said hopes to one day write profiles of bands for Guitar World or Rolling Stone Magazine.

“I love writing and I love music, I love the guitar,” he said.  “It all kind of fits.”

During the fourth week of the program, Bret Begun, national affairs editor of Newsweek magazine, and Cynthia Wang, associate bureau chair at the Los Angeles office for People magazine, shared their personal perspectives of the magazine world with the cherubs. 

On a trip to the Newsweek office in Chicago, Begun discussed the pressures weekly magazine editors face when deciding which information is fresh at the time of publication. 

Wang talked to cherubs about maintaining effective relationships with sources, the importance of fact checking and writing for the audience of the magazine.

The students also created hypothetical magazines and pitched them to the class.

Alexa Sasanow, who publishes a magazine at her school in New York City, said talking to Wang inspired her to follow her own dreams in the magazine industry.

“She knew what she wanted to do and the writing she wanted to do and she just did it,” Sasanow said.  “I spent a really long time talking to her.  It makes me feel like I can really go forward and do something.”

Elia Powers, an instructor and former cherub, has written for newspapers and magazines. He said he prefers the lower-stress life of a magazine writer to the grind of a daily reporter.

But Powers said that a start in newspapers is necessary.

“Working in the daily atmosphere gives you good time management skills for magazine writing,” Powers said. “It helps a lot to start on a daily staff because from then on you can always produce good work in short periods of time.”

For Alter, working on a newspaper to get to his magazine writing goal is not a problem.

“I’ll do whatever I need to,” he said.