Hip Hop in Print: The Publisher: Rodrigo Bascunan (Pound)
Publisher: Rodrigo Bascunan
Website: Poundmag.com
“If someone were to come to me and say here I have ten ideas I can almost be sure that eight of them are better than starting a magazine.”
Halftime: What does it mean to be a publisher?
Rodrigo (Pound): That would vary a lot depending on the size of the magazine. On a very big magazine, a publisher’s role is strictly management, mostly overseeing the sales department, being a public face and overall strategist. For a smaller to medium size level most publishers just do sales. Then on a very small level, you’ll get the publishers who do everything. The whole magazine is the publisher and it’s sort of a catchall title at that point.
How long have you been in the business?
We’ve been publishing for four years, but the company started five and a half years ago.
What are your duties and main responsibilities as the publisher of Pound?
For me the day to day is most of the business stuff. I do a lot of the editorial stuff. When I started out though I did pretty much everything that could be imagined that would go into a magazine. Those were heavy weeks where I would work 80-100 hours a week at the beginning. Now I don’t handle any of the design work. I only do about a third of the sales work. Most of my day is office management as well as planning the editorials but not writing them.
What are some of the things you’re responsible for that people may not know or take for granted?
I think for the most part people don’t realize how labor-intensive putting together editorial is. I’m sure you guys know that as well. Someone probably goes to your website and sees two hundred words and one picture and it seems pretty simple to them. I don’t think people realize how many steps there are to putting quality editorial together and how much work that actually takes. I think overall people don’t realize the hours that go into making a magazine. Another angle is people don’t realize how much of a publisher’s role is backroom politics speaking to the right people and knowing the right people. That’s a big part of the business.
In your mind what makes Pound unique and how have you contributed in positioning it to where it is now?
What’s always made the magazine different are two things. One is the political content in the magazine and the other is the humor. I think both of those things, much like the magazine itself, is a reflection of my personality. I come from a pretty political background and I think I’m a pretty funny person too. It is a reflection of me less so now because there are so many people working on it, so it’s a reflection of the entire team but a lot of the original ideas still exist in the magazine. A lot of those ideas are a reflection of myself and a few close friends who work in the magazine as well.
The political side of things is definitely explored with the cover story on Dead Prez. It seems a lot of it relates to the U.S. What’s the difference politically between the U.S. and Canada?
A lot of Canadians are under the impression that Canada is not involved in a lot of what goes on in the world and that they’re not well partnered with the U.S and that’s a mistake. Canada is pretty actively involved. Of course Canada has nowhere near the military power of the United States but in terms of foreign policy and directing things on more of a market level and international trade Canada is right up there. Those things are just as impressive as dropping bombs on people. Within Canada you don’t have the intensity of a police state that is starting to exist in the U.S. You don’t find that as much here except if you’re a select group in the Muslim community. Not all of the Muslim groups are targeted here but there is definitely some targeting going on and there are some things that Canadians would be surprised that exist at this moment. I think Canada has managed to put a good face on what they do and in a lot of degrees its not as extreme as the U.S. but I think Canadians are under the impression that they are more different than they actually are.
So would something like the incident with Dead Prez getting arrested be a common thing in Canada?
There is a lot of profiling. It’s funny that you bring this up because right now we are working on a story that’s going on in Ontario Provisional Criminal Court. One of our writers is a lawyer who works for the SIU (Special Investigations Unit) in Canada. They are prosecuting the police for a racial profiling incident where a man who was physically abused and got his cheekbone broken. It looks like there is going to be a major ruling on racial profiling. We’re going to be covering the case in the next issue. We have the transcripts of the case and there is one point where the man who was abused goes on a ten-minute speech on what it’s like to be black and how he fears the police. We thought we’d print it the way it is with a bit of commentary from the judge and possibly some commentary from the lawyer and even the man himself. So it goes on here. Toronto in particular has a very big black community. I think the big difference between the communities here and in the U.S. is there is just not that history. The communities here are two generations. Most of the black people here are Caribbean and haven’t been here for more than 30-40 years. So you just don’t have the long antagonism you have in the United States. I think that’s one of the big differences.
Looking at stereotypes in general do you feel that the U.S has a big influence?
Overall the U.S. media has such a big influence on Canadian culture overall. We have our own television stations and newspapers but there is still huge infiltration of all the major shows you find in the U.S. I’d say fifteen percent of what’s on TV is produced in Canada and in magazines there almost all American. Newspapers are probably the only place you’re going to find a clear Canadian identity, but I don’t think the majority of the population read the newspaper as frequently as they watch television. So there is a huge influence. I’d say it extends itself into creating opinions about certain communities and have certain communities reinforce negative stereotypes about themselves. You find kids in the Latin American community who watch a movie like colors and they think that’s them and that’s the only identity that they know for themselves. For someone who is mature it seems ridiculous but it goes on and influences kids who are a little more vulnerable.
