Print ads can't keep up with the morning train — or school bus

This summer, I worked in Chicago as a publishing assistant at an independent magazine. My goal at Stop Smiling was to help chase down advertising. Advertisers wanted us to be multimedia producers, a storefront, mobile party planners, or, as Publisher J.C. Gabel put it, "everything but a good magazine." Part of my proposal to Asics was a horizontal reflective strip that ran across the front of our offices. In the middle of the strip would be their newest shoe, so that passers-by who slowed to check out the magazine could "try on" an Asics shoe as well. Truly the stuff of great journalism.