Tulsa People mag copies Indianapolis Weekly cover

[tim huntzinger]

'Imitation is the sincerest form of larceny'

[NellieBly]

Hardly an exact copy - what else are you supposed to do with a beauty queen. It's well-known that city and regional magazines heavily borrow ideas from each other, it's even encouraged.

[AngieB]

quote:Originally posted by NellieBly

Hardly an exact copy - what else are you supposed to do with a beauty queen. It's well-known that city and regional magazines heavily borrow ideas from each other, it's even encouraged.

Plagiarism is encouraged?

I ain't buyin' it. I think somebody at TP  thought that nobody would ever see the Indy cover. At least the photos are different. [B)]

[tim huntzinger]

Look, I did not call it larceny, the 'victim' did:

'From DAVID ZIVAN, editor, Indianapolis Monthly: I Just received my copy of Tulsa People for December, which looks an awful lot like Indy Monthly for July. Imitation, my esteemed colleague [Texas Monthly editor] Evan Smith once remarked, is the sincerest form of larceny.

'They should have called me; then I could have told them that it bombed on the newsstand!'

Just curious, do you work at TP or another publication? How is it that you have come across this belief that publishers welcome this behaviour?

[cannon_fodder]

I dont work at any pulbication, nor do I suspect this much similarity is a good thing... but the idea surely isnt unique to start with.  I'd be surpised if anything more than embarassment comes of this.

[NellieBly]

I worked for over two years at a magazine that is a member of the city and regional magazine group (I can't recall the exact name of the group). They have a big publishers convention every year and they all trade magazines and they all borrow heavily from each other. It was encouraged. We used to get about 50-60 magazines a month from the members and they all looked alike.

They all do it. I wonder where the 'victim' got the idea from. If you did a little research among members of the magazine group, there are probably 10 magazines that did the same thing.

[snopes]

Well, it's embarassing to say the least. I work in the publication business as a writer. I don't design magazine covers but to just blatantly take not only the format but even some of the content (i.e. "The first time I...") shows a lack of creativity on behalf of the page layout/design people. I've been in on discussions regarding publication layouts and although the use of templates is widespread they could have put in a little more energy by taking a template and modifying it somewhat. The fact that the person on the cover obscures part of the magazine title is also obvious.

[NellieBly]

It's not a lack of creativity on the part of the graphic designer. He or she is just following the editor's orders.

Tulsa People's is actually a better photo. They borrow because they figure someone in Omaha isn't going to see Tulsa People. The worst offender of borrowing is actually Oklahoma Magazine. The whole magazine is borrowed from others.

[sgrizzle]

I agree that it is obviously a copy. No other way the photo, layout, and even the title of the issue would match like that.

Whether it was encouraged or discouraged or not. What matters most is if the source is okay with it.

[snopes]

quote:Originally posted by NellieBly

It's not a lack of creativity on the part of the graphic designer. He or she is just following the editor's orders.

Tulsa People's is actually a better photo. They borrow because they figure someone in Omaha isn't going to see Tulsa People. The worst offender of borrowing is actually Oklahoma Magazine. The whole magazine is borrowed from others.

True about the graphic designer following the editor's orders. My only problem is that the department or organization responsible for dreaming up this publication didn't seem to put alot of energy into the design. I would've encouraged just a tad more creativity is all.

[tim huntzinger]

I spoke with David at Indianapolis Monthly, and he is glad that this is being discussed.  He does not agree with Nellie's notion that copying of this kind is encouraged.  The imitation goes beyond the front cover, and includes the article itself (something about DJs, delivering a baby, and an onstage incident).

David has read the remarks here and concedes that while borrowing ideas or concepts may happen, that typically precedes 'advancing the ball,' not merely duplicating the idea. TP did send a letter to him splaining what happened, do not know what their take was (no doubt an apology there).

He was not dumping on TP and neither am I (do I really need to make more enemies in this town?)  It is noteworthy that IM is a for-sale mag, and its editor lives downtown Indy (guess what: no grocery stores there either!)

[snopes]

I wouldn't consider it bashing. More like constructive criticism. I mean, you really can see that TP put little effort into the concept. I would think that a good design group would want to be proud of their product and create something unique. Perhaps they didn't have the budget to get someone on board that felt comfortable doing that sort of thing.

[Breadburner]

Who gives a $hit....

[Conan71]

Creativity has little to do with "clean sheet" ideas.  It's usually an amalgam of various different influences.  Having worked with various creative types over the years, there are seldom any completely "new" ideas.  Clearly that TP cover was a rip-off from the Indy cover, for which the basic concept likely was the result of other covers that designer has seen elsewhere, but not necessarily "re-printed" as it appears with the TP cover.

Things like reader's polls, etc. are all borrowed from somewhere else.  When UTW started the Absolute Best awards it was deemed as a rip-off of People's Choice, which of course, was a rip-off from somewhere else.

Back around 1991, right before UTW started, Langdon Publishing (TulsaPeople), along with four or five other publishers were working to fill the vacuum left when Uptown News finally folded.  They were working on a concept called "In Tulsa".  The cover for the prototype looked amazingly similar to "In Style".  Also of note is that the editor picked to run that project was Keith Skrzypczak- now the publisher of UTW.

At the last minute, Jim Langdon became concerned that there were four or five other publishers looking to do the same thing, and advertisers had been consistently burned by Uptown News and several forgettable publications which came along after.  IOW- potential ad revenue was lacking to get "In Tulsa" off the ground, so they $h!t canned it, Skrzypczak formed his own company and from very humble beginnings, UTW (only then it was a monthly) was born.

As far as Oklahoma Magazine, I won't even pick up a copy.  This is a true story- the publisher is so spiteful (her husband might be listed as publisher, I can't remember- been a long time since I picked up that rag), when she left TulsaPeople to start her rag, she had the audacity to purchase the various web domain names you could think of for tulsapeople, that's why you have to type in tulsapeoplemagazine.com to get to their web site.  There were also some other uncomplimentary things that happened around that time.

FWIW- my ex-wife worked for Langdon for ten years and I worked at UTW for 2.5 years.