The answer is ambivalence

Recently I had an email from a reporter asking what I thought of Toro's new online-only incarnation, which launches tonight with a party at the Brant House. As a former writer-at-large for the old, defunct print version, the answer is that my reaction is complicated. 

I'm happy for the handful of old Toro contribs / staffers who are participating in this new incarnation, just as I'm relieved that the launch adverts are witty and amusingly self-referential. However, I have my misgivings. In the it-was-fun-while-it-lasted department, I feel as though Toro had a good run and any new incarnation can't possibly match the original's level of talent. Attesting to this is the fact that most of the former editors are all enriching the talent pool of other publications. The big cheese, former editor-in-chief Derek Finkle, is freelancing his ass off for Toronto Life and Maclean's and earlier this year received the Freedom to Read award from the Writers' Union of Canada, for his work on the Robert Baltovich case. Design and photo stalwarts Cameron Williamson and Myles McCutcheon are working under Maryam Sanati at Chatelaine, along with Melanie Morassutti. Pat Lynch and David Fielding are at the Globe in the Life section and ROB magazine, respectively. Possibly the skinniest editor in Canada, Dave Morris, is at Eye Weekly as music editor and last I heard Micah Toub was in Berlin madly typing away on a memoir thanks to a lucrative book deal. 

Then there's the but-you-did-it-yourself side of this issue. When I first moved to Toronto seven (?) years ago Neil Morton and Kevin Siu hired me as the web editor for the third incarnation of Shift magazine, the one that published under the aegis of Multi-Vision Publishing. Did the writers and editors who had previously worked under Evan Solomon and Andy Heintzman feel the same vague, rootless resentment that I feel toward this new toromagazine.com? And why the hell do I feel this resentment? Shouldn't I be happy that someone is trying to make another go of something I liked, something created by people I admired, something to which I was lucky enough to contribute? 

But my biggest ambivalence-causer is the fact that the old incarnation still apparently owes contributors money. Few indie Canadian magazines are great about paying with any sort of punctuality, and Toro editors took a lot of flack for the habitual late payments, but none of it was the editors' fault. Purse strings at Toro were controlled by exactly one person: Christopher Bratty, who also is funding this new incarnation. Bratty seems like a decent enough guy but he is completely clueless on the financial needs of people who didn't inherit millions of dollars. I think it was in December 2006 that I finally got frustrated with Finkle and started swearing at him on the telephone over a pair of invoices that were going on three months overdue. I had an excuse -- Christmas was coming up, the invoices totaled around $8,000 and my wife wasn't going to get any presents if those invoices didn't come in. 

The thing was, it wasn't Finkle's fault -- he had done his best to get me the money and finally just gave me Bratty's office phone number. I started bugging Bratty with incessant voice-mails explaining the situation, and at the very last minute before Christmas vacation -- I think on the 22nd of December -- I drove out to the west side of Toronto and met Bratty at a Starbuck's near his house, where he handed me the cheque. What got me was Bratty's manner. He tossed off some random comment to the effect of, he hoped I was grateful that he was going out of his way to pay me. This was an invoice that was at least three months overdue. And what gets me to this day, and what is probably the reason for my current venting, is that I didn't call him on that asshole comment. I didn't tell him how counter-productive his late payments were, or how frustrating these late payments were to the magazine's writers, editors and photographers, or about the unreliable reputation the magazine was getting. I swallowed all of those feelings because I wanted to keep writing for Toro. I thanked Bratty, and high-tailed it to the closest bank to deposit that cheque and start buying Christmas presents.

When Finkle called me in February 2007 to tell me that Toro was dying, I felt as though somebody had punched me in the stomach. Part of the reason was that I was supposed to be flying to Costa Rica on a research trip the next week, for a piece on Calvin Ayre. Under no obligation to me, Finkle scrambled his ass off and arranged for me to sell the piece to Maclean's -- only one of the many reasons why I admire that dude. The other reason I felt as though I was punched in the stomach was that at that point I had about $10,000 in invoices outstanding to Toro (read: Bratty). Which was more money than I had outstanding to anyone like, ever. The magazine had a wake / final party at the Spoke Club a couple of weeks after the death announcement and I reintroduced myself to Bratty and told him how great I thought Toro was (true) and explained about my new baby and this book that I was writing, and how much I needed that cash (also true), and to Bratty's credit he had his accountant cut me a cheque for the full amount the following week. 

However, not everyone was so lucky as I was, and this is another reason why I'm ambivalent about this Toro relaunch. Pay your contribs! And if you don't, don't expect them to feel all warm and fuzzy about your relaunch. 

Comments

[myles]

Agreed. The whole reason I put this launch in the I Could Care Less file.

For one: I was fielding calls from Contribs at my new place of work many many many months after the magazine folded - and not for small hundreds of dollars amounts. People I had worked hard to establish a relationship with and who I had given my word would be paid in a timely fashion were not.

To then think that we all should be overjoyed at a 're-launch' cracks me up.

No hard feelings and good luck with it but please learn from your past mistakes.