Let me preface this by stating that this is in no way intended to be a smear piece written by a disgruntled ex-freelancer.


Well, not completely.


I’ve been writing a wine column for SEE Magazine for just under two years. Aside from a few isolated incidents in which my article was cut due to space restrictions, my column ran every single week. I dare say I had grown rather comfortable – complacent, even – with the situation.


Then November arrived, and my column was held due to space. No problem, I thought. It’ll run next week.


It didn’t. In fact, my column didn’t run at all in November. Apparently things were “really tight” and though they “kept hoping the issues would get bigger,” it just didn’t happen. Funny, I didn’t really notice that the papers were that much smaller. Certainly most of the other regular columns ran on schedule.


Now, I realize it was only a matter of time before the publishing world’s woes caught up with me. At the beginning of 2009, I remarked to myself that my gig at this little local alt-weekly actually seemed far more secure than those “real” journalists with their “real” positions in the big papers. I breezed past the uneasy whispers of lay-offs and bankruptcies, confident that I was untouchable.


I’ve since been humbled. The end of 2009 has arrived, and my column has been “put off indefinitely.” SEE has just gone through a few radical changes, namely losing two main editors (one of which went on maternity leave and one of which was fired); these positions were filled with two former SEE freelancers. It doesn’t look very likely that the “Booze Muse” (or whatever the hell they called me – it seemed to change all the time) will be returning in 2010.


On a side note, they did end up running that piece they had sat on throughout November – the very next week after they informed me that my column was suspended. Who says real-world irony is hard to come by?


At this point, I’m strongly leaning towards the position that it may be best for me to just back away gracefully. My first piece for SEE, published in December 2007, was a cheeky little Christmas gift guide. My last piece was also Christmas-themed, though with a decidedly more subdued (dejected? indifferent?) tone. Mainly I was trying to avoid sounding totally embittered; I may not have succeeded. At any rate, things have come neatly full circle, and it seems like the time has arrived to walk away for good.


Also of consideration is the ethical side to the issue. SEE is owned by Great West Newspapers LP, a fairly large newspaper corporation that publishes just under two dozen papers in cities and towns throughout Alberta. Anyone who writes for SEE knows this – after all, Great West’s name is on the freelancing cheques. But I’m willing to wager that a far smaller number of contributors are aware of, or have even considered, the implications of this.


Take Fast Forward Weekly, SEE’s counterpart in Calgary. The two papers are identical in every way except the name on the front and the content inside – and this latter distinction may not even be true anymore. I haven’t found any concrete evidence (yet), but it is more than likely that SEE will start running content from FFWD, if they haven’t already. The reverse may also occur. Hey, that pesky issue of ad revenue and space restriction isn’t going anywhere; a two-for-one deal on content must look increasingly attractive.


I happened to be rather surprised when I saw the similarities (nay, duplications) between the two magazines. Perhaps I was wilfully deluded, or merely ignorant, but I didn’t know anything about all this until far too recently. While I’m certainly accountable for my own ignorance, I suspect too many others share in it. I bet most people, writers and readers alike, have no inkling of the glaring copycatting – er, branding – going on with these papers.


Don’t even get me started on those full-page cigarette ads that started appearing in SEE a few months ago. Or those pop-up Heineken website ads.


Of course, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with identically branding two alt-weeklies owned by the same company. I’m sure it makes a lot of sense from a marketing perspective. And as far as being a corporate sell-out, SEE’s indiscretions are far outweighed by those of innumerable other corporate entities. But while this may all be true, I’m still left with a foul taste in my mouth.


Maybe I’m blowing this all out of proportions, citing grand reasons of ethics and morals as the reasons behind my wine column’s unceremonious demise. Really, I’m mostly just pissed that they didn’t come out and say that things were over from the moment they made the decision to axe my column. Is it too much to ask for things to be stated plainly? It’s so much worse to be drawn hopefully along a little trail of breadcrumbs, praying that maybe this week that piece will run, and not getting any straight answers when it doesn’t.


For all I know, SEE may have already decided to reinstate my column right away in 2010. It doesn’t seem bloody likely, but I suppose it is a possibility. Or they may never intend to print another booze column again. Either way, I’m not really sure that I want to keep writing for this magazine. It feels like I’d have to sacrifice too much in doing this – and certainly my pride already feels a bit trod on.


So, since SEE won’t provide a plainly-stated straight answer, I will: it’s over.