Wednesday, November 19, 1997
Swing captures youth’s power of motion
MAGAZINE:
Anniversary marks third year since revolution in coverageBy
Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
David Lauren has been a swinger since his sophomore year in
college. This is not to say that the Duke graduate shimmies to big
band or uses the word "money" to denote anything other than dollars
and cents, but if he has something in common with Jon Favreau, it’s
a keen awareness of life as a 20-something and a means of sharing
those concerns with a wide audience.
Lauren is the 26-year-old editor of Swing, the self-proclaimed
"magazine about life in your twenties." Celebrating its third
birthday this week in full-color, glossy-paged glory, the magazine
itself is something of a testament to the power of youth. Its black
and white predecessor of the same name grew out of Lauren’s
frustration with other campus publications. He ran an ad in Duke’s
newspaper summoning like-minded students to room 407 of the
registrar’s building. The forum of potential writers, photographers
and business people rallied in agreement.
"People said, ‘I really want to write, and I don’t like it at
the school paper because some of the stories don’t have anything to
do with my life  like a professor getting tenure or a problem
with a leak in the administrative building,’" Lauren recalls.
Always dynamic, always celebratory, Swing attempts to shun the
notion of the so-called Generation X (a phrase Lauren loathes) as
flannel-clad slackers. Featuring primarily practical guides such as
the best places to live, the best jobs and profiles of influential
people in their 20s, the magazine focuses on motion in the broadest
sense.
Hence the title.
"We have the potential to swing the difference," Lauren says,
noting that President Clinton claims to have been elected by the
"swing" vote. "We’re a very, very active generation, maybe more
socially active than any generation before us. We don’t vote as
much, but we’re incredibly involved, volunteer-wise, community
service-wise."
Lauren cites several youth lobbyist groups who have taken on the
monster that is America’s Social Security crisis. Political and
social awareness are key threads in Swing, filling another void
Lauren saw in media directed at the younger generation.
"Most of the magazines which target young people tend to be
music, fashion and celebrity gossip kind of stuff," Lauren
observes. "You do want to know what Demi Moore wore to the Oscars.
It’s sort of fun. We don’t avoid stories like that. We don’t look
at other magazines and say, ‘What the hell are they doing?’ Our
goal is to say, ‘That’s out there. Now what’s missing?’"
Politics, apparently, although Lauren emphasizes that Swing is
not George.
"We’re a general interest magazine. I’d say Swing is a cross
between a young Time magazine and a young Vanity Fair."
Also missing was a reliable supply of young role models,
something Swing attempts to remedy in every issue, but most notably
in its annual "30 under 30 power list," on stands this week.
The issue profiles 30 twenty-something prodigies in the fields
of technology, politics, business, arts/fashion, music, Hollywood
and sports. This year’s selections range from the much-publicized
(Jewel) to less familiar names in less traditionally youth-based
fields (Mike Holtzman, director of public affairs for the Council
on Foreign Relations). Will Smith made the list, along with
director Kevin Smith ("Clerks," "Chasing Amy") and WNBA player
Sheryl Swoopes. So did spa owner Marcia Kilgore and environmental
activist Danny Seo.
It’s a diverse group and quite arguably more socially relevant
than People’s much-gawked-at "world’s 50 most beautiful people."
With age the only common link, the winners become a microcosm of
the balance Swing tries to achieve in every issue.
"One of the things that defines the younger generation is that
we are multi-cultural, and (at Swing) we’re very respectful of
that. We try our best to mix the magazine and make sure we’re
representing people from across the country, representing men and
women as equally as we can and people of different religions and
ethnicities," Lauren says.
In the past, articles about young people in South Africa and
ranchers in Oklahoma have graced the pages of Swing.
For the November issue, 25-year-old Village Voice writer Adam
Fifield documented the progress of Cambodian refugees growing up in
the United States in the wake of political upheaval and often
horrendous memories of labor camps and mass killings.
Inspired by his foster brother’s past, Fifield told Swing,
"They’ve lived through something so profoundly horrible that no one
else in our generation can really identify with it. It was a real
holocaust."
Lauren acknowledges that the staff should reflect the wide range
of demographics the magazine covers, but admits, "I think we have
not gone far enough. … Our job as editors is to bring in writers
from across the country."
Many times, this comes down to something as simple as listening.
Young people frequently approach the magazine with ideas for
stories on everything from credit nightmares to homelessness.
"We’ll sit in our office at midnight with a pizza talking to a
young person who is in town who wants to tell us their story. And
that eventually could become a piece in the magazine," Lauren
says.
They also take a more scientific approach, conducting countless
surveys and polls regarding the needs of their audience.
Lauren has done his research. He can rattle off the percentage
of twenty-somethings who feel they will be more successful than
their parents (62 percent) and the yearly spending power of the
younger generation ($125 billion).
But the magazine is also innately fun, with an author’s account
of selling his first screen play and an upcoming guide to
impressing one’s date with one’s knowledge of wine. And Swing was
proud to house David Letterman’s only print interview this
year.
"That sort of puts us on the map, saying here’s a guy who’s the
biggest late-night guy, and he looks at us and says, ‘That’s the
magazine I want to be in’ and turns everything else down," says a
slightly star-struck Lauren. "That is so cool."
And perhaps Letterman realizes the coolness, not to mention
power, of the under-30 crowd. But what happens when Lauren turns
30? He skirts the issue to a certain extent, but promises that
Swing will remain "a magazine that is constantly in touch with what
young people are interested in."
After all, with motion comes flexibility. And being flexible
means swinging a little.
Swing magazine
Swing magazine’s November cover.