Up-Close: Jason Snell

In the third installment of of "Up-Close", we interview Jason Snell. Jason is Editor In Chief of Macworld and Playlist Magazines and had many other hobbies and jobs all related to the Macintosh industry. We were lucky enough for him to take time out of a busy day to give us a look into his life and how he got where he is today.

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Thanks for agreeing to the interview, Jason. You are Editor-In-Chief of Macworld Magazine and I believe you took over the operation not too long ago.

I guess I became EIC in 2003 (and recently had my title upgraded to Editorial Director), but I'm definitely not new here. I've been working at Macworld since the fall of 1997, and before that worked at MacUser, so I've been in the Mac editorial business since 1993.


What have you done to change the magazine for the better

Well, first off let me make it clear that it's not as if I was brought in to replace someone as EIC. My boss, Rick LePage, was the EIC when I was the Editor. When our CEO left, Rick was promoted to President and I took over as EIC. So there's been a lot of continuity.

That said, I think one of the things we've done to improve the magazine in the last year and a half was the introduction of our new back-of-the-magazine columns, such as Working Mac, Geek Factor, and Create. In our May issue we're making a few changes to that line-up and adding two new columns, but I'm pretty happy with that section now. Before, we had a series of formless, shapeless how-to articles back there. They were good, but you couldn't really bank on getting what you wanted in any given issue. Now, people know there will be a geeky item every month in Geek Factor, and a portability-themed item in Mobile Mac, and so on.

During that period we also added Rob Griffiths' Mac OS X Hints column and the Mac Gems column by Dan Frakes, both of which are really popular with readers. Readers are definitely hungry for as much Mac OS X stuff as we can toss at them, and Rob's tips are excellent. As for Mac Gems, there was once a time when small, low-cost products were completely ignored in the Mac press. That was a big mistake -- it turns out that while people _do_ want to find out which expensive thing (printer, scanner, Mac, whatever) is the best, they also really love hearing about great stuff they would never have otherwise encountered. That's what Mac Gems is all about, and it's been quite popular.


what is the work environment over at Macworld Mag?

The work environment at Macworld is what you'd expect from a bunch of Mac users -- casual and friendly. We're definitely not wearing suits and ties! As I write this I'm wearing blue jeans and sitting at my desk typing on a Bluetooth keyboard and watching the results on a 20-inch Apple flat panel attached to my 12-inch PowerBook. Most people at Macworld either have PowerBooks or G5s at their desks these days... it's tough to test new software and stuff on older systems, so we tend to turn over systems a lot. Lots of PowerBooks are definitely on display, since it's much easier to take your work home that way. I can't remember how long it's been since I used a desktop Mac as my main work machine.


Are there any other magazines you work for or side projects we should know about?

In terms of magazines, it's just Macworld and Playlist. On the Web there are countless side projects. I started an online magazine in 1991, InterText, which was a short-story magazine at the time when there weren't any of those on the Internet. (There was no Web back then, either!) I just stopped doing InterText at the end of last year. There are a couple of other sides I do with friends, too... a full-fledged website called TeeVee (teevee.org) and a casual sports-themed blog called Idiots Write About Sports (sports.intertext.com). Hobby stuff, really.


I have seen you at quite a few MacWorld expos, do you attend other shows non-related to Macintosh?

Here and there, for work. Apple's WWDC every year. I've been to Music 2.0,RealWorld (RealBasic conference), JavaOne, a few others. And two of the three Mac Mania cruises!


You are a busy man. Do you have a family and how difficult is it juggling work and personal life?

I have a wife, a toddler, and a six-month-old, so it's pretty hectic. It's tough, sure, but not any tougher than anyone else who's away from home about 11 hours a day. I'm not doing manual labor here... I do get paid to play with the fun toys, so I can't complain. Yes, having a PowerBook and DSL and AirPort means that I can get iChatted and emailed on work matters when I'm at home... but it's not a big deal. I keep it in balance.


I would give up all of my hobbies if it came down to that or my family. Would you be a stay at home, Dad if required?

Sure. I'm sure I would find some creative outlet even if I was at home all the time. But I would absolutely stay at home and let my wife go out and support the family if that was the right choice for the family.


Are all of your family members Mac users? How many people have you switched?

Basically, yes. I switched my in-laws back to the Mac this year, and they're liking their G5 iMac a lot. The spyware and adware finally convinced them. Sadly, my brother-in-law is stuck with an infested PC they bought for him before they switched. My parents are full-time motorhomers and they travel with an iBook for e-mail and web purposes -- they had an old clamshell model for a long time, but just upgraded to a G4 white iBook this summer.


I know you mentioned Playlist Magazine. I have purchased every issue, do you see a monthly version of the ad in the future?

Anything's possible, but I wouldn't bet on it. I just can't see people wanting to read about iPod accessories and stuff every month. If the market could sustain it we'd love to do it, but I suspect the frequency would be less than monthly. That's the funny thing about publishing -- you can't make decisions based on what you'd like to do, you have to make decisions based on how many copies you can sell and how many ads you can sell. We will do as much Playlist as we can find a market for.


How did you get involved in this industry? I aspire to work for a magazine like Macworld after college.

I worked on my college newspaper for three years, went to journalism school, and using my PageMaker skills from college I assisted in the desktop publishing class. The instructor of that class was Pamela Pfiffner, at that time a senior editor at MacUser. I pestered her for an internship, and ended up spending the summer of 1993 as an intern at MacUser. I guess that went well, because I freelanced for MacUser the following autumn and then came aboard full time in January 1994. So that was a really good contact to have made.


Were you in support of Mac OS X and the iPod from the beginning? Also, how many iPods have you purchased for yourself of family?

I remember writing some of the first articles about OS X. At the very, very, very beginning, there wasn't much there except what Gil Amelio called "Rhapsody," and we were all somewhat dubious. But by the time 1998's Worldwide Developers' Conference came around, Apple's plan was starting to form, and it made a lot of sense. Keep in mind, May 1998 was when the entire concept of "Mac OS X" was unveiled, and when Mac OS 8.5 came out. In 1998 we were a bit skeptical about the concept of Classic and Carbon, but by 1999 it was clear that Apple was serious. By the time 10.0 came out, it was clear that Mac OS X was the future of the platform, and that the classic Mac OS wasn't going to have anything new happening to it.

We got a lot of criticism for jumping on the Mac OS X bandwagon so early, but in my mind it was clear from 10.0, and certainly when 10.1 shipped, that the jig was up. (As a user, once 10.1 shipped, I never booted into Mac OS 9 again.) And keep in mind, as a Mac magazine, Macworld covers what's new in the market. So although we got (and still get, believe it or not) a lot of flak from people who didn't want to read about OS X, in reality all the new products and new development going on in the Mac world were focused on OS X. It's hard to keep writing the same five articles about an operating system that hasn't changed in years.

Were we making a statement in support of Mac OS X? Sure we were. But we felt at the time that there were two choices in the Mac world: Mac OS X or complete and utter destruction. Mac OS 9 was not viable, was not going to be anything but a legacy operating system. We opted for the future, and although it was rocky for a while, I think gradually people have come to realize that while Mac OS X is _not_ Mac OS 9, that doesn't mean it doesn't have charms all its own. And quirks and all, it is the Mac of today.

As for the iPod, I was sold on it from Day One. I was there at the launch event, and took one home -- in fact, we made and played a special playlist from an iPod when we were at the hospital, with my wife in labor. The iPod wasn't even out yet, but we were using a beta-test unit. I knew it was revolutionary, but I admit that I didn't quite realize how, for once, everyone else in the world would agree with me about an Apple product being that excellent.


What is your current Mac setup? And aside from work, what do you do to simply "play" with your Mac?

Work: 1.33GHz 12" PowerBook (upgrading to a 1.5GHz model this week), 1.25 GB RAM, docked to an 20-inch Apple DVI flat-panel display, Apple Bluetooth keyboard, and Kensington Wireless Expert Mouse.

Home: The 12" PowerBook on my lap. In our home office, a dual-2GHz G5 and a 17-inch Apple ADC flat panel.

A lot of the "playing" I do is also sort of work, because I'm exploring stuff that I may talk about in a presentation or write about in an article. I've got a massive collection of movies on VHS that my friends and I made in high school, and slowly I'm converting them to DVD. But in the process, I'm exploring different interface-building techniques in DVD Studio Pro on the G5, as well as doing lots of fun stuff in Final Cut Pro: fixing some bad edits, doing color-balancing, adding some more advanced transitions than we were capable of in 1987, even building Hollywood DVD-style commentary tracks for some of the movies. On top of that, I've generated some new audio material (for a few places in the films that we never got around to scoring) using Soundtrack, which taught me a lot about generating music loops. So basically my time on the G5 at home is spent doing crazy video, audio, and DVD stuff. One of these days the DVD commentary thing is going to make a fun article.


What is the last song your purchased from the iTunes Music Store? And what is the one application you cannot live without?

I got the "Garden State" DVD last week from NetFlix and loved the soundtrack, so I bought the album on iTunes. Of course, then it won a Grammy, so I could've saved $2 if I had waited a week. I figure I've spent a couple hundred bucks on the iTunes store since it opened.


Finally, if there was one person in the Macintosh industry (media, writer, or CEO of Mac product company) you could be stranded with on an island, who would it be?

Andy Ihnatko, because his remarkable personality and sense of humor would make the whole horrible experience more bearable. And then, when he had ceased to amuse me, I could kill him and eat him.


Thanks for your cooperation Mr. Snell. I will continue buying Macworld and Playlist. You need to get a book out there so I can get it signed at the next expo.

[i] Take it from me -- unless you can write a huge bestseller or you're looking to build up a name as an author, books are a bad bet. I co-wrote one book and given the amount of time and effort I put into it, I could've made more money working at McDonald's. It's that family balance thing you mentioned above -- I would have to take way too much time away from my family to write a book, and I just can't see how a book publisher could ever pay me enough to make that worthwhile.