contributed by Karen Watts Perkins, Allied Member ASID [graduate student in journalism, The University of Alabama]
With every new job comes a certain amount of trepidation. It usually means a complete new way of doing things, meeting new people, getting acclimated to the surroundings, and worrying about how to fit in. But Amanda McClanahan had no time for any of that. 
When she started as market editor for Southern Accents, McClanahan’s supervising editors had her selecting products to feature in the magazine, meeting designers, and traveling around the country. Those hectic first days provided just a peek at the nature of the position, which requires hours of shopping, extensive traveling, and plenty of designing and writing.
As market editor for the Southern home and garden publication, McClanahan plays the role of designer and journalist. Coming from a design background, those related responsibilities come more easily, but the desire to learn, along with encouragement from her coworkers, helps bring it all together. In addition, the title has given McClanahan opportunities she never realized were available. “I can’t believe I get to do this,” she says. “So many doors were opened when I got this job.”
Finding The Right Path
McClanahan did not want to be a journalist, never even considered it a possibility, really. She started as a freshman at the University of Alabama, an engineering major grueling her way through classes filled with numbers and formulas. After two years, she chose to face the reality that she just did not seem to fit with the program. “It wasn’t the creative outlet I wanted,” she says.
To fuel this drive to create, McClanahan decided to try a different path — interior design. When she transferred to the interior design department at Alabama, she found her place. Instead of solving equations, she learned to solve problems in interior environments using design theory, space planning, and material selections, creating functional and aesthetic spaces. “I loved it,” she says.
And it’s a good thing. Her decision to transfer fueled the drive to a successful career.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in December 2001, McClanahan opened a specialty boutique, A.K.’s on the Boulevard. By running her own business, she gained experience in various facets of the design profession, from working with clients to merchandising. Through her shop, she offered design services, sold furniture, gifts, and other trendy merchandise, and even planned a few weddings.
Getting The Call
It was her design education and retail background that helped open the door at Southern Accents. McClanahan explains, however, the path to getting there was actually accidental. “I always checked the Southern Progress website for job openings,” she explains. “I knew friends who talked about it or had interned there.” McClanahan just browsed for fun, however, and never expected anything to come from it. That is until the listing for the market editor position appeared.
Though she admits she was apprehensive, McClanahan sent in her résumé. “I just knew I’d never hear anything back,” she says. “I didn’t think I had a chance.” She was wrong. By submitting her résumé, McClanahan initiated a four-month-long hiring process by the national shelter publication.
The hiring process and the skills McClanahan had to demonstrate during it were rigorous. She was asked to prove her style for the publication by pulling together a design project on her own, evaluating entries for the annual magazine-sponsored design competition, and taking part in a series of interviews.
McClanahan remembers waiting, hopeful yet uncertain, for a response. “Every time the phone rang, I wondered if this would be it,” she says. When the call finally came, it took effort to remain calm, to sound mature and professional. She said she had to talk it over with her husband, but admits her mind was pretty much made up. “I called back that day to accept the position,” she says.
Being A Magazine Editor
McClanahan now finds herself boarding planes on a regular basis, jetting from the magazine’s Birmingham, Alabama-based headquarters to places like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles for design conferences and trade shows. Of course, there is also the coveted High Point Market in North Carolina.
“We’re always looking for the best new products and trends,” says McClanahan about her attendance at dozens of design events. “We have to provide what the reader wants to see.”
She says Southern Accents is not a do-it-yourself type of publication. Instead, it shows the reader good design and how a designer accomplished it. “The pages are always beautiful, pretty and classic,” McClanahan says. “It’s an inspiration, an escape for some.”
Filling the pages and capturing the essence of design for consumers are key reasons McClanahan spends a majority of her time visiting design markets and discovering the best trends. Though some of the most important aspects of her job, these are not the only responsibilities she has as market editor. She also styles photo shoots, writes stories, and helps package four sections in the magazine.
Her main contribution, and the one for which she logs the most frequent flyer miles, is where McClanahan gets to be most creative. Appropriately titled “Accents,” this front-of-the-book section is where the design and journalism aspects of the job merge most. McClanahan chooses the products, designs the props, and writes the copy.
“I decide if I need to build a wall or use this color,” she says, explaining the process resulting in the pretty pictures readers see in the magazine. The designing is what comes naturally.
Fitting In
McClanahan has no training in journalism, just the writing required of interior design majors. But “writing client profiles is not the same as putting out something for thousands of readers,” she says. She has an eye for learning, however, and says the staff at Southern Accents has been very accommodating.
“At first, I was in limbo figuring out what to do,” says McClanahan. “But the other editors are good at helping you learn the process.”
McClanahan believes taking the initiative to learn something new and asking questions are practices that students or anyone else looking to break into design journalism should make a habit. Find out what editors do, give them a call, she advises. “Show an interest, and they’ll be flattered,” she says. And when you meet with them, let them know you’re confident in what you can do, she says.
McClanahan is young, in her 20s, and thrilled that Southern Accents found her suitable to the position of market editor. She bubbles over with enthusiasm when talking about her job and its perks, including getting to meet her idol, domestic guru Martha Stewart.
Though she hopes to make a career as a magazine editor, she acknowledges that there may come a time when she has to follow a different path. “If I’m not with the magazine, I could totally see myself back in design,” she says.
No matter what her future professional path entails, McClanahan knows working at Southern Accents is an opportunity that has opened many doors by exposing her to the people, places, and ideas most closely tied into the design world. “What girl, three to four years out of school, gets to go to a press party for Donna Karan Home“” she asks.
