THE VICTORIAN
Why, and who for?
 

staff, however critical it may be, can only really be helpful if feasible and preferable alternatives are proposed. If the critic can himself contribute towards the implementation of such alternatives, then that is best of all.
Narrowing the focus of these generalised remarks we may consider School magazines as a special class. Why should they be produced at all, leaving aside the incentive to "keep up with the Joneses" because every other School seems to have one?
Broadly one may say that the two extreme examples of School magazines are those which are simply and solely a record of events (as, for wider example, are most Corps and Regimental Magazines in the Services) and those which exist primarily, as a vehicle for the encouragement of literary expression and individual opinion of the privileged contributors.
Most, however, are a compromise between these two extremes, andthe proportionate balance achieved is what gives the individual School magazine its special character and, quite properly, affords the major theme of controversy and criticism.
While respected exceptions may well be known to many, it is probably a fairly accurate generalisation to say that a School magazine which consists exclusively, or even mainly, of the literary contributions and individual opinions of the boys tends to be somewhat of an introverted publication, produced primarily for the amusement and satisfaction only of the contemporary members of the establishment concerned. For the reason that, though all boys (all adults too) like to read their own original contributions in print, and so may their parents and some of their friends, not many can be expected to have yet attained such a standard of technical expertise and originality as will engross the interest and time of the general non-involved reader, flooded as he is with the daily peremptory preoccupation’s of newspapers, commercial magazines, paper-back and TV, all produced by professionals.
A magazine which is solely, or almost solely, a record, while serving a useful though uneconomical purpose just as that, tends to be dull reading for the generality of those whose own activities it records, except where they themselves are individually mentioned, preferably in a complimentary or distinguished context.
Yet even this type has its interested readers. Some parents, feeling inadequately informed by the contents of the weekly single page letter, which an understandable verbal reticence in the holidays does little to complement or expand, are quite interested in factual accounts which purport to show something of what their sons have been up to during the three quarters of the year they have been away. Some Old Boys, and others with other connections with a School, may be similarly interested.

Any School Magazine must, from time to time, become a subject for controversy. Anyone who has more than a purely parochial and limited knowledge of this specialised form of journalism will know that such institutional journals, whether they appertain to a School, University, Society, Trade, Business Company, or Regiment cannot expect to be exempt from the criticism of those who have a special interest in it, whether this criticism be constructive or the reverse.
Nor should it be otherwise; since the only publication of this category which would be comfortably assured of exemption from all such criticism is one which nobody, nobody at all, reads.
These are not unknown. There are glossy magazines to be seen on many a "Visitors' Waiting Room" table which are published primarily for prestige reasons, unrelated to either recreational or informative aims. The specialized journal in any case is not subject to the stern sanctions of the competitive commercial publication. Even if they are, as the Editors must hope, read by quite large numbers of those with a special interest, few, if any, institutional publications are expected to "pay their way". A degree of somewhat pressurized salesmanship may help, but basically, they all depend largely on subsidy.
It is the more necessary, therefore, that the Editors, Managers, and indeed contributors of such journals, protected as they are from the unarguable verdict of circulation revenue, should not be allowed to lapse into complacency. This applies to us, as to any other institutional journal. For criticism to be helpful, or indeed worth making, however, it must fulfil two provisos. Firstly, it must operate within the context of the defined aims of the publication to which it refers. "Punch", for example, might justly be criticised for not always being very witty. But few sensible people would feel aggrieved that it does not give a comprehensive coverage of racing news, football, or "pop" music. Secondly, subject to this limitation, advice offered to the Editors and their