By Sarah Barchus

Dive No.: Week Four (Five dives)
Location: Zone Four

Time in: 9 am
Time out: 5 pm

Total Bottom Time: About 40 hours

Depth: Rebreather required during redesign

Starting Air Pressure: At the halfway mark
Ending Air Pressure: Not out of steam yet!

Exposure Protection:
˙ Business Casual
˙ Thinking cap
˙ Self-confidence
˙ Lifting brace (braced for moving)

Weight: Pockets heavy with change

Temperature:
Air: Warmer in zone four!
On the surface: Warmer due to increased walking for meetings
Bottom line: I’m warming up to it

Conditions:
˙ Fresh water (Closer to the cooler)
˙ Salt water (The taste of change)
˙ Shore (Set foot on new grounds)
˙ Boat (Moving the mooring)
˙ Waves (Riding it out)

Visibility: New view from here

Comments:
This week the dive group weighed anchor, moving from the Zone One cubicles to
the Zone Four clusters. This is part of the restructuring and remodeling process
occurring within Bonnier Corporation.

We are now quite a distance away from our senior editor Patricia Wuest; we
almost need a map in order to find her office again to attend meetings. While I do
exaggerate, a bit, we really did bring a map to one of the meetings this week.

This map is the layout for the magazine that we will eventually send to the printer.
Right now it is in what I will call the “cartographer’s critique” because we are
marking it up for changes. The “map” is a sheet of paper with rows of boxes
numbered by page: Single boxes represent the covers, and pairs of connected boxes
signify page spreads. Smaller squares overlaying the boxes represent ad placement.
It kind of looks like a game board, and in a way the mapping process is a game, like
a puzzle. We have to figure out where to fit articles amid the ads. Not only do they
have to fit physically, but also conceptually.

Speaking of concept, we selected several mock-ups for the upcoming issue’s cover
this week; it was neat to see the options and give my opinion on the picture that will
persuade people to pick up the magazine.

Patricia brought out a copy of Scuba Diving’s first issue on Friday.

That cover, with a woman photo-shopped to improver her (a-hem) “assets” and her position in relation the dolphins…well, let’s just say our covers have greatly improved since June 1992. Scuba Diving’s art director, Monica Alberta, needed the issue for a
timeline she’s creating for the Dive Group’s end-of-year Special Issue Publication
(SIP).

Scuba Diving’s photo editor Elly Wray — Elly is a professional underwater
photographer who does awesome work — will photograph the gear article in this
first issue, to show ScubaLab’s first gear test on the timeline. ScubaLab is the testing
facility for the magazine and conducts all-important testing on dive gear.

The dive group continues to work on our idea for for the SIP – a much larger puzzle
than mapping since we won’t have all of the pieces in (we’re waiting to find out
what new gear will be featured) for a while yet. The team is putting together the
ScubaLab part of the SIP — in addition to creating the timeline, the SIP will have tips
on purchasing and maintaining dive gear.

The waiting game continues as restructuring and construction remains in the
beginning stages for the Bonnier Dive Group. Add that to the shifting circumstances
in the magazine industry and it seems like the list of things that are changing is
endless.

Another endless list is the one of the “to-do” variety. On mine this week were a
couple of dive briefs and another online article as well as the all-essential fact checking. New to me was something called “Listings.” Simple, yet important, the Listings page in Sport Diver mentions our partners around the world featured in that particular issue, and help maintain our symbiotic relationships. As professional
relationships are crucial for career success, I am happy to continue building mine
with Bonnier Corporation in the last two weeks of my internship.