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30 Years Of AP: Director of New Media Rob Ortenzi talks industrial music and the digital revolution

Who is Rob Ortenzi? He’s the most sarcastic man on earth. He’s a huge Apple fan. He’s a former “industrial” dude, and he’s also Alternative Press’ Director of New Media. Ortenzi has been with the magazine for 16 years (since 1998) and he spearheaded our voyage into the digital realm. In honor of AP’s 30th anniversary, we chatted with our resident tech master about taking the magazine through the digital age.

What was your first big job out of college?
Scene Magazine [Cleveland’s alt weekly]. I worked there for about three years. It was cool; it was like [Alternative Press] but the schedule was every week. I did design layouts for bands and stuff, which I love doing. We also did work on the side at Scene too, so we did even bigger stuff for Belkin [local concert promoters] for their ads and posters.

What was your first experience with AP like? Did you see it in the store, or did you hear about it because it was local?
I heard about it just because that was the music that I listened to at the time. I was super-heavy into alternative music, the Cure, Pixies, Ministry, Front 242, Nine Inch Nails. I believe I had a subscription to AP or I at least bought it every month, so I was already familiar with in because that was exactly what I was into.

How did you get hired at AP?
I used to work at a big nightclub downtown, in the Flats, and that’s where I met Christopher [Benton, AP creative director] because he used to go there a lot. He mentioned that they were looking for another designer, and at that time, everything was just coming together. I had that offer, an offer to be promoted at Scene, and an offer to be Belkin’s graphic designer.

Why did you choose AP?
At the time I had three offers at the exact same moment and I tried to get advice from a lot of people. At the time, the ad director, one of the big ones at Scene, Matt Fabian—I talked to him for hours. I also talked to Johan who was manager of the Agora at the time, I talked to him for hours. Basically, they all steered me towards AP. [Laughs.] They told me to weigh my options, but AP sounded like the best choice. And apparently I made the right one as I've been here since 1998! Best decision.

So, was it mainly because other people steered you? Did the music—the fact that AP covered bands you love—play a significant factor?
Definitetly. But AP covered exactly what I was into. Each one of those three jobs was exactly where I wanted to go to. They all covered my music. And each one would have been a good fit. Now I’ve been in music my whole life. I was even a music major in college for a year. I’ve always been in music in some capacity. Had some amazing gigs opening for bands like A Flock Of Seagulls, KMFDM, Big Audio Dynamite, Gene Loves Jezebel. And some of those was when I was high school! Even have a few Trent Reznor/NIN stories, but who doesn't in this town? I'll share those, but off the record [laughs].

What was AP like back then? Different office? What was the energy like, man?
Honestly, in some ways it doesn’t seem that much different. We did everything DIY back then, and we’re still pretty much DIY now. Back then we only had two computers that had an internet connection. There’s never been a big corporate mechanism that took over. [The magazine] has always been passionate about the music no matter what genre it was. I think that energy’s still here like it was then, just a few years older.

(Photo: Revivng a Mac SE from AP's past for the Rock And Roll Hall OF Fame: AP 30th Anniversary Exhibit

I heard there was a time when there were only two computers in the office?
That was the funny part. Since I was in charge of the web, I had a modem on my computer and the person at the front desk had a modem in her office. So, everybody had to check their email on her computer in the morning or at certain times. Back then, that was totally normal.

Tell me about the tech you were working with back then.
We’ve always been keeping up with the Joneses. We never really been behind the curve on anything; even the way we did production, we always evolved. We started putting together the magazine physically on paper with wax machines. Then, we used computers to do “desktop publishing.” Later, we would bring the PDFs in. We always evolved or took on more, we were never wanting for anything better technologically back then, we were always there.

Do you think of yourself as a journalist?
Uhm, no. [laughs.] As a designer, as a communicator, yes. Absolutely.

Back then when you started, the bands on the cover were the bands you loved, like, Nine Inch Nails. Did this give you a sense that your job was more important back then? Did you have that “I really believe in this” kind of mentality?
Yeah, I guess because back then, those were the big people at the time. But now, if I was 30 years younger, I’d probably have the same reverence for Twenty One Pilots.

Did you feel like AP’s mission was important, outside of just operating as a business? The music scene, was that important?
Of course, absolutely. Again, because when I started here, that was the music that I loved. That’s what I was designing about, reading about, hearing about. To me, that was the most important thing ever. That’s the thing about working here, your music tastes evolved. I was the industrial guy, but we’re all geeks on music, as Christopher would say. This place definitely made me evolve from that.

Tell me about your journey to take the magazine into the digital age? What was it like?
I was the tip of the spear, I guess and still am. [Laughs.] It was a bit of a struggle and in some ways still is. It wasn’t something that grew overnight. It’s been a steady uphill battle, but uphill in a good way. There are new challenges daily which is what I love about my job.

What were some of the challenges you faced along the way?
To get our audience to convert to [digital]. The biggest hurdle was having a device to read it on and trying to get the industry to get onboard as well, to see the future and potential. There was a lot of hand-holding going on; with the consumer side with buying the product, and on the industry side with supplying content and advertising. You had to be the cheerleader/politician to try to convince both sides of what you can do and how it’s going to benefit them. That’s probably the biggest struggle, in a nutshell, of going from print to digital.

Did you get a lot of resistance from any specific parties?
No one was that staunch about it, but people were just not savvy enough to understand it. They knew it was something different and didn't understand it and that’s all they really needed to hear to make up their minds one way or the other.

When you’re working with the digital stuff, do you ever stop and think about how the stuff you do makes a lot of young music fans happy?
Yeah. I do know our reach and that’s what motivates me to stay that extra couple hours, or make one more widget, or tweak one more thing. Being a huge Apple fan, I would always think a lot of what Steve Jobs once said. He said that if he were a carpenter and made a dresser out of wood, he would pick the best wood, the best pine, because the quality of the product is what matters. Some people would look at the back of the dresser and put cardboard on the back of it or some cheap wood. But he would still put the best wood on the back because he knows what’s behind it. Nobody might care or see the back of it, but he’s always going to know. So if I skimp on something or if I think I could have made something better, or something on the back end isn’t up to snuff, and no one else would ever notice it, I will always know. That anectdote has always stuck with me.

You’re kind of like our silent guardian.
Yeah, I guess I'm Batman. Though I get Tony Stark on a daily basis. Which I do not mind in the least. alt