The year is 2009 and Roger Bong has just taken over as editor in chief for Ethos Magazine, formerly KD magazine. He sets his sights on two goals, and by the time he stepped down from editor two years later, he had accomplished both. His first goal was to change the name from KD magazine to something that created a stronger identity for the publication. The second goal: to win awards.
Ethos was born indicative of its definition. “The meaning behind Ethos stands as a way of doing something and having a certain belief driving your actions,” Bong said.
The word “ethos” is defined as the characteristic spirit of culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations. For a little over a decade, Ethos has held true to its multicultural and inclusionary focus, deepening the kindred spirit of the magazine. “Truly, the people who wrote, edited, photographed, and designed the publication you hold in your hands are an exceptional blend of students from across the globe who share their stories and cultures with all of us,” said former SOJC professor William Ryan in the very first editor’s letter of Ethos Magazine, formerly known as Korean Ducks.
Founded in 2006 by three University of Oregon students named Young Cha, Hasang Cheon and Yoon Suh, Korean Ducks magazine was created to cover the local Korean culture in Eugene. After producing three issues focusing on travel, local Eugene businesses and including ads in the Korean language, a special issue titled Ducks Life produced by a Swedish exchange student in 2006 served as a placeholder while Korean Ducks rebranded by simplifying the magazine style to a cleaner look. The issue also shortened the magazine’s name to the acronym KD.
The Ducks Life issue included an excerpt explaining the shift from Korean Ducks to KD Magazine, and ensured readers that KD would continue the multicultural focus. The year 2007 marks the stylistic shift to the clean, simplistic style, accompanied by a vivid cover style. From Winter of 2007 until Spring 2009, KD magazine maintained coverage of international and local feature stories. Bong, the editor at the time, explains that the shift to KD was an attempt to better represent the spirit of the publication: a multicultural magazine highlighting travel and international cultures along with spotlights on local Eugene individuals.
Bong wanted to define the magazine as one that encompasses all cultures in order to reach a wider audience. “Switching the name and logo of the magazine to Ethos was a change that needed to happen. Readership was low across campus for KD and I wanted to change that,” Bong said. Christiana O’Connor, a former writer for KD magazine under Bong, said the name change was needed. “KD was confusing as a brand. It started out as a magazine to cover Korean culture, but than shifted to cover a broader audience.”
KD art director Kevin Bronk helped the magazine transition to the Ethos we know today. “Ethos was designed to be autonomous. It was for students and led by students,” Bronk said. Creating a student-run publication whose door was open to everyone was important to both Bong and Bronk. “Before Ethos, the SOJC had Flux, which is an amazing publication, but the vetting process was tough and it was in a different sphere because it’s also a journalism class. I wanted a magazine that anyone could join, whether they were part of the SOJC or not,” Bong said.
The Ethos staff used the labs in the SOJC to produce the magazine from 2009 until about 2012, and the magazine operated without an official advisor. Mark Blaine, a professor at the SOJC, served as the connection between Ethos and the journalism school, helping the staff gain access to the computer labs as Ethos had yet to gain adequate funding. “The magazine didn’t need a lot to get it going but it needed a lot to keep it going,” Blaine said. He discussed the funding issues the magazine endured, such as insufficient funding to begin with and a lack of affiliation with any particular media group.
Ethos originally received funding through the UO’s incidental fee, which is paid by students through tuition and allocated by the ASUO, but that wasn’t enough. Ethos’s profile needed to be elevated in order to gain more funding. Blaine said, “Ethos endured the 2009 recession that would normally kill student publications.” He attributes the success of Ethos to the thoroughly maintained brand. “Ethos found its style and it has managed the brand very well since,” Blaine said.
Finding the niche that would sustain Ethos for years to come was Bong’s focus as he was honing in on the final touches to the reinvented magazine. Ethos turned to the ASUO for a majority of their funding during this time, and compensated where funding lacked through fundraising and throwing promotional events such as concerts. Developing a strong readership was important to expand funding. Bong saw his second goal, winning awards, as a way to expand readership and set up a strong branding platform for Ethos.
Bong submitted Ethos publications to every award he could find. “We printed out the rules to enter the contests, compiled everything and mailed them in. Next thing you know we won a handful of awards and at that point it was really exciting because everybody who was on Ethos felt like there was a stronger identity to the magazine, something that they could be a part of.”
Ethos quickly racked up the Associate Collegiate Press Pacemaker Award in 2013, 2014 and 2015, along with a top honor from the ACP and various other awards from the Society of Professional journalists, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and a Hearst award. “Winning those awards lit a stronger fire for Ethos. It helped everyone believe in the changes I was making,” Bong said.
Eventually, Bronk took over as editor once Bong graduated in 2010. “Ethos highlights the amount of work journalism students do. They’re all working endlessly on things, yet they find time to produce things for Ethos and it’s an amazing publication everytime,” Bronk said. Ethos incorporated global voices by having students who were studying abroad write articles for the magazine. Bronk said this emphasized the global sense of thinking for the magazine.
Looking back on the last 10 years of Ethos, the magazine has consistently covered not only a wide range of topics and Oregon individuals, but also international stories with Ethos World, covering individuals and communities around the globe. During the 2016 renovation of the EMU, Ethos was forced to move from their small designated area, so the Daily Emerald offered Ethos a place to work during the renovation. This led to Ethos merging with the Daily Emerald in 2016.
Ethos is continuing to change in small but impactful ways. The scope of coverage for the magazine will remain, but the way in which the stories are told will shift with the journalism landscape. Ethos has taken on a multimedia focus this year, including partnering with KWVA to produce Basement Sessions—music videos covering bands such as Spiller. Additionally, Ethos’s archive is accessible online, and it has a newly redesigned website.
