Feature Interview: Jordana Reim of Planet Verge
Planet Verge is a website dedicated to the indie rocker scene, but its all-female staff covers more than just music. While indie music might be the site’s focus, it also aims to raise awareness for social issues, such as the vegan lifestyle. One of Planet Verge’s upcoming web series will follow a vegan challenge, from creative director and web TV host Jordana Reim to Dylan Mandel, from The Lives of Famous Men. Reim joined Vegan Mainstream recently to talk about her experiences in vegan blogging.
Vegan Mainstream: What do you feel works best when it comes to reaching the mainstream audience when you’re a vegan-oriented business?
Jordana Reim: We don’t really focus that much on the vegan crowd. The vegan crowd just comes to our stuff because we’ve had a lot of vegan-oriented episodes, but we actually started off not having any of that kind of content. We were originally a zine that was all music, so we’ve had that audience for the last six or seven years as just an indie rock music scene and it just so happens that it does overlap a bit with the vegetarian and vegan crowd as well.
VM: What advice do you have for other vegetarian and vegan blog owners?
JR: To reach the mainstream audience, I don’t want anybody to sell out and not do what they’re doing. If what they’re passionate about is showcasing animal cruelty, there’s an outlet for that and they’re the outlet for it. It’s not necessarily a goal to reach the mainstream audience through a blog, unless your blog is something that’s health-oriented or environmentally oriented and then you’re sort of saying the veganism thing – if that’s your style, which kind of is the Planet Verge style.
In personal encounters, I think that you can attract mainstream people to be interested in what you’re doing just by being a cool person and not necessarily forcing your beliefs on other people.
VM: Do you find it easier to appeal to the vegan niche instead of focusing on the mainstream audience?
JR: I do think so. I’ve found that vegans and vegetarians are really supportive of spreading the word and cool projects that have to do with it. It’s kind of like anything, right? If something is too broad then you really don’t have an audience, but if it’s something you really care about, then you have your audience.
It’s about passion. Veganism and vegetarianism is a choice that people make every day at every meal, so you’ve got to be passionate about it if it’s something that you practice that often.
VM: How did the vegan challenge with The Lives of Famous Men’s Dylan Mandel come about?
JR: Planet Verge sponsors Acoustic Mondays at Angels and Kings, and we do a lot of our interviews with bands there. I interviewed his band in October, and we had talked about the veganism thing then because they said they were from Portland. We started talking about Portland, and I was talking about my favorite food places. They were like, ‘Oh, those are all vegan places.’ They were like ‘oh that’s cool,’ because I think some of them were pescatarian.
We keep in touch with most of the people we interview to let them know when stuff is going on. Dylan and I got to talking about how he was thinking about changing his lifestyle so I kinda just challenged him. I asked, ‘why don’t you try to be a vegan for a couple months?’ That’s how it started, and he’s in his second week now. There’s going to be a web series in March, and it will be several webisodes of his journey.
Whether or not you’re a vegan business owner, it’s important to keep Reim’s words in mind, “Vegans are so many different people…We are film makers and fashionistas and chefs and basically awesome just like everyone else.” Broadening your horizons and opening up your non-vegan business to the vegan crowd can be a rewarding experience in more ways than just a profit increase.
Let's hear it for spreading the word on veganism. They also include senior citizens, and your own moms and dads, all the healthier and happier for it.
And don't forget, they also include rockers who are young and soulful!