Kathy was very gracious to offer her insight, and I must agree with the ten peeves. They are mine also.~~Dee

When and if you do a magazine you can count on me as your first subscriber.

Have a great Evening,
John

John

John at JWLWs last blog post..WILD LIFE HABATAT I

BTW I have written a pledge here to my readers that many of you may find interesting and that I hope other mag editors seriously consider:
We are currently at 40 printed pages for our quarterly (formerly bimonthly) magazine and will expand that as our subscriber and advertising base grows. Please tell a gardening friend about us and let our advertisers know you saw them here in Washington Gardener.
We are on a continual improvement mission. Your thoughts and opinions are highly valued. I enjoy meeting our readers and receiving your many constructive notes and emails. As part of my goal to make this the best magazine possible, I belong to several publishing groups and read many communication trade publications. In a recent magazine writer enewsletter, The Wooden Horse Publishing News Alert, I came across the following list:
Top 10 Annoyances for Magazine Readers
1) Blow-in cards.
2) Bound in cards or ads on heavier stock.
3) Inconsistencies in article headlines from cover to table of contents to page.
4) Too many advertisements.
5) Articles continued on a later page.
6) The table of contents is difficult to find.
7) Ads with perfume samples.
The magazine is too heavy.
9) All pages are not numbered.
10) Eye strain from too glossy paper.
Wooden Horse editor, Meg Weaver, opined: “Editorial is what motivates readers to buy magazines… Then why do publishers make it so difficult to read magazines? If auto makers made it equally painful to drive a car, we would still be whoa’ing old Nellie. If Google and Yahoo made it as challenging to find web sites as it is to find an article in a modern consumer magazine, people wouldn’t go online. But publishers — checking with their bean counters and seeing advertising generate over two-thirds of their income — continue to allow advertisers to take over their books… Publishers, have you read your own magazines?” (See more on this subject at http://www.woodenhorsepub.com.)
She hit the nail on the head. As an avid magazine reader myself I share many of these top annoyances and then some! I’ve made it my mission since this magazine began not to commit the many sins I’ve seen elsewhere. Therefore, we at Washington Gardener make this pledge to our readers. Not only will we strive to avoid the top 10 annoyances listed above, but we will also promise to do the following to make this magazine the top of your list in easy of reading and usability:
? We will fulfill magazine orders within two weeks not the “industry standard” of 8-12 weeks.
? We will continue to make the table of contents all on one page.
? We will not use misleading headlines.
? We will not use type fonts that are too small or illegible.
? We will not interrupt article with ad pages.
? We will not use bad smelling inks or perfume inserts.
? We will not include advertorials (paid advertising disguised as articles).
? We will employ good, sound business practices.
? We will have clear subheads, side-bars, and provide sources for further information.
? We will give full credit to our sources and practice strict journalistic ethics.
? We will honor our mission to focus on gardening in the greater DC region.

I hope you join us for our second year of publishing and for many more ahead.

Happy Gardening!

The content of the article should be straight forward and not just a bunch of hyper phrases and words that don’t mean anything. The information needs to be sound and true.

The readers are paying for the subscription and it should be presented to them in a way favorable to the reader not the advertiser.

john

John at JWLWs last blog post..GOOD USE OF LOG’S III

I have also noticed that the content quality is decreasing in a lot of them. They are also pushing you to their blogs and web sites for information and a lot of that is just more advertising hype. I realize that it may be necessary to have advertisers in the magazine but should the advertising out weigh the content.

Enough of my ramblings, I could go on for days. There is nothing like relaxing and reading a good book or magazine.

Have a great Day,
John

John at JWLWs last blog post..GOOD USE OF LOG’S III

And yes, the challenge for individual garden writers is to do exactly that – to decide what it is they want to do, how to figure out “stuff” and grow into it producing it in a way that makes sense to either print/Net or both. Or find somebody doing it and figure out how to contribute in a way that actually makes money for both of you (enough money or enough future to make it worthwhile.) I’ve spent a fair amount of money over the past 4 years learning a lot of new skills and finding some blind alleys to explore but now I’m an overnight success at it. There’s a lot of 60-80 hour weeks in there – and I’m no Martha – but I do believe anybody with a modicum of determination can do it.

I suspect though that most garden writers would prefer a model where they simply get paid for doing something – and not have to take responsibility for creating the model or financial reward. I suspect those days are rapidly fading away.

I can’t speak to the sales/content ratio in most magazines, I suspect it’s a really fine balancing act and there’s clearly a tipping point that you reached. I’m pretty sure the publishers will be watching those ratio numbers of ads to unsubscribes very closely.

The challenge for a one trick pony show such as myself is how to be jack of a trades in getting something like that, or becoming part of something like that.

One thing that caused me to cut back on magazine purchases was just how good they became at marketing. The entire thing was often advertisers with very little worthwhile content. In blogging we are getting pressured the same way, as you have pointed out the taste for extremely short bursts of reading.

Ilonas last blog post..Color Harmony: July Pink

Hey Doug, I bet you could find one to partner with.