<VV> Communique (this is Re to several posts)

[Tim Verthein]

Nope. You can't duplicate the magazine at home. Nope. No way. Can't be done. You're right. 100% Totally. Yup. 

And high speed internet is rapidly becoming available everywhere on the planet. I'm in a teensy town of 400 people in northern Minnesota. There's high speed at my house, at the coffee shop half a block away, at the library a block away and at my work in the next town. Not only that, there are three completely different ways to GET high speed internet in this small town, DSL, Satellite, and cable. 

Yes, the magazine is beautiful. And yes, I like it too.  When the postage rates go up again in a couple months, and again next year, and the year after that, and membership continues to drop thru attrition if nothing else, and the cost continues to go up to $50 a year, $60 a year.. at what point does a club of a few thousand stop trying to put out a magazine that rivals what major publications of tens of thousands, or hundreds of thoussands do, when they can disseminate that information for a few cents instead?

I really like a small circulation photo magazine.  I can't afford to subscribe 'cause it's nearly $50 a year (that's just a magazine,, no other benefits) so I buy a copy every now and then.  Wanna pay $8.95 an issue for the Communique?  The day is coming, folks and no matter how much we whine about it, it's the truth. 

I'd be curious to know the file size of the photos you were sent.  We you getting filels meant to be printed 8x10 high resolution?  or snapshots or web prints?  Photos sent in emails should be UNDER 50k in size. My folks have dialup and I send them photos all the time.  It makes a HUGE difference. 

You'll no doubt become one of the few we lose to save the club tens of thousands of dollars to keep things going. I have an attic FULL of magazines I've saved over the last 40 years. I never read them.  And my kids will recycle them quick as a flash when I kick off.  But I love each and every one of those magazines dearly.  But even I have to think realistically.

The world is changing, and electronic delivery of darn near everything is normal now, especially to younger people and people like me who have had to adapt quickly to technology like this in my work. I love film.  I don't shoot it anymore 'cause it's just not practical. I love recording on tape, but it's just not practical.  I'll do it for my own enjoyment and satisfaction, but the places that need my audio, and the magazines that publish my photos don't want anything to do with film. At some point the time comes to make the transition, like it or not.

Downloading these things is hardly clunky.  I can go from typing this e-mail, to having a full download of our clubs newsletter saved to my hard drive, and on the screen reading it in less than 60 seconds.  And I can make the print big.  I can store hundreds of pages on a CD or my hard drive.  I can print what I want.  I can blow up the print so I can SEE it with the click of a mouse. Clunky or not, these sorts of transitions happen all the time and we all hate them.

I've been a radio announcer for 33 years. I had to give up tape reels, then cassettes, then two different computer formats.  We stopped sending our reels of tape and email commercials all over the country now.  I had to transition to playing music off a hard drive rather than a 45.  I didn't like it, I did it, and now I love it.  But I still have 20,000 records in my house that I enjoy personally.

There are TWO magazines I do subscribe too that actually let you subscribe to their ONLINE versions to save a couple bucks and get them faster.  I'm sure no one is printing out 150 page issues of Popular Photography!

It saves a TON of money, a TON of paper and resources.  It saves the environment, it makes the world a better place.  Except for a few who will fight the transition.

Maybe Corsa could do a yearly book, ONE mailing, sell yearly "Yearbook" ads. And take orders during the year for who wants them. Print a few spares. Publish so people can pick them up at the convention if they like, mail out the rest after the yearly get together.  

It only makes sense.

When most people want to buy a Corvair, or a part, think they say to themselves "Hmm..where's the last issue of the Communique, I need a fuel pump or maybe I'll buy another Corvair".  Nope, they stroll to their computers spend 24 seconds doing a search and finding what they want.  How many Corvairs can you find for sale on line right now? !00, 200, 3000?  Hhow many in the last Communique? Couple dozen. Maybe. Some of those ads were sent in 6 weeks before you got the magazine. 

The on-line idea can't be dead. The club, or people who refuse to move along with the times are who die.  For a club the size of ours, online only makes sense. The national Edsel club I used to be in put out a quarterly shiny pretty magazine 4 times a year (which basically sucked, nothing to read, few ads, few display ads that never changed, and lots of club legalese that no one read) and they sent out a monthly xeroxed, stapled newsletter the other months. I don't know what they do now, but they were on the right track.

"The times they are a changin'"  And Bob knew of what he spoke. 

I know some would consider online edition a step backward, most of the world would consider it a huge step into the modern age. As an online magazine, the pictures can ALL be color, you can imbed video, yo can include audio of vintage Corvair commercials, all sorts of fun things. 

Darn, don't I know how to stir things up, eh?

Tim in Bovey