Re: Content, now ads

At 10:35 PM 12/26/2002 -0500, you wrote:

> I would take exception to ads being present.  The magazine will be able to
> offer more editorial material with ads.

Before Doug steps in, I'll say that it is important to understand that the
major magazines (not those published by plant societies) make the majority of
their revenue from their advertising, not their subscriptions. Without
advertising the subscription prices would be astronomical. Besides, I
generally find the ads useful.
Bill Lee
Well, given that this is a discussion about what we'd *like to see* in our magazines, Doug won't be "stepping in" :-) Everybody knows that somebody - somewhere - has to pay for magazines; given that I've just been reading about Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations) I'm well into economic theory at the moment and won't bore you with what I consider some fascinating but essentially non-hort info.;-(

So let me simply say "Me too - if I had my choice all the magazines would only contain the ads I want to see and not very many of them either." :-)) Tons of pictures about plants I haven't grown but want to. Lots of challenging plants to investigate. A range of topics - indoor, outdoor etc. But all in good detail rather than the 600 word bytes we currently see. And - a huge readers section where readers are encouraged to agree/disagree with what has been written before. I suspect the old magazines with their controversies were ever so much more fun to read as Mr. Jones took on Mr. Black over his crazy notions of how to grow peach trees. Inject personality into the writing and the subjects. It would take a clear and strong editorial policy to do this now however. I'd love to be an editor to take on this kind of project. :-) (ads or no ads)

For a former full-time freelance writer - mostly hort-related (and one who is aimed back there again in a few years after his kids graduate from university) I'm very intrigued with this thread and am reading it with enthusiasm. Bring it on.

Doug
Doug Green
Author of the award winning "Gardening Wisdom"
See gardening articles at http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com

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