Hi all -- I too have long been thinking about the journal and its importance in our professional lives. Before I was a piano tech, I had a fairly long career in publishing--some of it with trade magazines. Because it is a magazine that, for the most part, only we see, I think the format could be changed significantly. At present: The Journal is glossy, 4-color covers with some color inside. I realize that ads pay for the color, or should. There's a two-page spread for the table of contents in a averaging 48 pages that comes out once a month and is the *only* source of information in our profession. In the current June issue there are only 13 pages (25% of the issue) that carry real working information, and a number of those pages are cut in half with head design and pictures larger than they need to be. The rest is convention stuff, ancillary writing, and ads. My suggestion: Move to a heavy, smooth newsprint, something like InfoWorld used to be. This gets us a lot more room for regular sections which would cover all aspects of our trade every month. These sections would not be one column snippets, but would allow one article of decent length grouped with shorter pieces related to the same area--e.g., refinishing, tuning, stringing, tools, action work, business, convention news, etc. You get the picture. I don't want to be misunderstood here--the current Journal design is lovely--but given the kind of conversation that goes on on this list, there are far more questions out there than the Journal ever covers in a year. And, ours is a profession -- unlike auto mechanics, for instance -- that is not covered by a plethora of other magazines or books. Our main source of information is the Journal and I think it should be expanded at the expense of glossiness into something which contains as much information as can be crammed into every issue. Practically every guild member out there has had to reinvent the wheel innumerable times. The greater the number of various solutions to various problems that the Journal could provide would, by that much, increase its value to us. I for one would love to have a Journal that was more of a tool than a showpiece. Find a much cheaper format and spend the saved money on greatly increasing the length. (Now, if I could borrow someone's flame suit-- please :) Cheers, Clair Clair's Piano Service http://www.vt2000.com/cps/
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