Zach Harvey, here:
Just wanted to weigh in quickly on a few things that seem to be going on.
The first, obviously, is the callout on the cover of this week's issue. Due to miscommunication, the actual name of the show somehow got listed as "Sport & Fishing Expo." Our publisher, in the eleventh hour, added "Kingston," feeling--rightly so--that the addition of the location would help attendence. The intentions were good, but the finished product suffered. I was as surprised as any of you were. I'm scrambling to put together some basketballs and tennis rackets, but time is short.
Which brings up a second point: Due to our production process, it's not always possible to catch errors until it's too late. Putting out 50 issues a year, our entire staff is under intense and constant deadline pressure. Mistakes happen, and some--like this one--are worse than others. Last fall, we listed the Norwalk Show as running through the 36th of September, and I'm hoping no one went there on the 34th.
No magazine goes to press without tremendous effort, but monthlies do have the advantage of time. Issues can be proofed multiple times, and errors can be fixed. With weeklies, time is always short, with the next deadline always coming up in 4 days.
Rehash also seems to be a concern for a few of you. Consider: in an average year, we run somewhere in the vicinity of 300 feature articles a year. I personally read over 500 articles a year, and try to select the best line-up, weighing the diversity of fishing opportunities our fishiest of New England waters. What's a year's fishing without trolling the Block Island ledges, flounder fishing in Boston Harbor, or cod fishing at Jeffreys Ledge? There are very specific local areas with unique fishing situations, but I'd be neglecting my post if I omitted major fisheries and locations just because they were discussed in previous years. I hate to say it, but there are no new fisheries and no new spots, just new ways of approaching the old ones.
On the balance, we're giving you somewhere between five and twelve current, local (barring a handful of winter travel pieces) articles PER WEEK, and that's nearly three times more than you'll get anywhere else. In the course of a year. In the coming season, we've got a terrific line-up, and here's hoping you'll agree.
If anyone has ideas or comments that he'd like to bring to light, shoot me an e-mail at
fishpaper@aol.com.
Zach Harvey
Threaded Mode