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Trade-Outs



Further musings on magazines, trade-outs, etc....

Small, "fractional" ads are frequently bartered for editorial by magazines
throughout the industry. These are generally for what's called "remnant
space" -- that is, space that would otherwise go unsold. So Endurance
News need not "lose" money when it trades small ads for editorial (such
as Donna's column) as long as it's done on a strictly space-available
basis, with guidelines clearly set forth for all.

The street value of the ads traded is probably around $300 each, and
there are usually only a few in each issue. Hardly sounds like enough
money to plunge AERC into bankruptcy. Here's a compromise suggestion:
Run the ads, and limit their size, on a "space available" basis. That
is, they wouldn't be guaranteed to run every month that corresponding
editorial appeared, but they would appear perhaps on a quarterly basis,
or as space allowed.

As Editor of Modern Horse Breeding (now "The Horse") from 1984 through
1994, I often wrestled with these types of decisions. Even though the
publication won the General Excellence award from American Horse
Publications, and the magazine had a reputation for high quality, Fleet
Street decided to let it go because it wasn't profitable from a "big
business" standpoint. In 1991, I took the magazine on and published it 
from my basement for the next three years. I was editor, designer and
advertising sales director. I hated having to pay writers only 10 cents
per word, but that was often all we could afford. However, we wouldn't
have been able to afford quality editorial (often from leading
researchers in their field) without paying _something_ for it, or
occasionally doing trade-outs.

And that's the bottom line: the Editorial product is either supported,
and recognized as the heart of the magazine, or it isn't.  As Angie
wrote: "...if there are good articles, especially the ones that I keep
for reference, that EN will be in my house forever...and every time I
open it again I have to look at that big ol' Sundowner ad and drool."

I add my voice to those urging the Board to reconsider its decision to
ban trade-outs. It can be done, on a limited basis, without hurting the
bottom line. BTW, I have never received any sort of ad from EN for my
articles, and have no personal stake in the matter.

Just my $0.02...

Respectfully,
Bobbie Lieberman, PS region
AERC #3637
Media Committee

P.S. As Jim Holland mentioned, including "bio" material at the end of an
article is not only standard practice but important to establishing the
credibility of the author while showing how clever the editors were to
snare such a brilliant thinker. Which leads to another way to "take
care" of your writers: Include them on the masthead as "contributing
editors" that month.



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