Sandykayak_at_aol.com wrote: > > In a message dated 11/30/1999 11:46:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, > romeug_at_erols.com writes: > > << Got my first issue of Ralph's Newsletter 'Folding Kayaker' which is > nothing but information, albeit focused on the more transportable of the > species. I would say that half of the information is for more general > application, such as a dry bag article and a lights for night paddling > article. As he writes on the list, the articles are informative and > complete. >> > > Hallelujah, someone else agrees with me! > > Sandy Kramer > It may be a little unfair to general interest magazines (and I include Sea Kayaker in that) to speak of them in the same breath as for a dedicated newsletter. A dedicated newsletter (by that I mean one with a narrow focus such as Folding Kayaker) is always going to do a "better" job for a narrow audience than a general publication would. I once had some one write me saying why should he pay $28 a year for Folding Kayaker when he could get Sea Kayaker for (then around $15 a year, now $20.95). I waited a bit before responding and then gave him the math. Folding Kayaker gives you some 6 to 8 articles each issue mainly on very minute stuff about folding kayaks and related subjects. Times 6 issues you get about 36 to 48 articles a year on that narrow subject. Sea Kayaker probably covers folding kayaks in some general way about once a year. So to get that folding kayak article in Sea Kayaker costs you $20.95; maybe $10.48 if there are two articles in the year. In Folding Kayaker, in contrast, each article is costing you about 75 cents. Clearly on cost effectiveness alone and forgetting quality, you would be nuts to subscribe to Sea Kayaker for folding kayak specific articles. I had another guy who subscribed to Folding Kayaker in its first two years and who I actually met and talked with on the phone and who I helped on some matters. He later dropped his subscription. About six months after he let it lapse, I read a letter from him in Atlantic Coastal Kayaker asking them to do more articles on folding kayaks. What's that song about looking for love in all the wrong places? :-) When I first started the newsletter, I wanted to publish one with real practical stuff on folding kayaks. I felt I was the only person who could write for it the way I envisioned and stick to a narrow focus (I had two decades of writing and directing high-price newletters field on very specific international business topics; so I had practical experience on sticking to a subject). In the first year, people submitted travelogue type articles, which I felt, and still do, are better placed in a general publication than in Folding Kayaker. Since they didn't talk about the boats themselves I didn't use them and kept just writing my own nuts and bolts articles including some of the nature that Gabriel mentions above that are slightly more general but do have a folding kayak slant. Little by little, I think readers caught on and submissions started coming in with a terrific practical slant, often much better detailed than I could muster for such a wide range of folding kayaks as there out there. And those who submitted articles of a travel nature peppered them with lots of details on how they got their boat there, packed for camping, special add-ons they made, etc. So I started using reader submissions as well as my own articles and the publication is a far sight better for it. The amount of detail in Folding Kayaker often amazes even me. It is just something that Sea Kayaker can't really do or justify to its broad range of readers. If you need the details on a narrow focus aspect of sea kayaking, you have to locate a good newsletter on the subject. For example, I know that Chris K. of Chesapeake Light Craft puts out a great newsletter on his boats with lots of up to date info for people who have made one or looking to make one or want to modify what they have or add a useful accessory. As far as I know, no one is doing a Greenland style paddling dedicated newsletter with detailed info. It is a field waiting for someone to do so as it is narrow in focus, has building aspects to it, lots of nuances of technique, narrow use gear to review or alert people to, etc. To some degree ANorAK is evolving in that direction with a high Greenlandic content because its hardcore readers lean that way as does its current editor, Ray Killen. BTW, the next issue (December?) of Atlantic Coastal Kayaker (out of the Boston area) is scheduled to be largely dedicated to Greenlandic topics. I wrote a think piece for it regarding Maligiaq's visit to the Big Apple with that understanding. As Doug Lloyd said, there's a lot to getting out a publication. Apologies for going into such detail. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Dec 01 1999 - 10:47:21 PST
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