carnivorous plant magazine

[theyellowdart]

I'm pretty much a regular at bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, etc, and every time I go, I head towards the the magazines first. Most of the magazines I look at directly reflect my hobbies and interests, so I'm always really let down when I go to look for some good literature on cps and find nothing.

So.....

Has anyone thought of making a magazine solely devoted to carnivorous plants?

There are plenty of skilled writers around here, so I definately think it's possible. It would probably make some pretty good cash, as well as spread the hobby, raise conservation awareness, and give us hobbyists something entertaining to read.

Does anyone else like this idea? I think it would be great.

Please post your opinions, ideas, etc here.

-Matt

 

[Clint]

The ICPS newsletter is the closest you're going to get to a magazine. You can pretend a scientific journal is a magazine if you want!

 

[theyellowdart]

Right now it is, but I think an actual magazine has potential.

 

[RL7836]

To those of us engulfed / enthralled by these plants, this seems so obvious as to be a no-brainer. However, CPs don't have all that large of a base of enthusiasts as it would appear. Heck, it would be a major accomplishment to get a regular piece in an existing magazine - like Fine Gardening, Horticulture, The American Gardner, or some other fairly mainstream periodical...

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

I think it would be a good idea to do like a semi-monthly online magazine to start and then possibly a semi-monthly print. I think the exposure would increase awareness of CPs.

In fact I am a member of AOS (American Orchid Society) just for the magazine, if they were to put their magazine in the book stores then I think their membership or atleast their awareness would increase. I bet there would be people just for the magazine. The only problem will be to get enough articles to make a meaningful one. That is why it would be best to start out semi-monthly if not semi-anual. I would gladdly help once I am done with school to attempt to put one together. It is just going to take some investment capital to get it off the ground though.

 

[wmgorum]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but I don't think a published carnivorous plant magazine is a viable option at all.

There may be many people who are capable of writing wonderful articles in the CP community, but how many people are willing to do the work? I was the newsletter editor for two specialty regional organizations (one dealing with aviculture and pet birds, the other being sign language interpreting) and I had to fight tooth and nail to get any type of submissions to make a semi-quality monthly and quarterly newsletter, respectively. I'm sure Barry Rice or anyone else involved with editing CPN would agree that submissions of articles is an issue for that publication as well.

A second thing to think about is not only do you need the articles, but I'd suspect you'd need a graphic artist to handle layout, etc. It'd be a substantial financial investment to get anything like this off the ground.

My understanding of the purpose of a CP magazine would be something aimed at laymen rather than the scientific journal nature of the CPN? I think people's energies would be better directed at writing and submitting articles (aimed at the layperson) to the CPN editor rather than establishing an independent magazine. I can easily imagine that the CPN editorial team would be highly appreciative of articles of this type. Besides, a membership to ICPS (which gets you access to CPN) is hardly more than a magazine subscription and it supports the organizations, not a for-profit group.

At the same time, I think an on-line magazine that could complement the CPN could be a very viable option. Desktop publishing software is really affordable and powerful now and electrons are MUCH cheaper than ink and paper.

Just my $0.02.

Will

 

[RL7836]

I think people's energies would be better directed at writing and submitting articles (aimed at the layperson) to the CPN editor rather than establishing an independent magazine. I can easily imagine that the CPN editorial team would be highly appreciative of articles of this type.

Very good point(s). I suspect that the 'scientific' approach of the CPN is due more to who submits the articles than the actual readership. Periodically, Barry does have to beat the bushes for submissions - the editors would likely love to have many articles to choose from when publishing ...

I think there would be some interest in many, fairly-easy to publish stories - like some of the fieldtrips we see published here, ICPS & CPUK, interviews with some growers & photos of their greenhouses (I could easily rattle off 20 growers who's greenhouses I'd love to see - both in & ex-USA).

 

[PlantAKiss]

It would be cool to have a CPzine...but like Will said, there are often tons of people who support the IDEA of something...and few who will do the work. Every organization I've worked with is begging for volunteers. NASC included! When it comes to doing WORK, many hours of work... and basically doing it for free...the enthusiasm wanes.

In the rock club I'm a member of...its the same handful of people doing all the work for all the club functions year after year after year.

And I can tell you...it takes many, many hours to produce something like a newsletter or magazine on a regular basis.

However...I'm all for something like that.

 

[wmgorum]

It's the 20/80 rule:

20% of the people doing 80% of the work.

Will

 

[PlantAKiss]

Uh...from my experience its been about 95/5. lol

 

[rattler]

for the record, give i know a couple of ppl in the magazine business......even in the world fo firearms and hunting with 44 million gun owners in the US it is EXTREAMLY difficult to get a magazine to last more than a year....what usually happens is they produce a few outstanding issues to start with, run out of great material......run a few issues that are just OK....maybe another that sucks and then die......add that to the fact its extreamly hard to get advertisers for a brand new publication....most advertisers want hard circulation numbers, reader makeup ect before they plop down hard earned money......and all the money you make is via advertisers.....newstand price rarely covers cost of printing and getting copies to the newstand.....even the mags that cost $6 plus...........

if your serious about doing it i would go the online route....much cheaper start up and if it does extreamly well you can kick around the idea of starting a print version.....

 

[PlantAKiss]

Definitely magazines have a poor success rate, like Rattler said. But something not-so-grand as a slick magazine would do, if people wanted to organize to do it. But...you gotta scrounge up articles...get it laid out...etc. It's a lot of work. BUT...the more people working on it, the less burden.

So Matt...you gonna organize this and do it?

 

[theyellowdart]

So Matt...you gonna organize this and do it?

jeez! I never said I actually wanted to do it all myself! It was just an idea... lol

But since some of you are talking so seriously about it, I'd be glad to help/participate if someone decides to start something like this up. I really don't think I have enough time on my hands to personally do it myself, but then again, with enough motivation I can probably find time to do a lot more than I ever thought I could.
I still think it's a good idea despite how some of you make it sound like it will fail horribly.

JB OrchidGuy, I think you have the right ideas.

Matt

 

[xvart]

I still think it's a good idea despite how some of you make it sound like it will fail horribly.

Now, now, now... Nobody is saying it is not a good idea. My opinion is that the various CP forums act in the stead of a magazine. For a magazine I would want to see a variety of CP related topics including conservation efforts, scientific findings, CPs in situ, and featured CP enthusiasts; all of which I get on a semi-regular basis from the forums. Would I read a pdf that was sent to my email? Of course I would (at least the first few if the quality of the journalism was good, and if it was, I would keep reading until it wasn't).

xvart.

 

[Clint]

I am, and It will fail horribly. You're not going to get it on shelves if that's what you wanted. The best you'll ever do is have a small subscription you mail out. 200 subscribers would be a huge number for something like that, I think.

I don't mean to be a downer. I'm just being realistic. A PDF file is more realistic but I hardly consider tat a magazine, and besides. There's only so much to talk about that's worthy of submitting as an article. What could you possibly put in it that A: isn't already on a forum or the listserve, or B: in the newsletter?

 

[rattler]

actually some of the magazines i get on a regular basis i can get electronically instead via a PDF for a cheaper subscription rate.......i dont do it cause i prefer having the hard copy but im told its an option that is getting more and more popular every month.....infact if i wanted to get it electronically i could get it about a week before it even hits the press let alone in the mail.....