For Cheryl and anyone else who might be interested --
 
Here's a brief description of how Modern Ferret magazine is distributed.
 
Our printer (currently in Montreal) ships various numbers of magazines to
our distributors as soon as the magazine is printed.  The distributors break
down the shipments and send them out to bookstores (usually within days of
receiving them).  Our printer also ships directly to our distributor that
puts the magazine into pet stores.  That distributor then breaks down the
shipment and sends (via truck and/or UPS) the magazines to pet stores.  All
of these distributors have an economic incentive to move the copies as
rapidly as possible to the store shelves -- that's how they make their
money.  Then comes the US Post Office...
 
The mailing to our subscribers is done by a mail house that is affiliated
with our printer.  For issue #7, the magazines were shipped from the printer
in Canada to their mail house in upstate NY.  There, the magazines waited
until we sent them the labels (then waited some more because of a screw up
regarding a check).  The mailing finally went out on September 26th (though
we were originally told they went out on the 18th) -- approximately 10 days
after copies went to the distributors.  The mail house affixed the labels
and gave the magazines (the copies that go to subscribers) to the Post
Office.
 
Modern Ferret goes by third class mail, which means the PO has little
respect for it.  The PO says that it doesn't have to deliver third class
mail right away -- it can take **6 weeks** to deliver the magazine if it
wants to (and there are people it takes longer to reach and/or it never gets
there at all).  During those 6 weeks, the magazines are being distributed
into pet stores and bookstores as quickly as the distributors can get them
there.  We get numerous calls/e-mails from subscribers who want to know why
the magazine is in stores before it arrives in their homes.  All I can say
is: That's the way the distribution works.  The PO has no economic incentive
to rush -- they're the only game in town.
 
To qualify for "Periodicals Rate" (which used to be 2nd class mail), we would
have literally several solid weeks worth of record-keeping preparations.  We
would also be prevented from donating copies of the magazines to the various
clubs, shelters, and legalization efforts we currently donate copies to
(Periodicals Rate requires a PAID circulation).  The PO treats Periodicals
Rate magazines much more like first class mail -- in other words, it
delivers them in a timely manner.  In addition, the new postal regulations
regarding addressing accuracy for bar codes and address correction etc are
beyond our current software's abilities (we wrote the software ourselves).
Thus, we cannot take advantage of any of these options to help speed the
mail.  We have been told that one of the things that helps speed the mail
the most is the size of the mailing.  The more pieces of mail going to a
particular ZIP code or state, the more easily the mail goes through the
system.  We received our office copy (we mail copies to ourselves and to
various friends to time the mailing) on Oct 9.  We have a lot of subscribers
in the Long Island, NY area, which probably helps speed that batch of mail.
We have not heard from any of our other contacts across the country yet.
 
In a separate issue, the first class (plain wrapper) mailing of Modern
Ferret is currently being prepared for mailing.  These copies must be hand
packaged by us in opaque packaging.  We cannot use an outside service to do
the mailing because we must protect the confidentiality of our first class
subscribers (no one but us sees the names & addresses -- ever!).
 
We have been experiencing constant growing pains over the past couple of
years as we attempt to produce a better and better magazine (Issue #7 came
in at 52 pages with lots of color and Issue #8 is slated to feature some
free ferret postcards inside).  This has been a lot of work for just the two
of us and we are constantly troubleshooting the major problems as best as we
can.
 
So far we have done fairly well for a publisher starting out with nothing.
We have reached the point where it is no longer necessary for us to take on
outside work in order to keep putting money into the magazine.  Modern
Ferret may even be able to help us pay our own bills in a year or two.  In
the meantime we are living under difficult (but free) conditions.  We
believe that we are making a contribution to ferrets that is unique -- a
color glossy pet magazine that maintains a sense of humor and passion far
beyond the typical dog or cat magazine.  We feel that our commitment to
ferrets because we are ferret owners will help us prevail over the magazines
put out by companies just to "round out the product line."
 
As for why we would prefer people subscribe vs buying it in the store, the
answer is that the strength of a magazine is directly measured by its
subscription base (the higher the number of subscribers, the better luck you
have wooing advertisers, which are the financial bedrock of a magazine).
Although we do eventually get paid for copies sold through stores, we are
only now getting money for copies of Issue #5 that were sold in pet stores
and bookstores.  That means that we paid for all the production on Issues
#5, 6, and 7 and the pre-production work on #8 before getting paid for #5
(that's why magazines take so much money to launch).
 
It is best for subscribers to contact us directly if they have a question
about their subscriptions to Modern Ferret.  We do not always have time to
read the FML (Thanks BIG for forwarding Cheryl's question to me).  You can
e-mail us at [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]  We do not
always answer e-mail quickly (we get way more than we can process), so
please be patient.  There are only two of us and we return calls/e-mails
based on their medical (life-threatening) priority.
 
Sorry for the size of this post, but it covers several questions we have
recently received both privately and publicly.
 
Thanks for your patience & best to you & your fuzzies,
 
Mary & Eric & the Furry Foursome
(Sabrina, Ralph, Marshmallow & Knuks)
[Posted in FML issue 1723]