Hi Heather, you wrote:
>Given the extreme popularity of Modern Ferret, it's REALLY hard for
>me to believe that they couldn't get any volunteers or interns to help
>with production if they made the effort to seek out help. If they
>want to run a business, they HAVE to do these things.
I work in the desktop publishing field, and have put together things like
magazines, papers, newsletters, brochures, and a variety of other things
in the years that I've been working. Since my own family used to run a
paper in the past, I have an inkling of what sort of responsibility Eric
and Mary face. While our paper was easy in comparison to Modern Ferret
(mostly one colour, with the occasional spot colour page) it still took
five or more people to put it together in time... and *we* had the money
to pay the staff then. The main reason we don't now is because of the
exhorbitant price of putting together such an enterprise. It's amazing
how few people are willing to lend a hand for full-time professional work
and no money. This is approximately what Eric and Mary are doing right
now.
>I know, I know, it's a 2-person operation, but it's also a business.
>Given the frequency with which obstacles befall Mary and Eric (not their
>fault, I realize, but it's pretty often!), it seems like they need to
>clue into the fact that the magazine needs backup, another writer or 2,
>definitely another person to take pictures because when Eric is out of
>commission, so is the magazine.
Knowing the cost of printing and distribution alone, I'm well aware that
the few adverts in the magazine aren't enough to pay just the print bill,
let alone distribution. Of course, being human, they need to pay the
basics - like the rent, food, medical bills, insurance, power, gas, etc.
Their only income for all of these is the magazine, and by my reckoning,
with the quality the magazine is sent out, they probably won't be getting
an income to match the expenditure. Of course, I could be totally wrong
in this, but suspect that this may be the case. If this *is* so, they
don't have the funds to pay for the 'backups' you've mentioned, and it
would be kinder to them if Modern Ferret was just shut down - but they
don't - why? Because they're doing their level best to keep it going,
however sporadically, to keep an informative and ferret-friendly
publication available to the public.
Okay, this may be no real excuse for a business, but it's a fact of life -
small businesses often run on the 'bread line' and often over that line.
Eric handles much of the photography, the magazine layout, and various
other aspects of the magazines day-to-day running. Mary handles many of
the articles, and works with other people with their articles.
>Consider: They expect subscription money on time. They don't send a
>magazine if people don't pay. They wouldn't send me a magazine if I
>promised that payment would, eventually, arrive at some later date. Why
>should it always be so acceptable that they cash our checks and then
>don't deliver the product until they get around to putting it together??
It's a personal choice as to how much you (or anyone else) will accept.
Some people feel (and it's their right to) that even one magazine being
late is too many - especially when it's months overdue. Other people will
accept varying levels of how much they'll accept, or not. If it's not
acceptable to you, then you should either cancel the subscription, or not
subscribe when you've received all the magazines that have been paid for.
It's a personal choice. In a perfect world, neither Eric nor Mary would
ever get sick, and they'd have enough money to pay for staff so that if
anything went wrong, the magazine would continue to come out on time.
Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect world. This isn't so much because
it's "Eric and Mary" as because if they weren't doing it, no-one else
would. If someone else out the is willing to start up another "Modern
Ferret" style magazine, then I for one would like to hear about it.
I personally feel the worst thing that's happened so far has been the
lack of contact for a long period. I can understand why the emails were
lft unanswered for a period. I've done the same myself when things have
become overwhelming. I'm not proud of the fact that I've done this to
some people, but I acknowledge that it can happen, and all too easily. It
takes a heck of a lot of willpower to respond to some people when they're
being exceptionally rude - and even the people who write polite letters
after having received one of the "bad ones".
In regards to the website... From what I understand, Mary herself is still
learning to make websites, so she works mainly on her personal pages,
while Eric works on the main "Modern Ferret" pages. Therefore, it's been
some time since the main pages have been updated. The stress of running
a business - especially since their main initial distributors stopped
distributing Modern Ferret - isn't exactly helpful when it comes to
health-related problems.
>I personally, as well as many other people that I know, have submitted
>articles to Modern Ferret numerous times, but it seems like only Mary and
>a few select ferret people are allowed to write for Modern Ferret. Few
>photos besides Eric's make it into the pages besides the "pink noses"
>photo page.
I know that Eric and Mary have printed a reasonable number of my photos.
Of course, there are a lot of good photographers out there, but anyone
who has really spent a lot of time trying to take pics of their ferrets
*knows* how incredibly hard it is to take photos of ferrets. They're fast
(unless they're asleep, and there is a limit to the number of 'sleeping
ferret' photos you can print!) and they're normally indoors. Indoors
means bad light for photography, which means you need a reasonably good
camera to compensate, and a good photographer to know how to take the
better photos. A vast majority of people have nice photos, but not nice
enough to be of a printable quality. I lucked out in having a camera that
makes it almost impossible to take bad photos, not many people have that
advantage.
>There are many people who have offered content, stories, poems, photos,
>etc. In past years I frequently submitted things written by club members
>and shelter affiliates that were well-written and interesting. None were
>ever used or acknowledged. For the most part they discourage submissions,
>yet fall back on how they have no help when things get hung up.
The articles that I've sent in have been printed - of course, I approached
the magazine first to make sure they would be happy to print the articles,
and asked what type of article they'd prefer for me to write. I've never
just sent in articles and expected that they'd be automatically printed.
There are probably a few people out there who write things for Mary and/or
Eric personally to read, and thus people who send in something they feel
may be good for an article may not get printed simply because they're
unaware that perhaps it isn't a 'personal' email, but one for printing.
Those that are tagged as being for use as an article still tend to require
editing, which not many people are willing to allow to be done on their
work. Of the articles I sent in to Modern Ferret, I was more than happy
to have Mary (a professional editor) go over them with a fine toothd comb
to pick out inconsistencies, spelling or grammar errors etc.
>Bottom line is that I have always liked Modern Ferret, and had great
>admiration for Mary and Eric, but I decided not to renew and now I'm
>pretty glad! I wish Modern Ferret had bounced back; it started out
>really great, had a marvelous first year, and was much loved by many.
>But I'd be very surprised if they're able to do a complete turnaround
>and repeat their earlier success; many people are pretty disillusioned
>by this point!
Unfortunately, you could well be right. I sincerely hope that they can
turn the magazine around and get it running properly again - that would
mean that everyone would be happy - including Eric and Mary. I guess
that only time will tell in this case.
Sam
[Posted in FML issue 3734]
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