BIG, this is marginally ferret-related, but it is ferret people related....
 
In reading some of the comments on the Modern Ferret problems, it looks to
me as if some FMLers are unfamiliar with publishing, or they might be a
little more understanding of the magazine's difficulties.
 
Many years ago, I met the entire staff --publisher, editors, journalists,
photographers, secretaries, advertising managers, and so on-- of a trade
publication called "Gas Digest." (That really was its name.) This entire
staff was one tired, harried, rapidly aging father of four teenagers.  The
man worked 80-hour weeks to keep the journal in business.  But you couldn't
tell how tiny the staff was, and how limited the budget was, when you
looked at the journal -- it was a 'real' magazine.
 
Modern Ferret is a glossy magazine, and most of us unconciously equate
glossy with big, in the same class as Time and People.  But glossy covers
and pages can be misleading.  Most people these days can make relatively
elegant newsletters and so forth on regular paper with ordinary software,
but most of us don't yet know how to achieve the 'glossy' look.  That is
simply a matter of paper, inks, and printers, which are more expensive
than ordinary printer supplies and printers, but certainly are readily
available.
 
I work for a company employing about two thousand people.  You'd think
there'd be plenty of people who could cover for me if I couldn't do my
work.  But the truth is, there isn't.  When I can't do my work, one of the
general managers and one of the office managers have to work together to
fill in the gap, and they have difficulties doing it.
 
So if a big, financially successful firm has this kind of trouble, what
happens when a minimal budget, two-person operation like Modern Ferret
loses staff?  It's just plain disaster.  There isn't anyone who can fill
in.  There's no money to pay a back-up, and even if there were, there just
aren't many people available for temporary jobs who really know how to put
together magazines.
 
Give 'em a break!
 
Jacqueline
[Posted in FML issue 3151]