Re: RC: Endurance News - for or by members?

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

>This is what I am paying for...NOT a lot of hype and ads...  I say 
>drop some of the
>saddle fit, etc stories and get down to ENDURANCE NEWS!!!!  

I think we're just suffering growing pains...which is much better than
dying pains!  When I first started getting EN and Trailblazer, they were
both printed on newsprint, and often had the exact same articles printed
in both, which were basically letters, often just telling about someone's
ride.  Often the articles were simply descriptions of rides, and then the
placements...much like what you see here on Ridecamp now.

In the last couple of weeks I had my  Art class designing T-Shirts for a
contest that a bike store was having.  For research I got a stack of
Mountain Biking magazines and gotta admit, I really enjoyed reading
through them, and envied them for the professional quality. It's always
seemed that the interviews in Endurance Publications lacked that
"distance" needed to seem professional. 

It's wonderful to have an Endurance News that I can lay on my desk and
other people will pick it up and actually spend some time thumbing
through it.  The color photo section is great, and there were some very
well reported articles. It's finally gotten to the stage that I can
actually imagine somebody purchasing a copy just to read.

 Now, when it gets to this level, some changes have to be made.  For one
thing, when I write for TB, I have to  write my article about Christmas
as early as July.  There's a lot of lead time involved.  If you offer to
write an article about an event, like a march on Washington, consider the
timing.  Will it still be relevant by the time it hits the press?  

Trail Blazer has an entire section (right up front) devoted to saving
trails.  Perhaps you should consider submitting your information to them.
 Perhaps the information could be condensed and put more in the form of a
press release...small items like that can be inserted closer to press
time.  

Once more, I caution everybody, don't be so quick to complain.  LOOK at
your last EN.  Are you being charged more for it now that it's in color? 
(That's when TB had to go bi-monthly) Compare it to one from 3 years ago
(if you bothered to keep them)...which one looks better, reads better? 
Now, why are you so upset?  Yes, saving our trails is important, but EN
isn't the only place to hear what's going on with trails, but it is one
of the only places to find out what's going on in endurance.  

Angie

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