Sturgeon Moon, meet Blue Moon
Welcome to the August Scaries...issue #105
I’ve never been able to figure out how I feel about the month of August. As a kid growing up in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, I mostly dreaded it. The reasons were simple: After August came September and that meant back to school. If you went to Washington Elementary in Springfield, MA, you know the answer to the question: “Who wants to go back to that?” August in the Connecticut River valley is hot and humid. The days were long and sticky, the nights held little relief.
Here in 2023, the “Sunday Scaries” are a real thing. I get it. So many of us start going down our lists Sunday night. And now, I’d like to propose that for some of us, there is also the “August Scaries”. Pre marriage and kids, the issue was when, where and if you went on a vacation that wouldn’t break the bank. And, would there be a job to come back to if we went on vacation? With marriage and kids the “August Scaries” become a question what to do with the kids once camp was over but school hadn’t started. Do we take a vacation with them now? Or save it for the end of the year when it’s cold, miserable and we don’t know what to do with them now that school is out?
Here in the magazine world the “August Scaries” can be a real thing. The rise of the Sturgeon moon at the beginning of the month asks the question: “Are you sure about that AAM statement you just posted?” As the month continues, you get more questions like, “Have you completed the production schedule?” and “Does it actually make sense?” and, “What about the editorial calendar?” and, “The folks upstairs don’t like the budget you just proposed.”
In my world, budgetary questions usually mean we’re about to be cut another 10% because, sure, we can always do more with less.
Next week, the month will come to a merciful end. However, out in the flatlands by the lake, the Midwestern heat and humidity won’t wane until midway through September. That’s OK. After years of pivoting we circulation folk (or Audience Development Specialists, or Customer Experience Managers…) can handle pretty much anything that is thrown our way,
What’s the reward for making it through this month? There’s a Blue Moon coming at the very end and it should be gorgeous.
Now there’s something to look forward to.
one___NPR: Librarians are quitting because of book banning battles
This was a really hard story to read. As a child growing up, my local library branch was a refuge and a place of wonder. In college, it was the place to study and get resource materials. As a parent it was our children’s favorite place. Every week we walked out with armloads of books and videos.
Even now, so late into a career, the local library is an important fixture and source of community pride and a quiet place to work. So why on earth are the politicians and “citizen activists” so set on tearing a symbol of their community down?
In this NPR story, the Louisiana parish they investigated has seen a drop in staffing and employees have even received death threats.
As anyone who’s every worked short staffed and under resourced knows, you can only do more with less for so long. Eventually it doesn’t work. So these “activists” may think they’re helping their community by purging the library of alleged groomers and books by Sarah J. Maas, but they’re actually hurting their communities by shortening hours, budgets, and chasing away experienced veterans. It’s time for local and national politicians to find their courage and lead the way out of this nightmare.
two__Financial woes shutter Opera News
Opera News was a monthly magazine put out by the Metropolitan Opera Guild of New York. As a result of declining fortunes, the Guild itself will end it’s operations and cease publishing the magazine.
Yes, the magazine was a small niche publication operating in a very specific, very small audience, but you never want to see this happen. Fortunately for aficionados of the form, the Guild will continue in some form and readers of the soon to be deceased magazine will begin to receive the British magazine, Opera.
A niche of two will become a niche of one.
three__Web 3.0 has an actual print magazine
NYC based No.3 Media launched a print magazine dedicated to “telling the story of web3 with interactive features.” The new magazine was launched this Summer and covers everything you ever wanted to know about Web 3.0 from NFTs, to crypto to wearables.
The magazine is designed to be interactive and the print and digital editions are full of QR codes. Single issues of the publication are for sale at $29.00 per copy and can only be purchased from their site.
It’s an interesting concept and a surprisingly rigid concept when it comes to building an audience. But I think it could work as you’re not necessarily looking at a broad audience.
four__Fortune: Linked In is “Positioned” to benefit from the Twitter meltdown
But is it, really? Fortune contributors Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever offer up some compelling thoughts about what LinkedIn could do to take advantage of news and information seekers leaving Twitter (now “X”) that range from the “business oriented” platform creating their own version of Tweetdeck to letting journalists have access to the same tools as recruiters to updating the LinkedIn newsletter platform.
That all sounds great and I whole heartedly support it. Will any of this come to pass? Well, I’m not going to hold my breath. It’s true that I am spending more time on LinkedIn and less on Twitter (or “X”). But the experience is often frustrating when I try to do deep searches for companies, people, locations.
Call me an evolving social media skeptic. I think these platforms are powerful. I think they have enormous impacts on our culture and way of life. I also remain doubtful that they will act in anything but their own self interest and are not concerned with “user experience”.
But it would be cool if they listened to these guys.
five__Is freelance journalism a viable career path?
Freelance and comedy writer Ralph Jones points out that freelance “…rates are often pitiful, and the well paying titles that once thought of as reliable are falling like cliff faces into the sea.”
So, is being a freelance journalist something like a hobby, Jones asks?
That seems like a cruel way to put it but as a longtime freelancer myself who has a foot in the print magazine business, it can lead to sleepless nights.
This story reminded me of articles I read in the previous decade about “content farms” and the incredibly low rates that were paid out for clickbait stories. Nowadays, Jones points out, many freelancers are are supplementing their income with odd jobs or copywriting.
So, as I’ve often posted on Twitter (“X”), LinkedIn and on other platforms, if you hire freelance people, pay them. Pay them a living wage. Pay them in full, Pay them on-time.
Your moment of magazine zen…
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I’m sure you remember our stressed out magazine media marketing team. What have our friends Franklin, Geordi, Veronica and Suzanne been up to all summer? Well, the C-Suite just gave them control of “Project Blue Moon,” a new interactive content creation platform that will scoop up all the latest thought leaders and pull in all the low hanging fruit. “You’re going to love this project!” the Senior Executive Vice President said as he left conference room B. “I can’t wait to see what you kids come up with.” So, let’s see…
Want to find me on the social sites?
My Instagram link is here.
I’m now hanging out at Post.News and you can find me here on this new app.
Every now and then I get to put on a suit and tie and comb my hair. Here’s my LinkedIn profile if you want to see me looking all professional.
I’d like to say I’m on Blue Sky, but I’m on the waiting list. I’m not a fan of “Notes” here on Substack and I really don’t want to mess around with Threads. But if you have a recommendation, let’s hear it!
That’s all I’ve got for you this week. May your waning days of summer be filled with completed projects, realistic budgets, short meetings, and limited invitations to conference room B from your Senior Executive Vice Presidents. #justsaying…
