When you're grateful to say "Good-bye"
A save here and there - Issue #89
Is it true that time passes more quickly as we age? How often do you get to Friday afternoon and wonder where the week went? On Sunday nights do you lie in bed and wonder how the weekend zoomed by? If you have children or nieces and nephews, do you look at them and wonder how they grew up so fast? Maybe you want to tell them to enjoy their childhood and not wish so hard to be all grown up?
Psychology Today magazine featured an article about it few years back. Dr. Clifford Lazarus explained:
“for a 10-year-old, one year represents 10 percent of their entire life and even 15 to 20 percent of their conscious memory. But one year for a 50-year-old represents less than 2 percent of their recallable life.”
I recall people marveling how during the height of the pandemic, it felt like life had slowed to a standstill. I’ve wondered if that was because for many of us, we really couldn’t go anywhere. Post pandemic, time has resumed its on- rushing fast pace. In many ways, at least to me, it feels even faster.
Last fall we decided to take in a foster dog from the animal shelter that I volunteer at: Orphans of the Storm. My reasons for wanting to do this were all jumbled up. We had recently lost our own dog to age and disease. The shelter had a number of dogs that had been there for a long time, and they were suffering from kennel stress. It pained me every time I volunteered there to see them so unhappy and on the verge of losing themselves. At the same time, we weren’t ready to adopt anyone.
Ohana is a nearly seven year old Great Pyrenees/Shepherd mix. She is both dog and people reactive and was a surrender to Orphans after living with her adoptive family for five years. Her behavior with them had gotten out of control and they felt they could no longer manage her. At the shelter she was grouchy, selective with who she liked, a reluctant participant at play group, and so reactive that she never go to go to any off-site adoption events. By the time we fostered her, she had been at the shelter for a year and a half.
After living with us for five and a half months, we finally had someone interested in a meet and greet. When we got the call that someone wanted to see her, I was a bit stunned. That was fast! It felt like she had just come home with us. Like we just started fostering her. Now we were giving her up? But, of course. That was the whole point. Our job was to give her respite from the shelter. Show her she could trust humans again.
Her dog reactivity had become manageable through intensive training and we suspected that her people reactivity may not be as intense. The nervous, grumbly, suspicious dog had come out of her shell. Will she behave for her new adoptive family the same way she behaved in our home?
The answer is, if the stars continue to align, she’ll go to her new home later this week and we’ll find out. She passed her meet and greet with flying colors. The past five months have been an incredible whirlwind both at work and in all of the work we’ve done for this animal. The time may have passed quickly, but it was five and a half months of intense work.
I was asked this weekend if I’m sad to say good bye to Ohana and the answer is, of course. I will miss her. But I’m also very grateful for the time we had together no matter how quickly it passed by. She helped us heal from the loss of our dog. Hopefully we helped her heal from the loss of her first family and her confusion about life in the shelter.
Up this week: Some good news from Texas, some mergers of magazine companies, and don’t forget to click on the link to see all the winners of this years’ National Magazine Awards.
one__The Texas Observer is saved. For now.
So when people decide that they really, really, really want their magazine, they will do what they need to to keep it afloat. A last minute fund raising campaign raised more than $325K and that was enough to get the board to rescind their plan to shutter the 68 year old publication.
I’ve been aware of the Observer for some time. Many years ago, I discovered an old copy of Molly Ivins book “Molly Ivins Can’t Say That” and became enamored with her punchy style of writing. I confess, however, that I’ve never seen a physical copy of the title and after reading the above article, was stunned to learn that it only has 4,000 paid subscribers and survives mostly on donations and grants.
How do you sustain yourself on that? Go Fund Me is an awesome tool, but is it sustainable? Hopefully they will come up with a much better business plan moving forward.
two__The difference between circulation and readership…
No, really. This is not a silly question to ask. Surprisingly some never think to distinguish between the two. Fortunately AAM answers the question ably and explains the difference.
Hint: Circulation (My personal bailiwick) is the counting of actual physical or digital copies. Readership is a little more, let’s say, relaxed (IMHO).
Regardless, since a few of my clients use AAM to audit their circulation, I continue to be very happy with all of the useable and easily explainable tools they make available to their clients. As we’re rapidly approaching the dreaded tax day, maybe our friends in Congress and at the IRS should take notes?
three__Magazine journalist Gabriel Mac started his own online magazine after experiencing transphobia freelancing for other magazines
Transphobia is one of those issues that is a personal non-starter. People should be allowed to live their lives and explore their own identities. And, as my Aunt Bessie would say, it’s not polite to stare. Why do you care what genitals someone may or may not have? Is it really that hard to respect someone’s choice of pronouns? So what if it the language seems awkward at first. You can figure it out. It’s really not that hard.
One of the interesting aspects of contemporary journalism that I’ve noticed in this age of the internet, is that the original gatekeepers: magazine, book and newspaper publishers really don’t hold all the cards anymore. A freelancer may do as well or almost as well writing for themselves as if they were taking assignments from major publications.
According to this article in Mother Jones, it looks like Mac may not be doing as well, but apparently he’s fine with that.
You can find Mac’s new website/magazine here.
four__The winners of the ASME National Magazine Awards are announced
More years ago than I care to count, I excitedly walked into the main lobby of Outside Magazine where I was an assistant to the newsstand manager and gazed at the Ellie award the magazine had just won. It seemed like a very big deal. It was.
So many years later, is the ASME awards still a big deal? I think so. If you check out what is awarded, you’ll see a lot of great journalism, some incredible design both in print and in digital.
I always wish the awards went deeper into the indie mag world, but that would require organizing and recruiting indie publishers. I kind of feel that that would discount the whole point of indie publishing.
five__Flying Media Group acquires Plane and Pilot Magazine. And they don’t plan on killing it!
Flying Media Group continues its acquisition drive. Last year it purchased Heartland Publishing, a classified listings and business directory company.
This past week they announced the purchase of Plane and Pilot Magazine from the BeBop Channel Corporation, a media company that had recently bought out multi title publisher Madavor Media, LLC. Madavor publishes titles like Jazz Times, Outdoor Photographer and the Women Create brands.
So Plane and Pilot is now ensconced with other titles that like to soar.
This week, in “Things Placed In Front of the Magazine Rack…”
I thought I’d bring back one of my favorite features from my old blog “From the Foredeck of the Titanic” after witnessing this giant Easter display in front of a rack at a nearby supermarket. Imagine the surprise when I walked past the display to discover numerous empty pockets on the rack (Narrator voice: He wasn’t all that surprised, really).
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you did so, please give it a boost by clicking “Like” and then subscribing. You’ll get a brand new release in your email in-box every Tuesday (Or sometimes Wednesday, like today, if things get a little hectic around here).
If you’ve got a question or comment, please drop me a line. You can always reach me at joe.berger@newsstandpros.com.
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.
I do occasionally put on a suit and tie and comb my hair. Here’s my LinkedInprofile if you want to see me looking all professional.
Yep, I’m still on Twitter. You can find me here, but I’m not spending much time there.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week. May your office, be it a home or in a large Class A building be full of short meetings, to the point emails, plentiful snacks, and maybe a few fluffy pooches.