1. Tree-free paper throughout
The same beautiful tree-free paper (supplied by Living Tree Paper Company) that we now use on the cover of the magazine will be used for the insides as well.
2. Quarterly schedule
We'll keep in better touch with our readers by coming out four times per year, instead of three.
3. Fewer pages per issue (32-40 pages on average), with minimal advertising
Advertising will be scaled back. We will likely trim back the review section as well, to make more room for articles, poetry, artwork, and letters. Because of our transition to a quarterly schedule, we'll still have as much content every year as in our current format, but it will arrive in slightly smaller doses and be less influenced (if even subtly) by commercial considerations.
4. Available mainly by subscription
Many of the copies sent to newsstands are not sold, but are recycled or thrown away. And, even from those copies that do sell, we receive only a fraction of each dollar generated. Rising printing costs and our desire to use tree-free paper mean we can no longer afford to produce the two-color covers that keep TL on some newsstands. Speaking of which...
5. Single-color ink
Our attempts to appeal to the newsstand market have involved producing a color cover for each issue, which has amounted to over a third of our printing costs in the current format. We can eliminate that expense and direct our energies toward substance, not flashiness, by using just one ink color throughout the magazine. We will still strive for graphic interest--hopefully of a type more aligned with the sensibilities of our readers, and not calculated to jump off the newsstand at a shopper already overwhelmed with stimuli which say "buy me."
6. Minimal-waste printing policy
Because of our advertising and newsstand scale-backs, we'll be able to print closer to the number of copies of each issue for which we actually have readers. At first, that means a scale-back in our print run. We'll still print a few extras to have as samples for potential new subscribers and as back issue stock, and to fulfill newsstand orders, but the extravagant waste of hundreds of copies being discarded by the newsstand market or by sample-copy recipients who may be only marginally (or not at all) interested in TL will be reduced. (See also 7.)
7. Scale-back on complimentary subscriptions and exchanges
We currently provide complimentary subscriptions to various nonprofit groups and prominent eco-individuals, as well as grant-funded subscriptions to hundreds of libraries. We ourselves are overwhelmed with reading matter that arrives as a result of our various exchanges. Before 2002, we will do a comprehensive survey of the groups/individuals receiving TL through this kind of arrangement to confirm that the exchange is still working for both parties.
8. Thematic fluidity
We will hold less strictly to designated themes next year. For the next few issues, we are adopting a much more flexible approach, whereby if you have something you'd like to share in our pages (no matter what the theme), you send it to us, and we may choose to use it on a "rolling submissions" basis.
9. Greater connection to Lost Valley life
We'll maintain the broad focus and perspective that TL has always been known for, but we'll also put more focus on the activities and network that we are part of through Lost Valley Educational Center. We'll start to feature regular columns, created by us and by you. TL will be a meeting place for the greater Lost Valley community and network, a forum to share what our evolving ecological culture means to all of us--and a way to connect us to the larger community of people everywhere working to maintain or create life-affirming culture.
10. In short, much more than ever before, TL will be a voice and a forum for you, our subscribers.
If you're a newsstand reader, please become a subscriber--this may be the second-to-last time you'll be able to obtain us any other way. The staff is tired of making uneconomical, unecological decisions based on trying to fit any other model than that of a subscriber-supported publication. Advertising and wholesale sales often entail compromises that no longer seem to be serving the interests of TL's survival or integrity. Both ads and newsstand sales will take a back seat, at most, from now on.Please, support us in this transition! We're excited about our new direction and format, and hope you will be as well. More than ever before, we're depending on the Talking Leaves/Lost Valley network of world-changers and world-celebrators to make this happen. Please let us know if/how you'd like to contribute...
Thanks for staying with us.
©2001 Talking Leaves
Summer/Fall 2001
Volume 11, Number 2
Spirituality, Religion, and Ritual