[SEL] Re: GEM Bimonthly Schedule

[Arnie Fero]

Hi Richard,

> Tommy, we are indeed switching to a bimonthly schedule. It hasn't been an
> easy decision to make, but in the end it's really the best way to make sure
> GEM sticks around for years to come. As you noted, GEM used to be bimonthly,
> from 1966 until 1985, when it went monthly. If you look back at some of
> those issues from the 80s and 90s, you can see that the grass roots interest
> in old engines was on fire. For example, the August 1993 issue had 52 pages
> of ads. We rarely run half that many pages now. In many ways the hobby's
> peaked. That doesn't mean it's run its course, but that its big growth cycle
> is over and now we have to work with what's in front of us.

I'm not sure that I'd agree that the old engine hobby has peaked.  Rather,
I think GEM (and other similar "interest" mags) are feeling the effects of
the net.  In the 80's and 90's folks would send you a roll of film with a
brief show report.  There would be many of those.  Today, folks whip out a
web page show report with words and photos in a matter of hours after
returning from a show.  The "news" of the show report gets distributed
world-wide via a number of forums like this one.  The timeliness of that
medium is impossible to match with a printed magazine.

The net has also forever changed the way a lot of old iron is bought and
sold.  Engines are advertised on a variety of "Classified Ad" pages or put
up for sale on eBay.

Finally, the "what is it" or "how do I" types of questions are now posted
and answered in minutes via the net.

Those three categories alone represent a chunk of displaced content for
GEM (and the other mags).

> I'm not any more excited about it than the rest of you, but assistant editor
> Erin Shipps and I see a chance to have more time to research and develop
> articles, and while we'll be cutting back on the number of issues, we're
> going to increase the number of editorial pages from where it stands now.
> I'm pretty confident that when the dust settles we'll discover that we have
> a better magazine, even if it's not coming to us as often as we'd like. And
> we'll be making sure that GEM is around for many years to come.

My guess is that GEM will evolve to include far more editorial-generated
content and far less of the "this was our local show" or "here's my new
engine" content that was in many of the older issues.

It may be a bit tricky identifying just what the "new GEM" should look
like and managing the transition in format, but I for one am looking
forward to the "newer and better" GEM.  Good luck!

See ya,  Arnie

Arnie Fero
Pittsburgh, PA
fero_ah at city-net.com