Well,that will teach me to take vacation after Atlanta. Let me respond to some of this.
Did September come out late? Nope. September actually mailed early--Aug. 29. For 20 years or more, DECOR has mailed on the first business day of the month of publication. So, yes, some people--mainly in the middle of the country--get it in five to ten days. Others--mostly on the two coasts--receive it later...in some cases, a week or so later. It's been a perrenial problem for us, but we're working on pushing the distribuition date farther back into the month prior so that people get it earlier. Personally, I recieved my issue of DECOR at home several days before either ABN or PFM, and my issue mails from Michigan to my house in Missouri on the same day every other issue is mailed on.
Wally, as far as 54 color pages of landfill, I will respectfully disagree with you entirely. The show special section and the show directory are of use to a lot of people who don't come to the show. And the issue was distributed at the show to make sure both publications made it into everyone's hands.
Further, the turnout at the show was good, and there were no significant absences. Yes, some companies aren't doing well right now, but the show is still the largest, best attended show in the world in this industry. And, yes, it takes its lumps with the economy just as every other business does.
Bill, yes, the magazine is getting thinner, again because of cutbacks in advertising. But I can assure you that DECOR is the absolute leader in ad pages for the art & framing industry, commanding much more business than any of our competitors--often times even added all together. As to your view that the magazine is getting less and less interesting,well...you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I will put DECOR up against ANY of its competitors any day. Period.
Mike, September wasn't the only issue to feature complete information on the Atlanta Show. We began publicizing the dates for this year's Atlanta show in SOURCES last year, and then pretty much in every issue since then. Our July issue featured a special section on the show, which was reprinted as a pullout section in August. So, anyone who actually read those issues had more than enough time and information far, far in advance to come. If they waited to receive the September issue to make a decision, they probably weren't all that interested in coming anyway.
Now, the issue with the bellyband from Tru Vue. This was primarily done for people already at the show, since the issue was distributed onsite. Tru-Vue also had bellybands on previous issues to talk about the Top 100 award and other activities they were planning. It was not a device that was specifically or even generally for all readers.
As far as being free, DECOR is not...yet. DECOR's paid subscriptions are being phased out as of three weeks ago to controlled subscriptions (read: free). We made a major push for this at the show, but before there were no free subscriptions. There were some six-month trials that we started two years ago, but no free subscriptions.
What bothers me more about this than anything else is that, reading through a lot of these posts, there seems to be some pent up hostility towards DECOR that I can't quite understand. We have a great team of people here who pride themselves on putting out great products, from the magazine to our shows. We've done all kinds of new things for the industry--with new products oriented toward the consumer, new research studies, better venues for our shows. So what gives? Why the bad feelings? What aren't we doing right that we need to?
One last word. I know that this is a microcosm of the industry, and probably not truly representative of the entire market. So, I do try to take what I read here with a large grain of salt.
But think of this...who's the only publisher that posts anything, answers any questions, responds to any complaints on this board. None of the other publishers or really even editors post here, respond or, for all I know, even read what you guys have to say. And I've done it now for several years, and I haven't shied away from any question or comment posted here. We are listening at DECOR, we have your best interests at heart, and we do care immensely about our products. We appreciate you reading DECOR--even if, Pamela, it's only 10 minutes. 'Nuff said.
John
Rick
