By Deborah Bier, Publisher and Editor of this ezine.
NOVEMBER 30 UPDATE:
The experiment is working beautifully (see details of what and why below)! Not only have we added four entirely new articles to this Autumn edition, but we were also able to update two articles we published a month ago with timely new information. Plus, we added some gorgeous new artwork to the front cover.
And we have recently discovered something really quite shocking: just about everyone didn't know about our last few editions of the Concord Magazine. Yes, we have thousands of you on our email announcement list, which we faithfully used each time we publish a new issue. And we've faithfully published twice annually the last few years. But our system wasn't actually distributing these announcements -- something we had suspicions about, but never really tracked down until earlier this month. That's when we finally got it working again. So... when had it last functioned successfully? We are red-faced to admit it: except for a couple of hundred subscribers on a different announcement list on YahooGroups, we haven't distributed a new issue announcement since before September, 2004! For three years we thought we had been talking to you, dear readers -- but you hadn't heard from us in all that time!
We are horrified because we worked so hard on these issues -- and then made some kind of secret out of them! Can we beg you to take a little look at what you've missed? Here follow links to each of the "missing" editions in their entirety. Spring, 2007 Autumn, 2006 Spring, 2006 Autumn, 2005 Spring, 2005 Autumn, 2004.
And now back to our previously-published article directly below...
It's the second inning of Game Three of the World Series, and the Red Sox have just gotten their third out in Colorado -- the score is 0-0. As I write this, I'm listening to the radio and following the play-by-play online.
Yes, it's Autumn! And what's Autumn without a new edition of the Concord Magazine? And what's up with our publishing a small, updatable issue of this nine-year-old ezine?
Well, it's a case of life intervening. On the one hand, I'm. Just. Too. Busy. Mom moved here this fall. In mid-October, I ran an emergency shelter during an Emerson Hospital drill. We're approaching our third Special Town Meeting in eight months. I sprained my ankle. This is the height of the review period for Community Preservation Act applications, and I'm on the committee that oversees these. Plus the weather has been too warm and fair to pass up enjoying these extended summer-like temperatures!
On the other hand: we couldn't allow the season to pass without publishing something. So here we are, performing an experiment I've been wanting to try for a while.
An Updatable Ezine Issue?
In the past, we rarely touch an issue of the Concord Magazine once it's been published (see an index of our back issues). We will correct errors here and there as we become aware of them -- which is part of the joy of publishing online as opposed to on paper. But we don't expand an issue once it's online.
Blogs -- which didn't exist when we began this ezine nearly a decade ago -- are under constant revision and expansion. I've been thinking for a while: why not enjoy the best of both worlds and adopt the flexibility of a blog within the context of a magazine?
So we've decided to publish the Autumn 2007 ezine in installments. We aren't going to expand the number of issues we publish annually (two at this time), but we will allow each issue to be expanded as new good stories unfold?
It's in this way that we can get out to you an issue that isn't initially as big as usual -- which is good since we're publishing so late in the season -- but that will expand over time. Subscribers will be notified when we add new content. (Subscriptions are free, and subscribers are emailed an announcement every time we publish.)
By now it's the top of the third inning and the Sox scored six runs to bring the score to 6-0! Boston fans in Denver are waving brooms, encouraging the team on to "sweep" the Series! What an inning! Sorry, I gotta go... there's too much to do this Autumn and after all, we have to maintain our priorities. I'll be back with you in a few weeks. GO SOX!!!!!
Art Credits: Page designed by Windfall. Images courtesy of Clipart.com.
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