Format Changes

The Volume 14 #2 issue of RodMaker hit the mail earlier this week. It contains the first of some important changes to the overall format of the publication – most notably, the addition of full color on every page. The Volume 14 #3 issue, to mail around the first of June, will complete the bulk of the format changes and hopefully elicit the same sort of positive feedback which I suspect the issue currently in the mail is about to.

So now the question is, where do we go from here? RodMaker already offers the most bang for your buck. Most of the new methods and techniques come from RodMaker and you get it six times per year and for less money than other rod building publications which come publish far less frequently. There seems little reason to do more. And yet, for many years I’ve wished we could offer a monthly publication. There is so much rod building information contained in the articles stockpiled here that there’s just no way I can get the stuff published as fast as it comes in. But, attempting to publish twice as many issues in a year requires additional time that isn’t presently available. Therefore, we’ve recently begun to look at some alternatives that might offer us the same thing albeit in a different way…

The current magazine is 40 pages (due to our limited advertising space this is the editorial equivalent of most 100 page publications). If I were to keep the publishing schedule as is (bimonthly) but add another 8 page signature, we’d have a 48 page publication, effectively allowing for a few more ads but more importantly, quite a bit of new space for additional rod building information.

I’m leaning heavily towards going this route. Now we just have to see what those additional pages add in weight and what effect such weight will have on the postage required for mailing. The one thing I don’t want to do is raise the price of a subscription. RodMaker is already twice the magazine for one-half the price, but if I can make it an even better value, then I’ll do so. But I won’t raise the price.

For now, enjoy the new look and style of the magazine over the next couple of issues and look for an announcement about a size increase towards late summer or early fall.

Tom Kirkman

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