Over the years a few people
have asked me about my goals for VSN.
I think they couldn't understand why I do some of the things I do.
VSN has been around since 1993, with
a solid group of readers and an excellent reputation for gathering
a wide variety of cutting edge stamp related techniques, news, and
information.
Why
aren't we bigger? Why don't we publish bi-monthly rather than monthly?
Why don't we have 175 pages every issue and three times the number
of advertisers? Why aren't we in six hundred stores rather than two
hundred? Why don't we have five times the circulation? Why don't we
have a booth at every convention? Where are the glossy pages and full
color on every page? In other words, why doesn't VSN look like everyone
else and do things like everyone else?
My
answer is a gentle: Why should we? VSN has been a shared collaboration
among friends since the very beginning. While I try to be professional
and business-like in the way I run the administrative side of things,
VSN really is a homemade effort - literally! Comparing VSN to most
other publications really is an apples-to-oranges kind of thing.
VSN
has a staff of one - me! I write, I edit, I layout the issue. I
keep track of subscriptions, store and advertising accounts. I do
the ordering and plan future issues. I open every letter, keep up
with the email, answer the faxes and follow up on phone messages.
I hear the praise and I hear the complaints. The buck really does
stop here because there isn't anyplace else to stop it!
The
articles and artwork are a combined effort between readers (you!)
and myself. There are no professional writers. I have office space
in one room of my home where I work to put VSN together. The issues
are printed on the offset presses at the Sir Speedy print shop half
a mile from our home. When the printing is done, they drop it off,
stacking the boxes in the middle of our kitchen floor. Our dining
room is often full of the current issue waiting for samples and
our home storage room downstairs is full to the brim with back issues.
Our living room serves as a staging area for our monthly mail-out.
Sometimes the dining room table serves as a drying rack for samples
that I create by hand. I sometimes work at the picnic table in the
back yard when I have a messy project. When I want to get away from
my office for a while, I use my laptop computer and work on the
couch in the living room.
I
stick in all the samples for every issue by hand. My two children
and my mother often help me prepare and stuff the envelopes for
the monthly mailing. (I take care of this for the rest of the month.)
My husband loads the packed issues into his Explorer and drops it
at the post office up the road each month.
My
family will tell you that I work almost every day. Around my print
deadline and mail-out deadlines each month, I typically work fifteen-hour
days. Since I work in my home and we savor our privacy, I do not
have a staff and I do not want to hire one.
With
all of this in mind, you may understand why I like that VSN is a
small monthly publication with a circulation of around five thousand.
If our readership was as large as the other stamping publications
are, I couldn't produce VSN the way I do. It just is not logistically
possible to deal with five times the circulation without hiring
a staff and moving into office space. I could not keep three times
the advertisers and stores happy and I would not have time to put
together three times the pages in every issue.
VSN
is a small niche publication. I believe VSN has the best readers
around. I don't think we need to appeal to everyone - just you!
My goals for VSN have nothing to do with circulation or money. They
have to do with creating a handcrafted publication each month that
is interesting to read. They have to do with providing useful ideas
and techniques that you can really use. They have to do with encouraging
you to explore and experiment and have faith in your own creative
abilities. They have to do with introducing new companies and supporting
the companies and stores who have been serving the stamping community
so well over the years.
I
am content with my little niche in the stamp world. I think it is
an important niche. You don't have to have a huge circulation to
have an impact on the stamping community and the flow of ideas.
Just like you don't have to be a professional artist to come up
with something new. There is no shame in being a little guy. I'm
no David to someone else's Goliath. I am just doing my own thing
and am glad that you are here to share it!
~
Nancie
