I sent the below to the publisher just now. If you agree, speak up or forever hold your... whatever.
TO: '[email protected]'
Dear Mr. Breece:
I’ve just received my subscription copy of the January/February edition of WoodenBoat with the tear-off “false cover,” as you call it, which you explain protects the magazine in the mail, rather than the plastic bag in which it was previously mailed. You explain on the front of this sacrificial page that you have done away with the plastic mailing bags because “…
numerous subscribers have expressed environmental concerns over the plastic bags in which their copies of WoodenBoat were delivered.” You’ve asked for feedback about the condition in which our copies have been received. By some miracle from the hand of the Almighty, my copy arrived undamaged. Lucky you. This time around.
I’ve been subscribing to Wooden Boat since the early 1980’s, as I recall. I bought it at my local newsstand before then. I have a complete set of mint condition issues in WoodenBoat slipcovers. (The slipcovers being outrageously expensive at ten bucks each for what is essentially a cardboard box, but I digress.) I realize I may have been a subscriber longer than you’ve been wearing long pants. Obviously, you don’t remember the last time WoodenBoat stopped mailing copies in plastic bags, that being something your mailing contractor tried to foist off on us. You had subscribers surrounding your offices with pitchforks and torches that time and the problem was immediately rectified to everyone’s relief and satisfaction.
Make no mistake about it. A cheesy tear-off cover is not acceptable. Nobody wants a copy that looks like the cover has been torn off, which is exactly what it is. More importantly, if you think for a moment that mailing a magazine in the US Mail isn’t going to result in a high number of copies ending up torn, dog-eared, scuffed, folded, wet, and otherwise trashed, I’d like a hit of what you’re smokin’. I guess you don’t have a lot of experience with the mail. Are you going to guarantee that anybody who gets a trashed copy will get another one promptly sent to them upon demand? I don’t think you want to go there. I guess since you are the publisher, you must not have a boss, because I can’t imagine anybody who had a boss and did something like you’ve done not being told to start looking for another job.
I strongly suggest you “grow a pair” and tell the “numerous subscribers (who) have expressed environmental concerns over the plastic bags” to get over it. There are a lot more important environmental concerns than mailing a magazine in a plastic bag. Tell them if they’ve got their panties in a bunch all that much they can try one of the following alternatives:
1. Buy their copy at their local newsstand.
2. Subscribe to the on-line digital edition.
3. Recycle the plastic bags their print copy was mailed in. (As I do myself.)
4. Burn the plastic bags, which will result in a slight bit of air pollution, but will reduce the bag to a microscopic bit of ash and thereby eliminate any risk of a sea turtle ingesting it, should it ever end up in the ocean in the first place.
5. Drop dead immediately. I realize this last option may be considered a bit extreme, and it really does boil down to how serious they really are about preserving the environment. No matter how you cut it, suicide totally eliminates one’s personal carbon footprint which, if they continue living, will only continue to contribute to the degradation of the environment for as long as they live. This is truly the most effective thing any one person can do for the environment, but, unfortunately, all too many are content to wring their hands over “their concerns” and propose what others should be made to endure, rather than doing something truly effective themselves.
All kidding aside, your tear-off cover does nothing effective to protect your product. It was a really stupid idea the last time it was tried. It still is. You need to “man up” and admit you made a mistake trying to cater to a few fringe nut cases. If you really think you must mollify them, then mail the magazine in a non-plastic cardboard mailing envelope such as those the USPS gives away free for such use, or something similar.
Bob Cleek
Petaluma, CA
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