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Darian Rachal

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I read somewhere, either on rmr or ROL, that ER was having financial difficulty & laid off a great deal of the staff. It's been awhile since I subscribed. Has anyone else heard this? I'd just be interested in the opinions of TRF members regarding ER magazine. :)
 
I like ER magazine. I don't have a subscription - yet. (It's one of those ten thousand things I keep meaning to do but keep forgetting.)

I bought issue no. 31 the other day. In it the editor, Brent McNeely, talks about having to cut way down on the number of full color pages so that he could reduce expenses. He doesn't say anything about laying people off. Mr. McNeely says that he has done the arithmetic on the revised format and that he figures he can keep producing the magazine in it's new format. IF circulation increases significantly or he picks up more advertisers, then he will be able to add more full color pages.

I sincerely hope the magazine hangs in there. We need all the press we can get. Plus, I like ER. :D
 
I have mixed feelings about ER. The photography, graphics, and layout are first-rate, although I've found a lot of the writing to be poorly edited for grammar and spelling (that's picky but I was an English major. Pity me).

Unfortunately the content leaves a lot to be desired - one can usually read an issue cover-to-cover in an hour or so. And I've found a lot of articles lifted directly from the internet. It's not been every single issue, but it's often enough to get my attention. It's a very well-put-together mag but why pay six bucks an issue when I've already seen half of it for free?

They have a real chicken-and-egg problem. Personally, I'm not going to subscribe unless the content improves, but how can it improve if no one is buying?
 
I agree with Chilly - the writing and editing and especially grammar is like nails on chalk board. I'm not an English major but I read a lot. my wife is a technical writer and editor and she agrees. I was going to send an issue back to McNeely with just a few corrections circled in red pencil but the whole **** issue turned red. how do I make any positive suggestions out of that?!??

how do we improve it? write something! anything, articles, letters, product reviews, whatever.

... unfortunately "extreme rocketry" for most of us just means fiberglassing something. or maybe flying a cluster of E9s in your Richter Recker :)


but the photos can't be beat - anywhere!


it's a tough situation for McNeely. how many HPR fliers are there anyways? less than 5000 I'd bet.
 
I concur with all of the above. I also read where the editor talked about cutting back because the mag wasn't really making any money, that was why the black and white transition. I really think if a Bi-monthly pub was done right, it could really take off (sorry). There are so many great facets of this hobby, one would think there would always be a subject to explore!
 
Thanks for the responses. I used to enjoy HPR years ago when it was published on a regular basis.
 
To ER's credit, they make it a point to solicit articles from readers and seem to recognize that they can't provide everything. This is still a small hobby and any magazine will rely heavily on its readership for articles. Those people are largely not going to be professional writers, which requires more agressive editing.

I've offered to write for them and have submitted some ideas, but it wasn't what they were looking for. I'm new to HPR and my technical skills just aren't up to par, although I think my writing skills are.

Tim Quigg, you out there? Any chance you guys are looking for a "content" editor?
 
CLS brought up a good point - ER caters to High Power and that's probably too small a market outside of a club mag (i.e. Tripoli). It should certainly remained focused on HPR but why not throw in some MPR and LPR stuff? Maybe target 60% of the content for high power and allocate the rest for mid-power and/or modrocs. That might draw in more readers.
 
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