Don't feel conned become a MAG NAG

[alanmack]

For those that do not follow SAMicro > A recent conversation was aired:

As you may know I was the editor of Microflight Africa last year. We experienced the same difficulties that Trixie is experiencing in getting magazine content in on time. We managed to get five issues out last year and it would seem that we may have emptied the creativity barrel of voluntary contributions. The migration to African Skies was founded on the understanding that a magazine with more professional input would be more sustainable. The contribution that Mike Blyth and the rest of the MISASA committee were called upon to make was substantial. My strategy to generating content was to establish promises for three times the required content from a core of “regular contributors”. Having missed an issue or two the “regular contributors” would generally deliver. Certain people, such as Larry McGilliwe, always stepped up to the plate at the last minute to fill a gap within hours of getting an SOS from me. I also believe that the membership enjoy looking at pictures more than what they tend to admit to. The pictures website that I established http://community.webshots.com/user/alanmack777 still gets some 4,000 hits a month and last year notched up over 400,000 hits. A lot of these pictures are yours that you offered to share. Another useful tactic was to review foreign websites and magazines and to phone people around the country with the suggestion of writing an article on a given topic. African Skies presents an enormous challenge for many reasons but mostly because of it’s size and secondly because of the new promise of the stepped up frequency of distribution.

I believe that our sport needs a magazine and so the possibility of not having one is a tad sad. As a flying community I believe that we need to intervene. My suggestion is that we seek to get a core of “ mag nags” to sign up here to contribute a minimum of two pages of content for six magazines a year. My suggestion is that in signing up to be a “mag nag” that you need not always write the content yourself but that you have the option of getting someone else to do so. The suggested submission dates are 1 Feb, 1 April, 1 June, 1 Aug, 1 Oct and 1 Dec. If each flight school signs up for two pages, if each MISASA committee member provides feedback on the portfolios that they manage, if twenty “mag nags” accept this challenge and a few others contribute pictures, story ideas or actual stories then Trixie will have the raw material she needs to edit us a great read six times a year.

So, I challenge you to sign up here to send Trixie 2 pages by the dates suggested above.

MAG NAG list
1. Nemo
2.

Fly safe
Alan Mackenzie

From: SAMicro@yahoogroups.com [mailto:SAMicro@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Warren Hill
Sent: 16 August 2007 12:31 PM
To: SAMicro@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: { SAMicro } Re mag

I have been in contact with Trixie (editor of African Skies) and herewith her reply:-

Hi Wart
So good to hear from you! I'm afraid I have never visited the site you're talking about, so thanks for letting me know – unfortunately I can't log on now, am doing a job at a client's office. The good news is that the long-awaited Issue 2 is slowly but surely forthcoming from my suppliers, and they will all be posted, couriered, delivered by the end of next week. I am already working on Issue 3, and as soon as the various official contributing aviation sectors (MISASA, SAGPA, EAA, AHASA) provide me with their content, this edition will be finalized. Because of the unforeseen delays I've been experiencing, African Skies will in effect roll out on a 6-weekly basis through to the end of the year.
I must tell you that I am being asked by all the regular readers and advertisers to bring it out on a monthly basis wef next year. I am seriously considering this, provided that I can be sure of getting the support of the various parties who, until now, have been giving me uphill in terms of getting their news and reports through to me in time, on time, every time. All the guys who are pushing for this increased publication frequency feel that it would be easier for the official contributors to keep on feeding information through to me on a monthly basis, as opposed to alternate monthly, because of the fact that they tend to shove it onto the back burner and forget everything until they're suddenly confronted with a nagging Scribe muttering about prowling dead"lions"!
Thanks again for the heads-up, hope this info helps!
Regards
Trixie
083 960 9268
editor@afskies.co.za
I hope that this clears up to a certain extent your questions?

Regards


On 16/08/07, Rainier Lamers <Rainier@iafrica.com> wrote:
At 07:16 PM 8/15/2007, you wrote:
I hope not.
I really liked the one issue we got, was ready to support it with some ads.
Anybody at all know if this is still a going concern or if it was a "flash in the pan" ?

Rainier

I say we got conned!!


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