Bill:
First off I resent your personal comments about my proactive approach in trying to market this magazine to swimmers. As an active non retired Masters coach and LMSC Chairman I did take a proactive approach to get the magazine early when you said on this website that we would be receiving the magazine a little later than usual. I went around to bookstores and the biggest swim shop to see if any would be delivered there to market this product to new swimmers who have registered in the last month. These venues used to carry the USMS publication magazine and I asked if there were plans to stock future issues.
In the past I used to buy several issues in advance because the bookstores and swim shops would have them well in advance of swimmers. I never once heard or read about a final decision about the newsstand presence and since there was a lack of a business plan I never saw a cost issue or a huge budget consideration. In fact I talked to Grant Murphy myself at the USAS convention and asked him if there was potential for newstand presence and he said YES. I made an error when I said a cost of $1.30 an issue for overruns when in fact the figure was $.30 and this documented in the January EC minutes. I can and will provide the online content for people that are not online not only for my team but for anyone in the LMSC. I did not read anything about any differences in content between the online version and printed copied version until someone pointed this out a few days ago because we could not access articles of interest on the website. As a temporary situation this is ok, however I have some suggestions for improvement in the future because I want to see this magazine prosper.
1. Lack of consistency between the online version and the printed mailed version? Do what your doing now but take a lesson from Swim Publications and provide all of the content online and set up a system where a USMS member can provide there USMS # for access similar to how people register to participate on this discussion forum. Make available "Going the Distance", Freestyle Open Turns", and Life Lessons". This way a new swimmer can have full access to the entire magazine and not bits and pieces and there would not be considerably less incentive for potential new members to join the organization. Plus this meets the objective of a growing archive which will allow any registered master swimmer to have access at all times. Having this archive ensures anyone besides the new people to be able to find it easily in case the magazine gets lost or damaged.
2. Lack of Marketing outside of USMS? You did address newsstand presence and the potential for it in the future. How about the local swim swim shops and prefered dealers. These are the national swim shops that are in Splash magazine that I know you are fimilar with since your one of there special correspondents. Some of these dealers are USMS sponsors and it would not hurt if they were stocked with extra overuns as a regular channel of distribution. In fact I was asked by my local swim shop if USMS plans to market and promote this new publication like we did in the past. At .30 an issue, I really believe this has to be explored especially with past swimming vendors who promoted and sold the USMS publication.
3. Lack of promotional opportunities to the LMSC, Club, and new swimmers who join the organization and can't immediately get issue. It would not hurt to send promotional copies to people that request it. I really don't know if this would be to costly but it would be nice to display a copy at a clinic, open water event, or a swim meet for non members that may join. This is similar to newsletters being displayed at these events.
4. USMS members should be entitled to full benefits of the magazine. I read your statistics and won't disagree with them. You do assume that everyone that has an e-mail address can use the internet easily and be able to do things equally. I found in my experience that is not the case with people that are older. Also as I talk to people there is something about getting the full content in one settting having nice color printed graphics and layout. Having it in one piece provides easy reading and storage in one piece. If its not to costly, it would be good to have everything together in one nice piece. This is very similar to LMSC's still doing full published newsletters even though they provide the content on their websites.
Hopefully you will look at these suggestions as proactive and positive for the new publication and in support of the Core Objectives of USMS which is to service, educate, and build the membership.
Bill:
First off I resent your personal comments about my proactive approach in trying to market this magazine to swimmers. As an active non retired Masters coach and LMSC Chairman I did take a proactive approach to get the magazine early when you said on this website that we would be receiving the magazine a little later than usual. I went around to bookstores and the biggest swim shop to see if any would be delivered there to market this product to new swimmers who have registered in the last month. These venues used to carry the USMS publication magazine and I asked if there were plans to stock future issues.
In the past I used to buy several issues in advance because the bookstores and swim shops would have them well in advance of swimmers. I never once heard or read about a final decision about the newsstand presence and since there was a lack of a business plan I never saw a cost issue or a huge budget consideration. In fact I talked to Grant Murphy myself at the USAS convention and asked him if there was potential for newstand presence and he said YES. I made an error when I said a cost of $1.30 an issue for overruns when in fact the figure was $.30 and this documented in the January EC minutes. I can and will provide the online content for people that are not online not only for my team but for anyone in the LMSC. I did not read anything about any differences in content between the online version and printed copied version until someone pointed this out a few days ago because we could not access articles of interest on the website. As a temporary situation this is ok, however I have some suggestions for improvement in the future because I want to see this magazine prosper.
1. Lack of consistency between the online version and the printed mailed version? Do what your doing now but take a lesson from Swim Publications and provide all of the content online and set up a system where a USMS member can provide there USMS # for access similar to how people register to participate on this discussion forum. Make available "Going the Distance", Freestyle Open Turns", and Life Lessons". This way a new swimmer can have full access to the entire magazine and not bits and pieces and there would not be considerably less incentive for potential new members to join the organization. Plus this meets the objective of a growing archive which will allow any registered master swimmer to have access at all times. Having this archive ensures anyone besides the new people to be able to find it easily in case the magazine gets lost or damaged.
2. Lack of Marketing outside of USMS? You did address newsstand presence and the potential for it in the future. How about the local swim swim shops and prefered dealers. These are the national swim shops that are in Splash magazine that I know you are fimilar with since your one of there special correspondents. Some of these dealers are USMS sponsors and it would not hurt if they were stocked with extra overuns as a regular channel of distribution. In fact I was asked by my local swim shop if USMS plans to market and promote this new publication like we did in the past. At .30 an issue, I really believe this has to be explored especially with past swimming vendors who promoted and sold the USMS publication.
3. Lack of promotional opportunities to the LMSC, Club, and new swimmers who join the organization and can't immediately get issue. It would not hurt to send promotional copies to people that request it. I really don't know if this would be to costly but it would be nice to display a copy at a clinic, open water event, or a swim meet for non members that may join. This is similar to newsletters being displayed at these events.
4. USMS members should be entitled to full benefits of the magazine. I read your statistics and won't disagree with them. You do assume that everyone that has an e-mail address can use the internet easily and be able to do things equally. I found in my experience that is not the case with people that are older. Also as I talk to people there is something about getting the full content in one settting having nice color printed graphics and layout. Having it in one piece provides easy reading and storage in one piece. If its not to costly, it would be good to have everything together in one nice piece. This is very similar to LMSC's still doing full published newsletters even though they provide the content on their websites.
Hopefully you will look at these suggestions as proactive and positive for the new publication and in support of the Core Objectives of USMS which is to service, educate, and build the membership.
