I understand Izzy 
on which Stan. I get the Larry reference too..........
on which Stan. I get the Larry reference too..........
Toyota Trails
- Thread starter David70FJ40
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Hey guys, I wanted to post up and clear the air. I fear that you have the wrong impression and I wanted to reach out.
For starters, if anything I wrote in reply to David's email sounded like a snub, I apologize wholeheartedly. That was never my intention and is not who I am.
I'd like to talk about the Relic Run first. When John originally sent that article to me we were also working on completing the ONSC Chapter Spotlight at the same time. I received files and photos for both. After opening the photo files for the Relic Run, I immediately emailed John to tell him how much I loved this event, story and photos. I wanted every photo in the Relic Run file to use for prominent positioning in the magazine, most notably, cover photos. My plan was to use six of them to span all six issues of 2017. They checked every box for what I had in mind for cover shots for the year and new style of publication. I only get six shots at creating a cover that will grab your attention when the magazine hits your doorstep. The cover, Trail Views and Trails End sections are extremely important to me because I feel they represent our membership and our readers, without a word needed. For that reason, I was left with very few photos to include with the Relic Run story. (I will not run the same photos on the cover that will appear in the body of the story)
I could have published the RR story with just a few photos, but the photos truly tell the real story to that run. The props used and the clothing worn make the event one of a kind. I was beyond impressed. In the end, I didn't feel that a summer run with limited photos fit well into a winter issue. I can assure you that I have no intention of hurting our clubs, chapters or members. I am not west coast biased in any way. I'm a native East Coaster and all of my family still lives up and down the East Coast. Between my wife and I, there is no one that we're related to that lives farther west than her and I. I am not trying to only publish West Coast material, I just do not have any content from back east. Every East Coast event, story or photo that I have has been used. (with exception to the RR photos)
I did not intend to sound snarky in my response to David when I said that I cannot print what I do not have. That's just the blunt answer to being told that it seems as though I'm only concerned with West Coast material. The fact remains that many stories that I receive are about East Coast members traveling west to enjoy the abundance of wide-open public land that we have here. That's exactly why I left the mountains of New York and moved to Colorado to raise my family. We enjoy the ability to hit dirt just outside of Denver and remain off the pavement for 5-6 days without paying any land fees or trespassing on any private land. It seems as though there has been a shift in our membership that has folks seeking those same things as well. That's not right or wrong, it just is what it is.
The only East Coast material that I'm currently holding (aside from the RR photos) is a short article on the Southern Cruiser Crawl and a few photos that Alex sent from the fishing weekend y'all were on. I am using both of those in the upcoming issue. I have a few international articles (I try to limit those to one per issue when I can) and 9 stories about West Coast travel. Believe me, I'm tired of the same Moab photos over and over again too. Make no mistake, I love Colorado. I like Utah a lot too but I do not select stories or photos based on what I like. Up until recently, I was publishing every single piece that I received because I didn't have anything else.
My injury had absolutely no impact on Trails and I have never (nor would I) use that as any excuse. I was humbled that so many TLCA friends offered help, donated time and money and came to visit while I was in the hospital. I created the Nov/Dec 2015 issue from my hospital bed on an iPad. The only reason that I include injury updates to some of my Trail Head pieces is because I still get a fair amount of messages asking how I'm doing. It's also cathartic for me to get some of it out of my head and onto a blank sheet of paper.
I'd also like to address the Chapter Reports. John is the only TLCA member sending reports for his chapter. I completely missed one a few issues back, but every storyboard that I create has a page dedicated to ONSC Chapter Reports because I know John will always have content for me. I always email him and thank him for his well written submissions and I let him know that ONSC is the only chapter actively involved in every issue. The reason the current report is in the back of the magazine is simply because that's where I think it fits the best from a publishing standpoint. Although we only have 3,000+ members, Toyota Trails is shipped around the world. It's also shipped to many Toyota dealerships throughout North America and is placed in waiting areas, parts counters and many vendors/shops. I'm trying to increase our memberships and advertisers with every issue. I want someone to sit down and see TT on a table in front of them and be intrigued enough by the cover to open it up. Then I want them to start reading it and thumbing through the pages. Our members are probably going to read every issue cover to cover, so the majority of the "club business" content will be near the back of the book. Not because I'm trying to slight anyone, but because that's how I've decided to piece each issue together. I start every issue with a Word document with numbers 1-56 signifying each page in the magazine. With the stories/articles and content that I have, I start piecing together a puzzle to make sure I have room for everything that I have planned for that issue. First priority is always given to TLCA events. That doesn't mean they'll be the first story you see, it just means that I will ensure there is space available. Often times I will get a submission two days after the deadline and I already have the storyboard puzzle completed. Every ad, every photo and every caption has a place. Trying to replace a story at the last moment means removing all of those puzzle pieces and starting over. It's incredibly time consuming and difficult to do. Therefore, I will keep certain recurring items near the same place in every issue. The first six pages and the last eight pages will generally be the same in terms of what you will find. I will change them around a little to give the appearance of something new, but you probably wont see the Chapter Reports anywhere else but in the last eight pages. It's just the design flow that works best for me when putting this together. The ONSC Chapter Spotlight begins on page 10 of the Sept/Oct 2016 issue. It's the first story to appear in the book. Club business (reports, for sale, directory, merchandise) will be in the back of the book. That's how I believe the magazine should flow. If you disagree, I'm open to hear suggestions. I have said many times that this is not my magazine. It belongs to all of us as TLCA. Obviously if I took suggestions from all 3100 TLCA members, the magazine would be all over the place. I won't let that happen so I need to have a design that I feel works best for TLCA and Toyota Trails.
I am available at any time to chat. Please accept my apology for not getting the Relic Run in print in a timely manner. I answer emails all day long about Trails, content, photos, potential stories, etc. I should have been more open with John when I decided to withhold the RR story because I wanted the photos instead. Trails would look considerably different if John had never sent the RR files to me originally. As soon as I saw Alex's photos I knew that I found what I was looking for in terms style/look and design. I reached out to John immediately asking for Alex's contact info. The rest is what arrived in your mailbox a few weeks ago. I'm proud of what Alex and I are doing and I think we're off to a grand start. ONSC is one of the most active chapters that we have in TLCA. If you send it, I'll publish it. The posts in this thread seem to indicate that I'm ignoring your submissions but I can assure you that I am not. I simply do not have any. I will occasionally get photo submissions that were taken on a flip-phone, with no story and very little substance to the photo. That's not really printable content. As I mentioned earlier, the main photos are very important as we only get six shots per year at those. Photos within a story can be more forgiving because some will not span two pages. Alex has an incredible gift for photography and I'm sure he can help any of you with what we're looking for from a photo standpoint.
Again, I'm available to hear any complaint and any suggestion. Feel free to call/email/text. I appreciate David's email and it's sometimes difficult to articulate a feeling over email, but I am not, in any way, trying to diminish or exclude anything from our East Coast chapters. I may be a Yankee, but my roots are firmly planted up and down the East Coast. Thanks for taking the time to read. I truly appreciate the passion and suggestions. I'm only trying to make TLCA and Trails better and I could absolutely use your help. This magazine is whatever we, as an organization, decide to make it.
Stan Wright
editor@tlca.org
7175805455 cell
For starters, if anything I wrote in reply to David's email sounded like a snub, I apologize wholeheartedly. That was never my intention and is not who I am.
I'd like to talk about the Relic Run first. When John originally sent that article to me we were also working on completing the ONSC Chapter Spotlight at the same time. I received files and photos for both. After opening the photo files for the Relic Run, I immediately emailed John to tell him how much I loved this event, story and photos. I wanted every photo in the Relic Run file to use for prominent positioning in the magazine, most notably, cover photos. My plan was to use six of them to span all six issues of 2017. They checked every box for what I had in mind for cover shots for the year and new style of publication. I only get six shots at creating a cover that will grab your attention when the magazine hits your doorstep. The cover, Trail Views and Trails End sections are extremely important to me because I feel they represent our membership and our readers, without a word needed. For that reason, I was left with very few photos to include with the Relic Run story. (I will not run the same photos on the cover that will appear in the body of the story)
I could have published the RR story with just a few photos, but the photos truly tell the real story to that run. The props used and the clothing worn make the event one of a kind. I was beyond impressed. In the end, I didn't feel that a summer run with limited photos fit well into a winter issue. I can assure you that I have no intention of hurting our clubs, chapters or members. I am not west coast biased in any way. I'm a native East Coaster and all of my family still lives up and down the East Coast. Between my wife and I, there is no one that we're related to that lives farther west than her and I. I am not trying to only publish West Coast material, I just do not have any content from back east. Every East Coast event, story or photo that I have has been used. (with exception to the RR photos)
I did not intend to sound snarky in my response to David when I said that I cannot print what I do not have. That's just the blunt answer to being told that it seems as though I'm only concerned with West Coast material. The fact remains that many stories that I receive are about East Coast members traveling west to enjoy the abundance of wide-open public land that we have here. That's exactly why I left the mountains of New York and moved to Colorado to raise my family. We enjoy the ability to hit dirt just outside of Denver and remain off the pavement for 5-6 days without paying any land fees or trespassing on any private land. It seems as though there has been a shift in our membership that has folks seeking those same things as well. That's not right or wrong, it just is what it is.
The only East Coast material that I'm currently holding (aside from the RR photos) is a short article on the Southern Cruiser Crawl and a few photos that Alex sent from the fishing weekend y'all were on. I am using both of those in the upcoming issue. I have a few international articles (I try to limit those to one per issue when I can) and 9 stories about West Coast travel. Believe me, I'm tired of the same Moab photos over and over again too. Make no mistake, I love Colorado. I like Utah a lot too but I do not select stories or photos based on what I like. Up until recently, I was publishing every single piece that I received because I didn't have anything else.
My injury had absolutely no impact on Trails and I have never (nor would I) use that as any excuse. I was humbled that so many TLCA friends offered help, donated time and money and came to visit while I was in the hospital. I created the Nov/Dec 2015 issue from my hospital bed on an iPad. The only reason that I include injury updates to some of my Trail Head pieces is because I still get a fair amount of messages asking how I'm doing. It's also cathartic for me to get some of it out of my head and onto a blank sheet of paper.
I'd also like to address the Chapter Reports. John is the only TLCA member sending reports for his chapter. I completely missed one a few issues back, but every storyboard that I create has a page dedicated to ONSC Chapter Reports because I know John will always have content for me. I always email him and thank him for his well written submissions and I let him know that ONSC is the only chapter actively involved in every issue. The reason the current report is in the back of the magazine is simply because that's where I think it fits the best from a publishing standpoint. Although we only have 3,000+ members, Toyota Trails is shipped around the world. It's also shipped to many Toyota dealerships throughout North America and is placed in waiting areas, parts counters and many vendors/shops. I'm trying to increase our memberships and advertisers with every issue. I want someone to sit down and see TT on a table in front of them and be intrigued enough by the cover to open it up. Then I want them to start reading it and thumbing through the pages. Our members are probably going to read every issue cover to cover, so the majority of the "club business" content will be near the back of the book. Not because I'm trying to slight anyone, but because that's how I've decided to piece each issue together. I start every issue with a Word document with numbers 1-56 signifying each page in the magazine. With the stories/articles and content that I have, I start piecing together a puzzle to make sure I have room for everything that I have planned for that issue. First priority is always given to TLCA events. That doesn't mean they'll be the first story you see, it just means that I will ensure there is space available. Often times I will get a submission two days after the deadline and I already have the storyboard puzzle completed. Every ad, every photo and every caption has a place. Trying to replace a story at the last moment means removing all of those puzzle pieces and starting over. It's incredibly time consuming and difficult to do. Therefore, I will keep certain recurring items near the same place in every issue. The first six pages and the last eight pages will generally be the same in terms of what you will find. I will change them around a little to give the appearance of something new, but you probably wont see the Chapter Reports anywhere else but in the last eight pages. It's just the design flow that works best for me when putting this together. The ONSC Chapter Spotlight begins on page 10 of the Sept/Oct 2016 issue. It's the first story to appear in the book. Club business (reports, for sale, directory, merchandise) will be in the back of the book. That's how I believe the magazine should flow. If you disagree, I'm open to hear suggestions. I have said many times that this is not my magazine. It belongs to all of us as TLCA. Obviously if I took suggestions from all 3100 TLCA members, the magazine would be all over the place. I won't let that happen so I need to have a design that I feel works best for TLCA and Toyota Trails.
I am available at any time to chat. Please accept my apology for not getting the Relic Run in print in a timely manner. I answer emails all day long about Trails, content, photos, potential stories, etc. I should have been more open with John when I decided to withhold the RR story because I wanted the photos instead. Trails would look considerably different if John had never sent the RR files to me originally. As soon as I saw Alex's photos I knew that I found what I was looking for in terms style/look and design. I reached out to John immediately asking for Alex's contact info. The rest is what arrived in your mailbox a few weeks ago. I'm proud of what Alex and I are doing and I think we're off to a grand start. ONSC is one of the most active chapters that we have in TLCA. If you send it, I'll publish it. The posts in this thread seem to indicate that I'm ignoring your submissions but I can assure you that I am not. I simply do not have any. I will occasionally get photo submissions that were taken on a flip-phone, with no story and very little substance to the photo. That's not really printable content. As I mentioned earlier, the main photos are very important as we only get six shots per year at those. Photos within a story can be more forgiving because some will not span two pages. Alex has an incredible gift for photography and I'm sure he can help any of you with what we're looking for from a photo standpoint.
Again, I'm available to hear any complaint and any suggestion. Feel free to call/email/text. I appreciate David's email and it's sometimes difficult to articulate a feeling over email, but I am not, in any way, trying to diminish or exclude anything from our East Coast chapters. I may be a Yankee, but my roots are firmly planted up and down the East Coast. Thanks for taking the time to read. I truly appreciate the passion and suggestions. I'm only trying to make TLCA and Trails better and I could absolutely use your help. This magazine is whatever we, as an organization, decide to make it.
Stan Wright
editor@tlca.org
7175805455 cell
It takes a lot to come to a group of people with complaints, address them, then challenge them all in the same statement. I think you've earned a lot of respect within ONSC by putting this post up, so sincerely, thank you
Challenge accepted. Time to buck up and buy a better camera so that I can get legitimate shots of the runs we do (where alex/jonathan can't attend) so we can get more articles your way.
Thank you Stan,
P.S. Where in NY did you move from? I moved away from Upstate NY as well.
- Thread starter
- #44
Brave man, especially considering this group. Thanks Stan for taking the time to address the concerns.
As a person with severe back issues, I realize how much they can hurt. (Spinal stenosis L4, bone spurs, compressed discs, arthritis) I would never wish this even on my worst enemy. Glad you are on the mend.
As a person with severe back issues, I realize how much they can hurt. (Spinal stenosis L4, bone spurs, compressed discs, arthritis) I would never wish this even on my worst enemy. Glad you are on the mend.
It takes a lot to come to a group of people with complaints, address them, then challenge them all in the same statement. I think you've earned a lot of respect within ONSC by putting this post up, so sincerely, thank you
P.S. Where in NY did you move from? I moved away from Upstate NY as well.
Thank you!
Although after making that post I thought about it for a while and I owe ONSC a better explanation and an apology. I chose not to feature the Relic Run solely because I wanted to use the photos from it to display on the cover. That's really not what this should be about and I'm going to consider things from a different perspective moving forward. My apologies.
And I moved from Stone Ridge, NY. It's a small town in the Mid-Hudson Valley. I graduated from Kingston High School, so that would explain most of my grammatical errors.
I will start brining my DSLR (yes I know how to properly use it I am not an auto settings guy) to the meetups that we do out here and any other meetings I can attend I will definately bring it will be part of my vehicle kit going forward.
Stan,
Something tells me that you won't have any trouble getting good cover shots from now on. ONSC is on it!
Dave
Something tells me that you won't have any trouble getting good cover shots from now on. ONSC is on it!
Dave
- Thread starter
- #48
One suggestion, tie the cover photo to an article inside like the larger national mags do. Add a small tag line on the cover to point to the larger article inside.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Just my 2 cents worth.
No need to apologize further, your point was well taken!!! We'll take this as an opportunity to provide TT with more content.
I'm from Schenectady, NY, went to school in Rochester. I've never been to Stone Ridge, but I know where it is! We used to play Kingston in all of our sports divisions
Small world.
Just wanted to say before I read this I was pissed because I knew how much the article meant to this amazing growing club. But your response pretty much changed my mind. I still think the article could have been published because a simple post to the club would have probably produce more pictures people had taken that never published online. I know I took a bunch but never posted anything. Even some crappy pics would have been better than none. But to choose not to publish articles by any chapter because they don't fit the bill doesn't make sense for a magazine who's base is the very people submitting articles good or bad. Now if TLCA would open up publishing to the world and have it available to magazine vendors. Then yes I can see a whole new reason why you want premier articles. Something I have suggested many times for many years. But if TLCA is publishing a magazine simply to draw more members/aka subscribers then it has lost the battle. It's not TT that should drive membership. It's because we are land cruiser enthusiast who want to be part of group.
I did my best to try to not burn the bridge.
I think TLCA could be so much more if it would put more emphasis on the clubs instead of the individual member.
The Relic Run article will appear in the Mar/April issue. If you have photos, I probably did not receive those. You can either send them to me or Alex.
We will never be a newsstand publication. It's not what the BOD wants and it's not as simple as just saying let's go to the newsstand. The cost to put a magazine on the newsstand is astronomical compared to what we have in the bank. Our ad rates would have to triple (at least) and we'd immediately lose most of the TLCA businesses that advertise in Toyota Trails.
Someone else mentioned using a cover photo that coincides with a story on the interior of the magazine. That would be easy except that so few stories have photos that are of a high enough quality to be used on the cover. The last time I was able to do that was the Sept/Oct 2016 issue. I will also be doing it for the upcoming issue. That's the best I can tell everyone. I'm as open as I can be on this.
Being upset at something I am doing is fine, but that's never the time to consider leaving or just toss your copy of Trails in the recycle bin. It's the perfect time to lead the way and effect change. My email and phone number are listed above. Email or call anytime. My contact info is also listed in the magazine. I'll make mistakes along the way and when I do, I'll step up, own it and try harder next time.
We will never be a newsstand publication. It's not what the BOD wants and it's not as simple as just saying let's go to the newsstand. The cost to put a magazine on the newsstand is astronomical compared to what we have in the bank. Our ad rates would have to triple (at least) and we'd immediately lose most of the TLCA businesses that advertise in Toyota Trails.
Someone else mentioned using a cover photo that coincides with a story on the interior of the magazine. That would be easy except that so few stories have photos that are of a high enough quality to be used on the cover. The last time I was able to do that was the Sept/Oct 2016 issue. I will also be doing it for the upcoming issue. That's the best I can tell everyone. I'm as open as I can be on this.
Being upset at something I am doing is fine, but that's never the time to consider leaving or just toss your copy of Trails in the recycle bin. It's the perfect time to lead the way and effect change. My email and phone number are listed above. Email or call anytime. My contact info is also listed in the magazine. I'll make mistakes along the way and when I do, I'll step up, own it and try harder next time.
Well that's a change of events. I'm looking forward to reading it and the timing will be great!
- Thread starter
- #54
OK ladies and gentlemen; I started this thread by spouting off and I fear the thread has taken on a life of its own.
I suggested we flood TT with articles and high quality photos to see what happens. I still think this is a great option. I stated my copy of TT hit the recycle bin immediately after reading, I was highly disappointed. I suggested that I was reconsidering if I would renew my TLCA member ship when the time came. That is my option. No matter, I will stay with OSNC! I stated that the cover photo of TT might be used to point to a featured article inside. Knowing a photo might be used on the cover could be the reason someone takes time to produce high quality photos and not just the cell phone kind. Knowing the cover photo leads to a featured article inside might be just what it takes to garner more submissions from the TLCA as a whole and maybe force the membership to expand and for TT to become a larger publication. All of this I take ownership of and apologize to anyone who might have been offended or had their nose pushed out of joint. The TLCA and OSNC are still fledgling organizations with massive amounts of room to grow and flourish and I hope to be part of that for a long time to come.
So, with all that said, get your trucks ready, get a good camera, polish up your smiles and participate with OSNC as only we can. Who knows, this club might just become the shining example of leadership and ability for the LC community as a whole in the near future.
I suggested we flood TT with articles and high quality photos to see what happens. I still think this is a great option. I stated my copy of TT hit the recycle bin immediately after reading, I was highly disappointed. I suggested that I was reconsidering if I would renew my TLCA member ship when the time came. That is my option. No matter, I will stay with OSNC! I stated that the cover photo of TT might be used to point to a featured article inside. Knowing a photo might be used on the cover could be the reason someone takes time to produce high quality photos and not just the cell phone kind. Knowing the cover photo leads to a featured article inside might be just what it takes to garner more submissions from the TLCA as a whole and maybe force the membership to expand and for TT to become a larger publication. All of this I take ownership of and apologize to anyone who might have been offended or had their nose pushed out of joint. The TLCA and OSNC are still fledgling organizations with massive amounts of room to grow and flourish and I hope to be part of that for a long time to come.
So, with all that said, get your trucks ready, get a good camera, polish up your smiles and participate with OSNC as only we can. Who knows, this club might just become the shining example of leadership and ability for the LC community as a whole in the near future.
This is precisely why so many newsstand publishers are either having a tough time of it or are broke. Publications on the newsstands aren't as popular as they once were. Advertisers aren't seeing the same benefit they once were to print advertising, so they either haggle the price of a print ad down or they pull out of a publication. Publishers are forced to drop ad prices to keep advertisers happy, but in reality they can't. So starts the vicious cycle.
EDIT: I should also add that this is especially true for trade publications.
You running the next raffle?
He already won