Re: PAM

[krandall@world.std.com]

At 09:48 PM 9/14/99 -0700, Dave Gomberg wrote:
>My perspective on these issues is this:
>
>I believe Herlong (like any other long-term hard worker) has his enemies in
>ACA.  And I have no doubt that he may have had past problems in assembling
>content.  And that these may have made issues appear late (as they have
>with Neil in the past when he couldn't get good content and had to delay
>publication).
>
>That said and agreed, I do not see any relevance of this to PAM (Planted
>Aquaria Magazine).  Herlong will be in charge of production and
>advertising, not editorial content.   I am very pleased with how BB looks
>(except the last two issues where they decided to cut costs and in my
>opinion severely compromised the appearance).
>
>The person who says where the content comes from and is it good enough and
>are we ready is me (with Neil's help if he wishes).  If the AGA board feels
>I am doing it wrong they should tell me so, and wrong how, and how they
>want it done instead.  We may agree about this or we may disagree and
>discuss it further.   And in the end the PAM board will be the final
>arbiter.  If AGA has a majority of PAM stock, it will run the PAM board
>(subject to minority stockholder rights, if applicable).  
>
>Now I may not be able to do much better than Herlong has, but I have one
>trump card.   We pay our authors.  So we can fairly ask them to put out
>quality stuff on time.  And if needed, we can pay from the author money for
>editing (if the submission has terrible quality).
>
>Now Herlong will have NOTHING TO SAY about what goes into PAM.  So I don't
>think his views on collecting trips are very relevant.    
>
>If this does not tell you what you needed to know please ask more.   Any
>anyone posting on the subject of PAM, please be sure to copy me.    Thanks.

I was waiting for Dave G's response, but from my conversations with him,
this was my understanding.  We will be using Dave H. only for production
and advertising.  The rest of the decision making is done elsewhere.  I
think this should be enough to keep Dave H. on track.  Plus the BIG fact
that Dave H. will be paid also. (I don't believe ACA pays him)  He will
have more of a responsibility to come through in a paid position.

Fiinally a word about stock holders.  IMO, it is very important that AGA
become the majority stockholder in this venture.  I think it is money well
spent, and allows us to keep the magazine within our control to a greater
extent.

Karen