Re:thoughts on TAG woes (fwd)

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

>From Paul

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 22:31:44 -0600
From: Paul Krombholz <krombhol@teclink.net>
To: Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>
Subject: Re:thoughts on TAG woes

>On Tue, 13 Nov 2001, Paul Krombholz wrote:
>
>> I especially want to know what you and the others think of the idea of
>> making TAG less expensive and time consuming to print.  I don't think there
>> is necessarily any loss of value to the readers, and the next poor slob who
>> is the editor won't have such a daunting task publishing it.  Also, he or
>> she won't have to spend so much time chasing advertisers if we can do it
>> cheaper.
>
>Well, *MY* feeling is that we could get slightly better production values
>with TAG printed the same way it is now (black & white litho with
>occasional color inserts), by improving photo quality & size, and
>improving the visual layout & flow of things.  But in general it's not our
>production value or the cost of TAG that's our problem, it's tardiness and
>lack of good articles. Getting authors to write is a daunting process
>whether or not one prints in color or black & white, and whether there are
>ads or not.
>
I've always thought that getting good articles was the problem and that PAM
would not last very long because of that problem.  I was a little surprised
by Dave Gomberg's confidence in that area.  I think that we should
encourage more specific and limited articles about people's experiences
with a plant species or a specific tank, and we should try to get some
columns going in TAG.

>As to time consuming, I think doing it up in PageMaker & sending it to the
>printers is the least time-consuming.  Remember that part of what takes
>TAG so long right now is that Mary only edits the content.  Then she sends
>the individual articles and photos to Cheryl who actually does all the
>paste-up & sends it off to the printer.  As far as I know, Cheryl has
>never been late with that part of the job.

I have done work in PageMaker, and it never seemed too bad.  I don't know
how much time must be spent getting it in a form that the printer can do
his best with.
>
>I'm not particularly hot on printing it on an inkjet & having to collate
>the booklets.  This is what the Apistogramma Study group does.  Frankly,
>the results show.  It looks like something someone printed out on their
>printer at home and stapled together.  In its current form, TAG at least
>looks respectable.
>
I wasn't really thinking of doing it with an inkjet, but rather a color
laser printer.  Well, if it really isn't that much work or expense, then
let's stay with the present format.

Paul K.


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