Editorial

Issue #5, Spring 1996

Welcome to this fifth issue of Certified Male. As you can see, we've survived the first year, and are well into the second.

It's been a lot of work, but the enormous amount of encouragement I get from readers has made it worthwhile.

As well as providing intelligent reading for and by men, my motivation for publishing Certified Male is to provide a resource for media commentators interested in men's issues. This aspiration is certainly being fulfilled - on average I receive an enquiry every day from people who read or know about Certified Male and want information or contacts to help with an article or submission they are writing, to be put in contact with men to seek their views on a particular issue, and a whole range of other enquiries. Quite a number of media personalities and journalists receive Certified Male either as paying subscribers or as part of my media mailing list.

So far, there are just over 300 subscribers, and another 200 copies are sold here and there. As you can see, Certified Male carries very little paid advertising, and due to the small subscriber base, the magazine runs at a loss (which comes mainly out of my pocket).

To make a real impact, and to enable me to keep on publishing, we need to build our readership to many thousands. Without an advertising budget, promotion must be primarily word-of-mouth. From the enthusiastic feedback I receive, I know that readers love Certified Male. They tell me it is filling a need. So if you are a satisfied reader, please spread the news. Get your friends to subscribe, or buy them gift subscriptions. With Christmas coming up soon, I'm sure you can think of a few friends who would appreciate the thought.

If you know any bookshops or newsagents that might like to sell Certified Male, please help out by establishing contact.

Also, think about giving a gift subscription to an institution you think might benefit from receiving Certified Male - the local highschool, a prison library, your municipal library, a member of parliament.

You can also help by advertising or placing a sponsorship notice. For most businesses, the cost can be claimed as a tax deduction. A sponsorship notice is like an advertisement, except the sponsor offers to pay more than the regular advertising rate to support our work while at the same time building goodwill for their business.

s well as increasing our readership, you can help Certified Male by applying your talents to writing articles about anything that might be of interest to our readers. We also need photographs showing men and boys doing interesting or unusual things, drawings or cartoons, poetry, jokes or anything else to keep these pages alive and readable.

If you have any skills that you would like to volunteer to help with production, please give me a call. We can always use help with typing, editing, proofreading, layout etc.

I hope you enjoy this second year of Certified Male. Please keep in touch; and spread the word.

Peter Vogel, Editor

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