April 1991, Page 93

Publishers' Page

Whew! And Thanks!

Readers of this page who thought they detected a note of desperation in last month's appeal to join our Angels' Choir were right. We didn't have enough money to pay the March printing bill, and there was going to be no April edition until we did.

First, the Good News

This is the April edition. Thanks, new angels, and 1990 angels who re-enlisted for 1991, for making it possible.

Now for the Better News

Both the publisher and executive editor went to different parts of the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf for what turned out to be the liberation of Kuwait. When one of them returned after a three-week absence he jokingly said to circulation manager Catherine Willford, "I assume you've signed up a thousand new subscribers in my absence?"

"I haven't finished entering the new subscriptions," she answered cautiously, "but you may be surprised.

We Were Surprised

We learned subsequently that more than 1,000 new subscribers will be receiving this April edition, after the best month for new subscriptions since last November, which had been the best in the magazine's nine-year history.

And Now the Best News of All

A consortium we had put together of business people, all of whom have previously contributed to this magazine as individuals, obviously includes some accountants. They asked us this month if the fact that we provide library and opinion molder subscriptions at a cost of $7.50 to donors, but spend about $15 servicing them, might have something to do with our permanent financial crisis.

Killing Us With Kindness

"We suspect that every time we donate 100 subscriptions at $7.50 each, we're bringing you closer to bankruptcy," one member said.

But What a Way To Go!

You are, we replied. But if we don't provide as many subscriptions as we can to the media, Congress, libraries, teachers and clergy, how are we ever going to make an impact? Sure we risk going broke doing it, but it's a chance we have to take.

We Showed Them What We Learned in Government

Our benefactors, who were learning how to make money when the publisher and executive editor, both retired foreign service officers, were learning how to write government memos, said that their encounter with us had been very educational. It shed a great deal of light, they said, on how the US government handles its financial affairs.

Apparently They Were Impressed

The lesson turned out to be of value to us all. We've now been offered UP TO $75,000, but only in MATCHING FUNDS, to pay the other half of every $7.50 donated opinion molder subscription we receive from readers.

That's 10,000 New Opinion Molder Subscriptions

It means that if we can add 10,000 such new subscriptions by the end of the year, we won't go broke doing so. We have 12,000 media names and addresses in our computer, put there only one year ago. We'll go back to them all and ask who wants a donated subscription for one year.

Lots of Libraries

We're midway in putting 32,000 library addresses in our computer, replacing our six year-old list of 18,000 library addresses. We'll speed it up and go out to them all with the same question, specifying that signing up for the donation is a pledge to put the magazine into general circulation.

That's Our Part

What we ask from our readers is another 10,000 opinion molder donations. If you'd rather supply your own list of libraries, editorial writers, talk show hosts, clergy, teachers, whatever, that's fine. It saves us the trouble of locating them. But if you don't have that many individuals in mind, we'll find them. If you write us a check for $105, it makes you a hummer in our Angels' Choir, and funds 14 such subscriptions. A choirmaster funds 667 subscriptions with a check for $5,000. If you plan to deduct your donation from your income tax, make it to the tax-exempt AET Library Endowment.

Please Do It

If we can continue our 1990 35-percent annual growth in full-rate subscriptions throughout 1991, and if we can add an additional 10,000 opinion molder subscriptions as a result of that matching grant and this reader appeal, our circulation will pass 50,000 before the end of the year.

That's Big

That's outreach. Besides changing how Americans think about US Middle East policy, circulation like that takes on a life of its own. Many of our new subscribers result from the magazine's presence on library shelves, in waiting rooms, and on coffee tables. The more subscriptions there are out there, the more new ones come in.

That's Geometric

As circulation expands, of course, we can raise the advertising rates, and still have people standing in line to advertise. Serious publishing is not a way to make a fortune or, in our case, even a living. But the day may come, and sooner than we dared hope, when the magazine won't be quite so dependent on reader donations.

We'd Like That

If we could spend less time begging, we'd have more time to concentrate on giving readers a top quality magazine.

You'd Like That

It would free up supporter funds for other worthy causes. In the meantime, however, our donors are not just helping us get to the end of the year. They're helping to build a growing, permanent, non-profit institution that, God willing, will someday stand on its own feet and be beholden to no one. It will be in a position to contribute on a long-term basis to a two-way dialogue between all North Americans and all of the peoples of the Middle East, long after its present management, and many of its angels, have bellied up to that big mezza in the sky.

But Does It Make Any Difference?

It makes a lot of difference. We could fill this whole issue with examples. For just one, however, turn to the Pat Buchanan column in this month's "Other Voices” section. The quotations are from a Sheldon Richman article in a recent Washington Report. Sheldon Richman originally was turned on to the subject by an article by Roselle Tekiner in an earlier edition of the Washington Report.

We See the Difference

We see the thoughts, opinions, information, statistics and often the very words of our authors in publications all over the United States, with and without credit. We've had a significant (we think the most significant) role in the clearly discernible change for the better in public understanding of the underlying American problems (or is it basically just one problem?) in the Middle East.

Enough About Us

Let's talk about you. Specifically, how you can help us increase our circulation in other ways. If you hear the Middle East under discussion on a call-in radio show, call in. Give the host or guest your opinion, briefly, on the subject under discussion and then tell them they can learn a lot about what's really going on in the Middle East, and among those who deal with it in the United States, by calling the Washington Report at 1-800-368-5788 and asking for a free introductory copy.

It Happens All The rime

Every once in a while we get a flurry of phone calls from some area where none of our own staff has recently been on the air, and we know a blessed reader has done just what we've described. You can give it a try in your letters to the editor as well. Sometimes the editor will permit the plug, and sometimes the editor won't. Most likely, if they print your letter, they'll print the phone number as well. It's a reader service, and there still are some good editors in America who believe in such services.

And Now Let's Talk About Us Again

Speaking of reader services, that's all our AET Book Club was for years. We got the books our readers couldn't find in local book stores, and then sold them to readers at half price. It was hard work for Sally Nyhan, our book club manager, and we tied up an awful lot of precious funding in book inventory.

The Miracle of 1990

Sales volume, of course, increased as the titles in our catalog expanded. Last year, to our astonishment, we actually made money on our books. Partly, of course, it was due to the phenomenal success of Stealth PACs: How Israel's American Lobby Seeks to Control US Middle East Policy. We brought out two editions in 1990 and a third edition will appear in mid-1991.

It Was High Volume

Overall, however, we made money simply by handling a huge volume of books. Because we've put the book department in the black, we're sure that someday the same thing will happen to this magazine, the engine that pulls everything else we do.

We're Throwing Out Great Articles

Even though we're up to 96 pages, and holding, we're throwing away about 15 really good and informative articles per issue. And, this year, purely for economic reasons, we've cut back to 10 issues rather than 12. That's another 100 informative articles that won't ever be published. Next year we'd like to go back to 12 issues.

Meanwhile, Be Patient

This also means you won't receive your May-June issue until late May. So, while you wait, please make that list of gift subscription recipients if you can, and write that check for sure. It will hasten the day when no special interest can threaten us or slow us down.

A Word About Our Writers

We really try to give a sampling of all reasonable opinions on Middle East questions, but in inverse proportion to the amount of space devoted to those opinions in the mainstream US press. Please don't get too uptight when you see one or two articles you don't agree with in the Washington Report. Judge us by the overall presentation, and whether or not you're learning things you need to know to understand how the US can solve its problems in the Middle East.

And About Our Advertisers

The same goes for our advertisers. When we print a paid advertisement, it does not mean we believe the advertiser is the best in the field. Nor does it mean, at all, that we agree with the editorial viewpoints of all the publications with which we exchange ads. We're telling you who's out there. It's up to you to decide where you want to give or spend your money, and which other publications you want to read, besides the best one.

Figure It Out

Our news editor, Parker Payson, likes to boggle readers' minds with figures. Here are some of the figures that boggle our minds, however, as compiled by outgoing business manager Tidge Holmberg, who is leaving us to take up an editorial position in Southern California.

Ringing in Our Ears

Between Jan. 10 and Feb. 9, AET received 3,583 calls on the 800 number. We averaged 148 such calls a weekday. On Jan. 15, we received a total of 867 such calls. That's kind of a high ticket phone bill. (And for any joker who thinks he can abuse that number, let it be known here and now that we receive a daily printout of the phone numbers from which every call on any of our lines originated. Try to run up our bill and, if the telephone company agrees that yours are harassing calls, the bill will go to you.)

A Smaller Staff for A Bigger Workload

Nevertheless, Tidge will be replaced by his assistant, Carol Macha (she's the voice with the audible smile that all our callers rave about). Carol won't be replaced by anyone. Features Editor Dima Zalatimo, whom we lured away from the Arabic radio station in Washington, DC last fall, has been lured back by them. She won't be replaced, either. Her duties will just be added to those of Greg Noakes, our advertising and promotion director.

You Guessed It

Yep. The cut in the size of the staff was the quid pro quo to US business supporters for the matching grant. Like we said, those business people were impressed by our creative approach to financial management. Now their stodgy approach to the same subject has convinced us that if we don't reduce our loss-leading reader services now, one day there will be no core magazine for readers to read.

A Rising Cost of Doing Business

So next month the price of the AET Clipboard jumps by $100 to $525 per year in the US and Canada, and overseas to $1065 by surface and $1225 by airmail, with all exchange subscriptions cancelled.

Clippings by Fax

The good news, however, is that we are inaugurating a clipping service by fax for overseas clients, and domestic users can get in on it if they are interested.

The Video Monitoring Service

We also discovered that we were losing big money on each new client for our video monitoring service. So, starting immediately, the service is available at $195 per week in the US and $385 per week overseas. Coverage provided consists of as much Middle East-related material as we can record. Weekly mailings during the first four months of its existence have never been fewer than 20 hours, and sometimes have been as much as 30 hours. No special monitoring is available. Clients are in for the whole service or they're not. Each week's mailing comes with a user-friendly table of contents, and the entire 20-plus hours of videotape is timed and labeled so that clients can fast forward quickly to the programs they want.

Again, Something More About Us

So, if we sound a little more rushed on the telephone, and if our services cost a little more, it's all so that we can focus on the major business at hand.

And That Is...

The major business for the rest of the year is to see that the Washington Report goes where no Middle East publication has gone before. And that's into the big time.

You Can Help Us Get There

Please send us a list of full-rate ($15) gift subscriptions, or half-rate ($7.50) opinion molder subscriptions now.

You Can Make a Difference, This Month.