April/May 1994, Page 114

Publishers' Page

You're Always So Current….

Our readers say, and they're right. We don't know of many monthlies that send the last 15 percent of their copy to the printer on a Tuesday morning and make final corrections on Thursday so that the presses can roll on Thursday night and the individually labeled subscriber copies can be mailed on Friday morning.

Getting Timebound Material ...

Into personal mail boxes in time for readers to act effectively on what we have to say is what we're all about.

There Are Psychic Rewards!

They come from hearing how readers put our information to use when political decisions are being made. Readers send us the clippings of letters to the editor they've had published—and the ones that weren't. You see both in our "Other People's Mail.

They Send Us Copies.

Of their letters to the president, the secretary of state, the attorney general, their own senators and representatives and some of the congress members who are on the committees that make or fund U.S. Middle East policy. They also send us copies of responses to those letters, and sometimes of speeches or legislation that show the letters were read and inspired action, or prevented action. The letters we reprint aren't just to show...

How Clever Our Readers Are ...

They're to show new readers how to be effective, too! We think that our readers and their organizations have played a major role in elevating the public dialogue about U.S. Middle East policy in the 12 years we've been publishing.

We Outlined a Bit of This. . .

In a letter mailed to North American readers last Nov. 15, and to foreign readers a month or so later. One of the first respondents wrote back, "I've never received such a confusing document in my life. Better check to see...

"If You've Been Infiltrated.'

We were crushed, until the checks began to roll in. You can see from the final list of 1993 donors on page 28 what an end of-the-year lift they gave us.

And They're Still Coming!

However, the week we went to press with this edition, an old friend of the publisher said that since we obviously were doing so well now, she was concentrating all of her giving on an underfunded organization.

Give Us a Break!

Don't penalize us for looking good while being informative. It costs a lot to put out each edition of this magazine. But that's why people pick it up to read in libraries, on newsstands, in professional offices, and from friends' coffee tables. So we're...

Back on a Subscription Roll.

But we're also up against a donation rock. The price of oil is way down. The people who sell it are buying a lot fewer U.S: products. And the businesses who make and sell those products have a lot less money to give away ...

Even to Those Like Us Who Are...

Trying to create an improved climate for North Americans doing business in the Middle East, and Middle Easterners living, working or studying in North America.

So Please Help Pick Up the Slack.

As our corporate donations drop, we need more and more private donations to stay even. A good way to start, if you haven't done it before, is to give one or two $12.50 opinion molder subscriptions to libraries, journalists (definitely including talk show hosts and their producers), elected officials and their staffers, educators and clergy every month. We'd prefer that you pick the recipients, but if you don't have time, we will. Every year we send a circular to 22,000 U.S. public and school libraries asking if they would make copies of the magazine available to their patrons if they received a gift subscription. At present we have about 4,000 library subscribers, and about the same number still awaiting funding.

You Also Can Help by Sending...

One or more $19 gift subscriptions every month to friends, relatives and anyone else who might be interested enough to start reading the magazine. Once we're introduced to concerned people...

They Usually Renew on Their Own.

This year there's a brand-new payoff to subscription donors. For every $19 gift subscription you send us, we'll send you (or the gift recipient) a book of your choice from the list on page 70, where this offer is described in full. If the recipients of your gifts are libraries or opinion molders, you still can play. Just turn those $12.50 subscriptions into $19 gift subscriptions and you can have a book for each one.

There's One More Thing.

Later this year we're going to send all of our subscribers another letter. We'd like to include some individual testimonials as to what our readers look for in the magazine, how they use the information it contains, and some of the things they've accomplished with it. Just a paragraph or two. We don't want to give ulcers to that reader worried about infiltrators.

But Readers Have to Know...

Why they should keep supporting us. We may look a little flashier than 12 years ago, when we were a newsletter with a green masthead and headlines and were described by congressional recipients of many newsletters as "the green one." Even then, however, they usually added, "You know, theone everybody reads." We're bigger now, and reach tens of thousands of people. What's most important, though, is that we're still ...

The One They Read!

Make a Difference:

As we went to press, the U.S. had been threatening to veto a Security Council resolution to give his people U.N. physical protection if Yasser Arafat didn't promise to go back into negotiations with the Israelis. Though we personally believe Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin are sincere, it seems Rabin is up to his old tricks. First he tried to stampede Arab League members into lifting the boycott before he gave anything to the Palestinians. Now he's trying to stampede the Syrians and others into signing separate agreements so that he won't ever need to sign one with the Palestinians. We don't really know how the U.S. can make Rabin be serious, short of cutting Israeli aid back to zero until Israel stops all work on settlements, and starts moving the settlers out of the lands that Israel must trade to the Arabs for peace. If you agree, don't tell us. Tell your localeditors, talk show hosts and, most of all, the presidentand your representatives in Congress, using the numbers in the box on page 77.

Things Look Brighter in Bosnia.

But only because the U.S. finally flexed its muscles. We need to be ready to carry out air strikes wherever Serb artillery opens up on civilians, whenever Serbs block another shipment of relief supplies, and wherever they shoot at U.N. ground troops or the U.S. relief flights that drop food to beleaguered Muslims and come back riddled by Serb bullets. If you agree, tell the president and members of Congress and ...

Make a Difference, This Month!