RE: Pen World Changes

Wow. Got my new Pen World today. I've got to say I'm underwhelmed and highly 
suspicious. I see signs that the magazine may have adopted a common strategy 
now in the publishing business called "pay for play." I can't say for sure and 
no one that does the practice will answer with a straight answer if you ask. 
But the deal is, according to colleagues I have in publishing, you get an 
article in the magazine by either straight-out paying for the editorial 
treatment or by buying a certain amount of advertising. Again, I emphasize that 
I'm not a Pen World insider. But the sparse copy that looks and feels like it 
came straight from the marketing department of the manufacturer makes me 
suspicious. There will be other editorial, of course. Some magazines tilt the 
mix heavily toward outside content and others tilt heavily toward "pay for 
play" material. Some I've seen are almost purely "pay for play" publications.

It's a common strategy. One many companies are driven to over time. I find it 
questionable from a journalistic standpoint and would prefer to see it 
disclosed by the publishers, but that is pretty unlikely to happen as neither 
the publishers nor the advertisers would want such.

Again, this might all just be changes to reflect where they see the advertising 
dollars in their market going. Perfectly understandable. There may be no "pay 
for play" going on here. I'm sorry to see the vintage coverage disappear along 
with the other editorial material that Pen World used to generate that was 
pretty good.

Change happens, I s'pose.

Richard

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