MAVERICK MAGAZINE BLOG 27.06.11
With everyone jumping onto the blog nowadays, we felt it was important for Maverick to have its say too. I don’t wish to get into political debate or discuss things that are out of our reach to change, but I would like to bring the world of Maverick closer to the people that make it happen – our dedicated readers.
Over the past months I have received email after email and letter after letter. I reply to every letter and email individually and though, it obviously takes more time than a straight-forward acknowledgement, I feel it’s important to draw upon every issue raised. Both myself and Alan want to make you, the reader as much a part of Maverick as we can. I hope a weekly blog can bring you closer to the action, much closer to the day to day runnings and hopefully bring you more into the discussion about the future direction of Maverick as the months go by.
Maverick has obviously been at the forefront of a lot of criticism and a lot of disbelief over the past few months. Admittedly, the changeover was a big change for everyone. To take a magazine from print straight over to digital within months of making a decision wasn’t easy, but we couldn’t be more overjoyed with the outcome. Quite simply, we wish we’d done it sooner.
Though many don’t appreciate the digital option I would urge anyone who receives the download and doesn’t like it, to take a look at the online version before making a decision. This can be found at www.exacteditions.com/maverick and provides a free trial. There are obviously many pros and cons to taking digital over print and it was obvious that it wasn’t going to suit everyone, but with Maverick thriving better than ever before, we know we made the right decision.
The online version is something that hasn’t really been discussed too much, and with so many happy customers receiving this version, I feel it’s important to take a minute and give you the low-down on this format too.
The online version is hosted by Exact Editions – a company who also work with magazines like MusicTech, The Scientist and Blues Matters. They provide the digital online versions of each of these publications, alongside us, and they do a really good job. Unlike the navigation of the PDF, the navigation on the online version is simple and the search engine is very useful. However unlike the PDF you have to login to their website to view the magazine each time with a username and password. Also unlike the PDF you can print pages, but only one at a time, whilst the PDF can be printed in full if required. Make sure that you go to their page www.exacteditions.com/maverick to check out the free trial – it’s worth it even if you’re happy with the PDF version.
It’s interesting to see the development in Maverick over the past months and while we have been trying our very hardest to make the magazine easy to read on screen and as enjoyable as possible, there is much more we hope to achieve over the next couple of months. So please do comment below in regards to what you’d like to see – I have been engaged with many readers recently about how they’d like to see Maverick develop, both in terms of design, format and content – so make sure you talk to us.
As many of you will know by now (if you’re a subscriber) – Maverick Towers has been suffering from some email problems. We are in talks with our service provider to find out if there’s anything we can do to start guaranteeing the safe arrival of our many email messages that seem to be going astray. We will keep you up to date with any developments, but hope to have the system back up in full swing by the end of the week. But just to assure you the direct emails you send to us are getting through and ours to you, it’s the mass mailout system that sends news updates, tour updates and the new issue mailer to our subscribers that seems to be suffering.
Steering away from the technical stuff, we’re now working on the August issue of Maverick and are making good head-way with features on Jon Allen and Duane Eddy already in there. If you haven’t heard Jon Allen’s music make sure you check him out – though I still haven’t heard the new album his record DEAD MAN’S SUIT was extremely impressive. Next month we’ll also be featuring the full radio listing again.
So please stay in touch, let me know what you’d like to see in the magazine, or what you’d like to read about in the blog and anything else that takes your fancy.
Warmest wishes, Laura
