Laura Brunow Miner's dashboard

that is really nice to know... :) gives me a little bit of hope.

In all honesty, the cards do not impact me one way or the other. If they fall out and I don't want them I pick them up and recycle them just like every other thing I don't want. However, given we all must accept reality of growing business and JPG is exploring different ways to get their name out there. I have a suggestion...as I was doing some "field intelligence" in my mundane 9-5er one of the advertising avenues that struck me as interesting and low cost was advertising on the side of "public transportation". My thought is why not look at hooking up with a Tarta..target large metro areas...open up a photo challenge that displays the positives of public transportation ... gear it towards an opportunity for them as well as an opportunity for JPG (you will provide them with amazing photography/they provide you with a short term free advertising opportunity..and in the meantime JPG subscribers have a chance to get their work displayed.

Maybe I am offbase in my thought process but if you are trying to reach a lot of people a moving target seems like a great option. – likst, on August 01, 2008 16:20

All good points. truth is, there are pros and cons to everything in life. Nonetheless, JPG is awesome!!! – Jason Hudson, on August 01, 2008 00:41

The reality is, different people order magazines in different ways. We can't just have internet subscribers. We have to go beyond the reach of the web. We're trying to be as thoughtful as possible about ways we can do that -- you'll notice we didn't stuff the magazine with 12 cards.

Also, a few people have asked me this by email and site mail, so just to clarify-- we don't just look at total votes for voting or hotness. Since photos are in the themes for different lengths of time, we also take views and time in theme into consideration.

ouch. those cards that blow were the very first thing i noticed upon opening my issue today, and i was totally bummed. as a designer, my stomach sinks just a little bit every time a sassy young company i like starts to resort to humdrum tried-and-true-but-utterly-irritating marketing tactics as it grows.

as a reader, contributor and subscriber to JPG, i was dismayed and disappointed to learn that i had become a victim of a "takesy-backsy" on the once proud and defiant rally cry of "We Don't Blow!". i know it seems inconsequential, but it makes me wonder what else about JPG that set it apart will soon be repealed.

i completely understand the need to increase circulation and decrease production costs, but there are always multiple solutions to any problem. the fact that nothing as easy and cost-effective as the cards exists only means that it has not yet been envisioned. i think this has great potential to be yet another area where JPG sets itself apart from the crowd. i am convinced the great designers and creative minds at 8020 could find a way to invent and create something innovative.

the postcard suggestion mentioned above is a good place to start. this might screw with postal regulations, but maybe you could have an ongoing theme for contributers to find a creative way to shoot the "business reply mail, blahblah" side, and then use one shot per month to use as the postcard, and the back is an interestingly designed fill-out form. or if you can't mess with that side, maybe there can be a "textures" theme, where you'd be getting photos that have a greater tolerance for type being laid on top of them for a fill-in form? maybe you could design a page that LOOKED like one of those cards, so when the people who actually want them (?!) grab for them, they can be led to the website, or perhaps a way they could text in their info right then and there?

but the worst part about them is that they force you to flip to a certain page. if i were held at knifepoint to pick a lesser evil, i'd say to use the blow-ins rather than the bind-ins, they make me want to tear the magazine apart just so i can flip the pages easily. maybe the bottom corner of the back cover could be perforated so the card can be torn out of it? since the magazine is always shrink-wrapped, maybe you can just put them outside the magazine instead of inside? or put them all on page 1 so i can toss them all without have to flip around and spend time extracting?

Ok! So... here is how the sausage is made. (visual aid)

The editorial staff doesn't look at every photo. But we do look at a LOT of them--through browsing the site, checking on new submissions to the site or to themes, contact's photos, surfing hotness, and sometimes just by clicking through "newness" on an open theme to get a feel for trends and what the community is doing with a theme. During this process, we mark any photos that stand out to us as being great fits for the coming issue, or even future issues. So we have our eyes PEELED the whole time. (This immersion in the community helps us brainstorm new theme and photo challenge ideas, story ideas, section concepts -- and is also just really fun)

Then when the themes and voting close, we use our handy admin tools to look only at the photos that have been most popular during the two months. We then mark a bunch of these too (though there is often overlap with stuff we've seen before).

The final step is to go into a room with the printed out photos and descriptions (YES! descriptions are increasingly important) and make final selections based on photo quality, content/meaning, editorial cohesion, narrative, and fit with the overall set. I've said this before, but every single time each one of us has to cut photos we love... for the good of the set.

We often describe it as being 80% community and 20% editorial, with the editorial component helping to make it more cohesive and varied, and also keeping it from being a straight-up popularity contest. We do very much factor in hotness/favorites/voting in what we choose though: it's incredible feedback to be able to have when making a magazine.

Did I miss anything?

Thanks for the suggestion. We have to have the postal reply info on one side (the post office can be a stickler!), but we have used member photos on most of the cards. – Laura S., on July 29, 2008 20:00

One blow-in for subs, two for newsstand. Then during the holiday season we add in one gift blow-in to each. And, Jason, I had the same experience with my family! – Laura S., on July 29, 2008 19:56

Sadly, not everyone orders magazines in the same way. Some like ordering on the web, some like inserts, some just buy on the newsstand, etc. As Laura mentioned we are looking into a digital version that would offer an alternative to those who don't want a paper copy. We're still researching this. It's good to know that there's interest out there for this sort of thing. – Laura S., on July 29, 2008 19:53

Right now we have only one blow-in slated for subscriber copies and two for newsstand. We'll up this to two blow-ins for subscribers and three for newsstand during the holiday season (we'll be adding in one gift blow-in for each). Then, after the holidays are over, we'll revert back to the original number. – Laura S., on July 29, 2008 19:51

ok, i can understand that the blow-in cards are what they are... annoying / yet they work.... since they are essentially postcards, how about you put a readers' photo on one side? tom@eloph.com

I know it seems like the cards are not "green" but actually, the more subscribers we can get via the cards the less we have to mail out to attract new subscribers (which involves a lot more paper). – Laura S., on July 29, 2008 19:48

I just got my issue 17 and having one blow-in card, no big deal at all (I was concerned that a bunch would be in there). Having one or two seems appropriate and not over kill. Maybe the bound ones could be more post card like with jpg imagery. Wasn't something like that done for the February issue?

I just got the latest issue today and there was only one blow in card...personally, I can live with that.
I had visions of a cascade of cards like some of the other photography magazines I receive whose names I shall not mention. – m winters, on July 28, 2008 18:03

I'm pretty sure it's just one, but Laura Simkins is back today and I will find out. – Laura Brunow Miner, on July 28, 2008 17:46

So I'm going to chime in from the other side as an employee: I actually hate blow-in cards, too. Actually, I hate them way more when there's six or, I swear, sometimes twelve of them, so I'm really glad to hear that we're only putting one or two in. :)

But as much as I don't like them, I have to admit some people want them. Back in May I went back to Chicago for a visit, and I saw my mom and stepdad, and my cousin who lives there now and her boyfriend, and her mom was in town too. They all love JPG and they're excited about Everywhere, and then every single one of them wanted to know where the blow-in cards were. They all grab them from magazines in the newsstands when they find a title they really like, and they were dismayed that JPG instead had some full-page insert that they didn't want to disturb. That was an eye-opener for me, because I just assumed everyone hated those cards.

Laura, did you find out how many cards were in subscriber issues?

I got the Everywhere cover survey too! – Michael Van der Tol, on July 25, 2008 19:52

My brother usually texts or calls when he gets each issue. He always says he loves everything but the cards. The bind-ins from previous issues bug him too. Fact of life, unfortunately! :) – Laura Brunow Miner, on July 25, 2008 19:38