So is this true? I came across a report that Centered Magazine will now publish its last edition in November!
From the previous director’s Linked_In Profile. To me, the magazine has always been core to more than just sales… it’s part of the outreach of the center to tell people about what’s going on: events, courses, classes, mental health, charity work… and much more. It’s surely a mistake to see its role as ONLY sales, isn’t it? Or has the publishing environment change so drastically that the format has to change?
I’m also hearing this from another erstwhile publication whose owners are looking for new directions.
I checked the published financials. Last year’s sales of advertising space/sponsorship were a lot softer than expected. There’s some discussion about the importance of having good sales for a profitable magazine on LinkedIn, though I’m not familiar with the charity sector at all.
Given the recent scale/rate of staff changes at the Center… I’m not surprised. Other magazines are struggling, too. And TBF the COT hasn’t made it a priority to do online publishing properly. I won’t go into details but a quick visit to the Centered website tells you all.
I didn’t like some of the changes the magazine made in terms of their ‘requirements’ for writers. Honestly, that wasn’t unexpected either. But recent changes at the magazine meant that volunteers offering to write have to sign a disclaimer and take responsibility for whatever happens after the Center prints your article. There is no money in publishing with them for the writers. So… this is decidedly unbalanced.
It’s an editor’s job to vet articles for publication and whip hopefuls into shape while declining politely those that aren’t suitable. It’s a publisher’s responsibility to take responsibility, not to pass it on or pass it back to the otherwise unremunerated writers. Of course, the writers, editors and publishers should never publish something that shines a bad light on people or community or business. That’s not the function of this magazine.
The function