Geez, have I used that headline before? Maybe. With any luck, it was for another magazine or at least a long time ago. This is one of the pitfalls of doing this for as long as I have been in an editor's chair for some publication or another. Between these editor's notes, news stories, editorials, columns and reviews, I have shot my big mouth off in print hundreds of times, and not repeating yourself can become a challenge. One of the biggest challenges (and the thing that keeps my interest) in the worlds of publishing, live event audio/production and playing music it is that something is always changing. In the past decade (actually a lot less than a decade in most cases) everything from the technology to the basic business models of all those industries has changed pretty radically. In everything from gear to the way you set up and run your business, smaller, better and cheaper has become a self-fulfilling mantra of sorts. Those of us who have been around for a while are still getting used to the pace of change, while those with less gray hair expect that what is new today will be obsolete tomorrow.
When it comes to putting out FOH every month, the "change factor" is exciting for me and the rest of the editorial team, but more of a constant irritant to the folks who sell and actually produce the magazine. Case in point: In this very same space last month, I promised a piece in this issue of FOH on the concept, pros, cons and how-tos of setting yourself up as a one-stop shop. But a quick glance at the table of contents will reveal that… it ain't here. For those of you who have been reading FOH for a while, this will not be a big shock, as I can't count the number of times that something in the "coming next month" banner failed to appear when promised.
It's like this: FOH is, at its heart, a news publication, and my most formative years were spent working on newspapers. To me it is just a basic truth of the universe that news changes and develops on no one's schedule. If FOH is to really serve this industry, we need to be able to "turn and burn." That is, change directions in an instant when circumstances or events demand it. Some of our competitors have been around for a very long time and have become the publishing equivalents of battleships–big and very powerful, but it takes a long time to change course. FOH is more like a speedboat–it may not seem as imposing at first glance, but we are a lot quicker and more flexible.
Like I said, it makes some other folks nuts. "Hi. Production department? This is Bill. Remember that story that I gave you last week that you have already designed and have finished and ready to print? Well something better just came in and I am going to hold that for next month." Or this one.
"Sales department? No, I won't give you a carved-in-stone calendar of editorial content for the next six months. I'll type up what I am planning right now, but I guarantee it will be fiction before it comes off the laser printer. Yes, I know your clients want one to plan their advertising. Just tell them that the FOH audience is the best and most qualified group out there and that advertisers who are serious need to be talking to them every month."
It makes me a real popular guy. So this is basically the long way of telling you that I made the decision to push that one-stop shop piece until next month. And I promise it will be there… unless something really cool comes along that I like better.
On the whole issue of changes, my family and I have been dealing with the feeding frenzy that is the Southern California real estate market and are finalizing the sale of our home here and getting ready to move to Las Vegas. It is all about change, and one of the biggest changes in publishing is how the Internet has made off-site editors more the norm than the exception; in some cases it offers a lot of advantages over having a single staff in a single location.
Vegas is becoming, in many ways, the event production hub for the West Coast, and my presence there will allow both FOH and PLSN to really be dialed in to the explosion of live event business there and the new shows that open seemingly once a month and are constantly pushing the envelope of production technology.
As long as I can keep my lovely wife away from the poker tables, we oughta do just fine. Wish me luck.
