david_spivak2

<p>Hello everyone! Wanted to update you all! We have launched two new titles, Focus Exposures and Focus Folios! Both are being sold via our iTunes App for Focus Magazine and both will have their own apps later this year. Speaking of later this year, we have received a very good quote from a printer in China who will be providing us with incredible quality printing and paper. I would consider it superior to the quality we had from Issue 13 -18. So, many of you are going to ask: Are we going to skip over subscribers and just get magazines out to newsstands? The answer is: No. I finally believe we have everything we need to return to print full-time, that means 4 times per year. So, what we're going to do is send out an e-mail when the magazine has gone to print and make sure we have everyone's updated addresses. If you have moved since August 2009, or you did not receive Issue #18, we need to know so when we send out Issue 18, it arrives directly in your mailbox. The first issue we will resume printing with is Issue 25 - and it's a fantastic issue. So if you subscribed to our print edition and your subscription did not expire with Issue 18, then we will be resuming your subscription with Issue 25 as if you never received any copies at all, even though all subscribers received Issue 19 - 24 digitally via Zinio.<br>

<br />If you have not signed up for our e-mail newsletter, please make sure you do so now! www.focusmag.info/newsletter.htm. We will be sending out a lot of updates within the next few months and we want to make sure you stay in the know.<br>

<br />Again, all print subscriptions will resume service normally. We base subscriptions off of the number of copies received, not the number of time-period. So if you had a 1 year subscription and Issue 18 was your first issue for your subscription, then your subscription will not expire until Issue 27. A two-year subscription won't expire until Issue 31.<br>

<br />We are hard at work at getting Focus back to print and I appreciate everyone's patience as we bring Focus back to print, back to bookstores and back to your mailbox. </p>

<p>Hello - Issue #22 recently came out last week and was delivered to subscribers. If you have not received Issue #22 to your E-Mail address, please let me know immediately and I'll contact Zinio.<br>

If you're in LA this weekend, Focus Magazine has a booth at Photo LA where we're representing over a dozen emerging photographers.<br>

We're making one last call to subscribers and anyone else interested in purchasing a print edition of Focus Nudes. I'll have more information next week. As I mentioned to everyone who has already purchased a copy, I'm trying something slightly different and I think (hope) it just might work. I'll understand if those of you who have already paid for a print edition refuse to wait anymore. You can process your refund through Amazon.com and everything will be refunded, no questions asked. But I'm really trying my best to generate enough funds to sell this issue, so I hope those of you who've ordered the magazines will stick with me. If not, I completely understand. For those who do, you can look forward to printing that will be second to none. Definitely on par with the quality that Lenswork offers (If you're in LA, you can purchase Charles Starke's Footprints of Africa book and see the kind of quality that the printer offers with their stochastic dot screen printing).<br>

Going forward Focus will be split into three different titles: Focus Magazine, Focus Nudes and Focus Portfolios. The digital editions of Focus Nudes and Focus Portfolios will be larger than the print editions, while both the print and digital edition of Focus will offer 96 pages plus cover. I feel this scale back in page count while being more picky about the number and quality of advertising we accept going forward, (no more than 25% advertising) will lead to a more successful formula to return Focus to newsstands to our subscribers. All print subscribers of Focus Magazine (Anyone who subscribed prior to December 2010 and whose subscription has not expired) will receive a complimentary one-year digital subscription to Focus Nudes and Focus Portfolios and I have extended the subscription to Focus Magazine by one additional year for all of these subscribers as well.</p>

<p>No, sir, but I do not discuss people's individual subscriptions in public. Please e-mail me and I resolve any issue you're having with non-receipt of delivery. david@focusmag.info.</p>

<p>Oh I should mention that I've broken every single record that we ever had for the number of single copy pre-orders for any issue in one day. I've been putting magazines up for pre-order since Issue #4 and I've never sold this many copies before hand. Came close with our BEST OF issue (#15) but this far exceeds that by at least 30%. One thing is for certain, I'm going to make FedEx very happy this holiday season!</p>

<p>Good evening to you, Jim! I hope Peoria, IL is treating you well!<br>

I don't know where you've been, but my subscribers are fat and happy right now. 3 issues in the past year and a 4th one on the way. Earlier this year we split Focus Magazine in two different magazines: One of portfolios and one of articles because the magazine was getting too thick!<br>

Issue #19 was our most successful issue ever - 20,000 people subscribed to Focus Magazine because of Issue #19.<br>

Issue #20 was immensely successful as well. In fact, I just tallied all of our numbers from Issues #18, #19 and #20 and we are the most downloaded fine art photography magazine on Zinio currently. Focus Magazine has been downloaded more than 200,000 times in 2011 and we just released Issue #21 yesterday to all 60,000 readers we have! This is our first NUDES issue ever and we're very excited about it!<br>

Facebook continues to grow as we just broke 7,000 followers on Facebook and I'm about to create a second account for myself because 5,000 is the biggest number of Facebook friends we can have.<br>

Photographers are finding new opportunities to exhibit their work and reach more collectors around the world than ever before! Business is booming here at Focus. We are re-investing money into the product and have a lot of things planned for 2012. I'm going to have to clone myself just to accomplish it all!<br>

There are many people, though, who have wished to see the magazine return to print. They remember the quality we had, they remember the fine paper and printing we had. I spared no expense when it came to the printing of the magazine and made sure every issue that had my name on it was of the highest quality. We are doing the same thing again - only better! So with that in mind, we are taking the digital version of Issue #21 (available on www.zinio.com or the App Store through Apple http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/focus-fine-art-photography/id424183568?mt=8) and offering it in print to anyone who'd like to own a copy before the Holidays with even better quality than anything we've ever had before.<br>

Is it expensive to buy? Absolutely. I'm under no illusion that $29.95 for 144 pages of a magazine that used to cost $7.95 is expensive and a hell of a hike in the price. But with Borders going under, B&N for sale more than a year now with no buyer in sight and their stock price being cut in half (down below $10.75 today per share) the print magazine market isn't reliable. <br>

Now we could have gone the route of JPG and completely folded or we could have gone the route of some other fine art photography magazines and decreased the quality of the magazine in order to just spit out as many copies as we can possibly fill the shelves with. But I decided to innovate and to convert Focus to a digital magazine last year. And there were some grumblings from subscribers who were unhappy. I knew there would be. And we made sure we could do everything in our power to make them happy. Beyond that, 99% of our subscribers stayed happy and have loved what they get in their inbox when Zinio alerts them of a new issue available.<br>

We're taking Issue 21, which as I mentioned above is available to download and read RIGHT NOW and we're going to offer it in print. And if for some unforseen reason we cannot print the issue, I'll personally refund everyone's order. It's very easy to do with Amazon.com - who I partnered with to offer this special sale. I don't know if we'll be able to offer another print issue after this - I don't even know if the paper we're using will be available next year. I do know that when this issue gets printed and arrives in people's mailboxes, it'll the most gorgeous Focus Magazine they've ever seen and will make a wonderful holiday gift.<br>

I completely understand your frustration over the years Mr. Meisenbach. But we've worked out those issues long ago. I fully expect if you would purchase a copy and then not receive it while everyone else does, you would raise hell on here. So would I if I were you! I assure you - we will either have a print issue and everyone who purchases one will receive it, or if we don't have a print issue, everyone will receive a full refund.<br>

By the way, my App publisher tells me we'll be on the new Apple Newsstand next week! Very excited! It's a great time to be in the magazine business as long as you're willing to innovate.</p>

<p>Been a while since I've been here. Haven't really had the time or patience to be on here. Wanted to update everyone on the status of what's going on:<br /><br />First and foremost, if you believe you are owed a back issue that you've bought through our website, please let me know immediately. FedEx recently made a very big mistake and I have a few hundred dollars worth of credit - so I can ship anything out asap for anyone this week. Michael Dingley, I just got back from the post office and your 3 copies are on their way as we speak.<br /><br />I recently hired a college intern to help get me organized and she's done a wonderful job. If you're on Facebook and you see Jennifer Lasont on there, send her a quick thank you!<br /><br />If you're concerned about your subscription - don't be! Everyone is caught up with their subscription. If you feel you're not, e-mail Jennifer at subscriptions@focusmag.info and she'll help you out as best as she can.<br /><br />The last issue we printed, #18, was a stunning success on newsstands with a sell through rate over 70%! Because of this Borders and Barnes & Noble have ordered more magazines with a potential promise of doubling their order within a year if we come out more consistently.<br /><br />Issue #19 is almost complete - I'm just trying to fill up the remaining spaces left in the issue so we can send it to print. I recently signed a contract with Dual Graphics, out of Brea, CA to handle all of Focus Magazine's printing and single copy fulfillment for Issue #19 and beyond - this includes handling of all subscriptions. So, I'm very excited about this, because our printing reproduction is yet again going to improve. Our 2011 Collector's Edition is the most important issue of Focus Magazine yet. Here's why: Published in this special 240-page edition of Focus Magazine is one of the largest and most important interviews ever conducted with Lillian Bassman that spans 15 pages, an in-depth interview with Howard Greenberg of the Howard Greenberg Gallery who gives his detailed analysis of the current state of the market for collecting photography that spans 11 pages, a fantastic interview with Mitch Dobrowner that hilights his storm photography that spans 9 pages, an interview with Alec Soth that spans 6 pages and an intriguing discussion with Brooklyn Art Museum curator Patrick Ansellem that spans 5 pages.<br>

Dual Graphics will introduce a new printing process to Focus via stochastic dot screen printing. What this means is that our previous issues printed at 300 line screen are a thing of the past and our new printing process of between 10 and 20 micron dots means we're comparable to between 800 and 900 line screen!<br>

In addition, we're working hard on increasing the functionality on our website. Starting in a few weeks, people will be able to order copies of the magazine without leaving the website or worrying about how good or bad PayPal or Google Checkout is - we're completely integrating everything so you never have to leave. And, for all back issue purchases, our shopping cart that's being custom designed for Focus, will automatically calculate postage & handling and will generate a shipping label for me, saving me a gigantic amount of time and stress. All I have to do is print the label out, post it on a shipping envelope and off it goes.<br>

We're hoping that Issue #19 will be out in time for the holidays. Right now, it's getting very close and we're not 100% finished - but I assure everyone that I'm working 12-16-18 hour days to get this next issue out and into your mailbox. And remember: Subscriptions are not time-based, they are issue-based. Meaning that if it takes us 2 years to fulfill a 1-year subscription, in which we guarantee 4 issues for, then we will make sure we fulfill all 4 issues of that subscription before you are due up for renewal.<br>

I'm hoping next year that with the improvement of the economy, we can come out with 4 issues. I am already working behind the scenes on something very, VERY big for Issue #20.</p>

<p>Actually, Andy, I'm saving money by going to this printer. The quality we've had since Issue #13 was fantastic. The biggest reason we are switching printers is to help us with the organization of our bulk list which sends thousands of copies to galleries, auction houses, art fairs, etc.</p>

<p>All great ideas, Andy, except for the fact that there is no "some" when it comes to compromising quality. There is either web or sheetfed, nothing in between. Going back to web wouldn't be a slight compromise on quality, it would be a huge compromise on quality. The entire idea of FOCUS is to be the fine art book meets periodical. Our numbers on newsstands and subscriptions and advertising prior to the crash and with our last issue prove that quality is what an overwhelming majority of people are after. Maybe you're not, but most readers are.</p>

<p>You want it, Jim, you've got it. I was just alerted to the continued existence of this thread yesterday. So, I hope I'm not overlooking anyone, but...<br>

Dwight and Michael have received E-Mails within the past 24 hours. They both know what the E-Mails were about and that I've tried taking care of their issues months ago. Mary, you subscribed too late to receive Issue #18. Your subscription begins with #19. Tracey, you were shipped your magazines months ago.<br>

Now, speaking of Issue #19. The editorial is completely laid out. If anyone would like a PDF of the editorial ONLY of Issue #19, please E-Mail me david@focusmag.info. This will contain absolutely no advertisements.<br>

We are in negotiations with several companies right now for advertising and in negotiations with a new printer that would change the size of FOCUS Magazine to 9.25 x 12 inches starting with Issue #19 and would increase the print quality to 10 micron dots which is the equivalent of 900-1000 linescreen. I've compared several reproductions from my last issue printed with the printer we've used since Issue #13 and compared them to how they would have been printed had we used this new printer. The results were astounding and believe me, if you thought the reproductions in the last issue, wait til you see what we have in store for you.<br>

Once again, as I have mentioned for years, I do almost everything for FOCUS. I do the layout/design, I do the ad sales, I do the accounting, I run the business, I do the advertising/marketing... and I even find time to somehow have a somewhat normal social life. I have done this for over 5 years and 18 Issues. I have asked you all to subscribe to a magazine that, when you actually see the product is inferior to no other fine art photography publication on newsstands today.<br>

The only magazines that has comparable printing quality to FOCUS are Aperture and Blindspot. Aperture Magazine is funded by a nearly 60-year old foundation that includes a full book publishing company, art gallery and non-profit organization. Blindspot is almost double our subscription cost and has almost no readable editorial content whatsoever. Pretty to look at, but $45 for a 96 page magazine full of pictures delivered 3x a year. And from what I understand, the owners are multi-multi-millioniares and have been losing money on the magazine since day 1.<br>

Sure, we could be a B&W/Color and sacrifice the quality of the magazine in exchange for a printing bill 50% or 75% less than what we face. Sure, it would be acceptable and probably many of you read B&W/COLOR and enjoy Henry's publications. For me, it just doesn't make sense to put out a mediocre quality magazine when the photographers who spend hours, days, weeks, sometimes even MONTHS perfecting ONE photograph that's printed by a printer that only cares about how to maximize profit by getting the magazine on and off the press as quickly as humanly possible. When we were printed before by the same printer that B&W/COLO uses @133 linescreen, we received NUMEROUS complaints and very unhappy advertisers about the quality of the reproduction.<br>

Unfortunately, there is no in between. You cannot just have a printer print 60,000 copies for $25,000 @ 300-400 linescreen or stochastic dot screen. It just doesn't exist in America today. Maybe it exists in China or Hong Kong, but do we really need to be sending more business overseas instead of America?<br>

Now, many of you ask why don't we just get a loan? Getting a loan puts us into debt, which is not something I want to be in. And forbid we can't make a loan payment or somehow default on that loan, then the bank liquidates our assets and dissolves the company. This is how JPG Magazine folded. So then what about an investor? For an investor to put the kind of money that would take us to 6-8x per year, they would want control of the company and decision making authority. They would reduce our costs by finding another printer that doesn't cost so damn much and then the quality and the heart of Focus Magazine would be gone.<br>

The correct course of action has been and always will be to continue printing the magazine when we get the correct amount of money from advertisers. Believe me, I'm not holding out the printing of Issue #19 so I can by a new yacht and if I wanted to swindle people, asking for a $35 subscription really wouldn't get me that far. Everyone who has subscribed BEFORE August 2009 has received at least ONE issue to their subscription. Everyone who has subscribed AFTER August 2009, has not received the first issue of their subscription, yet and will receive it when Issue #19 is mailed to our subscribers.<br>

I'd love to be able to sit here and guarantee a specific date -- believe me, there is no one who would LOVE to see the next issue in my hands than me. I work, maybe 12-15 hours a day on this magazine and have only recently started taking Friday nights and Saturdays in observance of Shabbos off. The good news is that I am young and working a 60 hour week doesn't impact me the way it would if I were double my age. With the amount of time and effort I put into the magazine, I am bound to miss E-Mails/Phone calls. There are some days where I am too "focused" and I cannot take any calls or respond to E-Mails. I apologize for that, but hiring a subscription agency to be in charge of things like this would cause me to raise the prices of subscriptions substantially.<br>

I may not respond to your phone calls or e-mails when you want me to, but rest assured, if you paid for a subscription, you will get your magazines and your subscription will not expire until you have received the full amount of magazines for your subscription. I am here, working on this magazine all the time. I just took my first vacation in January and I don't plan on doing that ever again, so don't worry... I'm not going anywhere with your money other than trying to get the next issue, that you paid for, out.<br>

Now, I'm sure there are going to be some of you who, after reading about how hard I work to create the finest publication, are still not going to be happy. I'm sorry, but I am not in the business of instant gratification. We are not an assembly line magazine. I will not sacrifice quality for timeliness. You've paid for the best magazine money can buy and you're going to get it. All I ask of you is your patience.</p>

<p>What a loss to the photographic community.</p>

<p>Dwight -- I cannot send you out 15. I don't have enough copies. I can send you a copy of 14, which I'm pretty sure you never received.<br>

We were trying to continue to print 6x a year in 2007, but it wasn't possible to the increased expense from the new printer. We've never published 12x a year, nor said we did. There isn't a market for it to be honest. I'd love to publiish weekly if I could -- but that's not possible.<br>

I've been given an offer from two distributors I'm considering that would make switching back to 6x a year more profitable for me -- but I have to make sure the advertising is there to support it. We're finding that out this issue.<br>

A subscription for FOCUS because of our infrequency isn't the time, it's the number of copies. So you subscribed with Issue #13, your first issue was supposed to be #15, your subscription would expire with #27.</p>

<p>August 14, 1910 - September 12, 2009.<br /> <br /> http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/12/world/AP-EU-France-Obit-Ronis.html?_r=1<br /> <br /> One of the greatest photographers to have ever lived. The world is a little darker today without his presence.</p>

<p>Dwight - I can't remember which two copies you're missing. Please remember Issue #14 was newsstand only. So if you received #15, #16 and #17, you're caught up. If you did not receive each of those copies, please let me know which ones you did not receive and I'll ship them out to you this week. Hopefully they'll take a little less time clearing customs as the one I just sent you did. Almost a week! The post office did not offer me "guaranteed" express to your address, but offered me just international express... I dunno... it's frustrating that one single copy of a magazine would just sit in customs for a week. I could've walked there and hand delivered it to you and it taken less time. Let me know which copies you don't have and I'll send them out -- but be prepared for a wait. Thankfully, the post office offers some kind of tracking system when you ship it online.<br>

Anyway, as for everyone else:<br>

The distributor is sending the magazines out in three batches this week: Batch 1 is for international, batch 2 and 3 are for domestic. Batch 1 was sent out today and 2 and 3 will be sent out Weds. and Thurs. So by Thursday afternoon, ALL subscriptions will have been sent out.</p>

<p>Odd how my posts keep disappearing. Anyway, I already spoke to you about it through E-Mail this morning. We've attempted, once for the only issue you subscribed in time to receive to send you a magazine. If it did not successfully deliver, I was not notified.<br>

Speaking of unsuccessful deliveries, Dwight, the USPS tried THREE times today to deliver you your magazine.</p>

<p>Johny, I appreciate the compliment. FOCUS used to be printed with the same printer as COLOR until they decided to kick us to the curb because we wanted to publish Jock Sturges photos. The delay between Issue 12 and Issue 13 was due to this. We then found the current printer we're using and it's been a DREAM ever since. But, there are pros and cons of working with either printer. You work with COLOR's printer, you get a magazine printed FAST, like in 2-3 days. Prepress takes about a day or two and that's it. Upload your files on Monday get a magazine by Friday or Saturday. Of course, you suffer quality issues if you do that and while most magazines don't care about that, if you're a fine art photography magazine, it should be PRIORITY #1. But COLOR and B&W have subscribers and readers who don't care about the quality of the photographs. Or, like me in the beginning, they don't know any different. Prepress for Issue #18 took about 3-4 weeks, a bit longer than normal, but we HAD to ensure EVERY photograph was perfect. There were sometimes where we weren't sure of the tonal range of a photograph and could not print that signature (16 page segment) until we had found out if it was warm or neutral. The printing takes about 2-3 weeks and binding takes about a week. After that the magazines have to be shipped and sorted through at the distributor and THEN, THEN they are mailed to subscribers. The point from uploading photos and the magazine to the printer and getting the magazines mailed to subscribers can take up to two months. But, and I've tried to stress this as much as possible, in the end, the subscriber receives THE BEST magazine they've ever seen. I have absolutely no words to describe how proud I am of this issue. 400 line screen vs. 137 linescreen with COLOR, lots of duotones, a gloss laminated cover... I mean the magazine just looks gorgeous and everyone who is a subscriber, when they get their copies, will hopefully feel the same.<br>

This goes to the question - are you willing to wait for something a little bit longer that gives you much higher quality than anything else? I certainly hope many of you are, because when Issue #18 arrives in your mailbox, you will certainly enjoy it.<br>

Magazines arrive today for mailing. They should be mailed Thursday or Friday or Monday at the absolute latest.</p>

<p>The magazines are due arrive to the distributor on Monday along with the subscription list. If you need to double check that you are on the list, please e-mail me immediately. Monday is the absolute cut off date. david@focusmag.info. All magazines will be mailed out Tuesday or Wednesday, dependent upon the schedule and how many people can sort through close to this many subscribers.</p>

<p>Magazines have arrived!</p>

<p><img src="http://www.focusmag.info/other/IMG_0479.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></p>

<p>Magazines have arrived!</p>

<p><img src="http://www.focusmag.info/other/IMG_0479.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Dwight - you need to check your e-mail. If the USPS did not send you an e-mail earlier tonight, then I don't have your correct e-mail address - the same e-mail address you used when you subscribed back in August 2007.<br>

I sent you a notification earlier tonight that you will receive 1 of my 5 copies that I'm receiving tomorrow.<br>

It will ship tomorrow afternoon and arrive by the end of this week. I've also sent you an e-mail to the same e-mail address you used to subscribe. If you have changed your e-mail address - then I can forward you the tracking information to a new one.<br>

As you see, I am trying my best to make this right with you. As for your missing issues - as soon as I receive all of my copies of back issues later on this week -- I can discuss sending you your missing copies then.</p>

<p>Dwight - have you changed your e-mail address since you subscribed? Is it still a telus.net e-mail address?</p>

<p>Who knows, Dwight? You might lucky too!</p>

<p>You'll have to tell me, Jim, which one you like better when you get your copy.</p>

<p>Andy - would you like to do the FedEx option? I'll overnight you a copy on Saturday and it'll arrive on Monday.</p>

<p>Zip code 77024?</p>

 

<p><strong>Up to</strong> 8 weeks. As I said, the post office estimates that you'll receive it in 9 business days. If you read back through some of the postings on here last August when we sent out two consecutive issues, April 2008 and August 2008, the April 2008 issue arrived within 4 weeks and August issue arrived in 6 weeks for most people domestically. Internationally, we receive a huge discount that allows us to send all copies Airmail, so waiting isn't a problem.<br>

Please, calculate my costs for yourself. FedEx ground costs $6. 100 bubble mailers cost me $38 plus $8 shipping. http://www.uline.com/BL_1252/Self-Seal-Uline-White-Bubble-Mailers. I'm charged $35/hour to sort through the mail list and mail it out. In the end, I am making no profit off of this and dependent upon how many people want this, I could wind up losing money.<br>

People have waited so long for this, I want to give them the option to receive it as soon as possible. Again, it's not required. We will still mail you your copies via Periodicals Class as soon as they reach the distributor. After September 1, all are welcome to call the 718 number I entered above and verify you are on the subscription list and the week of September 7, you can verify if your subscription was sent out, yet.</p>