david_spivak2

You gotta love the internet.

 

You don't send out magazines, you get bitched at.

 

You do send out magazines, you get bitched at.

 

Dwight, do you have a lawyer? I suggest you get one.

Don, yes I am sure you received a copy of the April 2008 issue unless you either A: Sent it back or B: moved.

 

Matthew: Absolutely no offense intended about Fargo, ND. All I said was "I have no idea how long it takes" and provided a past reference as to how long it took then.

 

I know Brooks Jensen has, in recent months, given many photography forum members a lesson in magazine distribution. Now let me give you all a lesson in magazine subscription mailing.

 

For the printing of the magazines, I am charged about $3.25 a copy, give or take .10 or so every issue. Then I am charged $1 per copy for all subscription mailing then I am charged the postage, which is around $1.50 a copy. For 6 issues a year, that's $34.50. The standard equation for subscription mailing on high quality art magazines is take the cost x 2. In order for me to cover all of my expenses AND make a profit, I would have to charge $69 for a one-year subscription.

 

I currently charge, via the subscription card in the magazine, $39.95 for one year $59.95 for two years and you get the third year free. I'm barely making any money on the one year and I'm losing money on the two years. So much so that I had to increase the costs if people subscribed online because the fees PayPal take out of the money I receive.

 

In order to make barely any kind of a profit whatsoever (83 cents profit per copy for a one year subscription) on the one year and to lessen the loss on two years, I have to spend the absolute least amount of money in postage possible. If my magazine weighed under 14 ounces, I could send the magazine first class. How much would that cost per issue? $2.46 per copy, which is almost a dollar more than I pay right now. Unfortunately, or fortunately, my magazine does not weight 13 oz. It weighs at least 18 oz. if not more. If I'm lucky enough to have an issue that weighs 15 oz or less, I can mail it "Standard Mail" and that would cost around $1 per copy. However, I haven't had a copy that's weighed less than 15 oz in a long time. So, then I'm left with bound and printed matter, which is what I used to mail out the April 2008 issue. I don't have a choice now - the issue is one pound 8 oz. and that is the absolute least expensive option I have to mail it. way I can mail it, without qualifying for Periodicals Class.

 

Using this new company, they applied for the Periodicals Class postage for Focus Magazine. It takes about 6 months to get approved and the amount of paperwork you have to fill out to apply for it would make doing your taxes look easy. If I'm approved for Periodicals Class, it would knock down my postage per issue to .60 cents per copy. But in order to meet that, there's a number of hoops I have to jump through. Hopefully, I'll qualify for it and I can begin to make a little bit of profit on my one-year subscriptions. This, of course, is all domestic. International is a whole nuther breed of monster.

 

Periodicals Class is something almost ALL magazinees use to do their mailing. It's inexpensive, but it takes a long time. I did not have this solution done until after the August 2008 issue was already on newsstands.

 

The October 2008 issue will be mailed out weeks before it's distributed on newsstands. So, hopefully, by the time you get a copy, it should be just rolling out on newsstands.

 

Hey, it took a week and a half for the April issue to reach me and I'm in New York City! It'll take longer for it to reach Los Angeles than it will Fargo, ND... I don't control any of this - this is the time the post office takes to distribute these magazines. If I could get overnight express for .60 cents an issue, I'd do it in a heart beat.

 

This solution IS working because people ARE getting magazines. This is the solution. The only other thing I can offer is an extra $5 per copy ($30 a year) if they want their copies priority mailed to them.

Hi Matt.

 

Please read the posts here that I've made before you make stupid accusations. The April 2008 issue was sent out 8/2 and the August 2008 issue was sent 8/8 to all subscribers. If you live on the west coast, this just takes a while. It took a week and a half for a copy to reach Western NY state from Queens, NY - obviously the further West you live, the longer it will take.

 

What I find interesting is that I don't have a "Matt Thompson" or even a Matthew Thompson on my subscribtion list, nor did I back in February or August of last year. After a bit of research I found that your wife did not subscribe under your last name, which caused confusion. Anyway, you're subscriber number 2563. I have no idea how long it takes a magazine to reach Fargo, ND but you are on the list and you've been sent the April and the August magazines. The 2008 Collector's Edition was mailed 3/6/08 from Exton, PA. According to your e-mail, you received it on 3/18/08. This post office was in a different zone, so I'd assume you should get your April 2008 issue this week - with the August issue arriving next week.

 

And I haven't ignored your previous e-mails. I responded to one on March 18, at 1:28 AM, which was 30 minutes after you e-mailed me. That was the last e-mail I received from you.

I expected nothing less from you, Don.

ALL international subscribers that were on the list received the April 2008 issue, including those who canceled their subscription. Interestingly enough, Don Marks has been silent, even though I know for a fact he's received his copy. I guess I was right about Don, his only purpose in this little thread was to be negative -- to complain just for the sake of complaining.

 

Mr Sedwick, I appreciate your compliment. You should be receiving #17 this week if my math is right. Thanks to the help of this company I'm contracted with for the subscription services for Focus, ALL subscription issues have been resolved and we're hard at work on issue #18. That issue should go to print within 2-3 weeks from now and mail out in early October.

Just a quick update - I've begun to receive reports from subscribers on the East Coast that they've received their copies. Anyone here from the East Coast? Can anyone else confirm?

Everything was mailed today for the August issue -- foreign and international. Thank you once again, everyone for all of your paitence.

 

Now the test is to see how well it worked. All foreign copies of the April issue were sent int'l priority mail which takes 6-10 business days. So within the next week, most of the international subscribers should have their copies of the April issue.

The April 2008 issue has been mailed out via bound and printed matter domestically and airmail internationally. Unfortunately, postage regulations forbid mailing out two different issues of the same magazine at the same time within a 5 day period. So the August 2008 issue will be mailed out next week.

 

So, if you subscribed prior to March 25, you will be receiving the April 2008 issue very soon. If you subscribed after March 25, you will be receiving the August 2008 issue soon... just not as soon as I'd like. The magazines are labeled and ready to go -- we just have to wait until next Friday August 8. I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but if you'd like to view the August 2008 issue online, you can. http://www.focusmag.info/August2008.pdf. Hopefully that will tide some of you over until the actual print copies arrive.

 

Also on the good news front, whenever a new issue comes to my distributor, that issue will be sent out to subscribers a week to two weeks before it reaches newsstands.

 

So all in all, this was something I knew that was going to take time to figure out, it's been going on, admittedly for 8 months now and your patience has allowed me to do what needed to be done. All subscribers who subscribed before March 25 are getting this year for free on their subscription as I have mentioned earlier.

 

When the August 2008 issue is sent out to subscribers, I will let everyone here know. Should be by friday.

*sigh*

 

Clarification: This is the first time I've worked with this company on subscriptions. Up until now, I've always had my printer handle subscriptions - they didn't have the manpower to do it but were doing me a favor. It finally got to the point where I needed to hire an outside company to do this for me - little did I realize that the company in charge of distribution of my magazine, also handles subscriptions. As I have mentioned, this was something that we've both JUST agreed to.

 

As I have said numerous times in the past week, all domestic subscriptions will be mailed next week.

There is no BS, Jeremy. We've already sent you numerous copies of FOCUS, plus a charge to overnight you a copy

of the magazine via UPS. We've spent over $70 on your $54.95 subscription.

 

I will hope that you will be patient with the receipt of your magazines. As I said, I will update everyone on here as to

the exact date of their mailing at the post office. You, along with everyone else, will receive the April 2008 issue and

the August 2008 issue.

 

I understand this is frustrating for you -- it is even more frustrating for me. But this problem has been resolved on my

end and now we all just have to wait for everyone to do their jobs next week. There will not be any additional delays

whatsoever. None.

Excellent news: The wait is over.

 

The contract with the subscription fulfillment center has been finalized and all magazines are being picked up as we speak. Due to the relatively large number of subscriptions that there are, the order will take a little longer (as I warned) to process. All domestic subscriptions for the April 2008 and August 2008 issues will be sent out by next week. All foreign subscriptions will be air shipped to a distribution center in Europe next week and sent out from there.

Hello all. I see a great number of you are upset - with good reason to be. I also see a lot of you have been extremely patient and are running out of patience.

 

Let me just tell you all that I have made a deal with a company to handle my subscriptions from now on. It's been my mistake to try to do too many things at once and unfortunately, I've suffered the consequences, health wise of putting too much stress on myself.

 

This outside company will be handling ALL subscription operations on Monday, July 21. Right now all of the subscription copies - April and August 2008 are located in Exton, PA with my printer. My distributor will be picking them up either Monday or Tuesday and preparing both issues for mailing this week. I feel confident that all foreign and domestic subscriptions for both the April 2008 and August 2008 issues should be sent out by Friday of this week. I've been working with this company for over 3 years and they have much better resources and manpower than I have. This is going to lighten the load for me quite a bit and allow, hopefully, for me to get Focus back on a regular schedule.

 

As I said above many many times ago - everyone's subscription was extended one year if you subscribed before March 1, 2008.

 

Once again, issue #14, the December 2007 issue was a newsstand only issue.

 

Issue #15 was sent out to all subscribers months ago.

 

I owe you all issues #16 and #17. 17 just came off the bindery last week and will be shipping to my distribution company along with 16 Monday or Tuesday.

 

We're going to be using a new class of mail - that is less expensive and takes about the same amount of time to arrive at their destinations domestically. Foreign subscriptions will be freighted to a distribution center in Europe and mailed via postage there to all foreign subscribers, except Canada and Mexico. Those subscriptions will be mailed from the US facility via Int'l Priority Mail, I believe. I'm not 100% sure about that yet. In the meantime, I have setup an e-mail account that I and the distribution company will both have access to. This e-mail account has been setup specifically to deal with subscription problems. The E-Mail address is: subprob@focusmag.info. I urge all of you who have problems with your subscription to send an e-mail to that account, unless you received the February 2008 issue in the mail. If you received the February 2008 issue - then you're on the list and will receive both issues as they arrive to you in the mail.

 

If you have not received the February 2008 issue - please send us an e-mail with the following information:

 

Your name, address, city, state/province, zip code, country (if not USA).

 

If you paid via PayPal, please provide your PayPal receipt number. If you paid via check, please provide us with the check number and the date the check was cashed.

 

Now the bad news. If you missed the February 2008 for whatever reason, I have less than 10 copies left. I am taking it off of the website as an orderable back issue as soon as I can get onto my server and access my individual pages. If the last issue you received was the Jock Sturges issue (August 2007) then I will extend your subscription by one year and one issue. We have an ample amount of copies of the August 2008 and April 2008 issues and will go to all subscribers before they go to anyone else.

 

This is priority number one for me right now. I cannot ask any of you to understand the reasons why this has been delayed yet again, and I won't make any excuses. Excuses are irrelevant - what is the most important thing for all of you to know is that I have dedicated a great deal of time to this problem and it should be fixed by the end of this week. We don't want to do this the wrong way and dis-organized and if the distribution company tells me next week, then I'll tell all of you next week.

 

As for the future, Focus Magazine is running strong. Our newsstand sales are crushing the competition - we have sell through rates in the high 60s and low 70s. We continue to dedicate an enormous amount of thought-provoking editorial to each issue and ensure that every single article is written and edited to the highest level. The printing and reproduction of Focus Magazine has improved yet again -- we just switched to a European sheet that allows a much higher level of detail to included in every reproduction. You'll see the difference when you look at the April issue and the August issue. Both magazines are wonderfully produced - and really, it's splitting hairs, but I want to provide absolutely no possibility of us being beaten by any other magazine on newsstands today in that department. Our sheetfed printer who uses a hybrid linescreen technology that gives us over a 300 linescreen reproduction, combined with the new paper, I hope will really gain us additional recognition. All subscriptions, from now on, will be handled with this company and they pride themselves on ensuring all subscribers are given royal treatment. Subscriptions may even arrive at your home before they arrive on newsstands as this is the same company that is responsible for 90% of our domestic newsstand distribution.

 

I will update you all on this periodically this week. I thank each of you for your loyalty and patience. I repeat, this is PRIORITY #1 for me.

http://www.focusmag.info/August2008.pdf

Hello all. Thank you, once again, for your patience. The August 2008 issue has been uploaded to the printer, which means all subscriptions will go out this week. When the August issue has finished printing, we will mail this issue out as well. It should be finished in 3-4 weeks from now.

 

However -- I will give all of you a beautiful PDF preview of this issue to tide you over.

 

www.focusmag.info/August2008.pdf

 

This link should be active within the next 15 minutes. So around 11:15 P.M. EST on Sunday, 6/15/08. Please, let me know what you think of this issue.

Slight mis-understanding, John. I apologize, NYC can get very loud and sometimes it's difficult to have a conversation on the phone while walking around. As soon as the Summer issue goes to my printer's, I will mail out the last issue. That could be this week or next week. We will be mailing out the magazines at the same time our trucker comes to pick up the magazines and delivers it to the distributors for distribution on newsstands. I have no control over how long it takes for them to deliver the magazines, nor how long it takes to get the magazine on newsstands.

 

For instance, if the Summer issue is picked up July 5 from the trucking company, that is the day they go out to subscribers. If it takes 3 weeks to arrive to you via USPS and two weeks to get the magazine on newsstands, then that will be an instance when it's on newsstands before it's in your mailbox. As soon as the magazines are off the press and bindery, we bag them and send them out.

 

This is NOT an automated process like it is with most other magazines... we are not printed by a magazine printer -- we are printed by a sheetfed high-end photography-book printer. That is why there's a drastic difference in quality between Focus and other magazines. Sometimes in exchange for quality, you have to wait a little longer. But not as long as you have been waiting.

I made a post here last night and now it's gone -- no idea why. Jeremy, the December '07 issue was newsstand only as I said above. John, I sent you an e-mail to call me. Everyone else: We are decreasing the amount of time left in between issues that subscribers receive per issue starting with the last issue. By the time everyone has received that issue, the next issue will be sent out. By the time everyone has received that issue -- the next one will be sent out after that. About 8 weeks in between issues starting with the last issue we published.

Ok, I'm done here. I offered to send out magazines to your address. You've refused to e-mail me your address. How is it possible that everyone else in Europe received their May and August issues and you didn't? This is a subscriber who refuses to provide me with a correct address. Case closed. I'm done giving you my time.

ONCE AGAIN -- You are on the list. You have been sent magazines to your PO BOX in the Netherlands. Twice. Since your subscription, we've published four issues. The first and second issues have been sent to you. The third was not. The fourth will be this week. There is obviously an error in your address which is why you haven't been receiving magazines. SO ONCE AGAIN -- give me your PHYSICAL address and I will send you TWO magazines -- for the issues you missed. May and August. February is going out to you and all other subscribers this week.

Cheap excuses. I love the internet. Everybody's so tough over the internet...

 

Uh, you called me on a Saturday evening, I believe and when I told you to call a different day (I had company over) you didn't accept that and kept calling and calling and calling. Over 10 times. You're right -- I will yell at you for that.

 

I've never received ONE e-mail from you. Just several phone calls on a weekend evening when I was expecting a call from someone else who was hours late.

 

Huibert, you can call whomever you want to. We sent you two different issues. If you haven't received them, perhaps you gave PayPal the wrong PO Box. Now if you act like a civilized human being and send me a quick e-mail with your physical, not PO BOX, address, I'd be more than happy to send you out two copies. But you won't receive them this week... you'll receive them in however long the post office takes to go to the Netherlands.

Huibert, are you the one that refused to accept any of the answers I gave you -- and kept calling and calling and calling and calling?Yeah, after a while that gets frustrating and annoying. Yeah, I'll yell at people who keep calling about 10x in a row. You need to accept the answer the magazine gives you and let us return to work. You know, folks, I run a magazine. I don't have customer service, ok? I'm customer service. I'm the publisher, do most of the sales, do all of the layout and design, run the magazine, do EVERYTHING for the magazine except editorial work. The December issue, as has been posted numerous times, had sporadic distribution amongst subscribers and thus was considered a NEWSSTAND ONLY edition. Every other issue, no matter what people paid for, they've received without fail. So, everyone's subscription, even those that received the December issue, was extended by one issue. You might think that because I have a nice magazine, I'm as big as Time or Newsweek or something like that where we have dozens of people waiting to help every one of you. The fact of the matter is -- I don't. I have spent every dime I have on making this magazine the BEST magazine possible out there. And you know what? It's worked. So, we missed ONE issue for subscribers. All subscription copies of the February issue are being mailed this week and I know for a fact that everyone is on it. So, I guess you need to sit back and decide "Hmmm... they missed one issue on my subscription, but my subscription's been extended by one issue. Maybe I'll sit back and wait for my next issue to come." or "Screw them, I missed one issue and who cares how big the magazine is, I should've received my subscription!" or whatever else you want to think to yourselves. I work at least 18 hours a day on this magazine -- I am obsessed with providing the highest quality content, reproduction and everything that this magazine can exhibit. So when people keep calling and calling and calling over and over -- yeah I yell at them. You would too. Don, I promised you a subscription copy weeks ago. I thought I sent it to you weeks ago and worked for over an hour to try to find your tracking number. When alas, there I had the envelope with your magazines sitting in a different room with your address on it. In the end, I guess I forgot about it -- I'm human. I apologize for forgetting about it. I tried to send it out Monday, but UPS was closed. It was sent out yesterday. I spent $60 on that. I promised I'd send you magazines -- I didn't promise I would send you magazines via UPS. I could have gone to the post office and probably spent 1/4 of that or even 1/8 of that. You would've gotten the magazines probably in 2-3 weeks from now -- but you would've gotten them as I promised. Instead, I made sure you got them as quickly as possible. Every subscription copy that was missed, even though it wasn't a subscription issue, I've sent either FedEx or UPS. Not mail like every other magazine will do. That's how much A: My word is my bond and B: I am dedicated to my customers who have financially supported this magazine. I work my ass off, once again, to make this the highest quality magazine on newsstands. And as soon as all of you get copies of the February issue -- you'll see that for yourselves.

Asa:

 

Go to Fedex.com

 

Put in this tracking number:

 

791464197674

 

Should be there Thursday.

Something different?

Hello, Jim. Our website has been transitioning (not voluntarily) to a new web server and the software upgraded... this caused complete chaos regarding e-mails. I apologize for any trouble this has caused you...I'm not sure what the problem could be. Feel free to give me a call tomorrow after 3 p.m. 718.360.4724. I will personally find out what has happened with your subscription.

When you find the answer to this question, please let me know. So far, I haven't.

This contest is now closed. We have chosen a photographer for the cover of our Collector's Edition. We received so many amazing submissions in the past week, I can't thank all of you enough for your help. If you'd like to e-mail me at david@focusmag.info with your address, we'll send you a copy of this issue for anyone who submitted to this contest absolutely free of charge.