Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    Not yet.  So there's something to look forward to in the mail?
    Great!  ...  What size is it?  Digest or bigger?
    
    						Ann B.

    I heard it being advertised on the radio in Houston, but have not seen
    it yet....

    
    it's out already? gee, i just got my 'founding subscriber' thing in
    the mail last week...
    

    I could be wrong on this, but I heard that the mag will see for 4.50. 
    Is that true?  I hope not cause they won't get my money.  Also, does
    the mag come free in the mail for this "NEW" issue?  Have to admit it I
    haven't sceen it, and just wanted to know if its worth it.
    
    Deb

    My NOW flyer had an editorial detailing the problems NOW had when the
    publisher sold Ms and the new publisher reneged on the agreement to
    send Ms to all NOW members, and canceled the magazine.  Now some of
    the problems have been worked out, and NOW members who lost their
    former subscriptions can get a reduced rate subscription to the new 
    Ms for the first year; $25 instead of $40 per year. 
    
    It has been reformatted; no ads, to be published 6 times a year, over
    100 pages per issue.  The new editor is a prominent person (who's name
    is entirely gone from my mind at present); Gloria Steinem is still
    there and fully supports the new format; the planned content sounds
    incredible, and will include fiction and poetry as well as news and
    analysis.  Can't remember any more, I was trying to catch up on all my
    mail last night and, as I said, this was in my NOW newsletter.  I'm
    planning to get it, and will try to post subscription info if nobody
    beats me to it.
    
    DougO 

    
    	My NOW flyer mentioned it, too, though not in as much detail.
    
    	I plan to subscribe.  I'm sending my money in next week.
    

    Ms. Revamps Format                    [editorial]
                                          National NOW Times
                                          Summer, 1990

    Ms. Magazine, in suspension since last November, has been transformed
    into a redesigned bimonthly feminist journal with a minimum of 100
    pages every issue, total editorial independence, and no advertising.

    New editor Robin Morgan, an award-winning poet, novelist, journalist,
    political theorist and feminist activist, has pledged to take Ms. into
    the 1990s with major international news coverage, strong investigative
    journalism, the return of fiction and poetry, photo journalism spreads,
    legislative and campaign coverage, feminist cartoons and crossword
    puzzles, and such regular features as "Eco-Feminism," "Feminist
    Theory" and "Our Bodies Ourselves" health coverage.

    Morgan has 12 books to her credit, including the classic anthologies
    _Sisterhood is Powerful_ and _Sisterhood is Global_ and her most recent
    work of nonfiction, _The Demon Lover: On the Sexuality of Terrorism_.

    [...]

    Morgan promises that the new Ms. will be "controversial, personal,
    radical, celebratory, and feminist."

    Gloria Steinem, founder and editor-in-chief of the original Ms., is
    solidly on the team of the new journal. [...]

    Steinem summed up her feeling with a tribute to Morgan's essay,
    *Goodbye to All That*: "Goodbye to cigarette ads where poems should be,
    goodbye to celebrity covers and too little space, goodbye to cleaning
    up language so that Ms. advertisers won't be boycotted by the Moral
    Majority."

    [...]

    Subscriptions can be obtained by writing to Ms. Magazine, P.O. Box
    57130, Boulder, Colorado, 80321-7130.

	I subscribed for it  long time back when I got a card informing
	that they wanted to try an Ad free woman's magazine.

	I got it last Friday, full 96 pages of it, it was a treat.

	India has such a magazine "MANUSHI" and it has survived 12
	wonderful years. Hope this new MS Magazine survives it. I
	will do all I can to support it.

	Individual copy is $4.50.  When I subscribed it was $40/for 6 
	issues. Since the prince depends on the volume, the publishers 
	are in a guessing game. They do not want to make profit, they 
	do not want to lose money either. So they are trying the
	new introductory offer of $30/for 6 issues. Gloria explains
	why subscription $30 will be higher than buying at the
	(6*4.50=27) store. She promised to return/credit $10
	to early subscribers, if $30, works out.
	
	Her explanation is gentle and good. 
	
	I can only put it bluntly. Following are MY words:

	It costs to mail and handle an individual magazine. If 
	you want an assured issue , pay for the postage,
	if you want to pay less take a chance and go to the 
	speciality book store where you will find the magazine,
	and take the risk of missing an issue. It helps planning
	and budgeting process if people subscribe. 

	I for one, do not want some corporation to pay for my
	postal bills, because there is always a hidden cost,
	I am not willing to pay that hidden cost. There is 
	NO FREE LUNCH. If we want quality articles, we must be 
	willing to pay for it. 

	So far I read articles on Ecology, Feminism in Eastern Europe.
	I loved Gloria's article - 11 full pages of it, explaining 
	how the corporation extracts a price for placing its ads 
	in a women' magazine. I am reading only one article a night.

        Arun.




                                                     
    

I think it's great. The editor, Robin Morgan, promises that it will be 
"international, unashamedly feminist, and about making: mischief, 
connections, love, a difference..." 

In addition to Gloria Steinem's piece about her ins and outs with the
advertising industry, it has articles on what life is like for women in the
eastern European countries since the recent thaw; poetry and fiction;
a moving memoir by Bella Abzug about her late husband; brief pieces on
ageism, women and the environment, the current suppression of the new
French abortifacient pill RU 486 (evidently caused by the US threatening to
withhold funds from the World Health Organization, according to recent
issues of the NY Times and Boston Globe), international attempts to stop
female genital mutilation; book reviews; photography.

It has *no advertising*!

I particularly liked going into Royal Books and seeing it on their rack of 
near-porn "women's magazines," Cosmo and Vogue and the like. I also loved
the dismissive review of it in yesterday's Globe, wherein the reviewer (a
woman I think) condemned it for having no ads and no four-color art, and
said the writing was "mediocre" and lacking in quality. I see this as just
one more contribution to the long tradition of trying to discredit/suppress
women's writing (amply documented in books by Dale Spender and Joanna Russ). 

So what else is new?

Ms. Magazine is,

Dorian
                                                                       

My first issue was in the mail last night. (So much for working
on that painting project....)

It looks good. Real good. It's going to take several evenings
to read it.

The No Comment page is back. The No Comment page for this first
issue spotlights some of the belittling advertising that has appeared in Ms.
Magazine in the past.

Robin Morgan's editorial goes into lengthy explanation of the
plans for regular columns for this new Ms.

When I first heard about this new Ms., I thought the price of
$40 a year was ridiculous. But if the rest of the issues are able
to match this first issue in quality, I've changed my mind.
(And, as a member of NOW, I subscribed for $25....)

Kathy

    I found and bought the first issue Tuesday evening.  I've read it
    almost cover to cover by now.  It's good.  Very good.
    
    I felt much of the same excitement over the magazine that I felt
    in 1972 (was it really _that_ long ago!!) over the first issue.
    
    There is a wonderful fiction piece about a girl in Africa working
    to go to school.  A terrific article by Gloria Steinem about the
    struggle with advertisers in the old Ms.  (Could not get cosmetics
    ads because the companies believed that it would hurt their image
    to advertise to liberated women since makeup is designed for "kept"
    women!! Do tell.)

    A long article about women and women's rights in the Eastern block
    countries. Poland, Rumania, Czechoslovakia (does spelling that
    word mean I can get into heaven?), Latvia, etc.
    
    It has a decidedly international focus and seems to me to be inclusive
    of all aspects of women. I'm going to send the article on ageism for my
    mom. 
    
    The price is a bit steep but it's a fair price (especially since I
    checked out the prices on some of the other women's magazines at the
    grocery story -- Cosmo, Glamour, Mirabella). 
    
    I'm hooked.  I'm subscribing.

    I reckon to subscribe too.  Anyone know where I can get a copy of this
    issue so that I'll have a complete set?  I can't find them.
    
    						=m

    
    
    	The Paper Store in Maynard is SOLD OUT !!  :-(
    
    
    	Can someone post MS's phone number & address please?
    	(or mail me one of those annoying papers that fall out
    	 of mags?)
    
    	They told me to try someplace like Harvard Square (but I'm
    	not going there this week :-( ).
    	
    						nancy b.
    

    Booksmiths in Pheasant lane mall said they haven't got it yet. Asked
    me to try next monday. Monday is when they get their magazines.
    I've checked quite a few stores and haven't seen it anywhere.
    
    manisha

    Waldenbooks in the Greendale Mall in Worcester has the magazine.
    You can call them and reserve a copy.  (508-853-7625) if you pick 
    it the same day.

    	Ms Magazine
    	PO Box  57132
    	Bolder C) 80322-7132
    
    OR  Ms.
    	PO Box 50008
    	Boulder Co 80321-000800
    

    
    	Hooray!!!!!
    
    	Finally found a copy - everyplace else I've checked has been sold
    	out!
    
    	For those in Colorado Springs, I found it at Walden Books at the
    	Chapel Hills Mall (in the wing near the theatres.)  There were
    	3 or 4 copies still there when I left.
    
    	Great magazine!!
    

    re.-1  i had to go from greenville, s.c. to richmond, va. to find a
           copy... and it was the *last* one they had!! (-:
    
    ~robin_who_will_also_be_sending_in_a_subscription_for_ms._based_on_this
     issue

    
    	My subscription order is already in the mail (after buying my
    	copy of Ms. a few hours ago.)
    
    	Women space is even powerful in the environment of a magazine!!!
    

    If someone would tell me where to find a copy locally, or would buy one
    for me (I'll be glad to pay postage and handling even! :-)  I'd be very
    grateful.  I too would like to have the whole series.

    	As mentioned in mail, your copy is enroute, Maggie!

    	By the way, for those who intend to subscribe to Ms. but weren't
    	able to get the first issue, I have an extra form to request a
    	"Founding Subscriber" order for $30 (for 6 bi-monthly issues.)

    	As hard as they've been to get this time around, a subscription
    	is a good idea (plus, it'll help Ms. with their planning for
    	future issues, etc.)

    	It's a wonderful new series - "Here we are, stubborn as hell,
    	committed to helping you feel validated, informed, furious, joyous,
    	argumentative, and hopeful.  Because distance is shrinking and the
    	women's movement is growing, this Ms. will be international, and
    	unashamedly FEMINIST."  [Ms., p. 1 - July/Aug 1990]

    
    My son works in Out-of-Town News in Harv. Square in Cambridge, and he
    told me that they're getting more copies of Ms. in this coming
    Wednesday. Also, I called New Words Bookstore in Cambridge yesterday;
    they said the magazine is in a second printing, and that they'll get
    more copies in about a week.
    
    Dorian

    Can someone please help me find a copy out here???
    
    I work in Marlboro and live in Fitchburg (all in Mass.).
    I can't really travel to far...
    
    Thanks,
    
    Sue

	This magazine is EXTREMELY hard to find.

	How do they ever intend to make an impact if people can't
	find it to purchase it.  I went to every bookstore/pharmacy
	in Marlboro/Hudson at lunch today....and not a single one
	of them even carry it.

	kathy

    kath
    
    I think it is more likely that they can't get the distributors
    to carry it, not that they are limiting its distribution.
    
    By the way I got a copy yesterday and I am really enjoying reading
    it!
    
    Bonnie

    
>    I think it is more likely that they can't get the distributors
>    to carry it, not that they are limiting its distribution.


	Why would they have trouble doing that?  Unless of course just
	one distributor gets mags for all of Marlboro/Hudson.  Seems
	that revenue would be nice to have for a distributor, and I
	would imagine that they would few distributing such a "hot"
	new magazine as being lucrative.

	Who knows....I suppose I'll have to go to Worcester.


	kath

    It is very likely that there may be one distributor for all of
    Marlboro/Hudson.
    
    I worked in a book store last Christmas and was told that they
    had absolutely no control over what the distributors send. The
    store may request a particular magazine but their chances of getting
    it aren't all that good. Given that this is a first copy of
    a some what controversial magazine, it may well be that the particular
    distributor doesn't think it will sell.
    
    Bonnie

	Check your local library - they may have a copy you can read.

	I received my copy in the mail last week while I was away, I
	am now half way through the magazine.  The interview with k.d.
	lang and Leslie Gore is very interesting - it seemed to be to
	comfortable to be true.  Then a "click" that is how women-only
	space is - to comfortable to be true.  A woman can relate to
	another woman as she wishes to.

	_peggy

		(-)
		 |
			One subscription for my son
			One subscription for my daughter
			One for .... I will find someone.

    
    kath,
    
    You can get the Phoenix on Friday morning at the Lake Williams
    convenience store in Marlborough.
    
    CQ

me, me, me Peggy! :-)

    I'm surprised some of you are having trouble finding the 
    magazine, I just read about it here and got myself a copy
    at Greendale mall the same evening without any problems.
    
    I'm quite disappointed with it actually. I've read
    far more riveting and well-written stuff with feminist
    leanings in one or two other "generic" magazines.
    
    It did serve a very useful purpose as bedtime reading
    though, it put an end to a rather prolonged 
    jetlag-induced bout of insomnia.
    
    Not quite midnight EST yet and I'm yawning already.
    
    Ganesh.
                        

    In case anyone's interested I'm giving away my copy
    to the first person who asks for it.
    
    Ganesh.

    
    	Sounds good - it should go to someone who can appreciate it.
    

    I was glad to see an item in the new MS. magazine about the boycott of
    Salvadoran coffee.  Since I don't drink coffee at all, that specific
    issue doesn't affect me personally.  But the more general fact of the
    immorality of Reagan and Bush policies in Nicaragua and El Salvador
    over the last 10 years *are* important issues, and I think it is
    important for a liberation ideology like feminism to ally itself with
    the left in other struggles for peace and justice worldwide.

    -- Mike

    As promised by Dorian, there was a huge stock of Ms. yesterday at
    Out-of-Town News, Cambridge - and a sign on the door announcing its
    availability!
    
    I haven't finished it yet, but, having gone on record with how much I
    enjoy her music, I feel personally vindicated by the Lesley Gore
    interview.  (: >,)
    
    Ray

	I bought my copy at that magazine stand next to the Harvard Coop
	(Nina's, maybe?).  Also, that bookstore across from Crate & Barrel
	in Cambridge also has it.  Wish I was better at names....


	Sue

    I've been looking for a month.  Printer's Inc Mt View: no.  Stacey's in
    Palo Alto: no.  Tower Books in Mt View: no.  The first two had heard of
    it but 'its only available by subscription'...wrong wrong wrong!  They
    both agreed to go back and beat on their distributors for it, but it
    isn't here yet...
    
    DougO

    Doug - 

    I was very surprised at how hard it was to find a copy in this
    area.   I tried a couple of stores that I thought for sure
    would have it, but every time I'd call, they would tell me they
    were still waiting to hear from their distributor.

    I finally found mine in the Hillsdale mall (unfortunately, I 
    can't remember the name of the store, plus, I took the last
    one!)

    You may want to try "Two Sisters" bookstore in Menlo Park.

			Good Luck!  Lynne

    I found a copy of Vol. 2 in Star Market (Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge)
    last night.  Can't wait to read it!
    
    
    Judi
    

    
    finally received vols 1 & 2
    pretty cool
    

The latest issue of Ms. contains several really searing articles about 
violence against women -- in the usual places -- Third World countries, 
this country, college campuses, the media, etc. One of the articles offers
the suggestion (from Canadian feminists) that December 6 be made an
official day of remembrance, since it was a year ago on that day that the
women students were slaughtered in Montreal. 

Of special interest, I thought, is an article by Andrea Dworkin on Israel 
and the condition of women there. She, a Jew brought up in New Jersey in 
the 50s who was taught to revere the newly founded country, finally visited
it recently and found women to be more or less on a par with "dog sh*t,
something you scrape off the bottom of your shoe." She writes about sexual
harassment, women battering, the fate of women in the religious courts, and
something called "Holocaust pornography" ("the themes are fire, gas,
trains, emaciation, death") which, according to Dworkin, is conspicuously
available in mainstream Israeli magazines, for the consumption of Israeli
males. Charming ... it will be very interesting to read the letters to the
editor in the next issue! 

Dorian
                           

    .42 describes an article about women's status in Israel... pretty well
    describes what I remember as the state of things in '72-'73, when I
    spent 8 months living at S'dot Yam, a kibbutz on the site of ancient
    Kesaria (Caesaria).
    
    (gorgeous spot, btw)
    

	Has anyone who has a subscription received their new mag yet?  I
	haven't received mine and wonder if I should go out and buy one.

	Sue

    
    I received mine in the mail this past Saturday.
    
    D.

    Uuups, yes.  My subscription came a week and a half ago, and I've
    been meaning to mention it here ever since. (Blush, shame.)  Ah,
    here it is:  Green background, stylized faces in foreground, with
    orangy-red and yellow predominating.  But wait!  If you flip it
    over, it's a white background with [some of?] the Gorilla Girls
    in the foreground, and a green header.
    
    Inside...lemme see....  They're reprinting the first issue.  There's
    an excellent interview with Chai Ling of Tiananmen Square fame,
    a really great article about Maya Ying Lin, which helped me actually
    *understand* her monuments (I understand poetry, but not dance or
    sculpture.), the aforementioned series of articles on violence
    against women -- with a survey for us to fill out, and the one
    about women (Israeli and Arab) in Israel, an article about the
    Gorilla Girls, and other meaty stuff.  (I was very pleased to learn
    that "The Dinner Party" now has a permanent home.)
    
    						Ann B.
    
    P.S.  I'd never rely on the magazine/book distribution system for
    anything.  I've known too many booksellers who tear their hair out
    in despair over it.  Someone (Harlan?) once explained to me that
    the `system' was pretty much in Mafia hands as a way of laundering
    money, so that efficiency was not a consideration.  I'd buy that.

    
    Wonder if Ms. will touch that one ...
    
    D.

    Re: "Harlan"
    
    Ann, are you name dropping AGAIN????
    
    -- Mike :-)

        The following is reprinted without permission from
        Saturday's Quincy Patriot Ledger.
        
        Dan
        
        Booting advertisers liberates Ms. magazine, editors say
        
        A year ago, Gloria Steinem, one of the founders of Ms.
        magazine, persuaded Dale W. Lang, the magazine's owner, to
        attempt a radical ploy to keep the moribund magazine alive. 
        Try eliminating advertising, she said.  Let Ms. be a
        completely reader-supported magazine.

        This month, a fat and jubilant Ms. celebrates a full year of
        ad-free publication.  It claims a circulation of 150,000,
        double what it considers to be the break-even point.

        The July-August issue has 108 pages, more than 20 percent more
        than the average old issue.  And, Lang said, "the profit
        margins of this magazine would be the envy of any publisher. 
        I wish I had six magazines like Ms."

        Lang declined to say what his profit margin is, except that it
        is "way above the average of the industry."  The Magazine
        Publishers of America, which represents the industry, puts
        average pre-tax operating profits at 10.6 percent.  Lang
        Communications, the owner of Ms., is private and does not make
        its figures public.

        Ms. is one of a very few publications that exist on
        circulation alone.  The others include Consumer Reports, with
        a circulation of 3.85 million; Guideposts, a
        non-denominational publication, with 4.13 million; and Mad
        with 2 million.  What they have in common--and the key to
        their survival--are readers loyal enough to pay a high price.

        Ms. readers are not only loyal but, for the most part,
        passionate about their magazine, which has been the standard
        bearer of the women's movement for almost two decades.  In
        November 1989, after Lang acquired Ms. from Matilda
        Publications, he suspended its publication because it was
        losing so much money.

        Ms. officials say letters poured in by the hundreds from
        readers asking that the magazine be saved.

        The first step in the perilous endeavor of shedding
        advertisers came when the magazine's publisher, Ruth Bower,
        sent a letter to subscribers.

        "It's all up to you," the letter said.  New subscriptions,
        which had to be paid for in full before readers received an
        issue of the magazine, would be a hefty $40 for six 100-page
        issues a year.

        Not only did the readers respond, but they did so by the tens
        of thousands.  Twenty-five thousand copies of the first issue
        of the ad-free magazine were put on the newsstands in July
        1990 and sold out in three days, Ms. officials said.

        "I've been in this business 40 years and I can't remember
        anyone ever selling out in three days," Bower said.

        Newsstand sales are now running about 50,000 an issue, Lang
        said.  The cover price has been raised to $4.95 from $4.50,
        and discounted subscriptions are now offered.

        Publishing an ad-free magazine is quite different from
        publishing one that is advertising-driven.  Business expenses
        are comparatively low.

        Not only did Ms. get rid of its advertising sales staff, it
        whittled the business side of the magazine down to Bower, two
        partners and two part-time employees.

        Since there is no pressure from advertisers for high
        circulation, the magazine is being allowed to reach its own
        natural circulation level.

        Lang and Bower predict that will be from 200,000 to 250,000. 
        At its peak Ms. had a circulation of 700,000, much of it
        costly discounted subscriptions that had been sold simply for
        the benefit of advertisers.

        "Magazines constantly push their circulation up higher because
        they want to sell more ads, but a good percentage of their
        circulation is not profitable," Lang said.

        "They are really losing money on their subscriptions but
        making it up in advertising.  I am making money on circulation
        because I never go beyond the subscription that is possible."

        As it turned out, advertisers were not interested in the kind
        of magazine that the core Ms. readers wanted.

        "Years ago, when we did one of the first pieces on battered
        women, there was much hemming and hawing from liquor
        advertisers," said Robin Morgan, the editor in chief.  "Now we
        are free to say that there is a real correlation between
        battered women and alcoholism."

        "Advertisers want everything to be happy, happy, happy," she
        said.

        And Lang said: "The problem with this magazine has always been
        that it has vacillated between serving the advertiser or
        serving the reader.  You put Cher on the cover and readers
        were unhappy.  You ran a hardhitting article by Gloria and
        then advertisers would be unhappy.  You have to decide which
        one you are going to please."

        One surprise for Lang has been the response from young women.

        "We didn't think there would be a youthful constituency for
        the magazine," he said.

	re: .50 (Dan D'Eramo)

>  One surprise for Lang has been the response from young women.

>  "We didn't think there would be a youthful constituency for
>  the magazine," he said.

	The most enjoyable part of the latest issue  (for me) was
	the letters from the 2 teen girls, Leah? Albrecht, from 
	Worcester, and a Tracy? Tripp, from New Jersey.	

	As one of them said, "O Rapture!"  ;-).

						nancy b.

where can I get a subscription form????  I will suscribe tomorrow if they have
stopped that stupid advertising -- I hadn't heard.