Better Together

What will the new partnership between Everything Dulcimer and Dulcimer Players News magazine mean to you? The following article, reprinted from Dan Landrum's Editor's Column in the Summer 2009 DPN, details how the partnership has developed, and outlines the plan for some exciting new content here at Everything Dulcimer.

Will Dulcimer Players News still exist 10 years from now? It’s a question we, along with all publishers large and small, are asking these days. The topic may sound like just a lot of shop talk, but it effects us all. Whether your place in the dulcimer community is as a hobbyist, luthier, shop keeper or performer, we all have to come to grips with a rapidly changing marketplace.

For most businesses, the internet is an opportunity, disguised as a problem. Reading, research, and shopping habits have shifted dramatically to electronic resources. This is especially true in younger demographics.

I know there’s a large portion of our readership that doesn’t care a whit about the internet. I treasure these readers, who are usually, though not always, in the golden years of life. This group deserves more than to be simply abandoned for newer technology and younger audiences. This has been part of the struggle in the magazine industry—how to attract new readers, while still satisfying older readers who are used to a certain look and feel in their favorite publications.

Take a look at this quarter’s Letters on the previous page and you’ll see that many of these older readers are actually brand new dulcimer players. They very much appreciate the role DPN plays in their lives now that they’ve found time to kick back and play some music. I recognize the responsibility that we have to these readers and carefully consider their needs in all our decisions regarding web versus print content. As these folks share their collective life and musical wisdom, they also lead the way in buying instruments, accessories, CDs, instruction books, and attending festivals. The challenge before us now is keeping these readers happy, while recognizing and adopting strategies that attract new subscribers. We’ve been heavily involved in researching these new strategies for quite some time now, and we’re not alone.

In a recent conference sponsored by Magazine Publishers of America, a room full of editors speculated that 50 percent of all magazines will not exist ten years from now, either in print OR web form. Paul Maidment, editor, Forbes Magazine, cited the culprit as a failure to grasp the idea that journalism must be delivered in a way the audience wants. The panel also noted that magazines fail when they don’t recognize the paradigm shift—and do something about it—early.

Now that we’re a few years into this paradigm shift we have a pretty good idea what doesn’t work. For instance, a few magazines threw all their resources too quickly on the internet bandwagon, moving all their content to the web, charging subscription fees, and waiting for the dough to roll in. It didn’t. The predictions of a paperless society were incorrect.