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Kelly Mansfield - Workplace Law Network
Online advisor - 52 posts
Members will be receiving their magazines this morning and will be discovering that, for this issue only, we have not printed your entire Workplace Law Magazine, but have instead made it available online. Our decision to do this was not some misguided attempt to save the planet, or indeed to move the magazine away from its well-loved printed format, but simply to make a point: do things need to be done in the way they have always been done, just because that is what we are used to – and perhaps, what we prefer? If it is more environmentally friendly to do things in another way, should we?
Next issue, Workplace Law intends to return to printing the full magazine again (on recycled paper, of course!), but took the opportunity this time around to make members question whether they can make changes to their work practices — whether that’s publishing, manufacturing or any another kind of service.
I'd be interested to hear members' views on the matter.
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John Wheeler
Member - 4 posts
It's probably because it's a miserable Monday but the prospect of another here today, gone tomorrow buzz word leaves me even colder than the arctic April weather we are currently experiencing in London. By all means try to steer people away from the routine, but since the not inexpensive WLN subscription includes the cost of the full magazine each month, I'm feeling short-changed by the joke version which arrived in this morning's post. No doubt the rebate will be in the post soon?
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David Sharp - Workplace Law Network
Online advisor - 111 posts
I can see this issue (of the magazine, and in fact of sustainability) is going to cause some debate ...
We did think long and hard about how we could make a sustainability magazine issue different, and wanted to face it head on - should a 'sustainable' magazine be printed at all. Hence the magazine you will have received this morning.
By not printing all of it, we guessed that some people might not be best pleased by it. You may not be aware John, but the combined mag/website has been short-listed this year (for the third time in four years) in the Periodical Publishers Awards, a feat which we are very proud of. It would be nice to win it this year (!) but in any event, we think the mag does a good job, and I for one am a real fan of putting out something in printed format that you can read at your leisure. So I can confirm there are no plans to ditch the printed mag, and this latest issue isn't out there trying to short-change anyone.
The issue of sustainability itself is another matter. We have spent some time at two conferences recently (one of them run by us) on sustainability, and the debate seems split fairly evenly.
I'd still welcome your views: when you say "joke version" do you mean the content (poor articles etc.?) or do you mean the format (i.e. there's not much of it?).
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Kelly Mansfield - Workplace Law Network
Online advisor - 52 posts
John,
You wouldn't be alone in the opinion that sustainability is nothing but a buzzword - it's a view we've explored in some depth in the sustainability issue of the magazine. People are certainly sick of hearing about things they are seemingly powerless to change.
There's no intention to provide you with less than you've paid for in not printing the magazine this month. We've actually produced a bigger issue than normal this time! So, it's the same value in content, just produced in a different format (which, if you haven't discovered it yet, you can download here: http://www.workplacelaw.net/magazine).
We've had suggestions in the past from members that we should make the move to producing the mag in electronic format only. It's a move we've made with our special reports and guides, but have taken the view that a number of our members enjoy the magazine's printed format so, until our members tell us otherwise, we'll continue to print it.
What are your thoughts? If a publication was produced in electronic format only, for example, would it prevent you from purchasing it?
Kelly
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John Wheeler
Member - 4 posts
David/Kelly
Joke comment was related to the format - as follows I haven't been able to read it in its entirety because our company system (which is quite sophisticated) doesn't like large pdf files from external sources. Can't believe that we're unique in that restriction either. Something else to factor in to your thinking.
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David Sharp - Workplace Law Network
Online advisor - 111 posts
Thanks John, I appreciate your quick response. In September last year we put all 30 or so issues of the mag online in pdf format, and tied the content of the mag in to the site search engine. Guess pride comes before a fall, as we'd certainly expected everyone to be able to access the mag in pdf format.
I know what you mean about downloads/attachments generally. We've *never* emailed any attachments to members. (I'm at about 300-400 junk mails a day at the moment, with spam filter set to max). But a lot of what we do provide is in downloadable format)
Also makes you wonder a bit about awards (I have to confess). A benefit is only a benefit if someone can access it.
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