Since we decided to stop printing our monthly magazine, we thought it made sense to communicate that change to readers. So we wrote about it here. We also wanted to communicate this change to former print readers so we designed table tents to place at former print distribution outlets.
The table tents, which are getting a lot of attention now, read "DON'T READ THESE." Now, the plan was to have our distributor put these table tents on countertops (near registers, on bars, etc) at heavily trafficked locations. And by proclaiming "DON'T READ THESE," we meant 'Don't Read These' table tents. By writing 'don't read these,' we hoped, of course, that people would read these tents. The tents go on to explain how BuffaloRising.com is a source for information about the city.
Unfortunately, in some locations, our distributor put these tents on Artvoice magazines, making it seem rather clear that we were encouraging people not to read Artvoice. Or any of the free print publications that are distributed around town. That was not the intention, and we apologize to Artvoice for this. Indeed, we've sourced Artvoice on this site before and as the longest-standing alternative news publication in the area, Artvoice plays a critical role as a watchdog that we can't and don't play.
As our frequent critic BuffaloPundit points out:
Why would Buffalo Rising be asking its readers not to read Artvoice? Are they even in competition anymore, as far as the race for magazine eyeballs is concerned? There's obviously a place in this world for BRO to exist in the same world as Artvoice, so why start a war with the latter? Why squat your little mini-billboard on Artvoice's property?
Exactly.
Foolishly, we never thought about the prospect that these tents would be placed on or near other free weekly publications. Of course, we wouldn't want people to stop reading print publications, nor are we delusional enough to think we could convince them to stop. In our attempt to get our former print readers' attention and encourage them to follow us online, we, to borrow a phrase from President Obama, screwed up.
We've directed our distributor to collect all these tents to avoid any more confusion. Clearly, we should have gone with the other headline option - 'We're Not a Magazine Anymore.'
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The table tents, which are getting a lot of attention now, read "DON'T READ THESE." Now, the plan was to have our distributor put these table tents on countertops (near registers, on bars, etc) at heavily trafficked locations. And by proclaiming "DON'T READ THESE," we meant 'Don't Read These' table tents. By writing 'don't read these,' we hoped, of course, that people would read these tents. The tents go on to explain how BuffaloRising.com is a source for information about the city.
Unfortunately, in some locations, our distributor put these tents on Artvoice magazines, making it seem rather clear that we were encouraging people not to read Artvoice. Or any of the free print publications that are distributed around town. That was not the intention, and we apologize to Artvoice for this. Indeed, we've sourced Artvoice on this site before and as the longest-standing alternative news publication in the area, Artvoice plays a critical role as a watchdog that we can't and don't play.
As our frequent critic BuffaloPundit points out:
Why would Buffalo Rising be asking its readers not to read Artvoice? Are they even in competition anymore, as far as the race for magazine eyeballs is concerned? There's obviously a place in this world for BRO to exist in the same world as Artvoice, so why start a war with the latter? Why squat your little mini-billboard on Artvoice's property?
Exactly.
Foolishly, we never thought about the prospect that these tents would be placed on or near other free weekly publications. Of course, we wouldn't want people to stop reading print publications, nor are we delusional enough to think we could convince them to stop. In our attempt to get our former print readers' attention and encourage them to follow us online, we, to borrow a phrase from President Obama, screwed up.
We've directed our distributor to collect all these tents to avoid any more confusion. Clearly, we should have gone with the other headline option - 'We're Not a Magazine Anymore.'
Meh, tempest in a table tent.