Greetings pinball fans,

This newsletter was supposed to be sent out two weeks ago, but as so many things were going on, it got postponed. However that does mean there is a lot of progress to report 🙂

  • The past weeks more copy was revised and approved for publication in the magazine. In total about 40% of the copy in the magazine is ready to.
  • Another 50% of copy has been under revision for some time and is expected to be returned the upcoming week.
  • As for the remaining 10% of copy: there are still some ideas for additional articles, which would fit in very well with the current articles and topics. Whether to fit them in, or not, is yet to be seen as the magazine has already more pages than originally scheduled. The minimum number of pages was originally set at 68. As it looks right now the magazine will probably count 84 -92 pages. That number may grow even more if more advertisers are interested in advertising. However, there is a limit of max 100 pages as the magazine else gets too heavy. If the weight of the magazine (and envelope) exceeds 500 grams, the postal costs will rise drastically.
  • With most of the copy either done, or people still working on it, there has been a sort of shift from focussing on copy, to focussing on finding good photo material, with enough resolution, to illustrate the articles. Thankfully several people were more than happy to help out by shooting photos of specific games in their collection. The same goes for people taking photos of people who are featured in the magazine. A big “Thank you” to all who helped out!
  • The next step regarding photo material is looking at how to use the photos best. There has been a lot of experimenting with page layouts and whether photos in a specific feature should be used with their original background, or with the background removed. In most of these cases there will be text partially printed over the photo and that still needs to be readable. In some cases the background turned out to be rather distracting, or making it difficult to read the text printed on top. So the question then was: how to make the pages in this feature look good and legible, and also look like they’re part of the same feature.
  • Some people have asked what happened to the earlier announced preview magazine. Well, with the main article still being under revision, and such magazine should feature at least 2 pages from that article, the preview magazine has to wait until all revised copy is in. The preview magazine should still be published and as soon as it can, it will. When it is, it will be announced in a special newsletter.
  • As more questions came in, the Pinball Magazine website now contains a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section. The main question is answered below:
  • When will the first issue of Pinball Magazine be available? Looking at the current timeframe, with most copy expected to be ready somewhere next week, all DTP’ing might be done about a week later. Keeping in mind the printer may need a week or three, that would indicate the magazine could be available in printed form around mid August! In fact (drum roll please…..) the plan is to launch the magazine at the upcoming UK Pinball Party, which is held from August 17 -19, 2012! Naturally this will only happen if nothing unforeseen happens, so fingers crossed…

Have a great week!

 

Jonathan Joosten

Managing editor Pinball Magazine