VSN's Unique Nitch
Over the years a few people have asked me about my goals for VSN. I think they couldn't understand why I do some of the things I do. VSN has been around since 1993, with a solid group of readers and an excellent reputation for gathering a wide variety of cutting edge stamp related techniques, news, and information.
Why aren't we bigger? Why don't we publish bi-monthly rather than monthly? Why don't we have 175 pages every issue and three times the number of advertisers? Why aren't we in six hundred stores rather than fifty? Why don't we have five times the circulation? Why don't we have a booth at every convention? Where are the glossy pages and full color on every page? In other words, why doesn't VSN look like everyone else and do things like everyone else?
My answer is a gentle: Why should we? VSN has been a shared collaboration among friends since the very beginning. While I try to be professional and business-like in the way I run the administrative side of things, VSN really is a homemade effort - literally! Comparing VSN to most other publications really is an apples-to-oranges kind of thing.
VSN has a staff of one - me! I write, I edit, I layout the issue. I keep track of subscriptions, store and advertising accounts. I do the ordering and plan future issues. I open every letter, keep up with the email, answer the faxes and follow up on phone messages. I hear the praise and I hear the complaints. The buck really does stop here because there isn't anyplace else to stop it!
The articles and artwork are a combined effort between readers (you!) and myself. There are no professional writers. I have office space in one room of my home where I work to put VSN together. Early issues were printed on the offset presses at the Sir Speedy print shop half a mile from our home. These days Stockson Printing, north of Baltimore, does our printing for us. When the printing is done, they drop it off, stacking the boxes in the middle of our kitchen floor. In the past, when I put samples in each issue, our dining room would often be full of the current issue waiting for samples. Our home storage downstairs is full to the brim with back issues. Our living room serves as a staging area for our monthly mail-out. Sometimes the dining room table serves as a drying rack for projects when I am researching techniques and products. I sometimes work at the picnic table in the back yard when I have a messy project. When I want to get away from my office for a while, I use a laptop computer and work on the couch in the living room.
In the past, when each issue had a sample, I would stick in all the samples for every issue by hand. My two children would help me prepare and stuff the envelopes for the monthly mailing. (I took care of this for the rest of the month.) These days, my kids are off at college so I do this myself. My husband loads the packed issues into his SUV and drops it at the post office up the road each month.
My family will tell you that I work almost every day. Around my print deadline and mail-out deadlines each month, I typically work very long days. Since I work in my home and we savor our privacy, I do not have a staff and I do not want to hire one.
With all of this in mind, you may understand why I like that VSN is a small monthly publication with a circulation of around five thousand. If our readership was as large as the other stamping publications are, I couldn't produce VSN the way I do. It just is not logistically possible to deal with five times the circulation without hiring a staff and moving into office space. I could not keep three times the advertisers and stores happy and I would not have time to put together three times the pages in every issue.
VSN is a small niche publication. I believe VSN has the best readers around. I don't think we need to appeal to everyone - just you! My goals for VSN have nothing to do with circulation or money. They have to do with creating a handcrafted publication each month that is interesting to read. They have to do with providing useful ideas and techniques that you can really use. They have to do with encouraging you to explore and experiment and have faith in your own creative abilities. They have to do with introducing new companies and supporting the companies and stores who have been serving the stamping community so well over the years.
I am content with my little niche in the stamp world. I think it is an important niche. You don't have to have a huge circulation to have an impact on the stamping community and the flow of ideas. Just like you don't have to be a professional artist to come up with something new. There is no shame in being a little guy. I'm no David to someone else's Goliath. I am just doing my own thing and am glad that you are here to share it!
~ Nancie, Editor (and everything else!) of VSN
(Originally written as an issue greeting in October 2000, this piece was updated in April 2009. VSN is still here and going strong!)