New Magazine Coming?

[Craig L Barry]

When we grow up and have time, somebody ought to start a publication for Civilians and Military (re)enactors with reliable, well researched material, like the old Watchdog. Maybe we'll call it "The Civil War Citizens and Soldiers Digest." You know, B.I.R.D.

[nast t]

I'm with you Craig Sir,

[Spinster]

Craig,

Is this a function of Lakeway taking the CCG and the CC in-house?

Or are we talking a new effort completely separated from the Lakeway platform?

[Craig L Barry]

Well, the recent changes at Lakeway provided a good opportunity for me to make a clean break there
and to do something that is completely separate and still possibly of interest to readers...historical research on the
material culture of the 19th century with no camp gossip or event reports. The sales of the Second Edition of
The Civil War Musket have been brisk enough to fund (I think) a new research based historical magazine,
which could also have limited advertising to further mitigate costs for readers. If we do it right, The Watchdog will continue
or hopefully increase its battlefield preservation donations. Last year we made donations to Friends of Antietam, CWPT
and Stones River National Battlefield Park.

Still in the discussion phase, but the plan is for this to be a new, non-profit periodical from The Watchdog. Print
and on-line versions. The Watchdog column will stay in Civil War News, and a new book is planned for the 4th quarter 2012
under the working title The Unfinished Fight: A Handbook of Confederate Material Culture.

The idea here is for a magazine with a look more in line with what print media from the 1860s
was like. Something you could print off the website or buy in print at an event and it would not look out
of place reading around the campfire. Aiming for July or August 2012. Are magazines in our hobby dead
or useless? Weren't all soldiers in the Civil War citizens at one time, too? Why separate them?

[Spinster]

Excellent!

This methodology both cuts printing costs, ( as slick, glossy and color on every page is much more expensive) and cuts farbery in camps (and I must admit, I've tried to read a new magazine by lamp light rather than waiting until I got home).

Good Luck.

[civwarhistory]

Craig,

I like your idea, but feel that perhaps a blog platform, or web magazine would be a great way to start, as well-written papers on the subject of reenacting could be added and edited quite easily. Plus, it allows you to do a trial run of the publication with less investment. If your new publication takes off, then I do agree with others that setting it up to look similar to print material from the period is a great call. I have operated my blog (linked in signature) for five years now and can help you get started with something if interested. Anyway, good luck with your idea.

Daniel

[Craig L Barry]

Well, I sure appreciate that offer Daniel. We will see how much interest the magazine generates
with readers and where they want to go with it.

It seemed to me that there are already internet forums for dialog, newspapers and magazines for
event reports, book reviews and announcements...but not much decent research on the
material culture of the 1860s, which is what interests me. This never really "fit" with the
Gazette. Actually, a clash of cultures you could say. We will see if anybody else feels
the same way. I found out this evening that the Pederoli P-53 Enfield passed muster with
the N-SSA Small Arms Committee, and it is soon to be shipped to my door. For example,
a potential article would be a very thorough review of what this reproduction is like. An online version
in PDF can handle high resolution images, etc. I would read something like that, especially
if it was not expensive or hard to access. Probably the on-line version will be available for
a battlefield preservation fund donation and paper copies will be a couple bucks, which is
what it costs to print and mail them. The business model is little to no cost to readers with
reasonable advertising rates being the main revenue stream. The Watchdog is non-profit, so anything left at
the end of the fiscal year goes into battlefield preservation fund. Very little expense associated
with an on-line version, and advertisers would be able order in bulk to have hard copies at events.
I figure most people that want an article or the whole magazine in paper could print it off at home.

We are in discussions with a webmaster to set up the site, we have a (hard copy) printer lined up
and advertisers will be contacted or can contact Connie Payne (companioneditor@gmail.com)
or Bill Christen (gwjchris@earthlink.net). Obviously, Connie is going to need to get another g-mail address
with a different account name. The failure rate with print media has been grizzly for the last ten
years or so, but this could work.

[civwarhistory]

Craig, your mention of material culture really interests me, as I actually took a class on the subject a couple years ago (I wrote a paper on the material culture of Civil War soldiers as the major assignment). That is a whole different realm, as like was mentioned, the big publication is Military Collector and Historian, but it sounds like you are hoping to reach a more general audience.

Again, if I can be of assistance on this, let me know. One book I would recommend would be Richard Bushman's Refinement of America, which deals with various aspects of material culture from architecture to personal behavior from the eighteenth into the nineteenth centuries, which may be of use to you expanding your awareness of nineteenth century material culture.

[packrat]

Mr. Barry.. So is it a period format publication......Black and White text.... aged newsprint would be a nice effect... articles and thoughts from the vast sea of knowledge folks that we in small boats with one oar flounder about in ... correctly typeset and proofed....reasonable rates for those who could lend support. Old School Journalism.......without the tweets and likes of the hey! listen to ME!!!! books... I'm interested.... Paul Lopes AMERICAN CIVIL WAR KNAPSACKS

[Craig L Barry]

We are formatting the pages like the Harpers Weekly Review as far as font and column. Old school, but delivered in the
most cost effective modern method--on line in PDF. Want a hard copy? Print it off. Or get a printed copy from one of the
sutlers that will be selling them at events.

Hey, every publisher who did hard copy only or on-line subscriptions for fee has failed badly and failed fast. How about quality research,
quality content, quality images and you decide if there is value in it for you. If there is, make a tax free donation to WD battlefield preservation fund in an amount of your choosing. Most of us make preservation donations anyway. Going forward with July/August first edition. Depends on the webmaster and when the site is ready, but we are going forward to try something new. Connie Payne's new email address is digesteditor1@gmail.com. Unit histories, material culture both civilian and military, historical research, period image analysis, etc.

Ironically, I got chided by one potential advertiser as a "hardcore" or an "A-C guy." Au contraire. We all just want to get it right. Events (not people) are what should be labeled as mainstream, progressive, hardcore or campaigner...or whatever meaningless terms you want to put on them. Re-enactors do whatever events they like, but all re-enactors want to "Get it Right." Why? "Because it's Right Dammit!" (BIRD) and because nobody goes out there to look like an idiot, they go out to have fun. It is okay to be new at something, but no reason to "look" that way. Call me crazy but my view is Civil War buffs want accurate historical information available and accessible when they want it, in whatever form they want it. And I think most of us want to support battlefield preservation, that was what drove The (old) Watchdog Civil War Quarterly. So put 2 + 2 together. If this new publication fails, there are still two books (coming out in the 4th quarter of 2012) and The Watchdog column in CW News to keep me busy.