It’s after Thanksgiving, but giving thanks has no cut-off date. A year and a half into this job as Managing Editor, I’ve got a few things to be thankful for…not the least of which is that I have the opportunity to do so, publicly.
I’m thankful for a working website that has been embraced by the community. A year ago, I was working with our team to revamp and update both the website and the layout of the magazine to match each other and our community’s style of accessing information. It’s proven to be a robust hub of activity as people use it to add events to our calendar and interact with each other in comments…and we’re only going to make it better.
I’m thankful for our iPad and iPhone apps (and our Online Magazine that’s viewable on all smartphones). We’re closing in on 10,000 installations and people seem to be embracing this paperless method of accessing our free publication effortlessly. It’s just delivered and waiting for you each time an issue of Lavender comes out. Join the club and get it in Newsstand.
I’m thankful that the election is over and the state voted NO.
I’m thankful that Lavender Media took home Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association Excellence Awards. To me, the most significant of our ten awards are the ones for the Overall Excellence of the magazine, the Overall Design of the magazine, the Regular Column (Joy Summers’s Slice), the website award, and the single-topic issue award for our Spring Wedding Issue. The others are important, too, but these pointed to a consistency in producing an award-winning product as well as underscored that a same-sex wedding issue can not only be done, but it can be done well.
Last and most, I am thankful for the relationships I’ve grown with so many of you. I write for the readers. I plan the issues for the readers and the advertisers. I attend events to document you, to meet you, to tell your stories. But, as it happens, when I meet you, the line between media and public turns elastic and we embrace. I am grateful.
I wish you the best this Holiday Season.
I give thanks for you.
Andy