Greetings everyone!  It’s your friendly publisher Rob here.  It has been exactly a year since I last wrote a column, but it became necessary to do so once again this month because we have some important announcements.

First of all, this edition marks the 11th anniversary of GayCalgary Magazine, adding another year to our already impressive decade of operation.  Of course, Steve and I can’t take all the credit for this when there have been so many writers, contributors, and advertisers that have made this long run possible.  So much hard work goes into the magazine every month – just ask our writers Jason Clevett and Stephen Lock, who have written for us since day one!  Jason wrote a touching retrospective for this edition, and I don’t think I can sum the experience up any better than he does.  All Steve and I can do is give our most humble thanks to the writers, photographers, artists, advertisers, and readers who have filled in the pieces of GayCalgary Magazine every month.

Now, I have something of a personal announcement.

From my perspective, the years of working on the magazine have molded me into a skilled generalist.  Every month I have switched gears from graphic design to writing to proofreading to print layout, then video editing, accounting, and occasionally website development.  The work never seems to end.  Between this and my day job as a software developer, there has been precious little time in my life to do many things that I love, and precious little room for me to grow as a person.  So a few months ago I made a decision and put a plan in motion to finally give myself the time and room that I need in order to move forward in my life.

A big part of that plan is my decision to bring my work with GayCalgary Magazine to a close as of this edition.  The magazine will continue running in my fellow publisher Steve’s capable hands.  In fact, for the past 2 editions I have gotten away with minimal magazine work as a practice run for when I’m "gone" altogether next month.  Janine Eva Trotta has done a fine job of managing my editing duties during this time and will take over for me as Copy Editor, with Nick Winnick as Assistant Copy Editor.  However, we are still looking for a capable graphic designer to handle in-house ad design in my absence, as well as a dedicated sales person to take some work off Steve’s plate.  And more writers are always welcome too!

Doing something as intensive as the magazine is wonderful when you are hitting your stride because you love it.  But truthfully, I have no stride to hit in the publishing industry, so I have just been wearing myself out trying to keep up with Steve’s.  That is not a pace I can maintain forever, and there needed to be a stopping point.  After doing this for more than 10 years, I can’t be ashamed for bailing too soon or not giving it my all.

Now seems like the ideal time for me to step back.  The business is stable and running smoothly, turning enough of a profit that it can stay ahead of its bills.  Our readership and social media presence is booming and we continue to be the most popular Canadian LGBT publication online.  We’ve got a group of amazing writers and contributors that we can count on to keep a steady stream of content coming in each month.  Honestly, I couldn’t be leaving this magazine in much better shape.

As you can probably imagine it was a tough decision but, it is one that I’m glad I made.  In my publisher’s columns from our first year or two of operation, I expressed some trepidation about my role here.  The publishing industry has never been my passion and so I was reluctant to let myself become a fixture of the magazine.  Still, I ended up resigning myself to it for the sake of helping Steve pursue his passion.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that I felt unhappy for the past 11 years, just that I was uncomfortable.  I wrote several times in my columns about feeling like my own identity was slipping away and being blurred in with Steve’s.  Despite my struggles to distinguish myself, to talk about myself and my unique views in my column, I didn’t feel like I ever truly succeeded in showing people the "real me".  So the discomfort came from my identity as a magazine publisher – not a bad identity, but not one that fits the person I want to be.  My true self would only shine through when I found occasional shreds of time to exert my independence and explore my own interests outside of the magazine.  But it was never enough time to do something sufficiently noteworthy for people to see me as something other than a publisher.

I can’t say I regret the past 11 years.  It is ample compensation to know that my work made a difference in many people’s lives, and indeed to the face of Alberta’s LGBT community.  I certainly don’t regret meeting all the amazing people that I did, and with my newfound time and freedom I hope to now form proper friendships with a few of them.  Even the people I clashed with taught me some valuable lessons that I don’t regret learning.

Over the past decade +1 with the magazine, I have witnessed many people step back from their roles in the LGBT community, some less gracefully than others.  Hopefully I can say I’m joining the ranks of those who are still able to hold their heads high in the community they worked in – those who didn’t piss in their own pool, so to speak. I will still be here in Calgary and you will still occasionally see me out in the community when something catches my interest, or if I just feel like hanging out.

Personally, without the experience of running GayCalgary Magazine, I would not have become the strong, balanced, and capable person I am today.  Now I am practically bursting at the seams with creativity and the desire to express myself in my own ways.  The past two months of partial freedom have already been exhilarating, so I’m excited to see where all this momentum is going to take me!

If you see me out, don’t ask where my camera is - from now on I intend to be in front of the camera, not behind it! *grin*

I would be lying if I said my departure from GayCalgary Magazine won’t cause any ripples.  That is why Steve and I made plans for how to continue operating the business in a way that he can manage on his own, and possibly even have some time for himself.  This means some changes are coming in the New Year that we are now announcing officially.  (Just remember, I am using the business "we" from this point forward, and so I’m not necessarily saying I will be involved.)

You can still expect to see a print edition next month, however it will be labeled our December/January edition.  This issue will stay on shelves for a period of two months, and as you likely gather, will contain community information for both December and January.

This will be our final issue in print before we transition GayCalgary Magazine to be 100% digital.  What this means is that new articles will be posted in full, as our writers complete them, on the GayCalgary.com website.  At the end of each month, Steve will put together a magazine layout which, just like our print editions, will be available as a downloadable PDF or as an electronic flipbook via http://www.ISSUU.com .  This will mean that advertisers continue submitting their ads in the same format they always have, while we continue distributing through online magazine channels.

The contents of these online-only editions will be slightly different from what you are used to seeing in our print editions.  It will be a digest of news, articles and event photos that went online over the past month, minus features such as Find Out (maps, directory listings, event listings) and Classified Ads - these will be taken care of exclusively by our website.

Speaking which, our website will also be undergoing some changes in the New Year.  The structure will be adapted to facilitate browsing of news and articles by category, independent of magazine edition.  Furthermore, other sections of the website will receive a slight overhaul (business directory, photos, classifieds), be reinstated (events calendar), or removed (subscriptions).

I know a few of our readers might not be happy to hear this news, especially the ones who prefer reading a hardcopy to an electronic one.  I myself have never owned an iPad, tablet or E-reader, and prefer reading from paper rather than a computer screen – and I’m a Computer Scientist by trade!  Yet hardcopies have been very costly for us to produce and distribute, and had an environmental impact once people were finished with them.

Furthermore, being able to publish articles immediately as they come in makes us a lot more agile than we would be if we had to continue waiting for the next print interval.  So we can respond to breaking news and other time critical information before it goes stale, and additionally build in richer multimedia content and interactivity.  Our page count was also bound by the amount of advertising dollars coming in, forcing us some months to put off numerous articles we didn’t have room for.  Now, we’ll be able to expand our page count as needed with no extra cost.

This is the way the publishing industry is going, and hundreds if not thousands of publications have already made this transition before us.  At one time we published and distributed 10,000 copies each month to meet demands, and there is barely demand for the 2,000 copies we print today – yet online readers are in the ballpark of 310,000 per month and growing. Also users to the website have an average stay of around half an hour where typical online magazines have users staying for about 1 to 2 minuites.  So with the aforementioned changes afoot, now is the time that makes the most sense for us to take this step forward.  In essence we are returning to our roots because GayCalgary started as a website long before the magazine.

That being said, there are still options for diehard "printies" (to coin a term) to get their hands on a physical copy - just not for free.  Readers can still order past print copies from our online magazine store for $6 CAN per issue (plus shipping and handling) at http://www.gaycalgary.com/magazinestore , and hardcopies of our newer digest editions will be available on order for a somewhat steeper price, since they would be printed and bound individually.  (We ordered some sample copies in this format and they look gorgeous!)

Change can be scary and even painful but it is a big part of life, not to mention business.  Certainly there are times when strength means holding your ground but, when standing up to the test of time, strength is more often about the ability to adapt and evolve.