PA #90: Letter From The Publisher

Well, it's been fun, but it's time to call it a day.

Oh, sorry, I'm not saying its time to stop publishing Protoculture Addicts, but rather it's time for me to stop writing the news for Protoculture Addicts. Over the past two years, through a good deal of experimentation, I've come to a conclusion about how the news section in Protoculture Addicts should be written. I've also come to the conclusion that I'm not the right person to be writing it. I enjoy doing the news, but I simply don't have the time to do a good job.

Starting with Protoculture Addicts issue #91, Zac Bertschy, who is also the executive editor at Anime News Network, will take over the job of Protoculture Addicts' news editor, and will also take on numerous other roles. Zac, Claude and all the other contributors will work closely to continue to improve PA issue after issue, and make this the best damn anime magazine in North America.

So what will I be doing? That's a common question, a lot of people ask me what I do at Anime News Network now that I no longer write the news (Jonathan Mays has been news editor at ANN since mid 2006), no longer write reviews, and pretty much don't write anything other than the occasional forum and blog post.

Well, I'm not completely out of the editorial loop at ANN and PA, I still collaborate with the editors to decide what kind of content we should be publishing, but beyond that, the creation of the content is entirely in the hands of the editors and the writers. Specifically, when it comes to Protoculture Addicts, I'm part of what we call the "editorial board." Once or twice per issue we meet to decide what features will be written, what will go on the cover, and what kind of changes need to be made since last issue. And then the editors do all the work we discussed.

My principal job is to provide Claude and Zac with the resources they need to produce a great magazine. That's right, I'm the money man. I work with the distributors to get the magazine into more people's hands, and I work with the advertisers to get their ads in front of the right eyeballs. I don't do this for the love of the money though, I do it for the love of the publication, and because getting the money is the best way that I can contribute to making it a great publication.

It's hard to believe, but I started working on ANN almost 7 years ago now. At the beginning, George Phillips and I did everything; we wrote the news, we wrote the editorials, we wrote the reviews, we set up the forums, we even configured the server. Over the years since then, ANN has grown from a staff of 2, to a staff of over 20 (most of whom are part time or freelance though), and I've continued to shed my responsibilities to people who can do them better than I, while I focus on the tasks that I am best suited forÉ even if they aren't the tasks that I enjoy the most.

The result has been particularly rewarding. Even though I no longer create the majority of ANN's content, I still think of ANN as my creation (Ironically, I didn't even create it, Justin Sevakis deserves credit for that). And the better the site gets, the more proud of it I get.

Five years from now I hope to look back at Protoculture Addicts and be able to say the same. Already I'm proud of what we achieved in the past two year, but as I say almost every issue, there's so much more that we can achieve. Hopefully you'll be with us in five years too!

Christopher Macdonald
Publisher, Protoculture Addicts

Last issue we published an interview with Katsumi Kawaguchi and accidentally attributed the article to "Dormcat." Dormcat's real name is Chih-Chieh Chang. We apologize to Mr. Chang for using his online handle in the article credit.

You can give your comments on this issue either on the magazine's forum or via e-mail at comments@protoculture.ca