Suggest Improvements To The Fortean Times

[many_angled_one]

Taking cue from David Sutton I think we should post and discuss any improvements or changes to the mag that could help to improve it as well as increase it's appeal & distribution. What would you like to see more of or less of? Any new sections you think they should include? Things like that...

Anybody with any suggestions or concerns feel free to post them here.

here are a few of mine.

1. Personally I would like to see more accounts of first hand investigations, ghost hunts, paranormal encounters and things like that included in the magazine more regularly.

2. I would like to see guides on certain fortean subjects such as a guide on how to conduct proper ghost hunts, guides to conducting ESP tests, guide on how to go about dowsing etc. The kind of things that the readers can try themselves.

3. Less of the junkie/naked women type of ads at the back and more along the lines of magic shops, rare & unusual book companies, shops selling archaeological finds etc .... basically more ads along Fortean lines. Of course this is probably too much to hope for at the moment, they keep the revenue coming in after all but eventually it would be great to get rid of them almost toally. Perhaps if we suggest to relevant retailers, compnies etc that they should be advertising int he mag it would help?

4. Expand the strange deaths section to a full page, always interesting, weird or funny as well as drawing first time readers into buying it (I know a few people that started reading it becase of Strange Deaths)

 

[AlistairP3]

More Hierophant!

 

[many_angled_one]

Agreed, always good
Would be nice to see it expand into a larger kind of monthly report on fortean people & happenings in his inimitable style.

 

[Dr_David_Sutton]

Great! This is what we need. I couldn't agree more about the need for more 'hands-on' investigative stuff. It's hard for us to do - ie, we're mostly too busy getting the mag together - and while FBI is supposed to provide a bit of this, it doesn't always go in this direction. Did you enjoy Mark's visit to the 'Phantom or Fraud' investigation in 167? In 169, as I was thinking along these lines myself, we've got Jon Downes on the trail of the Geordie Bigfoot. And, yes, as someone said on a previous thread - this is grassroots stuff, without which we'd have no subject matter to speak of. To do more of this kind of thing will involve hooking up with other investigators and organisations on a more regular basis. If anyone has any particular ideas, or belongs to any such groups, then do get in touch.

The suggestion of guides to certain practical subjects is a very good one - I'll see what the others think about it.

On the subject of barenaked ladies and other dodgy ads, its an ongoing problem. A lot of advertisers either don't understand Ft or think we're a 'crackpot nutrag' (to quote our friends at Viz).
I think, on the whole, things are much improved since John Brown days - we now have some very nice ad people (who obviously don't just work on Ft but on IFG's 'proper' mags as well) who really like Ft and want to do their best by it. But it's an uphill struggle - more film and game ads have been coming in, which is great and we'll continue building on that, but all it takes is a slow month for the ad team and we're back to bongs and dildos! Please, please bear with us on this and be patient - we hate these ads as much as you do... but such is life. And please do send us suggestions for ad clients - whilke most of the people we'd love to see in the mag are as broke as the next fortean, it never hurts to ask 'em.

Don't worry about Hiero - he's not going anywhere, although what with all the daily chores at the Fortess of Arrogance, I don't know if he'll be contributing more to FT than his usual column.


Keep the suggestions coming - I think this is useful for all of us. I'll let you all into a secret too - finally, after all these years, we might be getting extra pages! So your ideas for filling them are more than welcome.

All the best

David

 

[taras]

I agree there needs to be more of the "basic" paranormal type stuff - ghosts, fairies, UFOs and the like. While the articles on Chinese pyramids and things are all very well, I personally find them a little boring. One issue in particular that springs to mind as being near-perfect was the Mothman one. Apart from the film tie-ins, the whole thing was really enjoyable and I read every inch of that particular mag.

I like Fortean Traveller too, and the forums - although I was mildly confused by the January issue's "rebuke", I suppose you had some duty to print it to give the guy a say. Nice to see the letters section growing over the last couple of years too. Perhaps instead of having so many "It Happened To Me" stories on the website, you could have three or four in the magazine instead?

Also, how about printing some of the much older articles from the 1970s with updates regarding progress made on the case, whether it was solved, etc.

 

[StePickford]

Its probably too much too ask for, but I just want 'more' in the mag. It seems to be less and less of a substantial read these days, and I seem to get through the mag much quicker than I used to.

I have fond memories of the A5 / quarterly days, when my copy of FT would literally take me weeks and weeks to get through.

I much prefer longer articles. I find all the main three articles too short and not in-depth enough most months. I would rather you dropped the full page illustrations, and half pages of white space, and packed the pages with denser text, smaller illustrations, and just generally more information.

Heck, I'd prefer FT to be two-monthly or quarterly with three or four times as much content, but I realise that this is not a very commercial suggestion.

Oh, and please don't have any more video game reviews, unless the subject matter is genuinely Fortean (which is unlikely). Reviews of fantasy / D&D type video games, or even licensed X-Files games are not what I want to read in FT.

 

[Beakmoo]

Oh, and please don't have any more video game reviews, unless the subject matter is genuinely Fortean (which is unlikely). Reviews of fantasy / D&D type video games, or even licensed X-Files games are not what I want to read in FT.

I'd agree there, though it's not exactly one of the constructive suggestions you were asking for.
What I'd love to see is a page where one can order Fortean Studies. they don't seem easy to get hold of. (And when they are of course they come to you on a wave of porn, but that's another matter )

 

[Dr_David_Sutton]

Ok -

Letters - we've started incorporating 'It Happened to Me' of late, but perhaps you're right and we should use more; it's certainly one of my favourite things on the website and it seems a shame that non-online types (and there are a lot of them out there who read the mag) should miss out. I'll see what we can do.

Mothman and otherfilm tie-ins - I saw the Mothman movie as a great opportunity to alert non-forteans to the real, and much more interesting, story behind the (disappointing) movie. I doubt we'd have even thought of doing the issue otherwise. Taking advantage of interest in X-files, Mothman, Taken or whatever actually serves a number of purposes
a) By keeping the magazine topical and drawing on what's happening in popular culture, it's a way of drawing those benighted souls who don't already read FT into our orbit.
b) If something of a fortean nature is going on on our cinema or TV screens, it's only right that FT comments - we're probably in the best position to do so from an informed viewpoint and I feel it's our duty to lead people further into a subject that may only have got their attention from something they saw on TV etc
c) It's often a nice excuse to do something like the Mothman issue, or to deal with a subject that otherwise we might not have touched for a whil
d) It's, er, what magazines do. Even us. Even on that level, if it helps us to survive, I'm for it. Hopefully, though, we'll never stoop too low (now where's that Pop Idol abducted by aliens story we were working on.......)

Feature length - Look closely and you'll notice that features have been getting sneakily longer again over the last year or more. There was a point where I felt that they had become too squeezed and had begun to sometimes lack substance. OK, we can't run Fortean Studies length pieces in the mag, but look at some recent things like ABCs and they are pretty hefty.

Illustrations, design etc - We know some of you would rather have 60 pages of single spaced, 7-point type to cram as much as possible into the magazine; but then it wouldn't be a magazine anymore. It's one of life's many evils that magazines do have things like pictures and space and have to be designed and look nice and so on, but there you go. We actually take a pride in making it look as good as we can and getting the right balance between images (which are often a vital part of a story) and text.

Games - Well, we like them. Bob likes them more than is probably healthy. And a lot of readers like them, going on how many competition entries we receive. It's obviously always going to be a matter of taste, but they're here to stay and, like books, films and television, are a medium worthy of attention in our opinion. But reviewing them also serves the crucial strategic purpose of getting better advertisers on board so we can kick out the tatty drugs and sex ads... you can see that everything is connected to everything else in a fine fortean fashion. We'll be revamping reviews soon, so you'll get more books (we simply can't keep up with them all with the current state of affairs) but you'll have to put up with films and games too I'm afraid.

Fortean Studies/Back Issues etc - We're sorting it.

Got to sign off now and get busy in the kitchen - but please keep the comments coming

Cheers

David

 

[river_styx]

I like the strange history articles, like the one about the hog faced woman a few months back, that was very interesting.
I'd also like to see something about alchemy, perhaps a guide for the home alchemist would be good.
Other than that I think the magazine is pretty spot on.

 

[GNC]

I'd like to read more firsthand accounts of the paranormal, and a bigger section on the Fortean Follow-ups, but not just relating to recent articles. Maybe looking at a celebrated (or unjustly overlooked) case from a new angle?

Other than that, I think there's a good mix as it is. More pages would be nice, though.

 

[Pete Younger]

I'd like to read more firsthand accounts of the paranormal, and a bigger section on the Fortean Follow-ups, but not just relating to recent articles. Maybe looking at a celebrated (or unjustly overlooked) case from a new angle?

Other than that, I think there's a good mix as it is. More pages would be nice, though.

Seconded, sorry for the short reply but thats basically what I wanted to say.

 

[taras]

If you're overwhelmed with the amount of books you have to review at the moment, why not send them out to people to review for you? If you get a copy of each book for free, that is.

Obviously, you'd have to have some sort of procedure for making sure the reviewers could actually write - perhaps by asking them to submit their own review of a Fortean book first. I'm sure people would do it for a free book (ie. without being paid for the review).

Just a thought.

 

[carole]

Taras, that's a good idea!

Myself, I always enjoy the readers' letters. I tend to skip over most of the interviews, preferring to read the articles instead. And if there are going to be more pages, why not more pictures within articles?

And, as others have said before, less of the 'druggy/porno' ads.

Carole

 

[Anonymous]

I'd like to suggest finding some way to get Fortean Studies over here in the U.S. again.Several years ago they were available through the company on Long Island that used to handle the North American subscriptions.I acquired the first three volumes through them and the fourth through there successor,but they've been virtually impossible to get over here since then.

 

[Beakmoo]

Games - Well, we like them. Bob likes them more than is probably healthy. And a lot of readers like them, going on how many competition entries we receive.

Fair enough. you need the advertising revenue from the "shallow fortean" market.
If you need a book reviewed-Ooh Oh send it to me!!!

 

[Anonymous]

As others have said: no more ads for dodgy goth rubbish, gadgets, bongs and bogus herbal highs. No more ads for crappy videos of rubbish TV series.

More serious and well researched articles.

Put the price up and don't run ANY adverts. Don't publish every month - only when there is enough good content. Stop being so populist.

 

[Beakmoo]

Hardly realistic Simonsmith. There may (arguably) be many dimensions, but FT has to operate within the known world.

 

[Anonymous]

Suppose that the magazine came out, say, 3 or 4 times a year (depending on available content). So it would have much more in it. They could charge, say, £6 - £10 for something well worth buying.

It really doesn't need to be run as a business. It only needs to cover it's costs.

For the past few years FT has gone down - market. Hence all the dodgy ads. Why not take it back up - market? Less dodgy full page art work too (which is simply filler). Photographs are okay - but well written text is what made FT good originally.

 

[Pete Younger]

Suppose that the magazine came out, say, 3 or 4 times a year (depending on available content). So it would have much more in it. They could charge, say, £6 - £10 for something well worth buying.

It really doesn't need to be run as a business. It only needs to cover it's costs.

For the past few years FT has gone down - market. Hence all the dodgy ads. Why not take it back up - market? Less dodgy full page art work too (which is simply filler). Photographs are okay - but well written text is what made FT good originally.

Sadly Simon, we dont live in an ideal world.

 

[Dr_David_Sutton]

Glad to see we've got some discussion going today, and that at least some of you think we're getting it (mostly) right.

I disagree strongly that FT has gone 'downmarket' as the content hasn't really changed much in the last 10 years. I've tried to explain some of the problems with ads, but Simon seems to have problems accepting that we need any. Many magazines make a large chunk of their profits from ad sales - that's because they're getting Versace, BMW and Nestle as clients. We end up with whoever wants to advertise in a small magzine for not much money - I hate them, and probably more than you do, but they help keep us afloat. You suggest FT shouldn't be run as a business; we're actually quite fortunate that it's part of a publishing business, and I don't see how we'd keep it going otherwise. Publishing 3 or 4 times a year would be attractive in some ways, but isn't really a very sound commercial idea in today's climate - as Beakboo rightly says, we have to operate (sadly) within the known world.

And as to populism... I'm not sure why you think its a dirty word. Are you sure that 'populist' doesn't just mean what 'other people' like? Is elitism a better strategy?

I think FT should be simultaneously serious and funny, esoteric and mainstream, intellectually stimulating and accessible to all. It's probably impossible to achieve all of those things, but I think we should try.

Sorry you don't like the illustrations. Far from being 'dodgy' though, I have to point out that they are usually the work of some pretty talented artists. I've said it before, but a magazine made up of text and nothing else is hardlya viable proposition, or a magazine for that matter. A lot of forteans, in their hunger for words, words and more words seem to develop a blind spot for all things visual - but stories, some more than others, often need images to bring them to life, draw the reader in or just to look pretty as you open the magazine.

Oh, before I leave - on the subject of book reviews. It's not finding reviewers that's the problem, but fitting the reviews into the limited space we have at present. Too many books, not enough time... or space.

Don't let this put you off sending in reviews - it was something I was planning to suggest. Anyone who reads (or sees, or listens to, or plays) something and wants to review it for us - go ahead, and I'll be very pleased. Some books we don't even get to see, some we forget, some vanish - so help is always welcome. Anyone with particular interests, expertise or unparalleled insight could then become regular reviewers, recieve free books and so on. Email me your reviews! Do it! And we'll see what happens....

Night all,

David

 

[mejane]

I think FT should be simultaneously serious and funny, esoteric and mainstream, intellectually stimulating and accessible to all. It's probably impossible to achieve all of those things, but I think we should try.

Yes. Very well said.

No one issue will please every one of us. But if you read issues from, say, 5 years ago, and compare them with the current one then I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised by how little the magazine has changed. There are more dodgy adverts, sure, but the same accusation could be aimed at New Scientist, Time, The Economist, etc.

News stories and new ideas are FT's lifeblood. So, keep clipping and posting.

Why not have a "Best of FTMB" slot? We're cheap! (speaking personally, of course).

(Erm, I also find the ads strangely facinating, but I've never been tempted to actually buy anything ... maybe it's just me)


Jane.

 

[Justin_Anstey]

Firstly, I would like to state that overall I am very pleased with the way FT is. I'm surprised that it manages to continue covering such a wide spectrum of obscure subjects, and I've always liked the way the magazine contains the range of material that it does from the funny headlines in the Strange Days section through to long, in-depth features.

I think FT does also serve an important social function because it's in a position to expose the general public to a more credible approach to paranormal subjects.

I do agree about too much space being taken up by large illustrations, each of the three main articles in the current issue have full page ones, (or the equivalent). I just like to see articles that go further than merely telling a story by containing lots of analysis, especially if Beccaelizabeth's experience of her 'Immortals' article being heavily edited is a common one. But, I suppose, if you want something genuinely deep and complex then that's what books are for.

I would like to see more about fortean philosophy and more articles by the likes of Patrick Harpur, Paul Devereux, Peter Brookesmith, Colin Bennett, John Michell, etc..

Thanks for your time David, I've always thought that this message board could be used as a kind of focus group by the FT staff.

 

[Anonymous]

You suggest FT shouldn't be run as a business; we're actually quite fortunate that it's part of a publishing business, and I don't see how we'd keep it going otherwise. Publishing 3 or 4 times a year would be attractive in some ways, but isn't really a very sound commercial idea in today's climate - as Beakboo rightly says, we have to operate (sadly) within the known world.

At the risk of us going around in circles - what I am suggesting is that if the magazine were charged at cost price, and largely by subscription, then there would be no need for the commercialism. It should come out only when there is enough money and enough material to make it good. Like the best academic and club publications. And every edition should be unique in style and content. There is not enough good material for FT to work as a monthly.

And as to populism... I'm not sure why you think its a dirty word. Are you sure that 'populist' doesn't just mean what 'other people' like? Is elitism a better strategy?

'Populism' (in the world of ideas) is rightly a pejorative description ... since it invariably involves a simplification and generalisation of the arguments and main points. I would argue that the articles in the magazine are less academic than they once were. The references, in particular, are often very weak and thin. Without proper references the articles are pointless.

Suppose we were talking about paintings, or history, or chemistry. Or any other serious and interesting subject. Would you really argue that anything other than a 'populist' study was 'elitist'? The 'populist' approach is the genuinely elitist - since it assumes that your audience will only respond if you talk down to them and make the ideas easier.

The articles and other items appear to now all be planned, edited and designed according to the same formula (illustration - side panels - parallel narratives etc). I have the impression that the magazine is being edited and designed to a formula which rarely changes. Almost like that awful 1980s style of design where everything was done to a grid. Like painting Mondrians by numbers. The illustrations simply go where there is supposed to be an illustration (rather than definitely having any illuminating purpose). The articles are all to the same formula - because people are lazy.

A lot of forteans, in their hunger for words, words and more words seem to develop a blind spot for all things visual

Not me. My life is 99% pictures. And I see no point in you spending hard to raise money commissioning illustrations which tell us nothing and are simply used to fill space.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd like to see more historical type articles - the pig faced woman one as mentioned above was a good example or the one about gluttony. Very interesting. I'd also be pretty happy if the whole magazine was on cryptozoology.

I get the feeling sometimes that FT is very much confined to the English speaking world - is there no research or interesting articles that could be translated from European writers. Just often seems that it is British, American and Far Eastern stories mostly.

Fortean Studies: It is impossible to get Fortean Studies in Dublin. A few years back it used to be in Tower Records (at an exhorbitant price), but they don't have it anynore. I know I should subscribe - but never get around to it.

 

[Anonymous]

Definiately agree with more historical fortena but that's just because i find that subject fascinating. The classical corner is an absolute gem in my opinion and I would love to see more stuff like that.

 

[Anonymous]

How about people on the board start researching and writing articles for publication in FT?
That way you'll see stuff which you have an interest in being covered by the mag

 

[taras]

How about people on the board start researching and writing articles for publication in FT?
That way you'll see stuff which you have an interest in being covered by the mag

It might surprise you but some of the articles have been written by people who frequent the board. I am planning on writing something - although the article I was going to write, about the Taos Hum, got covered the month I thought of doing it. Such is life.

David, I completely understand about the adverts and lack of space of reviews. I recently became co-editor of the news section of our Student newspaper, which is completely independent of the University (and therefore completely dependent on ad sales.) We had enough material this week to fill six or seven pages, but because of adverts, we were only given three. Adverts are a necessary evil, unfortunately - especially for us, since no student would pay for the student newspaper!

 

[Dr_David_Sutton]

Evening all

Thanks for conyinued response - I've already been sharing some of your comments with the others, and everyone is interested in what you've been saying. For starters, we've sacked Etienne in response to Simonsmith's complaints about too many pictures, design etc. Well, not really...

I'm not going to get too drawn in to Simon's arguments today (as I get the feeling we could go on forever; but he does make some valid points. Populism; OK, I was deliberately misreading your meaning on this one yesterday. I'd say that we don't really practice populism in your sense of watering down content; we do try to make th emagazine approachable, and to provide supplementary material that may be useful for newcomers - after all, we want to invite folks inside, make them feel comfortable and hope they'll stay a while, not scare them off. FT isn't an academic publication - many of our writers are academics (in many disciplines) or ex-academics, as am I myself - and if we don't think we're slumming or dumbing down or spoon-feeding people then I'm kind of surprised you do. I'm infinitely more happy to be working in a completely cross-disciplinary field (and that's the real, unique joy of forteana for me) than writing meticulously researched (and heavily, heavily footnoted) things that only a few people will ever read. I'd just hope FT makes people want to know MORE than we can ever hope to tell them; it should be part of their wider love-affair with knowledge, a pointer or a road sign, really. I think that's true for everyone here on the board. I don't see any misplaced populism in th econtent, anyway. We tackle a huge range of subjects, from all sorts of viewpoints, with articles by both academics like Marina Warner or monster hunters like Adam Davies; I don't know of many mags wit hthat kind of breadth - mostly they just rely on journalists, who can produce polished (but often predictable and glib) work. No, I'm just not buying your argument - sorry.

Anyway, Fortean Studies will hopefully return to keep fans of the footnote happy; we're working on a new way of doing it. More on that when I know...

And yes, we do use formulas and set layouts in the magazine! Do you think we'd ever get an issue out if we reinvented it every month? And would people recognise FT if we did? Every publication relies on set formats as far as I can see. Does, say, The Guardian annoy you for this reason? And we do try to vary the feature layouts as often as possible - I've just glanced at issue 166 on my desk: The Naga feature is pretty standard layout; Elvis and Ghostwatch weren't. Seems fine to me.

Historical articles - don't worry, plenty of those in the pipeline. Luckily for us there's always more of the past than the present. A good thing. and Scarlett - I hope you've noticed an increase in crypto pieces in the mag of late, with more to come. And we've got some non-UK/US pieces coming up from Jurgen Heinzerling, Ulrich Magin, Fillip Copens and others.

And finally (for today) I hope some of you will find time to research and write articles (long or short) for us. Taras, next time you have an idea, tell me before someone else beats you to it! And good luck with the student paper - sounds like you get more ads than we do....

Cheers


David

 

[butterfly27]

I get the feeling sometimes that FT is very much confined to the English speaking world - is there no research or interesting articles that could be translated from European writers. Just often seems that it is British, American and Far Eastern stories mostly.

I've noticed this too, but I suppose it depends on the nationality of the "clippers".

I personally would welcome more IHTM material as the Letters Pages are always my first port of call.

And I too would appreciate articles on paranormal investigations. There must be organisations that investigate reports of paranormal phenomena and yet only when someone like Jenny Randles writes a full-length book are these reports brought to the attention of the fortean reader - unless of course said organisations hold exclusive copyright.

[edit: If new IHTM items were published in the mag before appearing on the website perhaps this would discourage cries of "I've seen it before". This sounds pretty obvious but isn't happening at the mo. edit]

And a big thank you to David Sutton for proving we have a mag that really cares about its readership. :likee:

 

[Anonymous]

I think largely FT has it pitched about right, though I must agree with whoever said it doesn't seem to take as long to read these days.
I like the letters, often they're the most interesting part, though I do notice you see similar names cropping up again and again.
The only things that annoy me are (1) some of the forum pieces are meandering crap, a bunch of masturbatory prose with no real conclusion or point, and (2) a whole page for a Hunt Emerson cartoon? It's not even funny. I suspect he got the gig from being good mates with the eds. [Edit] (3) Oh yeah, and my many and varied gripes about IFG subscriptions (separate issue though, I know) [/Edit]
I'd also like to see some more focus on follow-ups - I think it's a vital thing to keep going as the mainstream press are pretty terrible at that sort of thing.
Overall, though, keep up the good work.