by Corey Matsumoto

As is the case with many underground publications, Immanence is a rapidly evolving project full of challenges and fueled by many contributions of knowledge, opinions – and of course –advertising dollars.

The largest challenge has been printing. We are intent on having a magazine that is entirely locally produced and printed. This is quite the task in a community where the local printing “industry” consists of a handful of color copiers and an assortment of obsolete museum–quality machinery as old as the mill itself.

There is an unfortunate catch–22 scenario where money is not invested in local printing because the local printers don’t get enough business to afford the gear needed to print the large local jobs. We refuse to let Immanence become a part of the imbalance and hope to bring back the days of locally produced and printed publications (remember Powell River News?). We are finding ways to support 2 or 3 local printers by giving each a bite–sized portion of our monthly print run. It’s working out so far.

The higher cost of printing locally means a reduced number of pages and a shorter print run per advertiser than we’d like. Other local publications produce huge volumes of copies for a much cheaper price. It is my belief, however, that the market is being flooded with stacks and stacks of copies that end up sitting around and dumped in recycle bins by the handful. Ever looked through the paper bin at the recycling depot? This is money spent out of town and wasted every month for the sake of “high distribution”. The worst example is a tourism magazine that touted impressive distribution figures. We were given a box of 500 to distribute at our business –we only needed about 60 to display for the summer, and another 40 lasted the rest of the year. If every business that advertised got a box of 500 magazines, I could imagine how easy it would be to fulfill their “high distribution” figures.

Advertisers are wising up to these techniques, and are looking for true value advertising that works. It is my hope that our advertisers realize how visible and effective their ads are, and that readers of Immanence Magazine appreciate the minimal amount of advertising per page. It is not my intention to disrespect the other publications in town, because I believe each provides a service to the community. I’m simply responding to the many questions I’ve been asked about the apparent lack of copies of Immanence around town.

As you read through this magazine, take note of the different businesses that partner (advertise) with us each month. We are all trying to build Powell River into a thriving local economy, and by spending money locally we are strengthening our town against a dying mill.
PS. I promise that I’ll take up less space for my rants if you start sending us letters, articles and news items. Send your 2 bits to editor@immanence.ca and let’s get people talking.