Publishers Note 07/97

Publisher’s Note
Ramblings from a weary publisher

WOW! Isn't this month’s copy of MODE heavy. And gee, look at that nice bright white cover, very impressive. Nothing but the best for our readers. If you haven’t already noticed, this July issue marks our one-year anniversary. Isn’t that spiffy, we’ve made it a full year, against all those awful statistics sited in Entrepreneur and Inc. magazines about the failure of start-up small businesses. I can tell you a secret about being successful. I can tell you why people like Coca Cola call us about advertising. It’s honesty. Try it. It’s quite novel in today’s society. The people we talk to about advertising are amazed when I tell them that MODE is essentially a two-person operation. They’re even more surprised when I tell them that I compose all the ad design and page layout myself, for every issue. It’s a grueling last four days of the month, and believe me, I am getting too old for all-nighters. But remember, people who don’t pull all-nighters when necessary are the ones who become those failure statistics. The key to starting and building a successful business is clear to those that have done it. It’s a formula actually, and I’ll share it with you if you promise to keep it a secret. Guaranteed success requires only four ingredients: Drive, Desire, Commitment, and Experience. Somewhat equal portions of these coupled with the undoubted ability to be at least 10% better than your competition will ensure that you have a most prosperous business. I know this because I live by it every day. These simple rules are so ingrained in my daily routine that I can’t image life any other way. I don’t know about many of you, but today I can say without reservation that I am doing exactly what I want to be doing with my professional life, I am entirely satisfied, yet challenged every day, and motivated to better myself with each pointed out typo :-)

And yes, I know all too well that people have been making fun of my picture on this page since the paper came out last July. My mother said I looked like a thug, and my best friend asked "Who did you kill before they took the mug shot?" Ha ha. Thank you everyone. Well that picture is gone forever. In it’s place you will see a picture of me and my boss (slash wife). When we launched MODE last July, (now don’t tell anyone), I was the only employee. Gloria still worked for the company that moved us to Harrisburg, and didn’t really want to be recognized as associated with the paper, (imagine that.) But one day, just two issues into the endeavor, I asked my wife "Which would you rather do? Stay where you are earning what you are, or quit that job and come work with me and probably make nothing?" Well, we’ve been happily working together since then. So, believing that she’s probably a permanent employee, I have decided to share the coveted Publisher’s photograph space with my partner, Gloria. I think it’s appropriate that everyone know the face that keeps MODE on track. (It’s also the face that does the collections, so beware.) I tell you this because I think it’s important to share the fact that we are a couple that is making a professional partnership work. I often hear of couples that start a business together and get sick of being with each other day in and day out. NEWS FLASH, it isn’t the business.

Do you remember last month I told you how our web site has taken off, and that the number of "hits" was in the teen-thousands? For the month of June, we exceeded 45,000 hits on our web site. Due, greatly in part, to our "LIVE" Internet broadcast of JAM FEST 97 from Hersheypark Arena last month. That event generated over 20,000 hits on our web site in one week alone! MODE in conjunction with Cellular One and The EDGE, 105.7 put actual pictures from the concert on the Internet as the concert was happening. It was technologically very cool. It was accomplished with Cellular Digital Packet Data wireless technology from Cellular One. Here’s how it worked: I took pictures with our Kodak digital camera. Those pictures were transferred to a notebook computer via a small PCMCIA memory card that can be swapped from the camera to the computer. The images were converted to a format that can be displayed on the Internet and uploaded directly to MODE’s site from another notebook computer equipped with a CDPD digital wireless modem. It was very impressive, although we haven’t even captioned all the pictures yet, and somewhere along the line one of the band’s pictures disappeared. Sorry Oregano. All in all, it was a first for MODE, a first for Cellular One, and a first for Hersheypark Arena. Now that we know it works, watch for more MODE Internet simulcasts.

Thanks again for your continuing support... from the both of us. TAFN.

Scot Giambalvo, Publisher