Dear Readers:
As we look ahead to 1985, we are beginning the 20th year of
publication of Gas Engine Magazine.
Through the years, because of the loyal support of our
subscribers, the magazine has gradually published more pages and
reached more people, until today we are serving nearly 20,000 of
you with each issue.
Consistently, you have offered your advice and constructive
criticism along with your compliments. We appreciate everyone’s
interest and try to respond wherever possible. Whether your
comments are on a renewal blank or an ad you’ve placed, or in a
letter to Smoke Rings, all are read and pondered!
For several years, the most frequent comment we’ve seen has
been,’…I only wish it came every month.’ We have weighed
this encouragement seriously and feel that the time has come to
respond by going monthly.
1985 will be a year of new beginnings for GEM.
In addition to easing into monthly publication, we will be adding a
new Question and Answer column written by Charles Wendel, who for
most of you needs no introduction. Chuck is the highly regarded
author of American Gasoline Engines Since 1872, The
Encyclopedia of American Farm Tractors, and numerous other
books in the gas engine field. We hope that Chuck will be able to
answer most of your questions directly in his column, so please
write to ‘Questions and Answers’, at Stemgas Publishing
Company, PO Box 328, Lancaster, PA 17603.
Anna Mae Branyan, who has been on our staff since the magazine
began, will continue to write her popular ‘Soot in the
Flues’ in the Iron MenAlbum.
We can’t say enough about Anna Mae’s devotion to Stemgas,
and she will continue to work with us on special projects, as
well.
Frequently, we are asked for articles more technical in nature,
and I must urge those of you who are the experts to help us with
this. Please send us your articles or advise us of potential
authors who are technically adept but may need a ‘nudge’ to
get writing!
Some of you have asked that we include fewer show reports. It
will be our policy in the future, as it is currently, to try to use
at least portions of all reports submitted and to seek
information on new shows. When you send us a show report,
try always to think of what you like to read about shows
you don’t attend. We feel that readers are interested in the
unique qualities of your show and that they’d like to see
pictures of the unusual engines that make your show different.
We’ll try to convey the essence of ‘show pride’.
As we go to press, we are still working out the details of our
new publishing schedule, but the following information
should be firm:
All current subscribers will receive the number of issues for
which they have paid, plus one extra issue before
the subscriptions expire. (Thus, if you subscribed for a year of
bi-monthly issues, you will receive seven issues before your
subscription runs out.) Don’t worry about updating your
subscriptions now, you will receive notices in advance of the
expirations.
Deadlines will change and will be published in each issue, so
watch carefully for information about advertising. The deadline for
the next issue, November 30, will not change. We will be sending
information out to organizations in advance of the show season, so
they will know which issues will best serve them.
There will be ten issues in 1985, and 12 beginning in 1986.
Monthly issues begin after the March/April the first one will be
May 1985.
Subscription rate will rise to $24.00 per year. The last
subscription rate increase for GEM was over three
years ago. In the years since then, our printing costs have gone up
considerably, as we changed to better paper to get better
reproduction of our pictures. There is a substantial second class
postage increase coming in January. We are hoping to improve the
magazine even further, with the addition of more color in some
future issues.
We at Stemgas are excited about the growth of
GEM, and we hope that our readers will be as well.
We are grateful for the increase in advertising which has made it
possible for us to consider monthly publication, and to keep our
price increase to a minimum. We want all of our readers to realize
that it is you who make the magazine what it is!
