We’re Off (Our Rocker) and Running!

Welcome to the second issue of WildIndiana magazine. What a journey the past two months have been!

On the actual day of printing the magazine I was invited to see it come off the press for the first time. Needless to say, my anxiety meter was reading somewhere between “Off The Chart” and “Seek Immediate Medical Attention.” Though I appeared relatively calm on the outside, it was a good thing I didn’t eat breakfast because it might have made a sudden reappearance at an inopportune moment.

The first copies weren’t encouraging. At that time, I didn’t know that it often took a couple of hundred attempts of any print run to get it “dialed in” before the actual results were acceptable. As it were, I wasn’t sure that readers would enjoy green fishermen or purple fish. I quietly walked over to the corner of the control room to have a quick sob.

Fortunately, the very skilled printers quickly brought things into focus and I suddenly found myself face-to-face with my baby. There it was, in my hands and roaring overhead off the press, a fully-realized magazine that didn’t look too bad, at least in my biased opinion.

A few minutes later, when one of the printers genuinely commented on how nice it looked, especially for a first-time operation, I began to realize this thing might actually fly! I wish I would have savored the moment more fully but there were literally 10,000 other things that needed attention as it was really just the beginning, rather than the end, of a long journey.

A few weeks later, our big “coming out” party was the Ford Indianapolis Boat, Sport and Travel Show. Though sitting for ten days in a booth at a trade show is how I now define “tedious,” the effort was worth a million times the money and time expended.

Magazine staffers talked to hundreds of people, made new friends, made connections to others in the outdoor industry, filmed and interviewed many interesting people and listened to a whole raft of ideas. In the end, the great “buzz” that the magazine generated seemed to give some validation to the crazy idea that a print magazine focusing on Central Indiana might actually be workable.

Back to this second issue; it is bigger, with more features, just like our website, Facebook page, Twitter feed and Youtube channel. Even better, we are full of ideas that will soon take WildIndiana to even greater heights. However, this is very much a work in progress and we still need your input, ideas, stories, pictures and advice. Please share them with us because in the end, this magazine is truly about, and for, you!

SHOUT OUT- The April issue of the Indiana’s Gadabout Magazine contained a nice feature about Yours Truly and the new WildIndiana magazine. Publisher of the Gadabout, Ray Dickerson, didn’t need to (probably shouldn’t!) do that but it showed great class in offering coverage about a wet-behind-the-ears competing publication. Thanks, Ray!

A CORRECTION: Even with the services of an outstanding copy editor, we still make mistakes. This one was a biggie and totally the fault of your Publisher: Field Editor and columnist Don Cranfill’s name was misspelled in numerous places in issue #1. Don has been an exceptionally valuable part of our team and I regret the error. It won’t happen again!

FINALLY: As it is often said, “that’s all the news that’s fit to print” at least for the now. Keep reading but always make time to get outside and enjoy WildIndiana!