South Windsor Magazine

I wonder if some of the monthlies like City Times or Windsor Life should start worrying. A new publication is coming out and targeting one of the most attractive areas for business.

STOPDRTP did a flyer distribution some time ago and we wanted to cover just the area surrounding the DRTP corridor. Using Canada Post was a possibility but that was too pricey for us when you included the cost of the flyer. Distribution by the Star was an alternative but the zones they covered were broader than we wanted.

I thought about that again because of my friend Pero Kovacevic. If I were a business in South Windsor or wanted to appeal to people living just in that area, where would I put my money to get the most bang for the buck.

Pero came to my place the other day to have a coffee. I had not seen him for awhile and was happy to see that he was well and as feisty as ever! He is an interesting man and a "Canadian by choice" as he puts it.

I met Pero as part of the South/West Windsor Ratepayers Corporation. He did the printing for a lot of the materials that our Group distributed. I expect that he took a beating on some of the jobs since cash was tight for us. (No we could not afford the billboards that our Opposition filled around the city or the glossy, multi-colour brochures).

I remember that we talked about a magazine that he wanted to publish but nothing really came of it. Or so I thought. When he called, he told me that he had seen me being interviewed on Face-to-Face and wondered if I would be willing to write an article for his new magazine. He actually had done it!

Of course I said "Yes" and he came over to tell me about it. The magazine is "SOUTH WINDSOR MAGAZINE." The first issue is to be distributed shortly. Its circulation is 15,000 copies to be distributed in South Windsor only. It sounded like a good deal for an advertiser---up to 50% off the rate card for those who got in early. Designing, printing and distributing an ad for an all-inclusive price of around $100-700, depending on size, seemed like an attractive offer to me!

But would anyone want to read it? That was answered by its press release and when I found out who the editor was:

I saw a draft of its press release and its content sounded intriguing:

• "Gusto" is the adjective most frequently used by advertisers in describing South Windsor Magazine, Windsor's newest monthly. Audacious and unacademic, filled with "lively learning," written with wit and erudition, South Windsor Magazine promises to meet with lay as well as academic approval.
  
  The 52-page monthly will differ somewhat in content and look from other Windsor publications. In its pages the editor and contributors will try to give a reflection of the diversity of man's high articulate response to the circumstances and situations in life, and to write of those who have, like Prometheus, brought fire and warmth to their fellow man.

Its editor, Michael Petrovich, has worked for the Montreal Star, Radio-Canada International, CBC, the Olympics Radio and Television Organization, and other organizations. He has worked as freelance writer for TV Times, TV Guide, TV Hebdo, trade, scholarly, and federal and provincial government publications and is the author of a number of books.

To judge for yourself what the magazine will be like and whether one should advertise in it or read it, let me provide part of the answer to the question I asked Pero about why he started the magazine. Expecting the mundane, here is what I received:

• "I'll try my best to answer your question. Why am I starting this new publication called South Windsor Magazine? There are many reasons, but I will briefly focus on only one, the most important of all.
  
  In 1990, I was diagnosed with colon cancer and did not know if I would live or not. Faced with such a predicament all I wished for at the time was that I have had printed my own book of poems so that my daughter would better understand who her father was when she grows up. Being fortunate, as I am, to have not just survived, but also cured myself of the ailment, I have learned to appreciate life and "time".
  
  A while ago, in an old newspaper, I have read that "time" by itself has no meaning and no purpose. For the human race, time is a journey we take in space. It is us, the human race, who give time meaning and purpose, by the way we use it.
  
  If we use it for creative and constructive purposes, purposes that better us as species and improve the world we live in, then we have used time wisely. Then we take our place among the stars of the universe.
  
  If, however, we use it for selfish and frivolous purposes, to glorify only one part of mankind at the expense of the rest, then we have wasted time foolishly. Then time has lost its purpose, and we have lost ourselves
  
  P.S. If you recognize yourself as one of the stars of the universe sky, it is only because you are one."

I will not wish Pero "good luck." He does not need it. He has obviously found his purpose.