Magazine Closure Signals An End To Editors... Rejoice!

I'm sitting here doing my best air-guitar, chuckling to myself. Actually, considering that I'm sitting I guess it would technically be chair-guitar. Anyhow, I'm sitting and chuckling and wailing away to Ted Nugent's "Free For All" because I just read some great news.

The magazine "Editor & Publisher" is folding.

Editor & Publisher -- or E&P as it is often called -- is what is known as a trade-magazine. It has been covering the newspaper industry for over the last 100 years with a goodly portion of its subscribers being editors and publishers. I'm also a subscriber, although I never signed up to receive the magazine and I am neither an editor nor a publisher. It just started showing up in my mailbox a couple years ago and has never stopped.

But my days of being a subscriber appear to be extremely short-lived. The publication's owner, the Nielsen Company, is shutting down the magazine and it appears that the January 2010 issue will be its last. Nielsen is not saying exactly why they're shutting down E&P, but one could easily assume it is for financial reasons.

I think this is fantastic news!

I believe that E&P's demise is a sign that editors and publishers everywhere are finally losing their steely grip on the content of all media not just newspapers! It's going to be a free for all when it comes to mass communication and I can hardly wait!

And don't you think that editors and publishers are soooo over-rated?

After all, who knows a story better than the creator, the writer who gave birth to the words, who dug deep into his or hers own life-long collection of vocabulary and molded Pure Literary Gold out of absolute nothingness only to have some "editor" or some "publisher" ignorantly and single-handedly decide that your prose is "too long" or "full of typos" or "that the publication's readers just aren't interested in reading a 427-page dissertation about rhubarb."

How do they know? How do they know that the readership doesn't want to learn all about rhubarb? Perhaps, the readers really want to know the history of that plant. They may not be aware that it is indigenous to Asia and was often used by the Mongolians or that it was first brought to America in the 1820s entering the country in the northeast and moving westwards with the European American settlers.

Or the readers may never have tasted rhubarb stew which looks disgusting, but tastes quite swell thanks to the five-pound bag of sugar you add to the concoction during cooking. Personally, I think that rhubarb aficionados are a grossly underserved market -- no matter what some so-called "editors" and "publishers" believe.

So, it's a good thing that E&P is folding. Their readers -- primarily those "editors" and "publishers" I told you about -- have held sway over the citizens of this country for far too long, brainwashing generations of Americans with "correct grammar" and "conciseness" and "verifiable facts." I'm glad to see that their control appears to be loosening and The Editorial Power will soon be in the hands of the writers who ultimately know best.

Won't it be grand, every writer completely in charge of their own destiny, posting or publishing as they see fit without the shackles imposed by those literary overlords? Freedom baby, freedom!

I love the fact that it will be my decision and my decision alone to add a chapter to my book about rhubarb. It's an angle I had completely overlooked until just now.

Chapter 23 - Celebrities Who Love Rhubarb

I wonder if Ted Nugent is a fan?