Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing Association Magazine

[Tom Hammer (thammer302]

As two people in a group trying to form a cohousing
community, my wife and I think it is a real loss not
to have the Cohousing Association print the magazine
any more. The photos were always excellent.  We
enjoyed reading about other communities or particular
issues, and we got ideas from the advertising for
other communities which had units for sale or rent. 

The accompanying letter announcing cessation of
publication correctly pointed out that it is possible
to reach more people electronically, but it is much
less effective in many other ways to have only an
electronic publication.

I have read that specialty magazines serving
particular niches are doing really well lately. 
Wouldn't it be possible to keep ours going? I would
love to see our magazine on sale at large news stands
along with all the other specialty publications.

Physical magazines can be put on display tables,
picked up and re-read, and there is a reality to paper
publications that cannot be matched electronically. 
Both venues would be better than one or the other.

It would seem to me that it would also be helpful to
completed communities to have something that people
can hold in their hands and could be left around the
common house, for example.  Lots of folks don't like
spending time in front of a computer screen but would
pick up something in print.  And certainly values of
cohousing units would be supported by the continued
publicity a print magazine generates.  

If we are to keep presenting the concept of cohousing
to more people, I would advocate for both venues. The
cohousing developers and architects and some
communities were advertisers in the old magazine.  Did
anyone ever approach suppliers of "green" products as
potential advertisers?  What about people who are also
interested in other types of communities?  Perhaps
there could be one combined magazine with a national
circulation, with one section specifically set aside
for cohousing.  What about an international cohousing
magazine?  Perhaps we are being too parochial to
insist on a North American publication at this point
in our history.  

In our home we pay $100 a year or so for various
magazines, and I'd gladly subscribe to a cohousing or
communities/cohousing magazine for $20 a year.

Perhaps we need a venture capitalist to start us off,
or a private donor or foundation which could provide
the needed capital.  Do we have a retiree or two or
some folks who are underemployed, with a passion for
publishing in the cohousing community?

Tom Hammer and
Barbara Pizzala
Concord Village  





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