BENPOEHLAND'S FINAL FAREWELL...
August 10, 1994
It pleases me greatly to report that the issuing of refunds to all former subscribers to the old AC is now essentially complete, and as of this date the original publication may be considered officially terminated.
I wish to officially announce my departure from the AC Staff, and hereby declare my resignation therefrom in the positions I occupied, Managing Editor and Circulation Editor.
The status of refunds at this time is as follows:
- A batch of 88 refund checks, representing the last of the American refunds and all of the Canadian refunds, was posted on August 9 and should be in the hands of their intended recipients shortly.
- A batch of 18 IPMOs and bank drafts, representing refunds to overseas subscribers, was posted today. The IPMOs will take a few weeks for postal processing before final delivery.
- Unicorn Publications is presently working up 17 credit card refunds to overseas subscribers. Notices of account credits will be mailed out shortly by Unicorn Publications from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The entire stock of back issues of the old AC has been transferred to the magazine's new management in California, including back issues of the AC Software Disk. I will no longer respond to inquiries concerning back issues or subscriptions to AC.
A number of people have asked what role I will play in the new AC. I've
made myself available to the new management in a consulting/support
capacity over the past six months and expect to continue in that role
for as long as they desire my , services. Many people have begged me to
continue my "Alchemist" column in the new AC, but regrettably
circumstances will not permit me - to make contributions of that nature
in the forseeable future.In consequence of unprecedented instability now sweeping the U.S. pharmaceutical industry in the wake of political turmoil surrounding the Clinton national health plan proposals, many scientists in that industry are experiencing the loss of their jobs and wreckage of their careers. I am one of them. In June the department where I worked for 13 years was abolished, and I became unemployed. A few weeks later I received news that my mother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In a few days I'll be leaving for an extended visit to Mesa, Arizona to attend my mother's needs. I trust the 8-bit community will forgive me for placing these serious concerns far above any continued participation in Atari magazines. However, I anticipate being an 8-bit user for quite some time to come, and of course I'm a charter subscriber to the new AC.
The slow pace of refunds over the summer on the part of Unicorn Publications initially hobbled the efforts of our California colleagues to restart the magazine. Many loyal readers apparently held off subscribing to the new AC until they had received their refund from the old AC. By encouraging Unicorn to complete the refund process in a timely manner I expect to see a corresponding boost in support for the new AC in the weeks ahead. Feedback I've received from readers in response to the refund program has consisted mainly of expressions of astonishment that the policies stated in the April issue were actually followed and people had a cash refund in hand from an Atari magazine for the first time in the history of Atari computers. I'm very proud of the legacy AC established in dealing "up-front" with its loyal supporters and hope the new management will continue the tradition.
I don't have any real figures for the present level of support for the new AC, but reasonable estimates place it at around 200 paid subscriptions. Based on my experience I believe the revived publication will probably top out with a subscriber base in the range of 300-350.
Unpublished manuscripts remaining in my hands were turned over to the new management following their promise to continue the same policies toward author compensation that I originally established. Recently they've begun recruiting a staff, and I'm pleased to report many of the former AC Staff will be serving the new publisher.
They've also made local arrangements that will permit them to print the new AC far more cheaply than Unicorn did, which means they'll be able to survive financially with a smaller subscriber base. All indications point to a revival of AC very soon, I would guess September but must admit that's purely speculative.
Finally, many people have questioned why it was necessary to shut down AC and start it up anew instead of just having the old publisher turn over operations to the new. First, I must point out that plans to shut down AC had already been laid in January 1994, well before Bob Woolley became actively involved in saving the magazine and securing a new publisher. Once things began to roll it was too late to stop the process; the best I could do was extend support to the new effort. Second, back in February no one knew what level of support a revived AC might attain. Staff morale was extremely low due to the sharp falloff in renewals in Dec. '93/Jan. '94, and even Bob Woolley and Jim Hood were concerned there might not be enough support to warrant their continuing the effort. The whole period of January-May 1994 was fraught with unknowns, anxiety, chaos, and instability - punctuated by power blackouts and disruptions caused by the Killer Winter of '94 (which left me with $2,000 in property damage and a huge mess to clean up). For Unicorn to turn over AC to an unknown third party in such a climate would have been an act of catastrophic stupidity. Due to the uncertainty of future support, Bob Woolley and I mutually agreed any continuation of AC would have to be an independent effort. And finally, neither the Staff nor Publisher of AC had the authority to transfer the magazine's operations even under ideal conditions. Had AC been threatened by some external event (for example, the collapse of its publisher), it would have been within the scope of my authority to transfer the operation elsewhere. But instead, AC was threatened by a failure of support from the very community that brought it into existence. In conferring with Jeff McWilliams (de facto representative of the 615 people whose response to the mail campaign of 1992 authorized him to ask me to start the magazine), we agreed that in view of the situation the correct response was to "give AC back" to the community that authorized its existence. The only way to do that was to release the Staff back to the community and distribute the magazine's financial resources back to the community. We have in effect given AC back to the community from whence it sprang, in consequence of the community's failure to support the original mandate.
People should bear in mind that the revival of AC in California is totally independent of the original AC. All the support given by elements of the old publication to the new have been at a purely personal level, none of it official. For the past eight months I've walked a fine line between strict adherence to the original proposals upon which AC was founded and my own personal desire to see the AC Experiment live on. Through the intervention of Bob Woolley and a mutual spirit of informal cooperation between elements of the old and new publications, I believe I can at last claim success on both accounts. We have been through a trial by fire, from whence a new AC will arise as a Phoenix from the flames.
For some of you, the refund you receive(d) is merely a check, to be cashed and spent. But for others - those of you still capable of dreaming - that refund check is a ticket to be used to vote yet a second time to continue what still stands as one of the most unique events in the history of personal computers.
I hope people will realize the extraordinary effort that has gone into giving the community a second chance to vote, and that you will do so wisely.
Respectfully submitted,
Benjamin L. Poehland
Benjamin L. Poehland