We All Care
Dear Gary: As a subscriber to your magazine for the last three years, I was rather upset to see the comments directed towards WSR by reader Roger Mathus. Evidently, Mr. Mathus was angered by the tardy response of the DTS people to his request for the free demo disc and took out his anger on you. This is totally unfair; your measured and dignified response shows why. I am involved in the publishing business myself and I know the incredible pressures that are brought about by deadlines. I am amazed that only five people are responsible for your extensive editorial content, content that exceeds all other home theatre publications in volume, the scope of its coverage, and depth. I can say that with some authority because I subscribe to most of them and am familiar with the others. Sure, you folks are not perfect. A couple of years back you had a copy editing problem but you have largely eliminated that. (Watch your spelling in your Internet responses, though!). I know you did a graphics redesign some time back and, although it certainly improved the look of WSR, I find the typeface too small and hard to read. The tables, which are very useful by the way and which I consult frequently, are the most difficult to read. Perhaps you can work out some system of horizontal shading which would make it easier for the reader. No, Gary, these are not complaints but comments. I realize that there are a million constraints like, for example, the need to print such an incredible amount of material in a magazine that is of a reasonable size. As a subscriber, I support your mission fully; that is, to lobby the industry to give us home theatre enthusiasts the best quality possible. Your reviews of LD/DVD picture and sound quality are very valuable to me. I own a Toshiba 56-inch widescreen RPTV and am delighted with it. A Yamaha 3090 anchors my sound system. Home theatre enthusiasts such as myself are, unfortunately, still rare. Which is why it is essential that we have magazines such as WSR out there, even if they do not reach absolute perfection. It would have been nice if reader (and no doubt fellow enthusiast) Mr. Mathus pondered carefully the hurt he might cause before making rather unfair and intemperate remarks. Gary, I am certain that you and your team are doing your best. Long may that continue!
A.C.Yapa
Editor Gary Reber Comments:
Thank you for your perception of the challenges facing publishing WSR with such a small staff. Our staff is very competent and extremely productive. We have all grown professionally with the magazine and Marlene and I are very appreciative and proud of our staff’s commitment to producing a leading edge home theatre magazine and webzine. By the way, the DTS DVD-Video demo disc offer was out of our control and I believe that everyone who completed the information requested on the business reply card and returned it has been sent a disc by DTS’ fulfillment house. The magazine’s role was to facilitate receiving the cards and forwarding them onto DTS. We are very sorry for any upsets that were caused by the inordinate time it took DTS and and its fulfillment house to get the discs out to our readership.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ mailto:editorgary@widescreenreview.com