Tuesday, January 7, 2014

MATILDA ZIEGLER MAGAZINE SUSPENDS PUBLICATION

In the most recent (January 6) issue of the online Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind, editor Ren Brighton announced the periodical would be suspending publication.

First, let me hasten to say the Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind stopped publishing a few years ago. The online version which I have mentioned on this blog before is entirely different from the previous braille incarnation.

Honestly, I felt the online magazine had gone downhill in the past few months. When it first started in January 2010, it contained lots of impowering and informative articles. Now most of it's content seems to amount to blind people complaining about things.

Back when the online magazine first started, each feature writer had a clear subject they wrote about. Karen was supposed to write about entertainment, John was supposed to write about technology, etc. Now you never know what most of the articles will be about.

Additionally, some of the content of the magazine is just plain boring. I don't care about the time Karen Crowder was snowed in or the third Christmas she and her late husband spent together or whatever.

Bob Branco is the Andy Rooney of the magazine; he'll complain about anything.

Also, I notice spelling mistakes in the articles from time to time. If my speech software can pick up on these errors, why couldn't the software of the writers? As well, some of the writers should try giving their articles a beginning, a middle and an end. That would improve their writing immensely.

A magazine has to have something one can take away, an article you can get behind or that makes you angry, ideally at least one or two articles you can walk away from thinking, "I didn't know that." I have to say I really haven't been getting that feeling from this online publication lately.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Maybe you could offer to be a contributing author and help revive it?

Alex Horton said...

I just might do that when and if it comes back; either that or maybe email the editor some feedback in the interim.

Alex Horton said...

I emailed the editor.