The 37th Frame to Close Subscriber Rolls,
Limit Subscriptions

Press Release

Sept. 22, 2002

My white-paper photography newsletter The 37th Frame, which has earned a small but rabidly supportive audience, has gotten to be something of a victim of its own success. Frankly, it has grown too quickly for me to keep up with with all the administrative donkeywork by my lonesome.

Some 400% expansion would be required for the publication to sustain itself as a growth-seeking, moneymaking business that I could work on full-time. Since that seems unlikely--it's been growing almost entirely by word of mouth as far as I know, and more effective marketing has so far proven out of reach--I feel that the best thing for me to do is to pick a nice even number and go ahead and limit the subscriptions. It is, after all, a spare-time pursuit, a labor of love, and a vanity publication, something I'm doing mainly for fun.

So this is to announce that I'll be accepting only a small number of additional new subscribers. After that, I'll be closing the subscription rolls, and anyone who wants to subscribe will have to go on a waiting list until an existing subscriber drops out.

The number I've chosen as a limit is arbitrary, based mainly on the amount of envelopes I can lick in a single weekend without going insane.

(Kidding. I use a sponge. But you get the picture.)

I'm committed to publishing at least 13 issues. Issue #4 is at the printer now.

As usual, subscriptions are $18 for one year, $32 for two, payable by PayPal to michaeljohnston@ameritech.net or by sending a check to 316 Windsor Drive, Waukesha, WI 53186.

I am also pleased to announce that I will be writing a regular monthly column for the excellent Black & White Photography magazine, based in London and edited by Ailsa McWhinnie.

My weekly column on the web, "The Sunday Morning Photographer," will continue to be published at Luminous-Landscape and Steves-Digicams.com.

Mike Johnston