Sactown Magazine

First, we’d like to thank the Bee’s Sam McManis for giving us some ink today. You can find the article here. We appreciate much of what Sam said (the kind “Raves,” naturally), and respectfully disagree with other parts (the dreaded “Rants”). But opinions are opinions, and he is, after all, paid to express his. We respect that. In fact, to our mind, this city needs more of it. But over here at Sactown, we have a few thoughts of our own on Sam’s piece, and so, as he borrowed from magazine convention to “rant” and “rave,” we’ll borrow from his column today for a few thoughts of our own.

Rave: Cheers to Sam and the Bee for covering us at all. Simply the fact that the Bee is covering media in Sacramento is a very good sign. In our eyes, the birth of new publications of any kind is a sign that a city is growing and thriving.

Rant: Sam says that our magazine’s name, Sactown, is lowercase. Actually, that’s not the case. Merely our logo is lowercase. Not only is the word in uppercase in dozens of mentions throughout the magazine, but the Bee itself (Sam included, in a previous article published last month) has referred to it with a capital “S” on all three occasions that it has mentioned us. That said, we’re glad Sam thinks it connotes hipness.

Rave: By employing the Rant/Rave gimmick, Sam is striving, like any good newspaperman, to show balance. A noble thing, to be sure.

Rant: [Reader warning: Geeky grammar point ahead!] Sam then takes us to task for misspelling “premier” on our cover. He wrote: “So, we’ll cut the premiere issue ($3.99) some slack. (Except for that repressed grammarian inside of us who must take out the red pen and mark up the cover for the use of ‘premier issue.’ You keep the ‘e’ on the end when it’s ‘a first performance or showing.’ So sayeth Webster’s Fourth Edition.” Sam is, we regret to say, mistaken once again. He cites Webster’s Fourth Edition as saying “premiere” is the correct spelling for “a first performance or showing.” Well, that part is true. One small problem: we’re not a performance. We’re a publication. Exhibit A: The Oxford American Dictionary cites “premier” as “of earliest creation: the premier issue of a quarterly.” That said, even in Webster’s, “premiere” is merely an alternate of “premier.” Could we have used “premiere”? Sure. Is “premier” more correct, in our humble opinion? Yes. Exhibit B: Conde Nast, the publisher of esteemed magazines such as GQ and The New Yorker, launched Men’s Vogue last year with a banner on the cover that read “Premier Issue.” Exhibit C: The Sacramento Bee itself has, yes, used the spelling “premier” when referring to a first issue of a magazine on many occasions. Perhaps a few examples are in order (note that many of the authors are the Bee’s top writers and editors):

Feb. 17, 2005: “The cover story in February’s premier issue of Muse is on the effects of sleep deprivation.” — Carlos Alcala
Sept. 16, 2004: “The premier issue of RosevilleStyle is out, and the glossy ad vehicle already has its first scoop.” — Carlos Alcala
Sept. 5, 1999: “The premier issue of Better Homes & Gardens Raising Teens magazine is now on the newsstands.” — Greg Endicott
May 24, 1997: “The most striking example is Sports Illustrated’s premier issue of Women/Sport.” — Stephanie McKinnon McDade
June 23, 1996: “The premier issue contains more than 200 photos.” — Bee Staff
Feb. 11, 1996: “Simply called “Catfish,” the magazine is dedicated to catfish fishing. In its premier issue, it lists various state records for certain catfish species.” — Gary Voet
June 26, 1995: “So far, BYO has brewed up a batch of interest with 11,000 paid subscribers for the premier issue, which hit the newsstands May 24.” — Gilbert Chan
January 26, 1994: “Some of the things I learned while skimming through the premier issue of Fine Cooking, a bimonthly that began to arrive on magazine racks this past week.” — Mike Dunne
July 26, 1992: “The premier issue 24 pages and illustrated with black and white photographs goes a long way toward answering that question.” — Janet Fulwood

Rave: Sam suggests putting one of our design competition entries on the cover. It’s actually an idea we briefly considered because of the image’s extraordinary design.

Rant: As fascinating as the image is, we’re not an architecture magazine. To put it on the cover would have suggested that we are one. And while Sam wasn’t fond of our eventual choice, Sara Albert, we think that putting a nationally known young woman who is equal parts celebrity/model/scholar and who was born and raised in Davis is hardly a non-local choice. Oh, and not to be persnickety, but he misspelled Lionakis Beaumont, the name of the architecture firm that designed the image he suggested for the cover. But we can’t hold that against him. It’s not in Webster’s Fourth Edition. We checked.

Rave: Sam used lots of flattering adjectives to describe our first issue, like “dazzling,” “inspired” and “compelling.” We thought that was nice.
Rant: Sam writes: “Is it some type of city statute that all local magazines also must have Q&As with Chris Webber?” Really? How many exactly? With all due respect, but how many articles did the Bee run on Chris Webber (who was traded nearly two years ago) just last week. Let’s see. That would be three.

Rave: Sam has very high expectations of our new magazine. And he should. We do, too. Will we be perfect in Issue #1? No way. Issue #100? Nope. But we hope everyone will give us a chance. We’re a small crew, doing our best because we’re in love with this city.

Rant: Sam suggests that we “promised” more “weighty social and political stories.” Unfortunately, the implication is that we didn’t deliver on our “promise.” Actually, we told (we’re pretty sure the word “promise” wasn’t on the audio-tape) Sam there are many things we hope to do with the magazine over time, and those are certainly among them. But that’s the great thing about a periodical – they just keep on coming.

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