Six things you should know about VITAL

Dear readers,
Anyone who’s ever worked in the business of communication knows this to be true: Professional communicators are some of the most ineffective personal communicators. Anyone who’s ever owned a small business knows this to be true as well: By the time you do everything you have to do to get your “product” out there, it’s often the part about explaining what you’ve got that gets neglected. Here at VITAL, we sometimes forget to tell people about the cool things we’ve been working on, so absorbed are we in creating it. So this month I want to take a few minutes to tell you about some things of which you might not be aware, but might enjoy if you knew about them.

1. VITAL is much bigger than it looks. We have a pretty great new website and we publish new content almost every day. There are blogs by myself (Up All Night), Lucky Tomaszek (Oh, Mama!), Russ Bickerstaff (Between Stages), Matt Wild (Please Send Help), Mehrdad (The Prescient Persian) and a biting and often hilarious conservative-leaning perspective from acidic local comic Michael Gull (Messiah Simplex). We publish online-exclusive show, film, music and concert reviews all month, plus articles and interviews – including a recent chat with the Decemberists – and a much more comprehensive events calendar. You can comment on stories, download content via RSS or check out our numerous image galleries. You can print, send to a friend or contact anyone on our staff. Visit us soon at vitalsourcemag.com.

2. VITAL is very popular in the UK. We have a Myspace page, and in the last six months hundreds of people, publications, bands and (for whatever reason) modeling agencies from the UK have not only “friended” us, but have been very active on our page. Tracking our website traffic, we see that a surprising number of our online viewers hail from there as well. They send us letters and leave us comments. They think we’re ahead of our time, for whatever that’s worth. Check out our page at myspace.com/vitalsource.

3. VITAL loves you back. In February we launched VITAL’s eNews You Can Use. It goes out twice a month and keeps you up to date on everything new we’ve published to the website as well as upcoming VITAL events. And, to show our love, we give away stuff to our subscribers in every edition, from concert tickets to sexy VITAL t-shirts and sometimes even bigger gifts. All you have to do is write us back and tell us what you’re interested in – no catches. You can subscribe from our home page at vitalsourcemag.com and unsubscribe any time. Naturally, we’ll never spam you or sell your name. We also offer amazingly cost-effective advertising for local businesses, so you can be better communicators than us. Contact me personally to learn more about our “Love to the Independents” program.

4. VITAL is everywhere. Some people still think that because our offices are in Riverwest and we’re active in our neighborhood community that we are a Riverwest-centric magazine. Au contraire. With a circulation of 20,000 and over 600 metro distribution points, about 40 of those are in Riverwest. VITAL Source is available throughout Milwaukee, down to Franklin, up to Cedarburg and out to Waukesha. We aren’t in as many places as pubs with twice our circulation, but you can find us near you. Go to the About Us section of our website to learn where you can get VITAL in your own neighborhood. And if you can’t find something close, email us and suggest a location. We’re always adding stops.

5. VITAL staffers are no slouches. Former writers have moved on to or also currently write for the Bloomberg News Service, People Magazine, The Columbia Journalism Review, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, The Madison State Journal, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and others “too numerous to mention.” Many of our photographers are professionals who give us love at prices we can afford. Some have won awards for their work. We’re also civically active in organizations like Planned Parenthood, the Milwaukee Press Club (of which I am the current president) and many others where we donate our time, speak, teach and otherwise contribute to the greater good in our own ways.

6. VITAL supports local talent. This month is VITAL’s Photo Contest call for entries (see page 2), with winners featured in the June issue. June is also the call for entries for our Short Fiction and Poetry contest, with the winners published in the August issue. All entries will be professionally judged. So dust off your prints, manuscripts and journals and get your submissions ready. It’s closer than you think!

Of course there’s more, but this hits most of the high points. I hope you enjoy our Spring Fine Arts Season Preview – you should keep it for reference as you plan your entertainment for the coming year. In the meantime, please feel free to write with your suggestions and thoughts. We’ve come this far with our readers as the driving force behind our evolution and with your support we look forward to getting better all the time.

Peace,
Jon Anne