Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

[Joe Walker]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

I was a way-bak subscriber to the CCG (1977 to 1990) and for reasons already stated I droped it. I have seen the Dog featured in the last several issues when a friend showed it to me. My initial response was positive in that it will improve the hobby via the mainstream rag, not lower the authentic progressive. In other words, this is a good thing.

Joe Walker

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

Let me jump in here, and clarify a few points. "The Watchdog" is not going anywhere. We will continue to research and write just the same as we have for the past fifteen years. We self-published a quarterly (4 issues per year) of about twenty pages with no advertising, other than advertising our own publications. 4 x 20 = 80 pages of Watchdog material per year. The Watchdog will be published by Camp Chase, without advertising (other than our own publications) at 8 pages per issue, ten per year. 8 x 10 = 80 pages of Watchdog material per year. Remaining Watchdog subscribers will get 10 CCG or Citizens Companion for each year of their subscription remaining. The other option is to donate the balance of your subscription to the battlefield preservation fund or request a refund. We maintain editorial control for the material published in the Watchdog pages and the content, research, citations and footnote requirements for that material will not change. The main difference lies in the time and expense(s) associated with publishing, which we instead chose to invest in our book projects such as "Wearing the Gray". After 15 years of deadlines, a declining subscription base and rising postage expenses, we are ready for a break from publishing. There is no more to it than that. Our goal is writing a magazine "For Us By Us" more so than publishing it, and also raising funds for battlefield preservation. Bill Christen and I have to weigh how best to achieve that. We think the book projects, which have been very well received, are deserving of more emphasis with the 150th cycle of events coming up. In other words, we will still write and edit but let someone else publish the magazine, so we can write, edit, advertise and publish the books.

Another factor (as alluded to above) is that while Camp Chase Gazette is not the publication most widely read by the C/P/H segment of our hobby, and one would not expect that it would be, it is absolutely the most widely read magazine with the greatest overall circulation in the hobby and by more than double the closest competitor. The Watchdog articles and book/pamphlet publications will reach a much larger audience who can more greatly benefit from the information. Can the content of Camp Chase Gazette be improved? Absolutely and that is where The Watchdog fits into the picture.

[ley74]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

Craig:

You and Bill are fine folks. In fact, the Watch Dog was the first publication that told me the 'dark side" existed. You must understand, however, that the recent unpleasantness regarding plagiarisms is serious in any publication, even one hobby-based.

Out of pure respect for you two, I will look forward to the remainder of the CCG subscription. Please keep up the quality. We can always read around the rest.

Best regards,

[coastaltrash]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

Pearls before swine.

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

The Watchdog in CCG could be "pearls before swine". Most of us were there at one time or another, until something clicked and made you want to know more and do better. The C/P/H segment remains our "base". However, who will be the C/P/H participants of the future? We are hopeful that a percentage of the CCG readers will be motivated by the improved content to move the authenticity needle a little bit in the right direction. The Watchdog, first published in 1993, was "progressive" before there was that or any other term for it. Extremely serious participants have always been a feature of the hobby. We want to grow the C/P/H segment of the hobby and the serious participants of tomorrow are reading CCG today. The important things have not changed, The Watchdog has and will continue to stand for and support two equally critical missions:

1. "Getting it Right" (B.I.R.D.) and
2. Civil War Battlefield Preservation.

We know some will disagree with the decision to outsource the publishing (if not the writing, content, etc) of The Watchdog, but it needs to be made clear that this change in our business model is not a change to our stated mission. Au contraire. Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose!

In another related development, Bill Christen and I have been added to the masthead of CCG as Watchdog editors, hence we have the opportunity to proofread and make corrections to upcoming editions of CCG before they are ever published. We can't catch all the mistakes, but more importantly what we can (and will) do is catch anything suspicious that may have been egregiously plagiarized from another source...For example, I think we would have caught the material that was so blatantly cribbed from Kevin O'Beirne out of The Columbia Rifles Research Compendium 2nd edition (a book we published). One hopes so anyway, since I sleep with a copy of it under my pillow. Conversely, another Watchdog publication, The Civil War Musket is said to be best read if you need help falling asleep. Between Bill C and myself, we at least familiarize ourselves with most of the nationally published CW periodicals and beginning point forward this will not be a problem of the same magnitude for CCG in the future. We will not tolerate it. Period.

Watchdog editor Bill Christen goes back to the early days of the Mudsills (anyone remember them?) when Camp Chase was their unofficial newsletter, about 8 pages long. We have seen what has happened in recent years, and we believe we can improve the CCG by including well researched material of the same caliber as what we previously published ourselves in The Watchdog. We still do the writing and editting. We also hope (someday) to return the infamous "Letters to the Editor" to their former glory.

[Eric Tipton]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

However, who will be the C/P/H participants of the future?

Craig:

Precisely. I think this is a wise move for you guys. I think that most are in agreement that the numbers in CW reenacting overall are dropping and one of my pet-peeves about "us" sometimes is the willingness to dismiss a market that could help the authentic wing grow. I have never understood the mentality that by reaching out to different people, a person is somehow "betraying" our wing of the hobby.

Most reenactors don't start out as c/p/h. They find out about it one way or another. Survival of CW reenacting and specifically, the EBUFU movement depends on whether we choose to market ourselves. We know very well that mainstream groups will not go out of their way to inform members of our "other" circuit. Why would they? They are in the same fight as us to attract people against thousands of other options for recreation. Whatever we can do collectively to get the word out - outside of our little circle is worth pursuing. Media, whether it is magazines, web sites, listservers, ads, photos, are the way to go. We can't make anyone do anything, but we CAN make them aware that there is another choice and that is the best we can do.

In a good market, people can go out on their own because money is plentiful. In a bad market, companies consolidate to survive. Good luck to you guys and congratulations on finding a vehicle that can keep your mission intact and continue to spread the word.

Do you mean the one that took place on the last weekend in September in Gettysburg this year? I don't know how much info you all have on it but if that is what you are talking about, I have some interesting first hand insight on this. That is, if someone wants me to share it?

I'm curious David. Do tell.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

Craig,

The record of Lakeway Publishing (owner of CCG, Citizens Companion, and The Civil War Courier) is well known and tragic for the reenacting community.

Remember how Lakeway treated Nicky and Susan Hughes, and why they are now at another periodical. Promises made, promises broken. If we are all supposedly armchair historians, let's learn from our hobby's own recent history.

Sayanorra, "Watchdog".

[Rick Keating]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

It's all about the money, babeeeee!

[TKlas]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

Good post Eric. I would agree to totally avoid the masses is not in the best interest of the c/p/h wing. Paul had a post a few years ago with some merit.

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1226

I am at odds with the Camp Chase hosting the Watchdog but I do understand some reasons why to work with those that are eager to improve in the mainstream community. I can see why preaching to the choir would be a reason for declining interest in the publication. I have enjoyed reading the Dog since 1993 but I do not know if the CCG is the best solution.

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

Okay, there are a couple points raised in the previous posts that are deserve an answer:

1) "It's all about the money"...Not so. The Watchdog remains a non-profit 501(c)3 domiciled in the state of Michigan. All funds after expenses go to battlefield preservation. Just like always. However, there are expenses to cover and any enterprise has to have some income to operate, books like Columbia Rifles Research Compendium 2nd Ed aren't free and don't publish themselves. We borrowed money to do it. That money has to be paid back. There's a car dealer around town that advertises "I'd give them away but my wife won't let me". Same thing here.

2) "Sayonarra, Watchdog"...that would have certainly been the outcome if we continued The Watchdog "as is" under the old self-published subscriber-based business model with no changes. There would be no more Watchdog. If there is no Watchdog, there would be no Wearing the Gray (late 2008), no second edition of For Fatigue Purposes or The Civil War Musket and so on. In what way is that scenario better for the hobby? Personally, I think it would be irresponsible to prop up publication of the magazine at the expense of battlefield preservation and the book projects.

3) "Look how Lakeway treated Susan and Nicky Hughes"... Correct, they were employees of Lakeway at the time. We are not employees. We do not answer to Lakeway, we answer to our board of directors, which last time I checked was Bill Christen and me. Likewise, we retain all copyrights to the content of our articles, and have final say on what gets into print in "The Watchdog" section. There are no advertisements in "our" pages other than our own publications. We do all our business on a handshake just as we have always done. In the future, if events prove we can not do business that way with Lakeway, we will strike the tents and go rest under the shade of the trees. CRRC 2nd ed editor John Tobey is right when he said "The power in creation lies with the creators, not the administrators, not the politicians, and not even the bankrollers." See the difference? We are calling the shots with full creative control on The Watchdog articles that appear in Camp Chase Gazette. Not the other way around.

4) "I'm at odds with Camp Chase Gazette"... Join the crowd. If we did not think our content and editing would improve that publication (as well as Citizens Companion) we would not have bothered. We would have already folded the tent and gone to rest under the shade of the trees.

Good discussion and thanks to all for your input. It makes me proud to see that to at least a few of us, even after fifteen years, The Watchdog is still something worth preserving, still inspires strong sentiments and is still worth talking about.

[Clsinclair]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

It's all about the money, babeeeee!

Yep, that's correct. Opps, see above post. When subscriptions decrease from about 1,200 to about 300 things have to change. The C/P/H folks just were not supporting the Watchdog as they have in the past. I am sure that if the Watchdog had not lost subscribers that they would still be in independent print. From what I understand the Watchdog had a choice. Either to cease publication or to find another vehicle to carry their publication. We all should be happy that they chose the latter.

Regards,
Claude Sinclair

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

Claude is right about that and the declining subscription numbers, actually I think it was around 400 last time I checked the subscriber list, but no matter. The grim reality is that the downward trend is undeniable. If I can wax philosophical here for a moment, there is something Darwinian about the whole thing. Most people think Darwin's theory was best summarized as "survival of the fittest"...actually it is survival of those most able to adapt to change. It does us no good to complain about the decline of the subscription base among the C/P/H community. We can adapt to a new business model or perish. If you subscribed or read The Watchdog before, you are not going to find any difference in the content. The same articles and product reviews we prepared for the quarterly are now going to be run monthly in CCG. One potential difference is that the Dog published a combination of Civilian and Military material culture articles, the civilian stuff will run in Citizens Companion.

And I am really confused by the recurring posts in this thread on the History Channel documentary filmed at Gettysburg and what that has to do The Watchdog magazine being published by Camp Chase Gazette? What did I miss?

[Charles Heath]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

Folks,

This History Channel portion of this thread has been moved to a new thread.

Here is the link to the new thread:

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/...ad.php?t=13437

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

Good move, thanks Charles. That should eliminate an element of confusion for the readers.

There are going to be some other significant adaptation-related changes with approved vendors as circumstances evolve and we deal with the realities of the hobby and our place within it.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Camp Chase Gazette and the Watchdog

The C/P/H folks just were not supporting the Watchdog as they have in the past.

And why do you suppose that is?

Seriously, it's probably worth an open discussion. I suspect it would be a lengthy one.