Two-Lane Bloggin'

 (This blog entry is in participation with a blog meme entitled “Creative Communities Under Construction.” A listing of responses from West Virginia bloggers will be compiled at www.createwv.typepad.com and www.abetterwestvirginia.com, in addition to being featured at the 2008 Create WV Conference.)

 

PROMPT:

Arts and Culture – Who is breaking new ground in your area? Who is championing creativity at home, work or in the schools?

 

To begin, I admit I needed to edit the prompt, deleting referrals to “cutting edge” and “innovation” to fit with Two-Lane Livin’ magazine.  I realize, in all actuality, that a print publication isn’t cutting edge.  The concept of a free magazine for a region isn’t innovative.

 

Actually, I fear Two-Lane Livin’ isn’t a creation for the new economy.  Central West Virginia just isn’t there – yet.

 

But still, in Central West Virginia, where only 50% of the magazine’s readers have Internet access in their home, we ARE breaking ground. We ARE championing creativity. We ARE reaching Central West Virginia — and we are becoming a reflection of the Central West Virginia culture.

 

As the region adapts to the new economy, we’ll have to be prepared, and we’ll have to adapt as well. Two-Lane Livin’ is a blend – of the new economy and the old.

 

When I discovered our columnists and we launched our magazine, I had to teach three of them how to use e-mail. Two don’t own computers or even typewriters. Their columns come hand-written, by snail mail. On the other hand, others ftp their pieces directly to my server. Most come as email attachments or pasted into the body of an email.

 

Now with 21 regular columnists, we print 15,000 copies a month and publish most contents on our web site, which after a year is just now reaching 1,000 monthly visitors. Which is more popular in Central West Virginia? The print edition. Which is the preferred outlet for advertisers? The print edition — so few of them even have web sites.

 

Still, we have a facebook site, and we twitter, although we can’t find many Central West Virginians in these online outlets. But, as our readers discover the Internet and social media, they’ll find us. We’ll be there waiting for them.

 

I sometimes fear Two-Lane Livin’ isn’t innovative enough. We’re not cutting edge enough. We’re certainly not a social media. We’re somewhere in between “stuck in the past” and “resisting future change” – just like Central West Virginia. Is there room in the Creative Economy for those who are on their way? For those who just aren’t ready to go there quite yet? Two-Lane Livin’, in so many ways, is a reflection of our local culture, and I worry we are not yet worthy members of this new creative community.

 

And yet, I consider our columnists – all creative people – 50% of them “not from here”, people who immerse themselves in their craft, in their field, in things they love. People who aren’t polished writers, people without portfolios, normal folks who ask me, “What’s a twitter?”

 

I think of our readership, more than 35,000 strong on average, who can’t wait for the next print issue so they can read it, then mail it to their cousin, or son, or parents out-of-state. I think of families who circulate it from farm to farm, holler to holler, of those who read it in the outhouse, or on the back porch swing, those who use it as mulch in their garden when they’re done reading.

 

I think of the hand-written notes we get in the mail (more than double the amount of e-mail comments received), often in the shaky penmanship of an aged hand.  We have 50 print subscribers who pay good money for copies to be mailed to them, but only 27 facebook members who want notified when they can read it online for free.

 

I think of the Creative Writing high school class that will be adopting a new column for Two-Lane Livin’ together. Kids who have seen their names and pictures online a million times, but have never seen their name in print.

 

It’s the dichotomy of West Virginia – the new and the old, the future and the past. The question remains for all classes and communities: how to blend the two?

 

It would be easier to jump right to the creative economy – to publish online and twitter and blog. It would be easier, I think sometimes, to be “cutting edge” and “innovative”. It would certainly be cheaper.  But Two-Lane Livin’ has to meet the needs of our readers and our clients, in our small region of this world’s economy. We have to be a blend – an ‘out-dated’ medium, leading our readers into the technology of the day, if they are willing to follow.

 

For the most part, I don’t think our print audience will follow us to the ‘Net. I think for years to come, we’ll have our print audience, the regional masses – and a separate audience that slowly grows, the creative community audience who prefer to tweet and post and discuss.

 

With the majority of our region on dial up – how could we serve them with social media? If it took eight minutes for facebook to load for you, would you send Growing Gifts every day? No. These readers, our readers, take real flowers to their friends and neighbors, and they read their incoming information in print.

 

So we print for the masses, and we tweet and post for the minority. We exchange email and listen patiently to elderly readers who call just to share memories brought to the surface by an article in the last issue. We send our columnists email newsletters, and write hand-written responses to fan mail.

 

Perhaps we aren’t yet part of this creative community, but I have no doubt that we are a new, ground-breaking member of the Central West Virginia culture, championing creativity in our writers and readers, challenging them to join us in the “new media world.”

 

As much as I wish to be innovative and cutting edge, I realize that’s not the world I live in here in the hollow. And it’s not the world our readers live in either. But we’ll all get there someday, our readers, our community and our magazine – together.