The leak of the Café Corner hit us offguard for about five minutes - while I didn't expect this to happen, I am not surprised.
The Millennium Falcon was leaked a few days before it was presented. This can only mean the following:
1. The community REALLY wants to know this stuff.
2. The LEGO Group really needs to make their site a little more secure.
While I am all for being in the know (it's kinda my job), I do understand and respect the notion of secrecy. There's a lot that I do know and don't know.
But I don't mind a surprise every so often, myself:-)
Saturday, March 10, 2007
German minissue of BrickJournal?
Well, yes, by request. It has a couple of ths main stories.
It's really neat seeing the cover in German.
It's really neat seeing the cover in German.
Now I get to talk about what just happened!
It has been really quiet here because I was working on the Journal and some smaller things - but it has all added up to a ridiculously large pile of stuff to do. Now's a good time to explain what is up.
The cover articles for BrickJournal 7 have been on the radar since October, and the date for publication was set for mid March. This sounded fine then, and even in December, as Issue 6 was slated to be done.
Well, the production to Issue 6 went behind schedule considerably, mainly because I was trying to make things more efficient. Really. I started using a collaborative website to have the proofers read articles before layout -- which sounds great on paper, but failed. What happened was that one of the two proofers never got notification of incoming files, which hasn't been figured out.
When that happened I got the articles proofed the old-fashioned way - and got more stories. The End of Year Issue needed event reports, and they came in. A LOT came in. This is good, but it started to strain the resources of the magazine.
By a funny coincidence, this about the time that the European Bureau was started. Thanks to Jan Beyer's request, in December and January, the staff of writers doubled. I also got a person in Europe that can keep track of what's going there and can contact Jan quickly on things (hi Mel!) - that has proven to be a Very Good Move. This was around December, and Issue 6 was still being set up.
And I was busy on trips(!) doing reporting duties...so it was getting stressful.
January, things got really tripped up. Issue 6 was progressing, but I got a call from Jan to move up BrickJournal 7 to the beginning of March! I was planning mid March, so two weeks was a definite problem.
Now the reasons for this are obvious now - the two products were launching. Back then, though, it was not as clear, as delivery dates weren't clear...and the Café Corner was going to be in catalogs not delivered!!
During this time, though, there were some positive things that happened. Issue 6 was finally released in February, and in January, the plan for Issue 7 was worked on and taken care of by me and Mel on teh European side - she was able to get articles for Issue 7 inside of two weeks! And I sent things to proof almost immediately so things would be ready for layout as soon as possible. With two new layout artists, my load would drop, which was reallyhelpful.
So I had to make some command decisions - I had to force Issue 6 out (yes, force is the right word - it was so big that it sorta sat there and I wasn't going as fast as I am used to), and after some prodding, it went out...in February. So now I had about a month to get things done....not the best situation to be in.
Things got more complicated, though, when the Hobby Train was placed on an information embargo - nothing could be released on it until, it appeared, after the release of Issue 7 - I was looking at the possibility of not having it in the issue, and that would be a major loss.
So some discussions were done, and with a little effort, the dates got coordinated. So it was off to the races!
Layouts were done with assistance of Bill Jacob and Didier Enjary, who gave a different look to heir pages - which is a good thing! My design skills are set toward speed, but not necessarily a really nice design. Having more layout designers will help me out and the mag out as we start learning from each other. And we have another layout person coming onboard - actually two! So the look of BrickJournal will hopefully get sharper in the next couple of issues.
And somehow, the mag was finished one day early. Really. Thanks to the help of the writers, photographers, and senior staff, this issue was done in record time. I'm impressed. And pretty proud.
The really great thing is that BrickJournal will be doing more articles with the LEGO Group of this type. It's really a testament to all of those who have worked on BrickJournal to see TLG work with us on such a high level of confidence. It's something to be proud of and staff should be!
Next issue is in June...so I can rest:-)
And post more here!
The cover articles for BrickJournal 7 have been on the radar since October, and the date for publication was set for mid March. This sounded fine then, and even in December, as Issue 6 was slated to be done.
Well, the production to Issue 6 went behind schedule considerably, mainly because I was trying to make things more efficient. Really. I started using a collaborative website to have the proofers read articles before layout -- which sounds great on paper, but failed. What happened was that one of the two proofers never got notification of incoming files, which hasn't been figured out.
When that happened I got the articles proofed the old-fashioned way - and got more stories. The End of Year Issue needed event reports, and they came in. A LOT came in. This is good, but it started to strain the resources of the magazine.
By a funny coincidence, this about the time that the European Bureau was started. Thanks to Jan Beyer's request, in December and January, the staff of writers doubled. I also got a person in Europe that can keep track of what's going there and can contact Jan quickly on things (hi Mel!) - that has proven to be a Very Good Move. This was around December, and Issue 6 was still being set up.
And I was busy on trips(!) doing reporting duties...so it was getting stressful.
January, things got really tripped up. Issue 6 was progressing, but I got a call from Jan to move up BrickJournal 7 to the beginning of March! I was planning mid March, so two weeks was a definite problem.
Now the reasons for this are obvious now - the two products were launching. Back then, though, it was not as clear, as delivery dates weren't clear...and the Café Corner was going to be in catalogs not delivered!!
During this time, though, there were some positive things that happened. Issue 6 was finally released in February, and in January, the plan for Issue 7 was worked on and taken care of by me and Mel on teh European side - she was able to get articles for Issue 7 inside of two weeks! And I sent things to proof almost immediately so things would be ready for layout as soon as possible. With two new layout artists, my load would drop, which was reallyhelpful.
So I had to make some command decisions - I had to force Issue 6 out (yes, force is the right word - it was so big that it sorta sat there and I wasn't going as fast as I am used to), and after some prodding, it went out...in February. So now I had about a month to get things done....not the best situation to be in.
Things got more complicated, though, when the Hobby Train was placed on an information embargo - nothing could be released on it until, it appeared, after the release of Issue 7 - I was looking at the possibility of not having it in the issue, and that would be a major loss.
So some discussions were done, and with a little effort, the dates got coordinated. So it was off to the races!
Layouts were done with assistance of Bill Jacob and Didier Enjary, who gave a different look to heir pages - which is a good thing! My design skills are set toward speed, but not necessarily a really nice design. Having more layout designers will help me out and the mag out as we start learning from each other. And we have another layout person coming onboard - actually two! So the look of BrickJournal will hopefully get sharper in the next couple of issues.
And somehow, the mag was finished one day early. Really. Thanks to the help of the writers, photographers, and senior staff, this issue was done in record time. I'm impressed. And pretty proud.
The really great thing is that BrickJournal will be doing more articles with the LEGO Group of this type. It's really a testament to all of those who have worked on BrickJournal to see TLG work with us on such a high level of confidence. It's something to be proud of and staff should be!
Next issue is in June...so I can rest:-)
And post more here!
Issue 7 is out!!
Friday, March 2, 2007
Congratulations...
to the new and returning LEGO Ambassadors!
It's really nice to see that LEGO opens itself to the community for feedback and advice. Not many companies do that, and for this program to have been extended to its present form (from 6 month cycles to one year cycles) is a nice indication of the commitment the LEGO Group has to its community.
It's really nice to see that LEGO opens itself to the community for feedback and advice. Not many companies do that, and for this program to have been extended to its present form (from 6 month cycles to one year cycles) is a nice indication of the commitment the LEGO Group has to its community.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Wow.
If you are interested in the business side of the LEGO Group, you need to go here.
Nice interview and the site is pretty slick - I would want the BrickJournal website to be like that:-)
BrickJournal 7 appears to be a smaller issue so far. Everytime I have said that, though, the issue grows beyond my expectations.
And the new layout people are teaching me a few new things:-)
I got to be at a train show last weekend at DC - and it was fun except for the snow. I provided my stable of buildings and there were sem things worth note - and I took pics, but haven't uploaded them.
The onlything that got me was that it seemed long...and I think it was a because I didn't demonstarte anything. I watched and took pictures and talked with the gang that was there, which was pretty fun - WAMALTC is a pretty cool group.
More later!
Nice interview and the site is pretty slick - I would want the BrickJournal website to be like that:-)
BrickJournal 7 appears to be a smaller issue so far. Everytime I have said that, though, the issue grows beyond my expectations.
And the new layout people are teaching me a few new things:-)
I got to be at a train show last weekend at DC - and it was fun except for the snow. I provided my stable of buildings and there were sem things worth note - and I took pics, but haven't uploaded them.
The onlything that got me was that it seemed long...and I think it was a because I didn't demonstarte anything. I watched and took pictures and talked with the gang that was there, which was pretty fun - WAMALTC is a pretty cool group.
More later!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Kinda quiet here...
I am working on Issue 7 of BrickJournal and really busy right now...having two back-to back issues is a little tough:-)
But not impossible. There will be some nice articles in the issue that I am looking very forward to sending out. For the amount of rushing that was done, this is going to be a pretty good issue - and that will be because of the people helping out.
This is the first issue with a layout staff and a fully active European Bureau. Thatnks to them, themagazine will be able to work a bit faster andalso bring in new things that I haven't seen - which is VERY exciting!
I'll be back in a bit to talk more,but for now, it's off to work!
But not impossible. There will be some nice articles in the issue that I am looking very forward to sending out. For the amount of rushing that was done, this is going to be a pretty good issue - and that will be because of the people helping out.
This is the first issue with a layout staff and a fully active European Bureau. Thatnks to them, themagazine will be able to work a bit faster andalso bring in new things that I haven't seen - which is VERY exciting!
I'll be back in a bit to talk more,but for now, it's off to work!
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