commentary
Rolling Into Q3 — No Time to Collect Moss
Whew . . . What a busy year it has been . . . Hope you all received and are finding the May LASN Specifier's Guide useful and informative. It always takes a few extra days to put that one together, and then a few extra weeks to get the team back on track to writing news and feature articles after all those lists and product profiles.
This year there were more than 493 ads and 524 profiles in the edition. When you add in LASN's little brother (Landscape Contractor /Design Build Maintain magazine), and factor in that each profile had 7-9 parts, and factor in the lists of suppliers and nurseries et al., the team dealt with some 25-30,000 individual little parts to get you a quality product. (I hope that's what you feel you received . . .) As a Landscape Architect, picture yourself spending one month of the year personally laying out the plans for 30,000 sprinkler heads. That's what our team of artists and journalist go through every May just for you. Now I'm not complaining . . . Instead, I'm really giving the team a public pat on the back . . . Oh yeah . . . Then we put all those profiles into the individual LandscapeOnline vendor profiles so you can now also find them in the product search as well . . . Did I say "Whew?" Speaking of LandscapeOnline, we also relaunched the newly designed and super-functional site in January. This year we expect close to a million visits, virtually all from professionals, and upwards of 1.5 million page views. (No wonder ad revenues and banner space are both beating expectations!) In the near future you'll also find new blogs and comment sections attached to the articles. To assist your search for companies, you'll also find their logos as well as being able to search for thousands (actually tens of thousands) of individual product shots to help with your next project. While there are other functions to the site, like the construction business section and the association section with hundreds of associations and thousands of events across the nation, (plus the e-store and Trade Show Division), the main function of Landscape Online is to help you with researching projects, news, laws and products. Virtually every article ever written for LASN and LC/DBM, plus thousand of other news items and features, and about 30,000 vendors, contractors, consultants are all found on the site. If you haven't seen the website, check it out. If you like what you see, great! If you don't . . . Please let us know what we can do better . . .
And if that wasn't enough, we launched a new regional trade show and conference for Landscape Architects, Land and City Planners, Park & Rec professionals and Landscape Designers. Better than 1,100 design professionals met for one day in one wing of the Long Beach Convention Center that featured more than 140 exhibitors filling some 299 booths. Yep . . . There's no moss under these feet.
So, even though as I am writing this the stock market has plummeted and given back all it had gained this year, and with an election coming up that most business owners are hoping will change the meaning of "Hope for Change" . . . (O.K., that was my first political comment in almost three years . . .) If we all just keep grinding ahead (not "Forward" . . . Oops, second comment . . . Sorry . . .) and keep building for growth . . . Growth will come! In the meantime though, I'm off to two weeks in the Aloha State . . . Not "Birthing" (Hey . . . It's an election year . . . I gotta let the tiger out once in a while), but definitely doing research into one of the best landscapes ever planned . . . Come join me . . . I'll be the one with the hiking boots, binoculars and a camera . . . Or the one on the lounge chair with a hat pulled over my eyes and a sign that says, "Yes. I'll have another!" =)
Aloha . . . and . . . God Bless!
George Schmok Publisher/Editor-in-Chief gschmok@landscapeonline.com
Stephen Kelly Editor
skelly@landscapeonline.com
Michelle Medaris Education
mmedaris@landscapeonline.com
Kyle Cavaness Economic News
kcavaness@landscapeonline.com
Larry Shield Product Editor
lshield@landscapeonline.com Amy Deane
Editorial Administrative Assistant adeane@landscapeonline.com
Associate Editors Ashley Calabria
Associate Editor/Digital Information University of Georgia calabria@uga.edu
Buck Abbey, ASLA Associate Editor Legislation Louisiana State University aainc@abbey-associates.com
J. Norman Stark, AIA, NCARB, RLA, ASA Associate Editor, Legal Matters normstark@aol.com
Janet Lennox Moyer, IALD Associate Editor/Lighting moyerj@rpi.edu
David Franklin, AEI-CASC Associate Editor/Erosion Control
David Linstrum Associate Editor at Large
(In Memoriam) Don Roberts, FASLA Kay Tiller
Frank Manwarren Lois E. Schmok
Production Manager Sheila Mattox
smattox@landscapeonline.com
Assistant Ad Coordinator Brad Schulz
bschulz@landscapeonline.com
Assistant Art Director Nicole Miller
nmiller@landscapeonline.com
Graphic Designer Matthew Medeiros
mmedeiros@landscapeonline.com Rene Hunter
rhunter@landscapeonline.com
Production / Fulfillment Manager Sheila Mattox
circulation@landscapeonline.com
Assistant Circulation / Fulfillment Manager Jacqui Argyle
jargyle@landscapeonline.com
Circulation / Fulfillment Grace Stewart
gstewart@landscapeonline.com IT Department
Web / Tech Manager Jerry Short
jshort@landscapeonline.com
Chief Operations Officer C.O.O. Mark O'Halloran
mohalloran@landscapeonline.com
Sales Administration Cynthia McCarthy
cmccarthy@landscapeonline.com Marcia Owyang
mowyang@landscapeonline.com Advertising/Marketing
,!3. X s
Advertising Sales Vince Chavira
vchavira@landscapeonline.com Matt Henderson
Mark 16:15 …"And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation . . ." George Schmok, Publisher
12 Landscape Architect and Specifier News
mhenderson@landscapeonline.com Kip Ongstad
kongstad@landscapeonline.com
Booth/Banner Sales Vladimir Kostich
vkostich@landscapeonline.com &AX;