VegNews Anniversary: Photo & Interview w/ Publisher

It's always a thrill to open up the mail box and see the latest issue of "VegNews." It came in this morning... wow, the 10 year anniversary issue. Brings back some cool memories.

I first met Howard Lyman (I'm the Mad Cowboy's editor & webmaster) at the Animal Rights 2000 convention in Washington DC. During that visit he introduced me to Jeff Connelly and Colleen Holland who'd just published the first newsprint edition of what would lead to the magazine glossy award-winning "VegNews." Here's a picture of that wonderful moment (click to see larger version... not as crisp as I like, I was new to the camera and 2.1 Megapixels was near high-end in those days):

A few years later, Howard decided he wanted to periodically have "interviews" on his website and referenced edits of same in the Mad Cowboy Newsletter. I noted that I'd never done an interview and he said, in his characteristic way, "Just do it." Same for the Newsletter (an idea inspired for me by Robert Cohen's "NotMilk" column). The Newsletter now has around 4,700 subscribers. When the idea of a newspaper or periodical for the veg'n community came up with Joe, Howard gave the same advice: "Just do it."

Anyway, he asked me to do my first interview with Joe Connelly. Here's a link to the full online (and hypertexted) interview with Joe. He warned me that it was too long while we talked, and he was right... it took days to transcribe. I learned a lot, though, and enjoyed a fine conversation with a very dedicated and intriguing soul.

Here's some excerpts:

"MS: Let's say you had to pick five dinner guests from any period of time, and we'll exclude your grandfather as you've already had dinner with him, who would you pick?

JC: Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Sweitzer... (I'm not ranking them in order)... Gandhi would have to be there. Let me think.... Thomas Jefferson.

MS: Why?

JC: Based on the state of the world today, and I'm paraphrasing him, and how he said we should re-write the constituition every ten or twenty years and throw the government out.

I think we're in a very sad place right now in the world, especially with the politics of this country. I think somebody of Jefferson's brilliance and, ability to both reach to the people and his fellow lawmakers is really needed right now.."

----

"JC... There's always been national animal rights and vegetarian conventions, but, never had a viable local network really been built. That's the basis of why I started VegNews: it was designed to be a unifying piece for the vegetarian movement. Everybody produces their own newsletter, for instance, and we're lucky if 300 people in each town see that newsletter. It's usually a quarterly or semi-annually produced newsletter.

MS: And then there's also production values that are relatively minimal.

JC: Exactly. And another reason that VegNews was exactly what you just mentioned in your original question, is that Gandhi said 'without a paper, you cannot be a united community.' Direct quote from Gandhi, who should know about community, and we printed that quote in our very first edition."

Happy Anniversary VegNews! An ongoing inspiration to the entire veg'n community. We're lucky to have you! And major kudos to Joe and Colleen... your dedication and tenacity made it happen. Many thanks, and the work you've sustained is getting the credit it deserves. Here's to another 10 years!

Comments

[Moondancer]

I still haven't watched the movie, I've seen clips of it but I really need to sit down and watch the entire thing. I've popped by his website since it's been online, it's very informative.

I used to subscribe to VegNews but let my subscription lapse a few years ago.