why we're seeing more xing yi
The special issues come about totally organically. I seldom ask freelancers to produce articles on a particular topic. This is because if a freelancer fails to deliver, I'm left holding the bag, so to speak. It's not like I can penalize them for not fulfilling their promise.
What really happens is that I'll look at the articles I have in our queue for possible publication and the theme just emerges. With this issue, most of the pieces were in place. I only requested one and that was the one from Jake Burroughs. Jake and I had discussed the possibility of doing a xingyi special before, so I knew I could tap him. I knew his expertise and I felt he was trustworthy to deliver by deadline.
I do believe that our organically-grown specials are a barometer of the state of the art in America. It's not hard stats, but the very phenomenon of me receiving more articles on the same subject is a symptom of some kind of trend. What's more, I get a second validation with issue sales. However, I don't get a sense of how well an issue does for months after it comes off the newsstand. That's just a weird inefficiency of the magazine industry. An issue doesn't close for a year. So we'll see how this issue does. I'm hopeful, but I'm always hopeful.