Volume 3, No. 2. January 24, 2002
Eric's Turn
Going Deutsch
We
are pleased to announce another “connection” in our coverage of the
amusement industry.
I have reached an agreement with Petra Probst, editor-in-chief of Freizeit
Professional (Leisure Professional), a monthly trade magazine based in Germany,
to contribute a regular column covering the North American amusement scene.
Called “Voice of America,” the column will begin running in the March
issue. My work for Leisure Professional, which also will include an occasional
feature article, is in addition to my regular contributions to Amusement
Today and part of the freelance writing arm of Minton Enterprises, LLC.
It’s an honor to be a part of Petra’s team. She has a long, respected
history among European amusement parks and suppliers. Just a year since its
debut issue, Leisure Professional already has established a reputation
for thorough and entertaining coverage of the industry, and though it’s
coverage runs the gamut of leisure facilities, Leisure Professional in
the fall was named the official publication of the European Waterpark Association.
To Petra, danke schön for the opportunity.
For more information on the magazine visit www.FLProfessional.de.
Numbers crunched
In the tradition
of magazines who publish their circulation figures, this is the 2002 "circulation
report" for THE LOOP.
THE LOOP is a biweekly newsletter posted on the Internet at www.gettheloop.com.
It is a free site and available to anyone with access to the World Wide Web.
Additionally, upon a newsletter's posting, we e-mail notifications containing
a direct link to that issue of the newsletter. Consequently, we have two distinct
forms of circulation: the number of visits to our site, as reported by our domain
host, LexiConn (www.lexiconn.com),
and our e-mail notification database.
For 2002, our second year of operation, www.gettheloop.com had a total of 94,778
visits, an increase of 62 percent over the total visits of 2001. We broke these
down according to visits-per-LOOP issue, calculating the total number of visits
from the day a newsletter was posted and the notifications e-mailed to the day
before the posting of the following issue. Our average visitation for the year
was 4,308 per issue of THE LOOP, a 77 percent increase over the 2001 average.
The average number of visits rose to 5,446 in the fourth quarter of the year.
Our lowest 2002 draw was 2,714 with the March 8 issue. We reached a high of
7,122 visits with our last issue of 2002, December 13, our most-visited issue
ever.
Our database currently contains 8,430 e-mail addresses to which we send linked notifications. We built this database from industry association directories, Minton Enterprises' sources and new subscriptions. About 1,200 e-mail notifications "bounce back" undelivered for a variety of reasons, ranging from full mailboxes to discarded addresses and disconnected hosts. We continuously work to decrease the number of bouncebacks by culling and, in some cases correcting, the invalid addresses. Currently, 7,200 notifications are reaching their targeted recipients, though we suspect a percentage of these are not getting through for various technical reasons. We also know from anecdotal reports that many readers who are not in our database are having THE LOOP link forwarded to them by other recipients.
If
you currently are not receiving THE LOOP notifications directly, if you are
forwarding THE LOOP on to someone, or if you know of someone who might enjoy
or benefit from reading THE LOOP, please click here
to add the e-mail address to our database.
It is the policy of Minton Enterprises and THE LOOP to keep our database secure.
We have taken measures to withstand viruses and worms, and we will not lend
or sell the database to any entity.
THE LOOP's mission statement: To keep the amusement and attractions business
connected by presenting information and personalities that encourage and enable
the industry's growth and influence.
To share your news, e-mail Eric Minton (eric@gettheloop.com) or call, toll-free, 888-902-LOOP (outside North America call 520-514-2254).
To advertise in THE LOOP, e-mail Lynne Mosman (lynne@gettheloop.com), or call her toll-free at 866-902-LOOP (outside North America dial 1-937-296-9796).
Well
wishes
Congratulations to good friend and semi-colleague Ron Gustafson,
the director of public relations and educational programs at Quassy Amusement
Park in Middlebury, Connecticut. Between his current position at Quassy and
a similar job at Midway Park in Maple Springs, New York, Ron was managing editor
of the Sanford Herald newspaper in Sanford, North Carolina. Thursday
Ron was given the 2002 North Carolina Press Association award for business writing.
Fittingly, his award-winning story was a profile of the amusement park industry.
Best wishes to Dave Bruschi as he retires from the World Waterpark Association, an organization he co-founded with the late Al Turner. Dave's was always a warm and welcoming presence that burned at the heart of the WWA trade shows, and we're sure he will carry that special glow to whatever he undertakes in the future.
Both of these stories are in Extra! Extra!
©2002, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved