The first issue of Miller-McCune magazine is now winging its way across America to 100,000 lucky and smart people. The issue’s also up, in full, on the Miller-McCune.com site. An announcement I’ve been sending around, plugging the premiere, is after the jump. Please do take a look, as you have time.
The Miller-McCune.com Web site now includes the first print issue of Miller-McCune, a new national magazine that focuses on research-based solutions to major public policy problems without being nearly as dry as the preceding part of this sentence might suggest. The premiere issue will be mailed to 100,000 select readers in the next few days.
Here’s a quick rundown:
· Cover story: Princeton researcher and American Academy of Political and Social Science president Douglas Massey explains how NAFTA has made U.S. immigration problems worse, and why the EU’s model of economic integration, if followed here, would likely make unauthorized immigration “disappear as a significant demographic and political issue in North America.”
· Former Congressman Mickey Edwards, a conservative Republican who now lectures at Princeton and works at the Aspen Institute, argues against the Bush administration’s approach in fighting terrorism.
· Marty Lobel, a prominent Washington, D.C., tax attorney and media watchdog (for Nieman Reports), says that multibillion-dollar corporate tax loopholes won’t be plugged unless major media outlets begin training their journalists to deal with the intricacies of the IRS code.
· Three in-depth feature stories tell you a lot I hope you didn’t know about climate change, nonprofit journalism and New Orleans.
· Longtime Atlantic correspondent James Fallows interviews me as a way of introducing Miller-McCune.
I’ve copied some background on the magazine below. I’m hoping a serious national magazine start-up by a well-funded California nonprofit founded by an interesting female entrepreneur might be worth mentioning in this time of media gloom. But then, I would hope that; I’m the editor.
Please ask if you need anything I might provide.
And regardless of your response to this message, thanks, genuinely, for taking the time to read it.
John Mecklin
Editor in Chief
Miller-McCune
Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy
804 Anacapa Street
Santa Barbara, California 93101
805-899-8620 ex. 228
john.mecklin@miller-mccune.com
The Miller-McCune Concept
Miller-McCune magazine and miller-mccune.com are published by the Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy, a Santa Barbara-based public benefit foundation. Though different in journalistic approach, both publications aim to bring concrete options for solving major public problems to a general audience.
Miller McCune, a national print magazine that launches in April, will focus on significant policy researchers, practitioners and makers, explaining what they can offer in the way of practical options for dealing with pressing social problems, here in the U.S. and around the world. It will be a consumer magazine rather than a scholarly journal, striving for the sophisticated analysis and engaging detail characteristic of the finest narrative journalism.
The Center’s Web site, miller-mccune.com, is devoted to three general types of content: breaking news stories about significant social problems; research that may provide ways of dealing with such problems; and commentary on the potential costs, benefits and outcomes of policy proposals. As it grows, the site is expected to serve as an entry point for news of and commentary on the best solutions-oriented research across the country, and around the world.
Because of the magazines’ solutions orientation, stories will focus more on options for dealing with public policy problems than on revelations of the problems themselves. Extra points for supporting evidence (especially in the form of original research and quantitative analysis), sophisticated argument and information not already beaten to death in the popular press. Deductions for ideological rhetoric and partisan towel-snapping, because Miller-McCune and miller-mccune.com are not magazines of the left, the right, or the center. They are magazines for people who know we can do better, and want to know how.
The Miller-McCune Web site launched in December 2007; an expanded site is scheduled to go live in March. The print magazine will debut in April 2008 and start at 100,000 circulation, including policymakers and opinion leaders, of course, but also aiming at a more general readership.
The editors of Miller-McCune and miller-mccune.com are dedicated to making both magazines smart and deep; so is the president of the Miller-McCune Center, Sara Miller-McCune, founder of Sage Publishing, one of the world’s leading publishers of academic journals and books.
But make no mistake; these are lively and authoritative consumer magazines, not academic journals. So writers – researchers, practitioners and journalists alike – receive careful, thoughtful, collegial and stringent editing aimed at making sophisticated ideas and research accessible to an audience of intelligent and concerned non-experts.
For the print magazine, writers should email queries to John Mecklin, editor in chief, at: john.mecklin@miller-mccune.com. Feature and news stories will range from 1,000 to 5,000 words. The front and back sections of the magazine will also offer “departments,” including:
- Small Victories. A one-page feature that looks at one governmental/policy success story in detail, how it overcame bureaucratic and other impediments.
- Wonking Class Hero. A one-page feature that focuses on a policy researcher/practitioner/mandarin doing worthy but heretofore unpublicized work. Can also run in Q&A form.
- The Miller-McCune Research Essay. A lengthy essay on a current policy/research issue, discussing multiple policy books and/or journal articles, written by a noted scholar or journalist.
Miller-McCune’s Web site, www.miller-mccune.com, went live in December; it commissions a daily stream of Web-specific stories based on or playing off academic policy research, including:
- First Draft. Reporting on fresh research presented by the researchers themselves. These are not meant to be abstracts of journal articles but clear statements of what the research focuses on and how its results might influence policy. These pieces will generally run from 800 to 1,600 words, and include a link back to any work published elsewhere.
- First Person. An essay from a newsmaker addressing a social issue in a provocative manner. We anticipate these will generally be 750 to 1,000 words.
- First Response. Quick takes on a headline issue that looks at how existing or soon-to-completed research offers insights or answers on the subject. These pieces will run from 300 to 800 words, and will require extremely quick turnaround, sometimes that same day. Shorter or quicker pieces may be sought for blogs on our site.
Some Web stories are written by journalists, and some by academics. Web pitches should be sent to our online editor, Michael Todd, at michael.todd@miller-mccune.com.
The Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy is a nonprofit public benefit corporation founded on September 25, 2007 by Sara Miller McCune; one of the center’s major donors is SAGE Publications, a leading international publisher of academic books and journals. In addition to its magazine and Web site, the Center offers internship and fellowship programs that will guide developing journalists as they learn to draw on the social sciences as a source of policy solutions.
John Mecklin, writer/editor 