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I've wondered very much whether there would be interest in this...I've given it a lot of thought, as I have the resources and ability to publish such a journal. Do you think there is serious interest in such a venture?

-- Dr. Todd, Publisher, The Whitefish Press

I'd actually considered doing it without advertising, as a quarterly journal styled after academic journals (the main difference being as many images as possible). Would try to turn out 96-120 page issues, trade size (6" x 9"), perfect bound. A lot like the journals done for marathoners (my best friend is an ultra marathon runner and there are at least three journals of this type). If there would be advertising it would be unobtrusive (likely relegated to a section at the back of the issue so as not to offset flow of articles). Focus would be on a) fishing bamboo; b) bamboo rod building; c) bamboo rod history; d) reviews of literature, rods, etc.

I've considered this for some time and been seriously approached about it twice in the past, both times I said no. Now that I control all the means of production it might be a different story...

-- Dr. Todd

I don't think it is a problem offering different things in a journal than the internet offers. I love the internet--got my start as a graduate assistant at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA, where the web browser you're using was developed) and founded my own successful educational technologies consulting firm. Even wrote my first book on it. So I know a lot about the internet, including its drawbacks. While it is tremendous for sites like this, with its nearly instantaneous feedback, the difference is you really can't count on it for truly original, truly detailed, truly groundbreaking research and writing. Part of it is due to the fact it doesn't pay the bills, but much of it is because of the ephemeral nature of the web. Although Clark's has a great archive, pictures get deleted, accounts go dormant, servers are moved, all of which imperils the data on the internet in a very real sense every day. The best writers and researchers simply want to be assured their work will survive in a tangible form. For example, ORCA is going through a nightmare scenario where all of the archived photos they hosted on Reel Talk were deleted when their host moved servers, meaning hundreds of very valuable posts from the past seven years now do not have images. There's a reason why someone such as Steve Vernon, who has spent 20 years researching fishing reel history, is writing a book and not just putting it up on his web site. My friend Harvey Garrison had the single most comprehensive Shakespeare web site in the internet's history; he passed away suddenly and his domain was deleted, the information no longer available (even through The Wayback Machine). I was fortunate to know Harvey's daughter so I was able to resurrect much of the information. Fly Angler's On-Line went through a similar event as ORCA recently, making thousands of old threads either unreadable or unwieldy. Such a format as the internet has a great upside, but preserving information is not one of them.

I wouldn't consider publishing ANYTHING if I felt it was better suited for a multi-media format. So far, that's not been the case. Were I to undertake such a project as a bamboo rod journal it would be in the interests of soliciting new and detailed writings on the subject, giving access to rare and unavailable materials, and preserving information in a time-honored format. You can't curl up with a laptop in bed (I've tried). Some research suggests that print format is making a comeback for a generation whose eyes are bored out looking at LCD screens all day long.

The bottom line is that the fact that there isn't a mass market for a project like this doesn't concern me in the slightest, nor does the thought of a shifting publishing market (my company is a product of that very shift away from huge monolithic publishing houses). The main concern is time, as I assume such a project would be an extraordinarily time consuming effort to do correctly. I simply would not do it alone, even it were possible (it's not).

-- Dr. Todd