Feeding the beast

There is no contradiction for trade and association magazines providing sound and useful journalism, and they often do, though it can be little known outside of their constituency. Here's a case in point from a little 2,000-circulation quarterly magazine called Wavelength, published by Andrew John Publishing of Dundas. Wavelength is the official publication of APCO Canada, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials. And in the current issue (which can be downloaded as a pdf from the website) is a short, well-written and useful article that ought to be read by journalists as well as emergency workers. It details the challenges of how to handle media relations in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy -- in this case, the crash of a 747 at Halifax International Airport in October, 2004. John Stanton, a consultant, details in a very evenhanded way what happened and when and gives a list of tips for emergency measures officials on what he refers to as "feeding the beast".

Andrew John Publishing also publishes a number of other trade and association titles, including Emergency Management (official publication of the Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness), Family Camping, CASLPO Today (official publication of the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario), Canadian Search and Rescue Magazine and a directory called Canadian Hearing Products.