20th Century Guitar Magazine, bad blood?

[Possum]

I was going to run an ad in 20th Century Guitar magazine, got a price from them etc. then asked them what their circulation is compared to Vintage Guitar Magazine. They suddenly stopped answering any emails despite multiple attempts. Does anyone know if these guys have some kind of attitude about VG Magazine or something? Apparently now they don't want my money or my ad in their magazine because I advertise in VG. Maybe I'm paranoid, but this is pretty weird; I tried all their email contact addresses and nada. I do remember Gerlad Weber bailing from VG after a dispute with them and is now with 20th C. Weirdnes.....

[Stan H]

Thats just bad business any way you look at it!

[Sweetfinger]

When you are trying persistently to give someone money, and they won't take it, that's a bit odd. Its a good looking magazine, though, if the freebie issue I picked up at the NAMM show is any indication.

BTW Possum, those ol' Gibson buckers you did for me sound good, it just took me a while to put them in a guitar and give them a listen. Now all I have to do is restore the '69 SG they'll be going in.:eek:

[Mandopicker]

My company has several ads in Vintage Guitar Magazine, 20th Century Guitar, Guitar Player Magazine, Premier Guitar, Bluegrass Unlimited, Music Trades, MMR, Fretboard Journal and a few others. (I am the marketing director and artist relations manager for a large musical instrument manufacturer.)

I have never found it a problem to advertise in competing magazines. In fact, I often get telephone calls from magazines soliciting ad space as a result of seeing our involvement in another.

After doing business with magazines for many years, I can say that I have had the opportunity to get to know the folks very well and I do not believe that they harbor such feelings or would treat a potential client in that way on purpose.

Perhaps there is some other reason for the lack of a return e-mail?

I'd suggest that you CALL your ad sales rep on the telephone in an effort to get this situation worked out. I am quite sure that a simple discussion would get the results you are looking for.

Good luck.

[Spence]

Face it Dave, they got wind of the fact that you've been pulled in by the Fashion Police a couple of times.

[Mandopicker]

:DMore than a few times.

[Possum]

Well they are back East and they go home before I even get up, makes it difficult to exist in a "day" world sometimes, but it is really strange they would suddenly stop corresponding after I said the VG word. I do no know that Gerald Weber had a big falling out with the VG guys and bailed to take his column to 20th Century Guitar. If a publication is under the direction of one person its very easy for these kinds of grudges to exist. I'll try another contact email and see if I get any response. I emailed Gerald Weber to ask what the fluck is going on.....gotta go update my wardrobe...

[Possum]

thanks, was wondering if they worked out or not, glad they are back in action....

[Mark Hammer]

These days, it is extremely easy for things to just fall off the e-mail radar and get forgotten about. Person gets a cold for 2 days and BOOM the e-mail you sent them is three screens down in the stack. Happens to me all the time.

[Possum]

true but this is a commercial magazine they answered my first email immediately as any ad sales dept should. Maybe there are out doing shows who knows, I'll give it one last try. VG answers all emails immediately, personally I think they are a much better deal and have a bigger circulation plus they are on alot of newstands and 20th C isn't.

[David Schwab]

They should have their circulation listed in the magazine. I think they have to that, if not all the time, quarterly or something similar. You might find it out on their wesite also.

[madialex]

In a biz like that where advertising is their sole source of income, I would think they should be all over your requests. Makes no sense to me:confused:

[Possum]

go to their website, tell them you are advertising in Vintage Guitar Magazine and want to expand your coverage by going in their magazine, I doubt you will get a response, I've now tried every single web form and all their email addresses. Their rate sheet has ONE guy's contact info on it and he probably owns the magazine, so you're dealing with one guy who hates Vintage Guitar Magazine obviously and doesn't want any of their customers in his shit hole magazine. I've been trying for about 3 weeks now, very politely I might add, they can kiss my ass, I'll just run bigger ads in VG if thats how they deal with customers :-)

[Possum]

I got this from Weber, not sure I believe it, how can their email be down, their website forms not working, its a bit much to believe:

Dear Dave,
I can assure you this is some kind of anomaly and is NOT what it appears to be. The guys at 20th Century Guitar are the greatest guys in the world. Their circulation is about 18,000 or so. VG has a circulation of 25,000 (so says Alan Greenwood).

The salesman at "20th Century Guitar magazine", Ray, is one of the hottest Jazz Players around NYC and the nicest person on earth and Larry Acunto, the owner and editor plays bass in the hottest Prog Rock Band on Long Island ( ELP, YES, etc.) and is the other nicest person on earth. These guys rock!
There must have been something askew with their email or some other explanation because they certainly have it together and are much more knowledgeable and much better to deal with than the guys at VG ( who can't play "chopsticks" without mispicking).
I suggest you give them a call at their toll-free number1-800-291-9687, and let them know you are a friend of mine.

[Dave Kerr]

I realize that this was a private correspondence, but as a customer I'm always a bit leery of dealing with anyone who badmouths competition, in any line of business.

[Mark Hammer]

It's a little opinionated, to be sure, but what is clear is that there may be an entirely banal and bonehead reason/explanation for the concern that initially prompted this thread.

You bring your kid to work because the school has a day off and no one is available to take care of them. You plunk them at your computer to occupy them because you have a meeting to go to. And bingo, they do something that takes you 3 days to fix and loses all your e-mail for that period, including people who may have only ever mailed you during that period so you can't even write them back and say "Sorry, I may have lost any mail you sent yesterday".

Two computers ago, I had some bizarre incident with my machine at home where something about the CD-drive resulted in the destruction of not only the CD drive, but the motherboard, CPU, and deluxe videocard too. By some bizarre miracle, the only thing that survived was the hard-drive. I still haven't found a tech who can figure out what the hell happened.

In any event, the point is, s**t happens, and Mr. Weber seems to accept that.

[Mandopicker]

I agree completely with Mr. Weber's comments. As I suggested in my previous post, my expereience with 20th Centruy Guitar has been nothing but professional.

Just get in touch with Ray and he'll get things straightened out.

Besides...he turned me on to this video series of our heroes Jammin'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BrLEuzVCVQ

(Or go to You tube and type in "Santana Shreds")

As with this situation, there is hope for us all! (Watch the video and you will understand what I mean.)

Again, good luck.

[Possum]

I heard from Weber again today, they have the wrong guy listed as contact for ad sales, he only does CD advertising and he didn't forward my emails to the right guy, organization is a little screwy there. Anyway looks like I finally got through to them. end of thread....

[Possum]

Just wanted to clarify the resolution to this thread here in case anyone stumbles on this one in the archives. 20th Century Magazine and I finally connected and I am running ads in their magazine and all is well. Anyone who caters to the vintage tone crowd and has a product to sell for that market, surely must advertise in this magazine to reach a great market with money to spend. There are very few ways to reach the connoisseurs (OK, I can't spell, shut up...) who will spend good money on good tone, and 20th Century Magazine is a MUST if you want to sell to a more knowledgeable customer base, plus these are great guys to deal with :-) Dig out 'yer wallets and get yer ads ready.....

[David Schwab]

to reach the connoisseurs (OK, I can't spell, shut up...)

That's spelled correctly... and you have no excuse. There's built in spell checking on Macs, in Safari just go to Edit -> Spelling -> Check Spelling As You Type. :D

I'd be lost without that!

Glad you got that ad in the magazine.

Does anyone know how you submit gear to be reviewed at magazines like Guitar Player and Bass Player? They don't list any info on that.

[kevinT]

That's spelled correctly... and you have no excuse. There's built in spell checking on Macs, in Safari just go to Edit -> Spelling -> Check Spelling As You Type. :D.

I'm terrible with typos... I don't want to download iSpell for Explorer because i got too much crap on my machine now. I should just put a disclaimer in my signature blaming it on my clumsy worn out winding hands.


Does anyone know how you submit gear to be reviewed at magazines like Guitar Player and Bass Player? They don't list any info on that.

You probalbly have to talk with someone in the magazine's advertising department. Either they or someone specifically assigned to handle product reviews is generally listed in the first few pages of mag where they list the circulation, name of editor, etc.... There was a guy by the name of Jeff at Guitar World that helped me get one of my products in the New Product Spotlight section...A lot of it, I think, has to do with whether they have some space they have to fill and whether you have bought advertising space with them.

I bought a classified ad and ran it for a few months and i think that helped my cause.

[David Schwab]

I'm terrible with typos... I don't want to download iSpell for Explorer because i got too much crap on my machine now. I should just put a disclaimer in my signature blaming it on my clumsy worn out winding hands.

Windows doesn't have spell checking built in? :rolleyes: On a Mac it works on any application you can type in.

[mkat]

The salesman at "20th Century Guitar magazine", Ray, is one of the hottest Jazz Players around NYC and the nicest person on earth and Larry Acunto, the owner and editor plays bass in the hottest Prog Rock Band on Long Island ( ELP, YES, etc.) and is the other nicest person on earth. These guys rock!

wtf? You want to run an add in their magazine, what in the world does the above have to do with that?

I'm sure if you wanted to see some great players, you'd go to a gig not a magazine.

[David Schwab]

It is nice having musicians run a guitar magazine though...

When that magazine started, I worked for a place that used to print posters for them. Of course I took one of each home. :)

[Possum]

I never posted anything about the sales guys at 20th Century, don't know where you got that from, I know nothing about those guys myself.....

[mkat]

I never posted anything about the sales guys at 20th Century, don't know where you got that from, I know nothing about those guys myself.....

Dave,

Not sure if you're referring to my post. If so, I just quoted an extract of what Gerald Weber sent you that you posted above. I thought it was wierd he would mention something that has nothing to do with not replying to your email or a placing an add.

I probably should've stated that it was a quote but not from you.