View From the Top > Esteemed Reader

The magazine began with one simple, yet strong and true idea,
and from this seed-idea has bloomed a project
that is ubiquitously useful.

EEsteemed Reader of Our Magazine:

I am temporarily departing from my customary cabbalistic style in this month’s column. Now, as we enter our tenth year of publication, it is time to explain something about the project that is Chronogram, and the mission that impels it.

When Amara Projansky and I started Chronogram in the summer of 1993, we began with the impulse to repay a debt. Underlying our efforts was a desire to be of service to the community that had nurtured us through childhood to (some degree of) maturity. We shared a sense that we had incurred a debt by ripening in a region that is both physically beautiful and culturally vibrant.

Amara and I believed that a publication reporting and commenting on all the local creative offerings would nourish and support those offerings to greater fruition. We aimed for quality, integrity, and most fundamentally, to be of service; for as a teacher of mine proclaimed, “In service we never fail".

The growth and maturation of the magazine has shown me the veracity of my teacher’s statement. It is clear to me now that, in general, regardless of the endeavor or its apparent outcome, we succeed to the degree that we are genuinely useful to others.

Ideas are powerful. The magazine began with one simple, yet strong and true idea, and from this seed-idea has blossomed a project that is ubiquitously useful. In publishing Chronogram I try to bear in mind the power of ideas, which sentiment is aptly expressed in the saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” As such, I take great care, and exhort my editor and writers to be aware of the immense responsibility we shoulder in disseminating ideas. For it is not might or money that will change the world. It is ideas. Good, positive ideas. Ideas that people can apply to live harmoniously, creatively, happily together.

In this vein, there is a great need for independent media. Almost all the mainstream media organs are owned and operated by a few corporations. Their agendas are, to say the least, questionable. This consolidation of information resources in the hands of a few wealthy businesspeople is dangerous and, ultimately, destructive. Though we recognize that Chronogram’s influence is relatively insignificant, we nevertheless strive to fill the need for a voice that hasn’t been purchased, and deliver fresh views and unadulterated, intelligent perspectives.

Finally, I direct your attention to Chronogram’s business model. Though we at Chronogram are doing something creative and useful, we also operate as a business, with all the difficulties intrinsic to the world of commerce. Here’s how it works: You get a free magazine because it contains advertising. So, in a sense, every time you pick up a copy of Chronogram, it is a gift from one and all of our advertisers. As such, I exhort you, our reader, to support us by supporting our advertisers. And every time you patronize one of our advertisers’ businesses, let them know that you saw their ad in Chronogram. And if the sentiment is true, tell them that you appreciate their support of this magazine.

Thank you, and very best wishes to you in the New Year,

Jason Stern, Publisher