| the original state magazine
Website will be fast, fun, and friendly
On March 1, the New Mexico Magazine website receives a major facelift that includes a fresh look, new content, and more opportunities for readers to share their personal stories, photos, and opinions. To check out the sweeping changes, go online at www.nmmagazine.com.
Max Lehman, webmaster for the New Mexico Tourism Department, spearheaded the overhaul, working closely with designer Darlene McElroy. Lehman and McElroy had previously collaborated on the Los Alamos National Laboratory website.
"We are trying to make the website easier for people to use," Lehman says. "We want to make it easier to find what you're looking for, without having to drill down through level after level."
Besides more streamlined navigation, the new site is designed to dovetail more closely with the changing content of the monthly print edition of the magazine. For instance, visitors can expect to hear songs from CDs reviewed in the magazine, or to see short video clips showcasing the travel destinations featured in print.
"The idea is to reinforce what's in the magazine," Lehman says. "We want the content to change, and be current, so readers will have a reason to visit the website more often."
Not all of the site's content will be drawn from or expand upon the print edition. There will also be content found exclusively online, including new blogs, podcasts, and video journals created by magazine staffers as well as outside contributors.
Other new features will provide a forum for readers to get to know each other and to convey their own New Mexico-related experiences. Via the new message boards, you'll be able to upload scenic photos, share recipes and favorite getaways, and sound off on a wide range of discussion topics.
"Rather than going to the site and just reading, we want to immerse people in something that's much more of a total experience-message boards, blogs, flash, music, video," McElroy says. "Interactivity is the key. We want to make it possible for people to participate more fully in the process and, hopefully, to have a little bit more fun."
In conjunction with the revised website, the magazine is launching a new quarterly e-mail newsletter, Hello New Mexico, which you can sign up to receive for free. Go to the www.nmmagazine.com homepage, click the Hello New Mexico button, and follow the simple instructions.
Other changes in the works for the website include:
-- A revamped Gift Shop, with bigger and better images and descriptions of all of the products we sell.
-- New opportunities for advertisers wishing to reach online audiences.
-- The first stages in a comprehensive electronic archive that eventually will allow you to reconnect with your favorite articles and spreads from issues past.
New Mexico Magazine Names Tricia Ware Editor in Chief
Tricia Ware, a former senior editor for Santa Fean magazine, has been named editor in chief of New Mexico Magazine.
Ware holds a bachelor's degree in magazine journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She is currently a marketing writer for the New Mexico Economic Development Department.
"Tricia will bring a wealth of new ideas, enthusiasm and energy," said New Mexico Magazine Publisher Ethel Hess. "We have every confidence that she will craft an exciting publication, keeping our loyal readership satisfied while also exploring ways to reach a wider audience, including the Web and new media initiatives."
New Mexico Magazine, with a monthly circulation exceeding 100,000, is a self-supporting division of the New Mexico Tourism Department. Founded in 1923, the magazine is the oldest state magazine in the nation, and boasts the third-largest circulation.
Ware takes over her new duties July 30, becoming the ninth editor in the magazine's history. She follows Emily Drabanski, who served 21 years as editor of New Mexico Magazine and remains the publication's special projects director.
"We welcome Tricia to our team," said Michael Cerletti, Secretary of the Tourism Department. "New Mexico Magazine has long, prestigious history in the publishing world, and I am confident that Tricia will help lead us forward as we target a new generation of readers."
Ware has previously worked as an editorial assistant at Stereophile and as editor of Christie's Great Estates, a real estate-oriented title published by Christie's International. She also has experience as a publications assistant for Northwest Missouri State University, and has contributed freelance articles to numerous titles, including Living West and Southwest Art.
Ware played a central role in the creation of Off the Road (www.offtheroadnm.com), a travel Website promoting the 20 rural communities participating in the New Mexico MainStreet program. She has managed Web content for Spaceport America and also penned the Eddie Award-winning booklet "New Mexico: We've Got Space."
Ware was selected as editor in chief of New Mexico Magazine following an extensive search process. More than 30 applicants from across the nation applied for the open post. Magazine staff interviewed more than a dozen finalists, aided in the search process by Tom Johnson, a former editor at Scientific American and MacWeek, and a co-founder of the Institute for Analytic Journalism.
Magazine Contributor Wins Travel Writing Award
Albuquerque freelance writer Kay Grant has won a North American Travel Journalists Association award for her feature article in the June 2007 issue of New Mexico Magazine on Buffalo Soldier Cathay Williams.
The article, entitled "Working Undercover: An Unusual Buffalo Soldier Kept an Extraordinary Secret," reveals how Cathay Williams disguised her identity and masqueraded as a man in order to join the Buffalo Soldiers in 1866.
Grant won the runner-up award for Best Personality Profile. The North American Travel Journalists Association announced the award in December 2007.
Cathay Williams enlisted in the Buffalo Soldiers as William Cathey and spent the bulk of her military career on the frontier in territorial New Mexico, serving at Fort Union outside Las Vegas, N.M., and Fort Cummings near present-day in the Bootheel region of southwestern New Mexico.
By 1868, Williams grew tired of the charade and military life, disclosing her true identity. Her comrades were enraged at being deceived, but nevertheless referred to her as a "he" in Williams' discharge papers. The reason: The officers could have gotten into trouble, even possibly enduring a court martial, if it became widely known there had been a female solider in the unit.
Williams retired to Raton near Fort Union, and also lived awhile in Trinidad, Colorado, reportedly dying in the early to mid-1890s.