Re: [chile-heads] Chile Pepper Magazine questions...
Jim Campbell (mwph2hot@indy.net)
Tue, 08 Jul 1997 20:00:01 +0000
Well, now that you ask. Here's my two cents worth.... Chile Pepper Mag got
sold to Magnolia Publishing. They promptly 'released' a lot of the former
staff, Mr. DeWitt included, and moved operations to Dallas, TX.
Understandably, Mr. DeWitt was less than enthusiastic about this (as were alot
of us). The bottom line has been to create a sort of un-civil war between the
two competing factions- Dave DeWitt and the Fiery Food Show (Sunbelt) on
one side, and Chile Pepper Mag on the other. There has been a literal
explosion of competing food shows as a result, each trying to politely bury
the other. This has had major repurcussions for most of us in the industry.
What might come as a surprise to most people is that there are VERY few
people out there with operations big enough to do the chile thing full time.
Even some of the biggest names in the business (Blairs' Death, the Road to
Hell folks, etc) all have a second job. The logisitics of now having to try and
figure out how to do competing shows in differing locations is going to be
more than some of us can take. The P-C spin is that the industry in general is
big enough to accomodate multiple shows and these are just 'growing pains'.
My view (as a bottom-feeder) is that there is a feeding frenzy among show
producers, each trying to compete the other into the grave. We now have
competing magazines, competing trade journals, and competing shows. We'll
speak nothing of the mental gymnastics involved in trying to decide who to
devote limited resources to! Can't we all just git along?? I think the lot of
them could learn a good lesson subscribing to this list and getting a better
perspective on what this is all about!
Well, the altitude is killing me- time to step off the soap box. My wife says
this is a female thing called 'venting'.
-Jim Campbell
Mild to Wild Pepper & Herb Co.