10. Adirondack Life magazine
(Latest update 2001)
P. O. Box 410
Jay, NY 12941
1-800-877-5530
(518) 946-2191
Key Personnel
Tom Hughes, Publisher
Elizabeth Folwell, Editor
Barry Silverstein, Chairman
Membership
Circulation: 8,840 (1999)
Finances
Not available
Coalition Involvements
Unknown (but when it discreetly covers issues, as it consistently does, its authors are selected and its viewpoint in generally similar to that of the Adirondack Park Agency and Adirondack Council).
Organization and Goals
(Not available) Possibly not applicable
Board of Directors
Not applicable
Publications
Adirondack Life is a monthly magazine.
Comments
Although not an activist entity, Adirondack Life magazine plays a role in shaping opinion on Adirondack issues, especially in the long-term. Its orientation is seen by many to be unbiased, but, in reality, the magazine’s selected articles on political or nature issues related to politics are well-timed and invariably in harmony with preservation goals. But the articles are not trivial, are seemingly thoroughly prepared, and form a minority of the content, juxtaposed against many other non-political in-depth articles. Adirondack Life is in a class far above other agenda-driven Adirondack regional publications that attempt to portray themselves as “unbiased,” such as the Adirondack Explorer. Adirondack Life articles are obviously selected and edited for content, author’s stature and high quality.
Article distribution:
The thirtieth anniversary issue (1999, No. 7) contained eight essays and five feature articles, in addition to various columns. Several articles dealt with nostalgic history and memories, including the gradual loss of the tangy history of the area, exemplified by as reference to the memory of the taste of spruce gum. There are seven articles bemoaning the loss of or treasuring the memories of life ways around Blue Mountain Lake, a covered bridge at Jay, a historic Jewish resort at Schroon Lake, a ranger cabin at West Canada Lake, vacationing during the ’forties with Grandma on some Adirondack Lake, old-time forest rangers, and even hanging out as a teenager during the ’fifties. There is a philosophic article about losing high-country lean-tos, justified, according to the author because more congested times have arrived. There is one article about nature and one article about the need for wilderness in our crowded world.
The longest article in the thirtieth anniversary issue, “The Adirondack Paradigm” by Philip G. Terrie, about “Thirty years of growth and conflict in a changing park,” is a moderately distorted, skillfully woven history to convey a seemingly unbiased, open-ended record of conflicts, but in reality a preservationist’s viewpoint of the whole situation. There is just enough of the other side to give liveliness to the conflict and the article, but not enough to lend validity to the other side’s views.
A roster of past issues available highlights topics such as the Adirondack Park Agency Act, acid rain, Tony D’Elia’s Adirondack Rebellion, the reintroduction of the Lynx, several issues about the moose, the use of road salt among somewhat more topics of less controversial interest.
| Back to: | |
|
|