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Green Building magazine: Building for a Future magazine - name to change!

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeApr 20th 2007 edited
     
    To celebrate 18 years of publishing, I'm pleased to announce that Building for a Future magazine will undergo a name change from the next issue (summer 07). Now to be called Green Building magazine. this will help confirm the main purpose of the mag and bring it into line with our our other products and company name.

    I believe with the new name, it will attract a wider audience and become more influential in this growing sector. I'm really disappointed with the way the mainstream building magazines are helping 'ordinary' product manufacturers undermine the concept and philosophy of the subject by running wall-to-wall 'PR babble' dressed up as qualified sustainable, zero-carbon and green building information. Even titiles aimed at planners, local and central government officers and building regulations officers are doing it.

    Rest assured, Green Building Magazine will keep to the time honored strict advertising policy that BFF has enjoyed and we will keep a very, very strict control of stories offered to us by product purveyors and PR companies.

    Most regular things from BFF will flip over into the new mag but I am seriously considering dropping the product section at the back of the mag as it is our weakest spot. Comments are welcome on this and other aspects.
  2.  
    Kieth,
    As an architect and specifier I would urge that you do not drop the products section. On the understanding that this section is carefully managed and vetted (as I am sure it is) this is valuable tool that can assist the specifier in making the distinction between green and green wash products. Furthermore it also helps to maintain an awareness of suitable products that can/should be considered for a range of projects. If I could make any suggestion it would be to reinvigorate and reinforce the Products section in a suitable manner so as to ensure that it remains a useful and valuable tool for the future.

    Hope this helps.
    Mark
    • CommentAuthorbiffvernon
    • CommentTimeApr 21st 2007
     
    Good.
    Clearly, we have caught up with the future and we now have to build for the now.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeApr 21st 2007
     
    Posted By: (GBP) Keiththe mainstream building magazines
    To them, I suggest a new title: Grey Building. Or maybe Any-Colouring-You-Can-Market Building.
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeApr 21st 2007 edited
     
    Thanks for the feedback, the problem with the products section of the mag is finding the time to wade through the reams of mediocrity which is now paraded as a low or zero carbon 'footprint' products. I throw away about 100 e-mails every day from PR firms, two or three of which may have warranted further examination. However mark you will be pleased to know that the products section is not to disappear straight away and we will keep thinking about how to keep readers abreast of the latest useful developments in this area.
    • CommentAuthorsnudge
    • CommentTimeApr 26th 2007
     
    I am an avid reader of BFF and have been for many years, seeing it become progressively more professional year on year. It is one of the very few magazines I look forward to receiving and read from cover to cover. My colleagues and I were very surprised to read about your plans to rename it. I don’t recall seeing anything in the magazine about this and I sincerely hope it is not going to be a decision you will regret. I see there has been little feedback about this significant matter on the forum but then maybe only a minority of readers have the time or will to use forums. A change of name for a well-established product is a major decision and be warned - can be construed as synonymous with a business that is floundering, which I do hope is not the case for the GBP! It could also appear that you are jumping on the green bandwagon because with a new name it is very likely to be seen by many as a ‘new’ magazine and it is going to mean a lot more work in marketing getting the new name recognised as well as making people realise it is not a new magazine. The proposal to use the currently fashionable term ‘greener building’ does not reflect all that the magazine encompasses. Building for a Future (or BFF as it is widely known) is catchy, sounds good, the right length and a very appropriate title as it accurately describes exactly what the magazine is about and it does not suffer from the whims of fashion. Will there be another name change when fashion brings yet another phrase?

    What about keeping the title as BFF (this acronym too sounds much better than GB!) but if you really want to use the term ‘greener building’ adding below it ‘THE green building magazine for professionals and enthusiasts in the trade’. Then this phrase can be changed as necessary to suit the current whim of the day! Anyway I strongly urge you to not make any quick decision that you may come to regret. Anyway keep up the great work!
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeApr 26th 2007 edited
     
    Thanks for this Snudge. Your point is one that has been discussed very widely over the past four or five years here at the GREEN BUILDING PRESS. I've been trying to convince my colleagues of this name change for many years now. (By the way, the Green Building Press was established way back in 1992) long before anyone else had coined the phrase. In fact the very reason for the name change is to stop the title from being hijacked by unscrupulous publishers.

    Floundering? I wish! I can barely get time to do anything else at the moment with the runaway success of the Green Building Press and it's books - Green Building Bibles which by the way have just been shortlisted in the 2007 RIBA international book awards.

    I have tried for years to imagine BFF as more than a green building magazine but frankly I'm not interested in 'ordinary building' in truth, I became uninterested in in in 1987 when I first dreamed up the BFF title and launched it and founded the AECB.

    This name change, will not be regretted by me and will be used proudly on the magazine to let all-comers know that there is some real green building going on among all the tripe that's talked about and also to let everyone know not to offer us editorial or advertising unless it lives up to the name. The day that the trend moves away of saving the planet I'll give up anyway.

    By the way. A major revamp was announced in the last issue on page 8.

    Regards Keith
    • CommentAuthorGuest
    • CommentTimeMay 6th 2007
     
    i took a copy of bff into uni to show my lecturer and he was astounded that he'd never seen the title before and by the quality of the print, articles, the whole thing.
    this is a guy who's worked in building control for many years before becoming a lecturer about 18 yrs ago.
    as a part time mature student i am astounded at the hands-off way that companies deal with 'the future personnel'. i think if you could address this through subsidised subscriptions, provision of complimentary mags to uni/college libraries and schools then the message would grow so much better than a proposed name change.
    five years ago a lecturer verged on ridiculing me for questioning him about green technology, yet now it is paramount to development.
    building for a future presents a vision of progressive movement and development whereas 'green building' is what people were talking about 20 yrs ago - the concept is now in the mainstream, but the term itself is stuck in the past.
    whilst considering name change i'd suggest losing 'bible' and introducing 'handbook'.
    • CommentAuthorGuest
    • CommentTimeMay 7th 2007
     
    "Building For A Future" expresses a dynamic time bound understanding of construction and instills an awareness and understanding of why buildings should be designed to be environmentally sound i.e. for the protection of the world for future generations. In a nutshell it is a turn of phrase that arguably embodies much Dr Brutland's famous statement.

    Arguably "Green Building Magazine" lacks this temporal dynamic, it is of the moment and is sadly erring towards a more superficial of the environmental design. By all means Green is good, but why should we design to be green, for the protection of the world for future generations.

    By all means reinvigorate the graphics and the branding of the magazine but changing the name, to my mind this is a loss. I understand the desire to reinforce the brand you are developing, but at what cost?
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeMay 7th 2007
     
    Can I assume that the last two unsigned postings by a guest are the same person?
  11.  
    No. Sorry about that didn't log in. The 2nd one was from me.

    Mark
  12.  
    it does seem a pity to get rid of the old and yet still meaning full name to stop someone else from using it could you not use both>

    But at the end of the day Kieth you have decided haven't you what we want does not matter we are just the readers.

    It has similarities to the public consultation that our government and Local authorities use. You do not care about our views anymore than they do!!!
  13.  
    Just thought to expand upon my earlier Brutland comment:
    “Building for a Future” opens a gateway to a broader contextual view of sustainability in the built environment i.e. environmental, social and economic. Social and economic (in its true sense) sustainability are often not given sufficient attention by the "Green" press (who consentrate on gadgets, widgets etc.) but they are integral to any sustainable future.

    Arguably the title “Green Building Magazine” does not suggest this holistic or indeed synoptic view, the title is solely concerned with “Green” issues (gadgets and widgets) at the expense of social and economic matters. As a result I feel that important aspects of sustainable design that is not embodied by the name change. NOTE: I am certain that it is not your intetion avoid discussing social and economic matters in “Green Building Magazine” but I do feel that such as focussed title could mean that the oportunity to do so could over time become harder to achieve.

    Mark
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2007
     
    We are not dropping the old name, it is just being downsized to a strapline. Pre-publication proofs of the new layout will be available soon, If anyone wishes to comment on format and layout then send me an e-mail asap.

    Hey Arnold (SolarBore) Unfair comment. How many other publishers put their re-vamps out for comment before they go ahead? I'll tell you. NONE!
    • CommentAuthorRachel
    • CommentTimeMay 8th 2007
     
    keith, I think the new name will attract more people to the magazine and work out for the best..........
  16.  
    Kieth,
    Hadn't registered that you were keeping BFF as the strap line. Glad to hear it! This allays much of the "concerns" raised above.

    Mark
    P.S. Just to be clear, regardless of the rhetorical feedback I have given above, I do wish you and your team the best of good luck.
  17.  
    Kieth I also did not know you were keeping BFF as the strap line. Glad to hear it! This allays much of the "concerns" raised above.

    I have just re-read your first post on this you do not mention about the strap line is it any wonder we get concerned as we only have your information to comment on.

    i do recollect an article in recent BFF but don't recall reading it, will have to get it out and read it properly.

    yes I would like to see the Pre-publication proofs of the new layout I will send you an E

    thanks Arnold
    •  
      CommentAuthorKeith Hall
    • CommentTimeMay 24th 2007
     
    There is a cover pic on the Green building magazine thread for comment.

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