Friday we got the rumours and Saturday and Sunday they were confirmed from several different sources. After 40 years Elvis Monthly will dissappear. It has been an institution for quite some time, but the last several years the quality and importance was questioned regularly by a lot of fans. Hopefully the input of the Scandinavian part of the replacement will bring us a good new magazine.
Today one of our loyal subscribers took the effort to send us the full explanation of Todd Slaughter. Regarding the quality Elvis Monthly had the last couple of years any change must be for the better. With The Man And His Music the British already have the best Elvis quarterly in the world, but the follow up sure sounds promising, and for the promo collectors it is a must to subscribe immediately. As soon as we have more information on how to subscribe (maybe they'll think of the Internet?) we'll let you know.
These are the words of Mr. Slaughter:
This issue of Elvis Monthly is the penultimate edition, as our 40 year old title will cease publication with our March (483) printing. It seems a shame to close down the Monthly after 40 years, but it is being done so for two reasons .
As I have been saying for a long time now , the distribution of our title in the shops is becoming more and more difficult. Its size is so small that it gets lost in the news trade and our distributors Seymour have said that they no longer want to handle it . We were offered six other distributors, and five turned it down though one said it could do the job but they were only able to handle less than half of what we ordinarily produce. So it would not only become uneconomical, but would lose an awful lot of money.
That said Elvis Monthly is being put to bed to make room for a new exciting publication which we all know you'll love called Elvis Today, our new magazine is a global co-operative. I have been invited to be joint managing director along with Pal Granlund from the Flaming Star Club of Norway. Pal has the largest private collection of Elvis Presley photographs anywhere in the world. His picture archive is unique and has never been published before anywhere.
Elvis Today is a subscription only title and will have offices in the US, the UK and Norway. It will be promoted this month inside copies of "Essential VI" and has the full support of Klaus Schmalenbach and Mike Ormansky from BMG and our good Elvis committee friends Roger Semon and Ernest Jorgensen.
Existing subscribers will be contacted by the writer along with this issue and will have there existing Elvis Monthly subscriptions transferred to the new title for those of you who buy your copy of Elvis Monthly from shops and stores there is a reply-paid card included for you to complete and respond each new subscriber will receive a free "Follow that Dream" promo CD which will launch this new venture the first issue of our new magazine will be published in April so get your subscription in as soon as possible.
It is with great sorrow that I mourn the passing of Elvis Monthly when Albert Hand started this magazine exactly 40 years ago he thought that it may last a year when he died twelve years after the first issue we all thought it might make 15 years but no one expected it to be 40.
Unfortunately technology and market forces have pushed our title to one side but it will not be forgotten.
A new millennium- and a new exciting title see you next month for the last time.
Love
Todd Slaughter