Letter from Joan

Heroine Users Speak Their Minds

In the months since Heroine Magazine has launched, we’ve received hundreds of enthusiastic responses from you, our Heroine users. Your comments have been overwhelmingly positive, and I’m so grateful for that, but I’m equally thankful that Heroine users are unafraid to speak their minds about what they dislike and what they’d like to see more of in the magazine. (A few of you said you don’t like being called "Heroine users," but most of you appreciate its play-on-words cleverness. For the record, we here at Heroine actively discourage the use of narcotics, but we think we’ll keep our slogan, all puns intended.)

Your number-one request mirrors our number-one priority–more articles and more frequent updates. In order for the quality of our articles to remain high (and go higher still), we have to pay our writers, and like almost every other magazine, we have been looking for advertisers. Because I don’t want the atmosphere of Heroine to be polluted by ads that undermine our principles, I’m concerned that our advertisers be companies whose philosophy is compatible with our own. Finding these sponsors takes time–but we do have some things in the works and should soon be able to update Heroine more frequently, with major new stories appearing every two weeks. (You’ll notice we’ve recently redesigned the site–the improvements we’ve made will make it easier for us to post new content.) If you’d like to help, tell your friends about the site and ask them to log on: more traffic = more revenue = more frequent updates.

Another popular request was for more interactivity. One immediate step we’re taking is to do live chat from the floor of Madison Square Garden during V-Day 2001 on February 10. (If you’re checking in past this date, you can still check out our coverage of this major event under "Recently on Heroine" on our homepage.) One reader’s suggestion for a "user’s gallery" is really great, and we’re working toward having the capability to receive/review/post users’ artwork, writings, music, etc. We’re also planning to host online chats and expand our message boards to include moderators who will "seed" and guide discussions on various topics. Until then, please continue to use the message boards, and don’t be shy about starting a new discussion. We also have some exciting new features planned, including HeroinePlayer, a new site application that will give users online access to music by some of today’s best women recording artists.

Other things you’d like to see–more stories about "unfamous" heroines, information about indie bands in our concert listings, profiles of literary women, as well as lists of recommended reading, news about women around the world, a special section on spirituality, even Heroine T-shirts–the list goes on, and I’m so excited about the possibilities. Thank you for logging on. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. And please keep checking in as we grow to tell us how we’re doing.

Joan Osborne