NORML New Zealand: working for marijuana law reform

There have been plenty of changes happening with Norml News, New Zealand's marijuana magazine. Not only a new look, thicker cover and 20% more pages, but also ... wait for it ... a $5 COVER PRICE!

Norml News Spring 2008 will go on sale at Whitcoull's and other major retailers from Monday 15th September. NORML will get back $2.80 from every issue sold!

But don't panic - regular readers will still be able to get it for free from the usual places.

We are still printing 40,000 copies, and 35,000 of these will still be given out free or for a donation.

So why are we doing this? Norml News has stayed much the same for ten years. When Nandor was editor in the early 90's, it was sold for $3 per copy, and NORML memberships boomed as people realised they could get it cheaper if they joined. When Norml News was relaunched in 1999 it was made free (paid for by the advertisers) and NORML memberships plummeted as people thought there was little benefit to them in joining. So we hope this will lead to more people joining NORML and keeping their memberships paid up.

The other thing is that NORML wants to avoid just preaching to the converted. By getting into mainstream retail outlets we are opening up the magazine to a whole bunch of people who have never heard of it, let alone read it. We will have a much wider readership, with more impact, more effectiveness at raising awareness and getting prohibition repealed, and we'll also generate some income from the magazine so it can grow and one day we might get to actually pay the people who work so hard to put it together!

In future the income stream from retail sales will let us make Norml News even bigger and better. Existing or regular readers can, of course, still go to their regular store to pick up a free copy (or make a donation for it if they want).

It's onwards and upwards for Norml News - I hope you stay with us for the ride!

Chris Fowlie
Editor

p.s. One of the best things people can do is to buy a copy from Whitcoull's during the week of 15 -22 September 2008. It's important because the first week of sales is used to measure whether they should reorder and/or give it a more prominent display. And remember, NORML will get $2.80 of this, so you can feel good about that.

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