Welcome to the Theme Parks Magazine news page, it's here you the subscriber or reader can keep up to date with the status of the magazine, keep up to date with the editors, and find out what's coming up for future issues! Keep checking back as we will try to keep this page updated regularly.

Sorry for the delay in an update! Magazines were dropped off for mailing on Monday night, so they are officially in the mail. As my usual mailing annoucement, these are being mailed bulk standard and may take between 2-3 weeks for arrival. Please alert me if they have not arrived within that time frame. Inside is our Reader's Choice Ballot, please take the time to fill that out and send it in as soon as you get it, and please be aware that the ballot is for rides that were new in 2007. I don't want to be seeing any Behemoth's or Ravine Flyer II's ok? Good.

Wow what a busy week its been so far! We just returned from our busy trip to Canada's Wonderland, Waldameer and Darien Lake. Unfortunatly, it rained much of the time we were there so, Jeff our photographer will be heading back up in June again.

Great news on Issue 8 as well. We received the proofs on Monday (05/12), and had the updates done and sent the printers with the final print number on Thursday (05/15), with the magazine printing and done by yesterday (05/21). Last night (Wednesday) we picked up all the magazines for the printers. So it is done, and should be in the mail hopefully in the next week.

The 2007 Readers Choice Ballots will be included in Issue 8 (We are going back to envelopes) so please be sure to fill it out and send it back. The tentative deadline will be the 1st of July. Keep in mind this will be for 2007 rides only.

Time for an update! We have some good news finally. The magazine went to the printers last thursday (May 8th) and we received the proofs on Friday afternoon. We have reviewed the proofs and found a few minors corrections which should be finished and done by tonight or tommorow morning. Allowing for the magazine to (hopefully) be at the printers and running by the middle of this week. Yeah! Our next issue's content has been finalized and will include Kennywood, Kemah Boardwalk, Behemoth (at Canada's Wonderland) and Renegade (Valleyfair!). We will be up near Toronto this upcoming weekend to cover Behemoth as well as Darien Lake's Motocoaster and Waldameer's Ravine Flyer II.

Well its been awhile and its past time I think for another update. We have just recently (Monday) returned from a trip out to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm to cover both Nemo's Submarine Voyage and Knott's for future issues. For those of you who have sent e-mails to me within the last week I will be responding to them soon.

Also, we have recently sent out renewal notices to those who finished their subscription with the last issue. If you have received a renewal notice and would like to continue their subscription with Issue 8 (the upcoming issue) please return the renewal notice as soon as possible. We have also received several "undeliverable" notices. Please, if you have not received any issues, or feel your subscription may be ready to expire please contact us as soon as possible via e-mail at JLovesee@ThemeParksMagazine.com Thank you!

On to Issue 8. We will be printing soon, however we want to make sure those that have expiring subscriptions have enough time to renew. So we should be printing here in the next month or two. I will update this blog as soon as we have a more exact date. Issue 8 will be, I believe, one of our best issues yet and will include our first ever Disney park, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, as well as several additional feature stories. Certainly not an issue you want to miss.

Again, we always welcome questions or comments from readers, please feel free to e-mail me anytime at Jlovesee@ThemeParksMagazine.com

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Just a quick update from your editors, as always we are here in the cold Midwestern weather getting ready for the next issue. We just returned from Florida, where we worked for three days photographing the beautiful Disney’s Animal Kingdom park and Animal Kingdom Lodge. All of our subscribers will get to see it featured in an upcoming issue. For those watching out for their renewals, we will be sending renewal letters around the second to third week in January. Be watching your mailboxes!

One important point I would like to make. I have received, periodically, e-mails for subscribers concerning the fact that they have not received a specific issue or issues. We do send our subscriptions with the United States Postal Service Bulk Mail. As I have found it is not the most dependable. If you have not received an issue you feel you are due please contact us as soon as possible so that we can get the issues out to you.

E-mail is always the best way to contact us directly. You can always e-mail me directly at jlovesee@ThemeParksMagazine.com. Please make sure you include “Theme Parks Magazine” in the subject line so that I may easily discern your e-mail from the hundreds of spam e-mail I receive daily.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and enjoys and Happy New Year.

Another update, the magazines were completed on Tuesday (10/09) and we picked them up on Wednesday (10/10) we labeled and prepared for mailing last evening (Thursday 10/11) and we will have the magazines in the mail tonight (Friday 10/12). Issue 7 is being mailed as usual, bulk standard, which can take 2-3 weeks to be received. If you have not received the magazine within that period of time please e-mail us at info@ThemeParksMagazine.com and include "Theme Parks Magazine" in the subject line.

Things are moving along pretty well now. We received the proofs from the printer yesterday, made a few changes and sent them back to the printers today. Word is that we should have the printed magazines no later then next monday. Tune in next week for the wonderful world of labeling!

Just a quick update, we delivered the magazine to the printers this morning, (Thursday 09/27/2007). From what we have been told we should have proofs by Monday to review and hopefully have the magazine running by sometime later next week!

The editorial content for this issue (Issue 7) includes Hersheypark, Tatsu, The Voyage, Maverick, and Pirates of the Caribbean. We are getting started on the next issue, as the content has been up in the air for awhile. It's been "finalized" to including Animal Kingdom, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Mystery Mine, Patriot and Griffon.

As always we want to again thank all of our loyal readers that put up so patiently with us. It is always appreciated, and comments are always welcome!

I know a few of you have been e-mailing me about the status of the magazine. The most important thing, is that yes, we are still here. I wanted to update with some good news, Issue 7 should be sent to the printers within the next week or so. I will be updating this page with news as soon as we know anything. I want to thank everyone for their patience in this matter.

It looks like people are starting to receive the magazine which is much quicker then in the past, thankfully. I have received word from a subscriber in Kansas City, MO and Sandusky, OH that they have received the magazine. If you have a free moment and would like to e-mail us that you received your copy we would be very appreciative. If you do not receive a copy within the next two weeks please let us know. Unfortunately as we send mail standard bulk we do not receive returns, so we have no way of knowing if all of our subscribers received their issues unless you tell us!

On that point we always appreciate the e-mails we receive from our readers, good or bad. Unfortunately, sometimes I don’t get to read them all. We receive approximately 400-500 spam e-mails a day, and usually most contact e-mails come into my Spam inbox, not my regular inbox. The reasoning is that spammers also use the info@themeparksmagazine.com to send us spam too. As most of it includes viruses I try not to open anything that looks like spam. (Two of our computers have already been viciously attacked) With this in mind, please try to include Theme Parks Magazine in the subject line so that I can identify your e-mail as not being spam. Again, if you don’t receive a response from me within a week’s period please let me know, I will respond to every e-mail request that I do receive.

Last, with the removal of Six Flags over Texas from the Issue 8 line up the upcoming issue content looks like this. Issue 7 (next issue) Hersheypark, Pirates of Caribbean, Tatsu, Voyage and possibly Maverick. Issue 8 is now scheduled to include Kings Island, Beech Bend, Patriot, and X-Coaster. Issue 9 is scheduled to include Animal Kingdom, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Griffon, Mystery Mine, and IAAPA coverage. Other future issues are slated to include Kennywood, Lakemont, Flying Turns, Lagoon and Indiana Beach. If you have any parks, rides or people you would like to see profiled in a future issue we are always open to requests and we will try to meet them if we can.

For those of you who contact us via e-mail. We receive approximately 400+ spam e-mails a day, while I try to sort through them for legitimate e-mails, I do miss a few of them. If you do not receive a reply from us within a week of you e-mailing us please reply back and let us know you did not receive a reply. A lot of times these e-mails are accidentally deleted.

I always love those roadway signs, Progress as Promised. Well that's us for you. Tonight, March 1st, we made a fairly large delivery to the United States Postal Office in Kansas City, MO. The magazines are in the mail! They are being sent Standard Bulk Rate, so just as before expect 2-3 weeks for delivery.

On a more somber note... Six Flags Over Texas will not be appearing in Issue 8 as previously mentioned. The park(s) in question require a media chaperone with a limited amount of time that will not allow us to photograph the park with the quality both our readers and ourselves expect. I promise you we have tried our best as this was not isolated to just one park. We will still continue to run feature ride profiles of various prominent Six Flags rides in the future.

I wanted to keep everyone updated. We just recieved word from the printer that the magazines are done. We will be heading that direction tommorow (Monday) to pick them up. Tuesday I will be applying for and paying for the bulk mailing permit, and we will hopefully have the magazines in the mail within 1-2 weeks. We have over a thousand magazines to label, and only three people to do it, but we will get it done as quick as possible! I will update when they are in the mail.

I wanted to update this blog with a little bit of our calendar for the upcoming year. Issue 8 is scheduled to include our first Six Flags park, Six Flags over Texas, a feature on Pirates of Caribbean, El Toro/Kingda Ka, and Maverick. We are planning on including a smaller feature park, but haven't decided between Cliff's, Indiana Beach, Beech Bend or Little A-Merrick-A. If you have an opinion be sure to express it to us! We will be visiting Six Flags Over Texas opening weekend, March 10th and 11th.

Issue 9 is schedule (tentatively) to including King's Island, and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. We will be covering Santa Cruz in May prior to the ACE Spring Conference. Other feature parks slated for future issues include Disney's Animal Kingdom, Kennywood and Lakemont. Almost every park we have slated was mentioned by a reader in the past, if you would like to see a park covered please always feel free to express your opinion!

After correcting a few errors on the proofs, and two photo corrections (I swear with every issue Jeff becomes more of a perfectionist!) the magazine is now back at the printers (as of this last Thursday). The printers are only waiting for a total run number from us. We have decided to run very few extras, and this is very important, we will NOT have back issues for sale of Issue 6. If you want a copy of Issue 6 you must submit your order online no later then 6PM CST this Tuesday, February 6th. We will send the final print order on Wednesday morning, and hopefully be running that day.

I know there are several that have inquired about purchasing the Adobe Acrobat file of Issue 5, and this will probably continue into Issue 6. We are still very much considering this possibility. We are looking into a way to encrypt the files so that they can not find there way across the internet.

Last, I want to sincerely apologize to all of our subscribers for this last, very significant delay. Everyone has been more patient then I could ever express my appreciation for, and I want you to know we plan on sticking this out as long as we possibly can. Issue 7 has been progressing very well as of late, it will include Hersheypark, X-Coaster, Voyage and Tatsu as the primary feature stories, and every single one has already been written, as well as shot. I want everyone to knock on wood before I say this next statement... We are hoping to get it out on schedule! Here's hoping and praying!

Sometimes it amazes me that such small comments from others can bring such a smile to my face, especially in the gloomiest of times. Thankfully, these are not the gloomiest of times as another step has been reached in the saga of Issue 6, Revenge of the African-themed amusement park. (No, that’s not really the title)

In all seriousness we received word (via e-mail) from our printers, J2, that the proofs for Issue 6 are ready to pick up. Like normal there are a few errors, mostly page bleeds that need to be corrected before the magazine can go to print. Usually these would be done overnight and sent to the printer the next morning. Well as luck would have it our layout editor, Matt is out of town, in Florida, where unlike here there is no ice, snow, or -2 degree wind chills! He should be back by this weekend though, so the page bleeds can be corrected, and the magazine printed.

Editor’s note: For those who don’t know what a page bleed is, and are interested, a page bleed refers to the fact that the content of each page must run beyond the cut line, so that when the magazine is cut (its run in four page sections) it will be all nice and pretty.

For those wondering... we actually did something on schedule. Issue 6 was delivered to the printers today, Thursday, January 11th. We will keep you updated as to the printing process as always.

I first want to start out thanking everyone for being patient with us. I do have some good news in regards to our next issue, Issue 6. We have it scheduled to be sent to the printers this Thursday, January 11th. The whole printing process as some of you are familiar does take a few weeks, as the printers have to process the proofs, and we have to approve the proofs before it ever goes to full printing and binding. We are planning on mailing the magazines ourselves this go around, we will still be mailing bulk though. As we are mailing bulk, it can and often does take up to three weeks for the magazines to be recieved from the point they are mailed. As I like to say though we will cross that bridge when we get to it. Our next issue, Issue 7 is well into production and will include Hersheypark, The Voyage, Tatsu and other feature stories. We have a plan for the upcoming year to be hopefully (everyone cross your fingers!) back on schedule. Of course as always all subscribers will recieve four issues as part of their subscription.

Issue 5 is officially SOLD OUT! Cedar Point liked our issue so much they decided to purchase all of our back issues. All subscribers will of course receive their copy, they were put in the mail this last monday, and subscribers should be looking for them in the mail in the next week or two. I will be updating the back issues order page this evening to reflect the sold out status of Issue 5. We will be selling 20 copies of Issue 5 at Coaster Con this summer, so if you really want a copy and don't subscribe this is an option. Also we are considering selling PDF online versions of Issue 5. If you would be interested please e-mail me at Jlovesee@TPOmagazine.com. Right now we are just looking for interest, nothing is official as of yet.

Most important item of the day, to update everyone on the mailing of Issue 5, after several long discussions with our mailer we decided it was worth paying a little extra to mail the magazine as a higher class, and leave the shrink wrap on. Alls well that ends well, and the magazine will be mailed this Monday (03/20/2006). As it is still being mailed standard it will take approximately 2 weeks for all domestic subscribers to receive it. Also, if you do not subscribe or subscribed after 03/01/2006 (the cut off date for Issue 5) and would like to order Issue 5 as a back issue, we strongly recommend ordering it by tonight. There is a distinct possibility that by the end of business day Monday, Issue 5 will be sold out. We are still planning no matter what to have approximately 20 copies of Issue 5 to sell at Coaster Con in June.

If it doesn't rain it pours. Our mailer had mailed the magazines on Thursday, but the United States Postal System sent them back. I just love it! The plastic wrap that we wrap and mail the magazines in needs to be USPS sanctioned plastic wrap! I really am not making this up. What's even worse is that we mailed the last two issues exactly this way and there was no problem then. So we might be spending the next few days removing plastic wrap from the magazines and mailing them with the labels affixed to the covers. I hate doing that. Let me rephrase I really hate doing that. Stay tuned for further developments.

We picked up the magazines from the printer today, they turned out looking really nice, we are extremely happy with them. We have started to box up the issues to send to the parks, and will be delivering the magazines to our mail house this saturday. They usually have a quick turn around time, if only the same thing could be said about the US Postal Service! We are all hard at work on Issue 6, with a planned printing in June, everyone cross their fingers that we can get this one out on time for a change.

Well everything is going smoothly so far, we recieved the proofs back this morning as planned (03/01/2006) reviewed them and made a few changes, mostly with the PowderKeg photos. We have our press time scheduled starting this Friday morning, so the very first copies of Issue 5 will be on the printer on March 3, 2006. A little ahead of schedule. While we are thrilled, our credit cards are moaning in despair....

Well it has been a VERY long time since I have updated the news. There is lots of good news to tell though. First, we delivered issue 5 to the printers this morning (02/27/2006). Originally, we were planning to do this on Friday, but we were not 100% happy with the cover, so we took the weekend to finish that. It looks amazing, and I hope to have the cover shot online by tonight. We should get the proofs back by this wednesday, and depending on how much, if any correction is needed the magazine should be rolling on the press by next week. Very Important! If you would like your subscription to begin with Issue 5 you must subscribe by this wednesday 03/01/2006 online, or if you are mailing you subscription in it must be postmarked by 03/01/2006 as well. Also, Issue 5 will have a limited amount of back issues available for purchase. Onto Issue 6, we are bound and determined to have this one out on schedule, and to have it printed by the ACE Coaster Con in June. It will feature Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Kiddieland in Chicago, IL, Hades at Mt. Olympus, Hydra: the Revenge at Dorney Park, plus our new re-occuring Destination Disney section. Last, we will be mailing out the ballots for the 2005 Reader's Choice Awards in the next few weeks. They are due back by April 15, 2006. The awards last year were extremely high-profile, as these are the only amusement park awards handed out by the normal park visitor, you!

Wow its been a long time since I've updated. We have been incredibly busy here in Kansas City, both working on the upcoming issue, the contest, coverage for the next few issues and working on advertising. (evil word I know) First, for all those interested we did the drawing for the Coaster Dynamix Models, sadly no winners in our home city. Our three winners included one from France, Kissimmee, Florida and Sunnyvale, CA. All but the one from CA have been contacted, as I will have to send a confirmation letter to Sunnyvale. Congratulations to those who won! The drawing was held on Sunday, August 28th at Worlds of Fun Amusement Park and the names were drawn by an independent third party, Nick Guevel, Public Relations Director of Worlds of Fun. We are working away on Issue 5, but the good news in all of this is we have almost completely primary photography on Issue 6 and will be starting Issue 7 this weekend! Issue 6 has been finalized to include Busch Gardens Tampa, Kiddieland in Chicago, IL, Hades, Storm Runner (FINALLY!) and most likely a story on Gravity Group. Talk about planning ahead, this weekend we will be at Hersheypark and Dorney Park shooting for Issue 7 mostly. Issue 7 looks like it will include Hersheypark, Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk (hey if I can't get Kennywood I will atleast get Santa Cruz) Hydra, Italian Job and SheiKra. Of course Issue 6 and 7 are subject to change.

For those who live in the Kansas City area, you may want to stop by our sales kiosk at Independence Center this weekend. We will be selling all back issues excepting Issue 2 for only $5 each, plus this would be one of your last opportunities to subscribe or renew in time to be register for the "Discover America's Theme Parks and Win a Coaster Too!" contest. Our sales kiosk will be located just inside the main entrance on the 2nd floor, near Applebee's.

We will hopefully be leaving this evening to drive the Denver to cover Lakeside this weekend. I have learned from experience NOT to tempt the weather gods, as Tampa of course was really VERY hot. Some interesting news though. You can catch Matt Laskowski live on radio this Saturday morning on WLS News Talk 890 in Chicago around 7:30 AM Central Time as they discuss Theme Parks Magazine, Theme Parks and Family Entertainment in general. For those not in Chicago you can hear it streamed live at there website http://www.wlsam.com/ The radio station will stream live from Chicago, we of course will be streaming live from Goodland, KS.

Wow look at this two updates in one week! It has just recently come to my attention that many thought our Coaster Dynamix, Discover America's Theme Parks and Win a Coaster Too! Contest had ended. Well actually it hasn't, so it isn't to late. Several months ago we decided to extend the contest out to July 31st so to include those who picked up the issue from a newstand. As we did distribute the magazine, however very lightly, we didn't want to be advertising for a contest on the cover that had ended.

July 31st will be the official end date. For those who haven't subscribed yet this is how it will work. We will accept entries for the contest via post mail with a postmarked date of July 30th or earlier, we will accept online orders placed on or before Midnight Central Time July 31st. This includes both Amazon and Direct Website orders.

The Drawing is planned to be held sometime in August, there is no definite date as of yet as we currently do not have a party to oversee the results. We are in the process of looking for a impartial party right now. Winner's will be notified by phone, e-mail or post mail (in that order) within a week of the drawing. Results will be annouced to all readers soon afterwards.

Recently the results of 1st Annual Reader's Choice Awards where announced. As we are currently busy working at Busch Gardens Tampa for an upcoming issue we haven't had time to properly announce the results online. If you would like to view the official results you may download them here: http://www.themeparksmagazine.com/mediakit/readers_choice_awards_2004.pdf.

Well another week has gone by… ACE Coaster Con was fun, I was rather depressed we where not able to cover Six Flags Great America, but oh well such is life. We did get to ride Hades and get some photos, as we will probably be doing a feature story on it in the future. We also drove to Branson and after a little down time with PowderKeg we where finally able to get some decent photos. Ok so the sky wasn’t perfectly blue, but no complaints, it wasn’t raining, the ride was running, the park staff was nice what else is there to ask for?

As I mentioned the mailing house we used delivered the magazines to the post office, Monday July 18th, and I just heard that people are starting to receive issue 4. As we mailing it at a highly discounted rate over 1st class, I figured it would be a little slower so two weeks isn’t horrible. Issue 5 is still a work in progress; weather is still looking good for Denver two weeks from now, so we should be heading out there to Lakeside again. Trying to talk Jeff into stopping at the Kit Carson Carousel, I would really like to write a feature story on it…

This week however, we will be heading to Florida! Isn’t it funny that it’s cooler in Tampa, Florida then it is in Kansas City, Missouri? Does anyone find anything completely wrong about that? Anyway we will be shooting Busch Gardens Tampa, for Issue #6. It should be packed for the 4th of July weekend, but the more people in photos the better they are, just hope the weather is good.

Currently hard at work on the Lakeside Amusement Park story… who knew I could come up with six different ways to describe an ELI Bridge Scrambler?

Well Jeff and I will be leaving tomorrow for Chicago to attend the annual ACE Coaster Con. For those attending we will be manning a sales table there, though probably only on Sunday and Tuesday. We delivered the magazines Tuesday morning to the mailing house we use, and all domestic subscriptions should be mailed by this coming Monday. We did have plans to photograph Six Flags Great America for an upcoming issue this weekend that will not happen due to policies beyond our control. So this means issue 6 will feature Busch Gardens Tampa tentatively and issue 7 will feature Kennywood Amusement Park. Smaller parks and feature stories have yet to be determined, but we are looking at Lakemont Amusement Park as one of our smaller parks, as well as feature stories on SheiKra, Italian Job, Hades, and Gravity Group to name a few. Last, we have tallied and released the results of our Reader’s Choice Awards to the appropriate parks. We will post the official press release online in the upcoming weeks, and will include official results of the Reader’s Choice awards in Issue 5.

Well it's been an interesting weather week for us here in the lovely Midwestern city of Kansas City. Some rather severe storms (aka hail, lightening and 80 MPH winds) knocked out the power at our printers this weekend, but they hustled and we are picking up the magazines in their shrink-wrapped glory tomorrow morning. We will then deliver them to the mailing house (no more peeling and sticking for me!) the same morning. The place we are using is giving us a turn around time of about a week. So, there you have it. It's late but it's done. In other news our traveling calendar looks like this. We will be up in Chicago next week for the ACE Coaster Con, we will be working a sales table, shooting Six Flags Great America and maybe Hades. Maybe I can find some time to throw in five seconds of free time? Possibly? Nah... We are tentatively schedule to then drive to Branson to shoot PowderKeg the following Sunday. Then we are flying to Tampa, FL. to shoot Busch Gardens Tampa for a future issue. Then if this can't get fun enough we will be hopefully driving to Lakeside Amusement Park the weekend after the 4th of July to attempt another photo shoot.

We received the proofs from the printer last Friday (05/28) and after a few color/photo corrections sent the finalized copy of Issue 4 to the printer yesterday, Thursday (06/02). It should be running on the presses by next Monday and be finished and ready to be mailed by the end of next week. This is important news for those who would like to start their subscriptions with issue 4. We will stop accepting Issue 4 subscriptions next Friday, meaning we must have received the orders by then. For those who don't know starting with Issue 4 single issue prices will be raised to $6.99, making the $20 subscription deal, well a really good deal. I can't even go to Holiday World for that!

As far as Issue 5, I must remind myself not to tempt fate next time, it rained the whole weekend. I was so depressed. This means I will have to drive all the way out to Denver again, visit Lakeside AGAIN, oh, the humanity. *evil grin* I''m still slaving away at the keyboard here in Kansas City though as Cedar Point is complete in its rough draft form, it will feature in Issue 5 along with Lakeside Amusement Park, PowderKeg, and Spinning Dragons/Timberland Twister. Millennium Force should also grace the cover.

Last, we didn't think the budget would allow it, but Theme Parks Magazine will again be for sale at the ACE CoasterCon this summer in Chicago. Look for us there.

Well it is late here, and we just returned from a 14 hour drive from Sandusky, Ohio, but I wanted to offer a quick update. As promised we did deliver the magazine to the printer last Wednesday, so we should get the proofs back on that sometime this week. As always, I will try to keep everyone posted. As far as next issue, obviously work is progressing on it. It rained on us (scratch that... it poured) for the Italian Job opening at Paramount's Kings Island. That will most DEFINITELY be a re-shoot, but it is a great ride, and should be featured in Issue 6. We also were lucky enough to be able to complete most of the photography for Cedar Point. Thank goodness the weather gods were with us and provided us with crystal clear blue skies, and no rain! (Word of note -- never forget the sunscreen...trust me.) Next week we will be at Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver, so look for us there on Sunday if you're in the area.

Why is it that everytime I say I will update more often I never do? I seem to have a time problem on my hands *grin*. The long awaited issue 4 will be going to the printer next week! For everyone who reads this you should feel rest assured that we are working very hard for this time problem to be not as much an issue in the future. We also will be traveling in the next few weeks, so you might want to keep a look out for the Theme Parks Magazine staff at Paramount King's Island, Cedar Point, and Lakeside in the coming weeks preparing for Issue #5. Also you might to keep a look out on the newstands near you as we have officially signed the contract with Ingram's Periodicals who if all goes well, will allow Theme Parks Magazine to be seen at such popular places as Barnes & Noble and Borders. Sadly, we have had to raise the per issue cost up to $6.99 to cover the cost of printing, domestic subscription prices will remain unchanged. Also we have recieved a good response back on the 2004 Surveys, We will publish the results of Reader's Choice in Issue #5, can't divulge that kind of proprietry information here, but there were some good suprises to be found. As far as the surveys, we appreciated the input, and much of it will be put to good use over the following year, so don't hold your breath, but the upcoming issues might just include Kennywood, Six Flags Great America, Lakemont Park, and Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk to name a few. I also really liked that Road Trip idea, have to consider that one for the future.... For those who have e-mailed me this week I have to apologize I have been overloaded with stuff, so this update is especially for you. As always I love to receive any e-mails at all, both the good and the bad. Our e-mail address is still: info@TPOmagazine.com.

Sorry for the long delay in updating the news. First and most important the fourth issue is due out in April, here are the progress details on it. The final story break down is Paramount Carowinds, Silverwood, Great Coasters International and instead of a feature ride we are doing a historical story on Cypress Gardens, since some have asked for some historical features. For those who really like our feature ride profiles we are planning two for our next issue, PowderKeg and the Gerstlauer Spinning Coasters. Plus both of our parks in our next issue will have MANY great rides in the parks themselves; yes we have finalized our 5th issue as Cedar Point and Lakeside Amusement Park. To simply put it I am very excited to write about both. And finally yes, we do plan on doing a feature story on Hershey’s Storm Runner, you know who you are. Back to Issue Four it is in post production phase, as the stories have all been sent to our copy editor, all layouts are done, the editorial has been written as well as most of the news stories. It is now more of a waiting game on our end. I am very happy with the way the issue ended up, and I hope all of you enjoy it. I have also cut down the story lengths of the feature parks so they should now be able to be read in one sitting. Last, we are currently in the process of working with Ingram’s Distributing to get Theme Parks Magazine on the bookstore shelves. We also just sent out our Reader’s Choice Award Ballots and Reader’s Survey. If you haven’t received yours yet you should be receiving it very very soon. For those who subscribed by postcard and marked you wanted to be billed later, you will also be receiving those bills very very soon too. Last, for all of those who subscriptions end with issue four, we are currently in the process of printing the renewal notices, and those should be sent out sometime this week. If you have any comments or questions as always feel free to e-mail us directly at: info@TPOMagazine.com

Be sure to visit us at the No CoasterCon in Chicago on Saturday, January 15th, as we will again have a sales table there. Work is also progressing on issue four, with a slight delay for the holidays, Most of the written content for the next issue has been written and is working towards being finalized. Our content for the next issue will include Paramount Carowinds, Silverwood Theme Park, Great Coasters International and Timberland Twister/Spinning Dragons as our featured ride(s). This is set in stone because this writer has been hard at work on all four stories. Also look for more information coming very soon on our new "Discover America's Theme Parks, And Win A Coaster Too!" Contest. This is your chance to win a realistic working roller coaster model from CoasterDynamix.

On tuesday the last of the domestic issues were put in the mail, and for those who haven't received their issue yet, you should be receiving it soon. Also, we might have possibly lost one mailing label from a magazine, as a magazine was returned to us with no label at all. If you do not receive your issue in the next week please e-mail us at info@tpomagazine.com.

On monday we put the first group of issues in the mail with more to be mailing soon after the IAAPA convention which runs from November 17th through November 21st. we would like to thank all of our readers for their patience.

We have just finished the final copy of the magazine and the corrections were delivered to the printers. ETA for a the finished magazines is next wednesday, with mailing out beginning at the end of the week. We have also completely finalized the final content for the 4th issue, which will now include coverage of the IAAPA 2004 convention instead of the normal ride profile.

We have just delivered the third issue to the printers today. We will recieve the iris prints (to check final color) early next week, and it should be rolling very soon after that. We have received a few e-mails about this, and we want to sincerely apologize to every subscriber out there for the delay. The fourth issue is currently in production mode, and it will feature Paramount Carowinds and Silverwood Theme Park. All principle photography has been finished, and the longest story Carowinds has just been finished for its rough draft stage, and will be going to layout next week. The Great Coasters International story will also fall into this issue, and has been completely written, designed and is ready to be printed, it just had to be cut for length, as both Holiday World and Legoland greatly exceeded both of their expected lengths. Also if any readers or fans will be in Florida the third week in November be sure to visit our booth at IAAPA, our booth number is 1236.