a conversation with Colleen Holland and Joseph Connelly

"One of the goals of VegNews is to allow local vegetarian societies to see what each other is doing and feed off the energy at the flip of a page rather than riffling through a stack of newsletters"
I met Colleen Holland and her partner Joseph Connelly at the Animal Rights 2000 conference in July and was struck by their positivity and ambition. They were giving out copies of the first issue of their national paper VegNews, and I was very impressed with their work. I recently received their second issue, and I was even more impressed: inside you'll find interviews, restaurant reviews, upcoming events of interest to local vegetarian communities and the national one, and articles that profile the work of individual activists. VegNews is an important part of our growing movement, as it strives to synthesize and streamline our information and promote the message of vegetarianism. Please take a moment to read about Colleen and Joe's plans for VegNews. While you're at it, why not contact them for a free issue today at subscriptions@vegnews.com. You won't be disappointed. (This interview has been edited for clairty.)

Vegan Street's Marla Rose: What gave you guys the idea for your newspaper?

Joseph Connelly: I started and ran a vegetarian society for over four years in New York, the Syracuse Area Vegetarian Education Society, and we produced a high-quality newsletter. When I was doing that I got involved in a lot of newsletter exchanges with other vegetarian societies. I noticed that they pile up; you get to read them eventually, but often not for a while. Secondly, I noticed that, let's say, a new veg cookbook comes out and somebody at each of these vegetarian societies might get the cookbook for review purposes. People devote their time, labor and energy to this - which is in short supply - and only a couple hundred people would see the review. So I got the idea that maybe we could unify the movement a bit more with something like VegNews. One of the goals of VegNews is to allow local vegetarian societies to see what each other is doing and feed off the energy at the flip of a page rather than riffling through a stack of newsletters. It's more economical, and it seems to make more sense in a digital age when information can be sent across country so rapidly

MR: Right.

JC: That said, a large percentage of the information in any vegetarian society's newsletter is not really localized to that vegetarian society: a recipe, a cookbook review, or the headline story, maybe about Mad Cow Disease, none of which are pertinent specifically to the local vegetarian society. I began to notice that the amount of information in a local vegetarian society's newsletter that is actually relevant to only that society is actually not that large and can usually fit on one page or at most two pages. That's where we came up with the idea for Society Pages. So in VegNews, you have all of the information that is not essential to your group in a format where everyone can read it like any newspaper, plus your local group gets a page where it can list events, or have event recaps, or even put in a membership form that people can clip out and send in.

"There are so many small vegetarian societies around the country, all kind of doing their own thing, and we want to act as a unifying force, a network, for everyone to come together as a movement"
MR: What are some of the goals for VegNews that you would like to see achieved?

Colleen Holland: We have several goals which fall under a few subjects. The foremost one is unifying the vegetarian community - for now, at least, in the United States and Canada. As Joe also mentioned, there are so many small vegetarian societies around the country, all kind of doing their own thing, and we want to act as a unifying force, a network, for everyone to come together as a movement. We feel that creating a national publication such as VegNews is the perfect tool to do that. So our primary goal is to unify the vegetarian community under one umbrella. Secondly, of course, we want to serve as an educational piece for anyone picking up the paper; we want to get as many people to explore leading a vegan lifestyle as possible, and therefore we distribute it to mainstream outlets so that the general public will also be educated on vegan values. Also, VegNews is really a combination of both Joe's and my own skills and experience. Joe mentioned running a local vegetarian society. I also was very active with the San Francisco Vegetarian Society, and some other small non-profit groups, in addition to having a background in publishing, marketing, graphic design. We came together not only with a common goal, but also with these skill-sets.

JC: And the third major function is the promotion of vegan and vegetarian-friendly organizations, products, and businesses. VegNews is a source that people can look to; in the first issue you could find a vegetarian guide to New York City, or discover vegan bed and breakfasts. You can see website ads. You can learn about national groups. We also publish an extensive events calendar in each issue.

MR: It's sort of a synthesis of all the things that might be important to someone in the movement.

JC: Yes. It's a newspaper devoted to vegan and vegetarian living, as well as a trade paper for people within the movement.

MR: How do you see VegNews working with the vegetarian societies?

JC: Great question. We stated in the first issue that our goal is not to be yet another organization. We really want to act as a resource for other organizations to use to further their mission. Both Colleen and I have already done the local vegetarian society thing, and we are certainly still involved in our local vegetarian societies. Yet we did not feel we were utilizing our talents as well as we could. We felt we had the ability to reach people on the national level. By no means am I saying that local vegetarian societies are not important. We feel we can assist them; what we hope to do is help other organizations. Any of the national organizations that put out a magazine or a newsletter will be promoting themselves; VegNews is about promoting all these great organizations that are already out there doing this work, but maybe haven't yet connected with the masses. We hope and believe that this is the vehicle with which to do this.

CH: Also, as far as connecting with local vegetarian societies, we find that the task of producing a newsletter can be very overwhelming and daunting for some groups, and in many cases can bring the group down. We hear all too often of vegetarian societies going under, and often it's partially because of the heavy task of the production of the newsletter. So we are offering an alternative as a way for them to continue to build their vegetarian society, concentrate the very limited amount of time, energy, and resources they have on events that promote vegetarianism. We can handle their newsletter and mail it to their members; we'll devote up to a full page to them. The group can do it on a monthly basis, quarterly, or annually. There are many options depending on how much coverage the group wants. Their members can get a national newspaper with local news every month.

JC: Let's say the Chicago Vegetarian Society is producing a newsletter right now; it's a four or six or eight page newsletter photocopied at Kinkos, being done by one person, and that one person just got a job out of state. Now the vegetarian society has a problem. But all the stuff you'd put in a newsletter as far as news or recipes, you'd find in our non-Society Pages, and in the Society Pages we'd put the content that was local to Chicago. The vegetarian society is responsible for getting the information to us and we'd produce the newsletter for them. We do it efficiently and inexpensively as a newspaper, at a fraction of the cost of what they were paying to produce one of their own. We even mail it to their members! The Chicago Vegetarian Society can have a page in every issue of VegNews, they can have a page in every other issue of VegNews. Let's say that they only produce a quarterly newsletter: does that mean that Chicago Vegetarian Society members only get four issues? No, they can get every one. The beauty of it is the Chicago Vegetarian Society can now say to potential members, "If you become a member of the Chicago Vegetarian Society, this professional national newspaper is a membership benefit." It's an added value to being a member. They get to see what their local society is doing, plus they get to see what other vegetarian societies are doing, which hopefully will stimulate them to say, "Hey, look what they just did in San Francisco or Montreal. We can do that. We don't have to reinvent every wheel on our own."

CH: It'll be a source of inspiration. Groups can learn from each other, and grow with each other, instead of always trying to figure things out from ground zero. And you can find how to contact one another.

"VegNews is about promoting all these great organizations that are already out there doing this work, but maybe haven't yet connected with the masses. We hope and believe that this is the vehicle with which to do this"
MR: Do you have any goals for how large you'd like the paper to become?

JC: The first issue was 24 pages. That was pretty large for the first one. It really depends on how many organizations come on board the network. This is expandable. We'd like to see a couple new societies sign on with each issue.

MR: Do you accept submissions to VegNews?

JC: Absolutely - we rely on submissions. People can e-mail me at editor@vegnews.com and send me a short query e-mail telling me what they'd like to submit, and I will respond. Most likely their piece will be accepted if it's well-written and pertinent to veganism.

MR: How can one go about getting a subscription to VegNews?

JC: You can e-mail us at subscriptions@vegnews.com or you can call us at 408-358-6478.

MR: And what is the cost?

JC: The cost is $20.00 per year in the U.S., $30.00 per year in Canada, and $40.00 per year outside North America. Right now we have a "baker's dozen" special running until Nov. 30, 2000: Thirteen issues for $17.95; $27.95 in Canada; $37.95 elsewhere. [Editor's note: all funds in U.S. dollars.]

MR: Well, unfortunately we've run out of room on my tape. Thanks, Joe and Colleen.

CH and JC: Thank you.

VegNews - North America's only vegetarian newspaper, bringing you up-to-date information on living a cruelty-free and healthy lifestyle.

The website can be found at www.vegnews.com

P.O. Box 2129
Santa Cruz, CA 95063-2129
p: 408-358-6478
f: 408-358-7638

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"One of the goals of VegNews is to allow local vegetarian societies to see what each other is doing and feed off the energy at the flip of a page rather than riffling through a stack of newsletters"	I met Colleen Holland and her partner Joseph Connelly at the Animal Rights 2000 conference in July and was struck by their positivity and ambition. They were giving out copies of the first issue of their national paper VegNews, and I was very impressed with their work. I recently received their second issue, and I was even more impressed: inside you'll find interviews, restaurant reviews, upcoming events of interest to local vegetarian communities and the national one, and articles that profile the work of individual activists. VegNews is an important part of our growing movement, as it strives to synthesize and streamline our information and promote the message of vegetarianism. Please take a moment to read about Colleen and Joe's plans for VegNews. While you're at it, why not contact them for a free issue today at subscriptions@vegnews.com. You won't be disappointed. (This interview has been edited for clairty.) Vegan Street's Marla Rose: What gave you guys the idea for your newspaper? Joseph Connelly: I started and ran a vegetarian society for over four years in New York, the Syracuse Area Vegetarian Education Society, and we produced a high-quality newsletter. When I was doing that I got involved in a lot of newsletter exchanges with other vegetarian societies. I noticed that they pile up; you get to read them eventually, but often not for a while. Secondly, I noticed that, let's say, a new veg cookbook comes out and somebody at each of these vegetarian societies might get the cookbook for review purposes. People devote their time, labor and energy to this - which is in short supply - and only a couple hundred people would see the review. So I got the idea that maybe we could unify the movement a bit more with something like VegNews. One of the goals of VegNews is to allow local vegetarian societies to see what each other is doing and feed off the energy at the flip of a page rather than riffling through a stack of newsletters. It's more economical, and it seems to make more sense in a digital age when information can be sent across country so rapidly MR: Right. JC: That said, a large percentage of the information in any vegetarian society's newsletter is not really localized to that vegetarian society: a recipe, a cookbook review, or the headline story, maybe about Mad Cow Disease, none of which are pertinent specifically to the local vegetarian society. I began to notice that the amount of information in a local vegetarian society's newsletter that is actually relevant to only that society is actually not that large and can usually fit on one page or at most two pages. That's where we came up with the idea for Society Pages. So in VegNews, you have all of the information that is not essential to your group in a format where everyone can read it like any newspaper, plus your local group gets a page where it can list events, or have event recaps, or even put in a membership form that people can clip out and send in.
"There are so many small vegetarian societies around the country, all kind of doing their own thing, and we want to act as a unifying force, a network, for everyone to come together as a movement"	MR: What are some of the goals for VegNews that you would like to see achieved? Colleen Holland: We have several goals which fall under a few subjects. The foremost one is unifying the vegetarian community - for now, at least, in the United States and Canada. As Joe also mentioned, there are so many small vegetarian societies around the country, all kind of doing their own thing, and we want to act as a unifying force, a network, for everyone to come together as a movement. We feel that creating a national publication such as VegNews is the perfect tool to do that. So our primary goal is to unify the vegetarian community under one umbrella. Secondly, of course, we want to serve as an educational piece for anyone picking up the paper; we want to get as many people to explore leading a vegan lifestyle as possible, and therefore we distribute it to mainstream outlets so that the general public will also be educated on vegan values. Also, VegNews is really a combination of both Joe's and my own skills and experience. Joe mentioned running a local vegetarian society. I also was very active with the San Francisco Vegetarian Society, and some other small non-profit groups, in addition to having a background in publishing, marketing, graphic design. We came together not only with a common goal, but also with these skill-sets. JC: And the third major function is the promotion of vegan and vegetarian-friendly organizations, products, and businesses. VegNews is a source that people can look to; in the first issue you could find a vegetarian guide to New York City, or discover vegan bed and breakfasts. You can see website ads. You can learn about national groups. We also publish an extensive events calendar in each issue. MR: It's sort of a synthesis of all the things that might be important to someone in the movement. JC: Yes. It's a newspaper devoted to vegan and vegetarian living, as well as a trade paper for people within the movement. MR: How do you see VegNews working with the vegetarian societies? JC: Great question. We stated in the first issue that our goal is not to be yet another organization. We really want to act as a resource for other organizations to use to further their mission. Both Colleen and I have already done the local vegetarian society thing, and we are certainly still involved in our local vegetarian societies. Yet we did not feel we were utilizing our talents as well as we could. We felt we had the ability to reach people on the national level. By no means am I saying that local vegetarian societies are not important. We feel we can assist them; what we hope to do is help other organizations. Any of the national organizations that put out a magazine or a newsletter will be promoting themselves; VegNews is about promoting all these great organizations that are already out there doing this work, but maybe haven't yet connected with the masses. We hope and believe that this is the vehicle with which to do this. CH: Also, as far as connecting with local vegetarian societies, we find that the task of producing a newsletter can be very overwhelming and daunting for some groups, and in many cases can bring the group down. We hear all too often of vegetarian societies going under, and often it's partially because of the heavy task of the production of the newsletter. So we are offering an alternative as a way for them to continue to build their vegetarian society, concentrate the very limited amount of time, energy, and resources they have on events that promote vegetarianism. We can handle their newsletter and mail it to their members; we'll devote up to a full page to them. The group can do it on a monthly basis, quarterly, or annually. There are many options depending on how much coverage the group wants. Their members can get a national newspaper with local news every month. JC: Let's say the Chicago Vegetarian Society is producing a newsletter right now; it's a four or six or eight page newsletter photocopied at Kinkos, being done by one person, and that one person just got a job out of state. Now the vegetarian society has a problem. But all the stuff you'd put in a newsletter as far as news or recipes, you'd find in our non-Society Pages, and in the Society Pages we'd put the content that was local to Chicago. The vegetarian society is responsible for getting the information to us and we'd produce the newsletter for them. We do it efficiently and inexpensively as a newspaper, at a fraction of the cost of what they were paying to produce one of their own. We even mail it to their members! The Chicago Vegetarian Society can have a page in every issue of VegNews, they can have a page in every other issue of VegNews. Let's say that they only produce a quarterly newsletter: does that mean that Chicago Vegetarian Society members only get four issues? No, they can get every one. The beauty of it is the Chicago Vegetarian Society can now say to potential members, "If you become a member of the Chicago Vegetarian Society, this professional national newspaper is a membership benefit." It's an added value to being a member. They get to see what their local society is doing, plus they get to see what other vegetarian societies are doing, which hopefully will stimulate them to say, "Hey, look what they just did in San Francisco or Montreal. We can do that. We don't have to reinvent every wheel on our own." CH: It'll be a source of inspiration. Groups can learn from each other, and grow with each other, instead of always trying to figure things out from ground zero. And you can find how to contact one another.
"VegNews is about promoting all these great organizations that are already out there doing this work, but maybe haven't yet connected with the masses. We hope and believe that this is the vehicle with which to do this"	MR: Do you have any goals for how large you'd like the paper to become? JC: The first issue was 24 pages. That was pretty large for the first one. It really depends on how many organizations come on board the network. This is expandable. We'd like to see a couple new societies sign on with each issue. MR: Do you accept submissions to VegNews? JC: Absolutely - we rely on submissions. People can e-mail me at editor@vegnews.com and send me a short query e-mail telling me what they'd like to submit, and I will respond. Most likely their piece will be accepted if it's well-written and pertinent to veganism. MR: How can one go about getting a subscription to VegNews? JC: You can e-mail us at subscriptions@vegnews.com or you can call us at 408-358-6478. MR: And what is the cost? JC: The cost is $20.00 per year in the U.S., $30.00 per year in Canada, and $40.00 per year outside North America. Right now we have a "baker's dozen" special running until Nov. 30, 2000: Thirteen issues for $17.95; $27.95 in Canada; $37.95 elsewhere. [Editor's note: all funds in U.S. dollars.] MR: Well, unfortunately we've run out of room on my tape. Thanks, Joe and Colleen. CH and JC: Thank you.

	VegNews - North America's only vegetarian newspaper, bringing you up-to-date information on living a cruelty-free and healthy lifestyle. The website can be found at www.vegnews.com
	P.O. Box 2129 Santa Cruz, CA 95063-2129 p: 408-358-6478 f: 408-358-7638