A REQUEST FOR HELP – MARKET RESEARCH (SORT OF)

A REQUEST FOR HELP – MARKET RESEARCH (SORT OF)

As many of you know, I have long been a member of the Spanish Ornithological Society, better known as the SEO or, to give it its full title, the Sociedad Española de Ornitología. Living in Spain I felt, way in back in 1982, it was my duty to support the then very small SEO, just as it would be to support the RSPB or a county naturalists trust back in the UK, or the LPO in France. And that is leaving aside specialist organisations such as the Seabird Group, of which I was on original member back in the mists of time.

The SEO is very conscious of the increase that there has been in non Spanish birders living down here in Spain and also that many of them are retired. Now, it is a fact, like it or not, that many who do retire down here do so from the age of 60 onwards and that even with the best will in the world learning a foreign language at that age is, to put it nicely, often rather difficult. Thus, communication with Spanish birders is often difficult as the teaching of English has been and is often rather deficient (you ought to hear my daughter, who is English language coordinator in a state school on the subject, she is very scathing about the quality of the teaching). Now, leaving apart those who Brits. who feel that everyone should speak English (and they exist), this means that with the best will in the world on both sides communication is difficult and leads to nationality/language ghettos, which may include birders.  All of which leads to the request for help.

Back in December, I was talking with the president of the SEO, Dr. Eduardo de Juana (professor of biology in Madrid) and its director, Asunción Ruiz – better known to all as Asun, both of whom I have known for many a long year. During the course of our conversation, the subject of how the SEO could cater for the English speaking foreigners and, draw them into the ambit of Spanish birding. This also means stripping you of some small annual sum of cash to help Spanish bird conservation. 

So, being for my sins a well known guiri birder both amongst the Spanish and the Brits and non Brit. English speakers, I was asked if I would investigate the possibilities of some sort of birding magazine from the SEO but in English, this for a small annual fee. This is something I have being rabbitting on about for years, so I suppose that it was logical that they ask me. 

So I in turn am asking you, dear readers, for some input in writing to me, not to the blog but to my own e-mail address, which is  andy.birds (at) gmail.com  I would ask you to consider the following points (I have my own ideas but am saying nothing so as not to influence) and you could reply to each point by copying the list and then adding your comments after each point and any extras at the end :

1. Would you be willing to subscribe to such a magazine?

2. What would be the top annual price you would be willing to pay, as this would also incorporate you as a member of the SEO?

3. What sort of periodicity would you like (eg. quarterly) and what sort of size (number of pages)?

4. Would you prefer printed or pdf by e-mail?

5. What sort of content would you like to see? (eg. sites to visit; identification of ‘difficult’ species; bird book reviews; trip reports (within Spain only, I think); birdy orientated letters from and photos by subscribers; questions and answers; interesting records from regions; English speaking tour guides, etc. – the field is enormous.)

6. Would you like a small amount of ornithologically orientated advertising (eg. books, optical gear) or not?

There is more that I could add but leave that to you imaginations! 

If I could have responses by end February I would be most grateful as I am having a meeting in Madrid in mid March with Asun and would like to take up some sort of report on the viability or not of this idea.

By the by, I don’t know who would edit this but have a well-founded suspicion that it might be myself. Many thanks in advance.

Andy