Dear readers and longtime friends of Tehran Weekly,
Over the past several weeks, we asked you to contact us and tell us what you would like to see in the magazine, which sections you enjoy most, and what changes could make Tehran more interesting and enjoyable for you.
Fortunately, many of you responded. You offered suggestions, shared criticism, and sometimes strongly requested that certain sections be expanded, reduced, added, or brought back.
We listened.
The magazine you are holding today is, to a large extent, the result of your comments and requests.
But this close relationship with our readers has also created an interesting challenge that I feel is worth discussing.
Our largest number of readers and subscribers are in California. In addition to our subscribers, Tehran is distributed at many different locations and community centers. Some receive the magazine every week, while others, for various reasons, may receive it every other week. As a result, some readers occasionally miss an issue and later call us asking, “Can you publish that article again?” or “We missed that puzzle. Could you run it one more time?”
Whenever possible, we have tried to accommodate those requests.
So if you occasionally see the same puzzle appearing on two different pages, or appearing again in another issue, please don’t be surprised!
We have even received some amusing family requests. In a few cases, a husband or wife completed a puzzle before the other had a chance to work on it, resulting in a small household dispute—and then a request to us to please print the puzzle again!
We try our best to keep everyone happy, although apparently we have now also become responsible for maintaining peace in some of our readers’ homes!
Then there is the matter of our humor page.
Several readers have contacted us asking why it disappeared.
The truth is that our humor section gradually became a story of its own. One person would complain about why a particular name such as “Ghazanfar” appeared in a joke. Someone else objected to “Bijan.” Another reader would call and say that certain jokes were simply inappropriate for a publication like Tehran.
Meanwhile, another group would call and ask, “What happened to the humor page? That was the first page we read!”
Eventually, we reached a point where almost any decision we made pleased one group and disappointed another.
And that brings me to something I would like to say openly and respectfully:
No publication can satisfy every reader, on every page, every single week.
If we remove a section every time one person dislikes it, and immediately add something whenever another person requests it, eventually the magazine will lose its own identity.
For that reason, the management and board of Tehran have decided that from this point forward, the magazine must continue on its own professional and editorial path.
Of course, we will continue listening to you. Your suggestions remain valuable, and thoughtful criticism will always influence our decisions. Tehran would have little meaning without its readers.
But while respecting our readers’ opinions, we also need a reasonable degree of freedom of expression, freedom of choice, and editorial independence.
There may be an article in one issue that you absolutely love while another reader dislikes it. The following week, the opposite may happen.
That is simply the nature of a general-interest magazine.
Tehran is not intended to be exclusively political, exclusively entertainment, exclusively social commentary, or a publication for only one particular group. Our goal is to bring together news, politics, culture, history, health, legal information, entertainment, humor, and social issues so that different members of a family can each find something they enjoy.
And if, despite all these efforts, someone feels that the content or direction of Tehran no longer matches their interests, we sincerely respect that decision. Fortunately, other publications and media outlets are available, and every reader has the right to choose the one that best reflects his or her interests and preferences.
This is not said out of frustration.
It is said out of respect.
For nearly three decades, we have published Tehran for the Iranian community. If we change the personality of the magazine every week because we are afraid that someone somewhere may be offended, eventually it will no longer be Tehran.
So from now on, we will continue to welcome your suggestions, listen to your criticism, and use your ideas whenever they are reasonable and practical. But please also allow those of us who work every week to produce this magazine to carry the responsibility of deciding what ultimately appears in its pages.
You have the right to choose what you read.
And we must also have the right to choose what we publish.
I hope these few heartfelt words do not upset any of our readers. Our purpose from the very beginning has always been the same:
To make Tehran a magazine for the Iranian community—diverse, independent, enjoyable, informative, and free.
And as long as you continue to be with us, we will continue working to make it better.
— Shahbod Noori
Editor-in-Chief
Tehran International Weekly Magazine