As a subscriber to Dulcimer Players News since 1987, Dan Landrum appreciated the magazine’s value within the dulcimer community.

When he and his wife, Angie, learned the previous publisher was looking to retire from the business after more than 30 years, they expressed an interest in buying the publication.

“She was being particular about who she sold it to,” Mr. Landrum said. “As with any community, though it doesn’t seem as if it is major, there’s controversy.

“You can lean too far in one direction. She (the former publisher) had worked hard to keep the thing balanced throughout the years and was being careful about selling it to someone too heavily involved in one camp.”

The Landrums bought the magazine in October 2006. A professional dulcimer player who has toured with Yanni and who has recorded several CDs of his own, Mr. Landrum said the biggest challenge in publishing the magazine has been the learning curve. He and Angie, with the help of graphic artist Butch Ross, handle every aspect of the magazine and its companion Web site.

Simply constructing the magazine takes a lot of time.

“Then if you want to do something creative, you have to learn how, then you have to actually do it,” Mr. Landrum said. “It takes hours and hours to produce a magazine, and much of that is my own lack of experience.”

Mr. Landrum said another challenge has been updating both the look of the magazine and reader and advertiser expectations.

“When we bough the magazine, it had been such a folksy journal and the ad prices were so low. We’ve instituted a lot of changes to make it more modern looking with color, nice paper and a CD with every issue.

“We’ve also had to make our ad rates fit reality,” he said.

Four thousand copies of “Dulcimer Players News” are printed each quarter, and Mr. Landrum said he has sold out of each pressing.

Like a lot of print publishers, Mr. Landrum said he is trying to figure out what role his Web site will have.

“You can’t ignore the Web, but then you can’t give everything away either,” he said.

Owning a magazine does have some benefits, according to Mr. Landrum.

“It has increased my profile nationally, and you get to talk to people every day all over the country and sometimes around the world about something I enjoy.”

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