55802--The Basement. Part Three

Congratulations! You have made it to part three of the New Moon Publishing office tour. You’ve missed parts one and two? Shame on you! No worries. You still have a chance to read them.

Part One
Part Two

Melanie will be leading the tour without Jen today. Jen is currently detained in an undisclosed location, to be revealed later. We have seen all there is to see upstairs, so let’s go into the depths of the basement! The basement is where we keep all of our back issues and wonderful, girl-friendly merchandise, available at www.newmoonstore.com. Of course, we have all of the normal, boring stuff too, like extra toilet paper, paper towels and hand soap, envelopes, old computer parts, and our new wonderfully fabulous server.

The first thing you will notice about New Moon Publishing’s basement is that it is surrounded by a tall chain-link fence. We share the basement with two other companies and it helps to keep all of our stuff separate. But, sometimes when a New Moonie gets in trouble we lock her in the “cage.” The other two companies thought it was a weird business practice, but now they see the benefit and lock their employees in there, too.



Ah, and this is where we find my detained sidekick Jen. What exactly did Jen do, you ask? Well, she left her dirty dishes in the sink!


We even put up a sign to remind her to wash them, but it didn’t work.
The "cage" was the last option. She has served her time. I think it’s safe to unlock the door. Now, Jen and I can continue the tour together!


What occupies the most space in the basement? New Moon back issues! We have several boxes of each issue from the past fourteen years! For those of you that are new to New Moon here is the cover of our very first issue from 1993.



Wait! Where did Jen go? I think I have lost her! Never mind. She is hiding behind our stacks and stacks of New Moon back issues! She's so silly. We have to be careful when trying to find a back issue because there are so many boxes. That’s why we have started the movement “Save a New Moonie.”

It looks like I’m the one that needs the help today! Help save a New Moonie by purchasing lots, and lots of back issues!



Don’t get caught in the basement alone after 5 pm. We have our very own security system to protect the merchandise. Her name is Moonie Monster and she only has three fingers. She is very shy and doesn’t like her picture taken.We had to sneak up on her to get this rare photo. She bears a striking resemblance to Jen doesn’t she?


I think we have disturbed Moonie Monster enough for the day, so we had better end the tour. Thanks for joining us. We enjoyed having you! Look for other tidbits from 55802 on the New Moon Blog!

55802--The Office. Part Two

Welcome to part two of New Moon Publishing's virtual office tour! If you missed part one, get caught up!


Upon entering our kitchen you will probably see someone standing with the fridge door open wondering what she is going to have for lunch.
Looks like she has a lot of options…

New Moonies like to share. We have a table with a purple tablecloth where FREE items are located. Today, the only things we see are peppers from Ann’s garden.They do look really nice.


HOWEVER, there are four candy dishes located through out the office that New Moonies grab from through out the day.

We love chocolate!!!
Oooo! And we were lucky enough to have a plate of cookies mysteriously appear in the conference room. These are for the taking, too.



Using the facilities (AKA the bathroom) at New Moon Publishing could be quite an adventure if you are not careful. Make sure to get "the code" from a New Moonie to get out. Some New Moonies have gone in, but have never come back...If you see a New Moonie in there that looks lost, tell them we miss them! (And giving them the code would be nice, too.)





New Moonies also like birthdays. We have an office birthday tradition! A birthday loot of a wand, crown and giant NSYNC pencil are passed from person to person. A New Moonie receives the loot on her birthday and gets to keep it until the next birthday. Currently, the birthday loot holder is our very own Melanie. She gets to retain her loot until Crystal’s birthday in September. She has had her loot since the end of July. THAT’S A LONG TIME! With the birthday loot she can ask any New Moonie to do anything she wants as long as no New Moonie will be harmed in any way, physically or otherwise, AND they have to do it. Now, that's birthday power!

Let’s head to the editorial offices. There we will find the Luna bin. All of the letters and artwork that girls send to New Moon go straight to the Luna bin for safe keeping until Luna can read them. The bin is looking a little empty girls! Send those submissions in!

Hidden in the very bottom drawer of a file cabinet is the stash of New Moon covers. If you ever come to visit the office in person, you can take some covers home with you! Covers make great posters!

Over in the Circulation area is the infamous rubber band ball. It was started by former New Moonie Karin between the spring of 2002 and 2003. We were able to catch up with Karin to get the full history of the rubber band ball.

It started because I was sorting the mail and had a desk drawer full of rubberbands from the bound letters. So, one afternoon, when I was cleaning the desk, I started going through the drawer and winding up the rubberbands. I remember that the very center band is red... or maybe blue... but,I think it's red. It took a week or so but, eventually the drawer was cleared out and the ball remained in its place. I'm glad to know it lives on...

Yes, Karin, it still lives on and it's still growing. We add to the ball everyday and it now weighs in at 4.2 pounds. That's right! 4.2 pounds. The rubber band ball is truly the highlight of the New Moon Publishing office.

Next time…55802—The Basement.

55802--The Office. Part One

Welcome to New Moon® Publishing, Inc. located in the Duluth's wonderful zip code, 55802. This is where New Moonies make all the magazine magic happen! What is a "New Moonie" exactly? A New Moonie is what New Moon employees like to call themselves and each other.

Let’s get started with the tour!







Your tour guides Jen and Melanie!





When you walk into our office you will be greeted by Jen's friendly face. If she's not here, just ring the bell for service.
A New Moonie will rush from her office to assist you. If you have to wait for a few minutes (because sometimes we don’t hear the bell) you can admire the beautiful millennium quilt hanging on our wall.

In 1999, New Moon sent out a call for girls to send in their home-made quilt squares that portrayed girls and women of the past, present, and future. We received over 3,000 squares! The squares were sewn into 50 different quilts, which toured in various universities, libraries, museums, and community centers throughout the U.S. The tour closed in 2003 and the quilts are on permanant display around the U.S. We are proud to display this one in our office!



The best room in the office is the conference room because we have large windows facing one of the busiest intersections in Duluth: Lake Ave and 1st Street.We have seen many interesting and scary things during lunches and meetings. One of the scariest things happened on a Sunday when no one was here. A car came down Lake Ave and tried to turn on to 1st Street and didn’t make it. The car hit our building and left a mark. This happened last winter and we can still see the evidence of the accident. As far as we know, no one was hurt.



The wall was caving in, so now we have a temporary plywood wall in the conference room.


All of the beautiful tiles on the outside of the building need to be replaced.


All of New Moon Publishing’s awards are displayed on the walls of the conference room. (Except the Golden Lamp award because we just won that) We spent many grueling days hanging our awards. It was worth it, because the conference room looks awesome!


This is only a small sample of our many achievements! To see them all, come visit us!

Next time...55802--The Office. Part Two
We'll explore bathrooms, birthdays and bins!