THE LIGHT’S MISSION
The Light, the magazine of the Iyengar Yoga community in the U.S., is published twice a year by the Publications Committee of the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the U.S.(IYNAUS). The Light is designed to provide interesting, educational, and useful information to IYNAUS members to:
• Promote the dissemination of the art, science, and philosophy of yoga as taught by B.K.S. Iyengar, Dr. Geeta S. Iyengar, and Prashant Iyengar.
• Communicate information regarding the standards and training of certified teachers.
• Report on studies regarding the practice of Iyengar Yoga.
• Review and present articles and books written by the Iyengars.
• Be a platform for the expression of experience and thoughts from members of all diverse backgrounds, both students and teachers, about how the practice of yoga affects their lives.
• Present ideas to stimulate every aspect of the reader’s practice.
Welcome to the Light V2, whose home is now Substack. For those unfamiliar with this excellent platform, it has established itself as one of the best and most user-friendly out there in the past few years. Since so many of us are consuming media electronically, it was a natural decision for IYNAUS to publish content here. Look forward to written articles, videos and audio content from members.
Why Substack?
It might not surprise you to know that a community as exacting and intensely focused as the Iyengar National Association of the United States took to this step with some trepidation. After all, we are committed to upholding a venerable tradition. At the same time, our Guruji maintained the purity of yoga while embracing many forms of technology and innovation. I think it is safe to say he would not see the digital era as one lacking a benefit, and, by extension, I think he would welcome this foray into the world of Substack, which offers our organization incredible, global reach.
When I joined the Publications Committee in 2021, IYNAUS had made the move to all-digital. The two primary publications were Samachar, published quarterly, and The Light, published roughly two times per year. While Samachar provided regional news and shorter pieces, The Light was focused on longer form articles, sequences and detailed commentary. Many articles were more than 8,000 words long. We had an incredible roster of contributors share their insights and perspectives.
But analytics revealed something sobering. While The Light generated substantial engagement initially, the average read time was around 9 minutes per person. For a magazine that often had more than 50,000 words, this suggests many articles were either skimmed or not read at all. I heard from some writers who felt disappointed by this, despite the fact that their work was highly regarded. Many of the long-form articles took significant effort to create, plus many hours from editor David Monteith and designer Don Gura.
My own experience with The Light’s ISSUU format was that, while the pdf looked remarkably similar to a three-dimensional magazine, the user experience was a little awkward. Despite the simulated page turns and such, it was hard to read on a phone. Many members felt similarly. The slick and professional look was definitely attracting readers, but the interface was causing people to give up.
Substack is part of a new generation of publishing sites that makes creating and sharing content very easy. While the potential for design is high, the basic format is quite simple and usable for both readers and writers alike. Articles appear clear and readable on phones, tablets and computers, and content is supported by elements such as narrated articles - which have proved invaluable while preparing dinner. Content can be paywalled or partially paywalled or free - and in this new media landscape, we felt it was important that IYNAUS be able to present at least some public content that was very high quality. I’m pleased to say that many of our fine contributors, such as Roger Cole, Rebecca Lerner and Pauline Schlosser have given us permission to use their work in this capacity, and there are certain to be many more.
As simple as a Substack page might seem, this represents many months of work and discussion. Myself and my colleague and co-chair, William McKee, both feel that this move will do a lot to broaden exposure to the subject of Iyengar Yoga, and in particular, the work of members in our national association. While the highly-designed pdf format of The Light was quite beautiful to look at, it wasn’t possible to link to articles via social media platforms, such as Instagram. Our social media coordinator, Skyler Christensen, will now be able to seamlessly integrate media published on Substack into reels and posts. Substack also facilitates narrated versions of articles, which is great for those, like myself, who like to listen to them while preparing dinner.
The Light V2 will allow for announcements and news on both the national and regional level, essentially taking over where Yoga Samachar left off. We hope that the platform’s ease of use and much broader reach will increase engagement significantly for local studios and teachers holding events all over the country. We intend this to be a space to broadcast local happenings, so please reach out to us and let us know what is going on.
We hope that you will feel inclined to contribute to this incarnation of The Light. Please reach out to me with submissions or ideas. publications@iynaus.org
