Thanks for the interest and support here Lyle.
I think I can sum this up by reflecting on a recent discussion with a friend who works for a media company in London. She works on the strategic planning and buying for some big advertising campaigns and after flicking through the first few pages of the magazine I got my first question fired back at me - where are the advertisers and how does it make money?
The fact that we do have a magazine is thanks to Ian Kruger, the man behind the mag, his investment and long term faith in the business (and sport), most importantly the companies who are advertising and the quality of the magazine which the team is delivering that has lead to its growing distribution through CNA & PNA around the country, including inland stores.
At the moment we may be just having to still push on upwards for a little while but it is a solid team at the mag and the interest from advertisers is growing.
This is the real world and people don't just throw money at you for nothing, especially in a small industry like ours. Some businesses may rightly want you to prove yourself first, they may not have worked you into their advertising budget or they may simply need to be sold on the need to advertise. If we want to run a profitable magazine then we need to be able to answer all those questions and back it up with a magazine where companies feel that if they want to sell to bodyboarders then they need to advertise.
Derek and myself started up Factory 7 and as guys who run a company which caters to the sport, it has been vital in my mind that our sport has a magazine in South Africa. I've seen what happens when a mag disappears and without a magazine I battle to see a future for bodyboarding in SA and the companies which rely on the sport. From our side we see our growth linked with the growth of the mag and hence the sport so it has been important to support the magazine through advertising.
To help explain this point, I just dug out an email that I was copied in on recently because quite literally - I cannot say it any better. This is only an extract from the email from a key figure in the industry, the extract is a basic recipe on their view of how the sport can move forward but it highlights the importance that some of the industry places on the magazine.
Quote:
There MUST be structure:
Firstly - we NEED a mag.
Sixty/40 is doing a great job and its important that the mag looks better and grows stronger. The website too. These are key elements and "voice" of Bodyboarding to opening the sport to the outside world with a slick image.
From there, a DVD once a year where sponsors pay to put their ads in and promote SA B/B;
Then local provincial events culminating in a big SA Champs contest;
Finally -something like the Cave Rock. Its becomes the cherry on the top once everything else is working.
Anyway, it's happening - as Mark Clark says above, "slowly but surely" we are getting there and from our side I hope that we are putting all the right building blocks in place. The sport went through a few bad years and it is a case of having to deal with that at the same time, to help bring the sport back to a respectable level in order for this to work for us.
You guys as readers should not have to worry about the financial state of the magazine, I just hope that you guys are enjoying the mag and the website so we can keep that happy readers box ticked while we work on ticking off the rest.
keep up the good work...
)
