bc,ad,dc, and print media

Somehow today I conversed with 4 pretty smart people. Denver Colorado lost a newspaper this last week as the Rocky Mountain paper is no longer with us. Denver is now a one newspaper town. I know Denver is considered to be a cowtown to some but It is New York city to me. I think it it is like a million people considering the satelite cities. Any way is print media dead? How will print media fair in the next year. Will papers go online? Like the wallstreet journal. If I subscribed to it in the paper form I would get it a couple days late. It is a great paper but is 2 days late alright? I guess they have a online version that is more timely. How about the Shorthorn country? I have heard people say that Cagwin has alot of clout cause he runs the magazine, the sale co. and his own Shorthorn cattle. Thats where the bc,dc, ac come in. Before Cagwin,during Cagwin,after Cagwin. How old is he and how old will he live to be. What happens a.c.? Does the ASA run the magazine. There really isn't alot of upside to the Shorthorn Country as far as increasing redership is concerned. You are stuck with a pretty well set readership. How do other breeds handle their breed magazines? Who owns them? I was thinking that at one time the Shorthorn magazine came with the price of membership. Do old timers remember. How does the Gelbvieh, and Brawnvieh and all the other breeds do it. Do the breed organizations own the magazine? Will breed magazines be on line only in the future? I hate to read news and stuff online I'd rather have print. Then... I was listening to 760 progessive talk(Denvers liberal station-...I like to listen to what the enemy is up to). Today the one guest said liberals own the internet. Obama raised alot of money on internet and young people flock to it. The guest mentioned that the right wingers own talk radio. I thought all this was interesting. Here radio shows locally are Dr. Laura,Rush, Hannity,O'reily and whatnot. The left wing can't buy a radio talk show. Oh also today kloe had Fred thompson and his wife doing a talk show. I listened to it and it was pretty cool...first day. Anyway is printed media dead? How will the peoples republic of Obama's recession affect every thing? How about small town newspapers? Bird City Kansas has a weekly paper in a population of 600 people. They are mainly old people and does this make a difference. What will happen A.C? something to ponder.

As far as the Gelbvieh, the breed association technically owns the magazine. I believe the Canadian Association has their magazine setup seperately from the association though. The Gelbvieh World is technically it's own entity and is held accountable financially by itself, but I believe they receive some funding from the AGA. We do see quite a bit of propaganda come down from the higher ups at the AGA through the magazine, so they use it as more of a forum to inform the membership. I really wish we had more of an online presence then we do though.

I do not think anyone has to worry about what will happen to Shorthorn Country after Don Cagwin retires. Some one else will take it over. Don took the magazine over when it was in big trouble. There were major staff problems, it was losing big money and it was becoming a major burden on ASA staff. He purchased the magazine from the ASA and took over all the risk. He pays all the staff at Shorthorn Country as well as pays one half the salary of a fieldman who also doubles as a Shorthorn Country rep at shows and sales. ( at least that was the situation up until a couple years ago).

Since Cagwin has taken over the magazine, I think he has done a very good job of maintaining advertising rates. I can only remember one price increase in the last 10 years. After a few months, he said that he was going to drop the ad rates to where they were previously and try to get more advertising to make up the difference. For the readership it has, and the quality of the journal, I think it is very competitive in regards to rates. The subscriptions to Shorthorn Country have been increasing substantially for the last number of years. There is a large international readership as well.

Here in Canada, I cannot think of any of the so called larger breed associations that maintain their own magazine. At one time, I think every breed owned it's own magazine. Each and every one has sold their magazine to an independent person and I think they have all grown and expanded since this was done. I think this is no different than any private business as opposed to a public business. Private business usually is more efficient.

Personally, I don't think that the print media is dead. I think there is a bunch of newspapers that have to rethink what they do, in order to keep competitive with other competitors. I think the newspaper business is like many other businesses. Company mergers in all industry are becoming almost every day occurances. The same happens in the print media... and sometimes they just close their doors when they cannot compete any longer.