[QUOTE=GreenCloudCLF;917605]Controversy always sells mags so here are my 2 ideas:
1 - An artcle titled “Why non-Chinese Arts Suck Really Bad”
or
2 - Printing all the flamewars that occur on this forum.[/QUOTE]
hahaha. people would become super stars overnight man.
AnCo forced into Chapt. 7
Hi Gene,
Wow, I had not been following the distributors case. Looks very bad for Anderson. See this Publishers Weekly piece from a few days ago:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6641553.html?nid=2286&source=link&rid=468490239
Yikes, what are “we” doing to do?
take care,
Brian
That’s funny, I thought I posted something here about AnCo
The AnCo closing has rocked the magazine publishing world. Some say it’s the harbinger of the coming print apocalypse.
Here’s an update of the situation.
The News Group Moves Forward After Anderson News Acquisition
TNG president described process as “a major undertaking.”
By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
At the 2009 MPA Retail Conference on Monday, News Group president David Parry outlined the company’s acquisition of assets belonging to Anderson News, which was forced to shut down its magazine distribution operation in February. Anderson’s exit from the market created a distribution nightmare that the supply chain is still digging out of. Parry described just how chaotic the scene had become.
Anderson, which co-owned the Prologix distribution service with The News Group, shut down its operation on February 7. Two weeks later, News Group made the decision to buy Anderson’s assets.
Parry said that the company wanted to find a way to get business back up and running in a responsible fashion. “We could have easily taken our time and opened new centers, or we could acquire assets from Anderson,” he said. “It wasn’t until Feb. 20 that we decided to take possession of most of their assets and begin the process of interviewing employees.”
Parry told attendees that the conditions were dire when they walked into Anderson’s warehouses. “It was about finding product inbound on trucks and in warehouses in return processing rooms,” he said. “There was product outbound too. And about 20 percent of that product was encumbered, and we could not find a distributor to do anything with it. So we had to process all of the product out, and return it using specific standards in order to get the distribution system to where it was able to report. It was a major undertaking.”
In order to accommodate the acquisition of distribution centers from Anderson, Parry says that The News Group interviewed and hired 3,800 people (it is unclear if any of these employees are from Anderson News), purchased 1,300 trucks and acquired 15 distribution centers and 50 depots to serve its retail customers and suppliers.
With the new infrastructure created, The News Group now has 27 distribution centers, 8,600 employees, 2,500 trucks and 120 depots between its five separate ownership groups, which together, Parry said, operate in markets representing about 90 percent of the population of the continental U.S. and Alaska.
“That claim is a little high since they don’t have locations in the population dense Northeast,” John Harrington, publisher of the New Single Copy newsletter, wrote in an email to AD. Harrington estimates that The News Group currently has approximately 40-45 percent of the magazine market share, but it would be a while before the company’s market share could be accurately measured.
Parry told attendees that The News Group would now focus on investing in category management, the professional development of its employees and getting the product to flow. “We need to get product flowing,” he says. “We’re 100 percent up and ready to go, but we need to the right product shipped out to the right places as soon as possible. Our retail customers have suffered heavily since Feb. 7. Consumers have come in expecting to find their favorite magazines, and retailers have been unable to deliver, so we need your help.”
This is one among many reasons why we’ve launched our facebook and myspace sites.
Gene,
I hope Kung Fu Taiji print magazine has a long and healthy life. I personally do not like reading things off the internet, if nothing else I find it hard on my eyes and I view things on the internet as kind of…well not as good as print media.
But laying all that aside, has Kung Fu Taiji magazine laid out a specific plan for the future. I presume there is some financial cut off point where the owners decide we can no longer support a print magazine and we are going to cut it.
If I understand the business correctly it happens in these phases:
If it ends up being “b.” then does Kung Fu Taiji basically turn into a blog. Will content be posted at random or daily times or will there still be the idea of “issues” for example the October issue, the November issue?
I realize some of this maybe too delicate to talk about in public, but I was just wondering.
take care,
Brian the Older Print media fan
Well I just renewed my subscription, that should help. 
I love my kwoon so much, I may just give my sifu and gift buy an ad for the school. Depends on how my bonus works out this June. 
I’m a fan of print too…
…and it kills me that the world is going through this transition during my watch here at Kung Fu Tai Chi. To be honest, this is completely uncharted territory. Every morning, I read my ever dwindling newspaper (the newspapers are bleeding money faster than the magazines so they’re drying up first). Then I read my e-news feeds as I look over the forum here. I’m on some publishing newsfeeds which I read avidly. Unfortunately, the big guns in publishing have no answers either. If I had an answer, I’d be advising Time or Rolling Stone or some publication that would pay well for such an answer.
Meanwhile, here, we trod on…
another one bites the dust
RIP Maxim UK. 
Beer, babes and good-bye for UK Maxim
Sir Felix is closing the print edition of the title
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Apr 2, 2009
The concept was nifty, playing upon the scruffy tastes of Britain’s young men, and Felix Dennis did so well at it that many think he invented the entire laddie category of men’s magazines when he launched Maxim in 1995.
In truth, it was already booming. Dennis just gave it more oomph with features on beer, babes and bathroom humor.
Now it’s over.
The original Maxim is folding, it was announced today in London, its legacy living on as a web site. The last print issue goes out later this month. In its place on UK newsstands will appear the American edition, launched in 1997, which Dennis sold off several years ago.
At its peak in 2000, the UK Maxim reported a circulation of more than 300,000 but by late last year that had shrunk to under 50,000.
It was a slow but sure decline for the title, as well as for so many similar titles, trailing down each year as more and more young men moved online.
“The community that buys those magazines is moving to the internet,” Lorna Tilbian, media analyst at Numis Securities, a London investment bank, told Media Life almost two years ago. And by then circulation for men’s title was already tumbling, falling 14.4 percent in the second half of 2006. Hardest hit were the lad titles.
But other forces were at work as well.
There was a flush of new titles, many weeklies, that overcrowded the market, making a shakeout inevitable. Almost all have seen their circulations tumble.
The few magazines to report gains were more upscale, traditional men’s titles like Men’s Health and GQ, which remained above the fray.
But also hurting lad titles like Maxim was the rise more recently of free men’s titles with far larger circulations, such as Sport and ShortList.
As freebies, handed out at train stations and the like, they didn’t need to run racy covers to drive sales, making them more appealing to advertisers as well as readers.
The lads craze in the U.S. market has similarly ended. Maxim is still published but ad pages are well down. Sister title Stuff and arch-rival FHM folded two years ago.
getting harder and harder with print mags, considering everything is moving online. so everybody keep buying kung fu magazine. its the only REAL kung fu mag there is now. i just saw the inside kung fu magazine and the whole mag is about mma. not kung fu. they are using a cheaper printing paper now, which says alot, about there circulation.
Wecome to the depression, the whole world is going throuh this, every bussiness there is, is doing their best to survive, it’s not a " fun ride", however, one must face this with a positive attitude.
When this depression ends, those that pull through it will be much stronger, my parents went through the first one and it was much worst, yet similar, the world will learn from this.
The newspapers are hurting very much, your right, with the Internet, TV, ect. it makes it " tuff", but on the bright side, local news is covered more in local newsapaers, and, locals love to read the opinions of their neighbors, community and stuff they write themselves such as letters to the editor or as in the case of Kung Fu Tai Chi - the letter section, and, all the local events in all areas.
Speaking of KF Tai Chi Magazine , it is excellent , very well done. The May/June issue is a fine example of your work Gene. The article about Patrick Barry, The Beijing Opera, and The Traditional 5 Animal Frolics is a classic. I have been buying Martail Arts magazine since they came out, I keep them all, and over the past decades your work is paying off. Black Belt is doing well also, however ISKF is getting thinner and less attractive.
If you are a Martail Artist you owe it to yourself to subscribe to KF Tai Chi Magazine. If you buy supplies, you owe it to yourself to deal with Tiger Claw. These are honest, good reliable people.
Keep up the good work Gene and fellows, dig in and support Gene and Tiger Claw, those that pull together make themselves stronger, and that is what it will take.
My best to you
Ron Shewamekr
The canary is dead and we’re still in the coal mine…
I started this thread for several reasons. One was to make the changes in the newsstand industry very transparent. I had been a freelance writer for magazines for nearly a decade before I took on this position and I didn’t have the slightest idea how magazine distribution worked. Now I’m painfully aware of it. Having the industry collapse during my watch here at this institution we call Kung Fu Tai Chi is not only a professional challenge. It’s very personal. I love print. And I love martial arts. So I’m digging in as deeply as I can, hoping to weather this storm.
Now, more then ever, we need your support. Of course, you can always support us through subscriptions. It’s also crucial that you support us on the newsstands. This can be done not only by purchasing our magazine on the newsstands yourself, but encouraging others to do so. Thank you for your continued support.
Much Still To Be Done with the Newsstand Supply Chain
Anderson was the quake, now for the aftershocks.
By Linda Ruth
04/13/2009 -03:33 PM
The drama is far from over. If the Anderson News bankruptcy was a massive earthquake in our businessand that is certainly what it felt likethen the aftershocks are barely beginning to be felt. Well be feeling them for quite some time.
Despite all the heroic efforts of the national distributors and the remaining wholesalers to make a smooth, clean, and invisible transition of distribution from Anderson News, the sheer logistics of picking up all the retail outlets and providing them with the correct number of copies for thousands of magazines overwhelmed the system. And thats just with the Anderson News bankruptcy. This doens’t take into account the massive number of copies in distribution that were moved from Source Interlink and then back again.
In the course of all of this there were empty warehouses and magazines left on the docks; there were publications sitting in trucks awaiting direction before being re-labeled and re-directed. There were stores caught in the middle, without returns pickup from Anderson, without (yet) delivery from anyone else.
What this means for magazine publishers is budget adjustments. We have all known that, and been prepared for it for some time. The question is, how big an adjustment, and for how long? Were still hearing about new agreements between major retail chains and remaining wholesale agencies. There were a couple that came through just last week. The people on the front linesthe national distributor field people for the most partare up to their ears in distribution work. They expect to continue to be so for weeks.
The point is, distributions are still affected, today and tomorrow as well as yesterday. Every copy has not yet fallen smoothly into place. No surprise, but important to remember.
And what about the sales information for the copies that were out there when this hit? Anderson News Company has provided MagNet, the consolidator of wholesaler information, with an information feed up through their last day in business. MagNet is confident that their store-mapping system will be able to accurately apply the returns and track the sales. Lets hope their confidence is justifiedfrom MagNets lips to Gods ears!
Magazine publishers, in the meantime, need to take these steps:
Reduce your allotments where necessarywhile a massive amount of your business has been transitioned, it’s not over yet. That work is still going on.
Be prepared for returns hits, which will inevitably be larger than usual. Some of your product didnt make it to the stores. Some got sent to the wrong stores, or in the wrong quantities. Some got out there, but late. Account for these inevitabilities in your re-projections.
Be prepared, as well, to question unusually high returns. It will be a miracle if some of those returns arent misapplied or counted twice.
We will get through this in time. But for the sake of our planning, we need to remember: Were not through it yet.
Linda Ruth is Principal of Publisher Single Copy Sales Services (SingleCopySales.com).
Good Morning Gene,
This is a very interesting thread for me in that it has talked about how the magazine industry works (or does not work, as the case maybe). Just yesterday I stepped foot for the first time in 17 years or so in an American bookstore. Although I have been back in California for about 6 months, I had not had the chance to get into a regular bookstore.
I went into the B. Dalton in Horton Plaza (downtown San Diego). The magazine rack (which ran across a whole wall) was full-----but not a single martial arts magazine to be seen. They had the full line of what I will call the “Weider Muscle Mags” but nothing on martial arts. It is a bit different at the Vons supermarket where I buy food. It has the usual martial arts “regulars” (i.e. Black Belt, IKF, Grappling).
Well…we shall see. The B. Dalton looked real sad in terms of martial arts books too. They had probably about 10 different titles. Almost all of them were Tuttle Publishing, mixed martial arts stuff. The bigger, all color MMA/BJJ books they are putting out.
take care,
Brian
BK,
It all depends on location and the store size!
Barnes and Noble and Borders in my area (IL) have Tai Chi magazine, Black Belt, Inside Kungfu, TKD and at times, some UK Karate issues.. Even JAMA is available at times, not the medical version!
Source Interlink goes C11
Source Interlink Files for Bankruptcy
Nearly $1 billion in debt, distributor agrees to go private.
By Dylan Stableford
04/28/2009
Magazine distributor and publisher Source Interlink is filing for bankruptcy—and going private.
The company—controlled by billionaire Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos.—announced today that it has reached an agreement with its lenders to “eliminate approximately $1 billion dollars of existing debt” and privatize the company.
At yesterday’s market close, Source stock was trading at 16 cents per share. (In August 2007, when Source acquired the Primedia Enthusiast Group, its stock was upwards of $4 per share. A year earlier, it was above $10 per share.)
Under terms of the agreement, the company’s lenders will cancel nearly $1 billion of the Source’s debt, as well as funnel $100 million in additional liquidity. Source, in turn, has agreed to pay “all of its vendors in full and on time.”
As part of the restructuring, the company filed a lender-approved plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
“We couldn’t be more pleased,” Source Interlink CEO Greg Mays said in a statement. “This restructuring will materially reduce our interest expense and debt levels, substantially improve free cash flow and allow us to capitalize on several operational opportunities to further improve and grow our business.”
Mays said he anticipates Source will emerge from bankruptcy within 35 days.
Earlier this year, Source was at the center of a massive magazine distribution lawsuit, claiming rival wholesalers as well as publishers—like Time Inc., Hachette and American Media Inc.—were attempting to force the company out of business.
The company eventually settled with most of the defendants (Bauer is the lone defendant remaining in the lawsuit).
This is only two weeks after they settled with our distributor, Curtis Circulation…
Source Settles with Hachette, Curtis, Kable
Bauer is last defendant remaining in wholesaler’s antitrust lawsuit.
By Jason Fell
04/14/2009
Source Interlink has announced agreements with Hachette, Curtis Circulation and Kable Distribution, effectively ending its lawsuit against the companies.
In February, Source filed a lawsuit alleging that several defendants—including magazine publishers, wholesalers and distributors—“conspired” to force the company to sell its distribution business at a steep discount to rivals Hudson News and News Group. Source was awarded a temporary restraining order prohibiting the defendants from denying shipments to its magazine distribution business.
Source has come to similar agreements with Time Inc., Time Warner Retail, News Group, Hudson News, American Media Inc. and its distribution unit Distribution Services Inc.
“I am happy to make this announcement because it means that, when considered in light of other recent agreements, we have resolved our differences with virtually all our magazine suppliers,” Source CEO Greg Mays said in a statement.
Bauer remains the only defendant not to strike a deal with Source.
Last month, fellow wholesaler Anderson News, which went out of business in February, filed its own antitrust lawsuit against many of the same publishers and distributors.
“It is fully our intention to create a bond with our publishers and national distributors that is as strong as the relationship we have with our retail partners,” Mays said.
I strongly believe that one of the issues, in relation to kung fu books, is that many in the past were summaries of forms that did no seem to convey any knowledge of that the steps in the form were about. The consumer is quickly gonna figure out that an author who conveys only surface details without any evidence they know usage may not be an expert, and won’t buy.
The kung fu magazines often have the same problem.
So, I blame the guys writing the books, except the guys writing the good books/articles.
Plus, in the past, the tournaments were a good marker for what people were buying and selling, forms. Now that the market has changed, people are less likely to take lessons, take part in tournaments, etc, without more stringent proof of expertise from the experts. I think a lot of schools can see this now, and many practitioners are seriously improving their knowledge of the usage of their style. Hopefully, the tournaments that really support more than just forms demonstrations will become the norm in the future, because the ones that don’t seem to be dying a well deserved death. This, imo, will result in a more expert base to provide articles and books than we may have seen in the past.
Not saying there weren’t experts, but ten years ago, someone could have a great reputation, and never have demonstrated anything but a forms performance. The real kung fu is not solitary, imo.
Not all books in the past re: M/A have been about forms only, neither have the magazines. Todays M/A magazines show folks how to use not only forms but self-defense in general and lots of it. I feel there should be more books of self-defense but DVD’s seem to be dominating that market.
Tournaments are improving and getting better. There are some great ones around the country, Form competition is fierce and dominates especially in Kung Fu.
Martail Arts is gaining in popularity, self-defense is the motivaton, for example , parents and young people today are seeking instruction for their kids and themselves what with all The child molestation, rape, etc going on, people are seeking help with protecting their kids (Child Saftey ).
[QUOTE=SIFU RON;932332]Not all books in the past re: M/A have been about forms only, neither have the magazines. Todays M/A magazines show folks how to use not only forms but self-defense in general and lots of it. I feel there should be more books of self-defense but DVD’s seem to be dominating that market.
[/QUOTE]
I am aware of this, but in the last fifteen years, the vast majority of kung fu books are either forms only, or 3/4 form and probably less than 1/4 practical usage. Gutting the subject of its practical usage opens the way for people who only know the form to publish, and creates books that are only useful as a curiosity, or for people who know the set held within and wish to remember it’s exact sequence, which is probably not the majority of those buying it.
Mind you, there were and are gems, but there was a glut of meaningful information in most books and articles. Not in Gene’s magazines, but some places.
279 down…
We’re still hanging in there - help us out by subscribing.
Mag Bag: 279 Mags Fold In First Half of '09
by Erik Sass, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 5:50 PM
While there were a considerable number of new launches, with 187 new titles debuting in the first half of the year, 2009 has seen a larger number fold – 279 to be precise, according to MediaFinder.com, an online database owned by Oxbridge Communications that tracks U.S. and Canadian periodicals.
The net loss of 92 magazines can’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who has watched the casualty list grow longer in the first six months of 2009. The magazine industry – like virtually all media – has been pummeled by one of the steepest economic downturns in decades. The recession has hit key advertising categories hard, with automotive, fashion, health and beauty, electronics, and insurance and finance showing big drops in ad pages compared to last year.
MediaFinder.com sorted closed magazines to determine which categories took the biggest hits. “Regional Interest” had one of the worst attrition rates, with 27 titles closing; these include Denver Living, Florida Inside Out, Ocean Drive en Espanol and Forbes Mountain Time, a short-lived Forbes spinoff targeting executives at Western ski resorts. The “Lifestyle” category saw 14 titles close, and “Business” saw 10, including Conde Nast’s ambitious, ill-starred Portfolio. Certain categories of smaller trade publications were also especially hard-hit, with 18 titles covering the construction business demolished, reflecting the state of the American real estate market.
But the damage has been widespread, with magazines closing in virtually every category. Among the bigger losses, 2009 has also seen the closing of Country Home, Wondertime, Teen, Domino, Figure, Craft, Hallmark Magazine, Travel & Leisure Golf, Best Life, Tennisweek, Genre, Blender, Portfolio, Television Week, Trump, PR Week, Radio and Records, Nickelodeon and Vibe.
This represents a big jump from last year. While designating “major” titles is admittedly somewhat subjective, the 20 titles listed in the previous paragraph are double the number of major titles that closed in all of 2008 (including Blueprint, Golf for Women, Quick & Simple, Home, CosmoGirl, Men’s Vogue, O at Home, Play, Cottage Living, and PC Magazine). At this rate, and with an economic recovery still some months off, 2009 is certain to see the closing of more big titles.
new t-shirt
Hey Gene;
Way ahead of you… got my new t-shirt today, it’s very cool… I’ll be wearing that one to Dallas!
Thanks for your support Skip.
I’ll look for you in that shirt at Dallas. Hopefully, we can get a little KFM Forum get together going there this year.
Dallas
You’re welcome Gene. I’ll be picking up a big package from Patty for Sugar Land when I’m wearing your shirt; I bet I get some real strange looks…
I’ll be busy with family Friday nite tho. I’m from there and that is the time I see Mom besides Thanksgiving.
Also, I don’t see any of the taiji guys here talking about competing there??? The taiji rings seem to have as many folks there as the kung fu rings.