I’m thinking of discontinuing display ads in the print issue of BHM. Except, of course, for our own ads advertising our anthologies, books, and various subscription options. Haven’t decided for sure yet, but I’m leaning heavily that way.

Doing so will improve the quality of the magazine by allowing more pages for useful articles. I’m tired of having to bump good articles every issue to accommodate ads that really don’t add much to the magazine, either in quality or revenue.

If I do this, I’ll honor existing ad contracts, but few of them go beyond the next few issues. I’ve already told my ad gal, Lorraine, to agree to no new ad contracts for 2011.

I’ll probably continue allowing classified ads, possibly even small “display type” ads within the classifieds.

There is an option to discontinuing display ads, which is to raise display ad rates to the point where I have far fewer advertisers. Then, at least, the remaining ones will be pulling their weight as far as helping to pay the print bill for each issue.

This is an interesting decision I’m about to make. Most magazines are driven by advertisers. You may have noticed that the size of many magazines has shrunk during the last couple of years in direct proportion to the decline in their ad revenue. That hasn’t happened with BHM because we are not dependent on ad revenue. We are driven by subscribers who value the quality of our content. I think dropping 13 or so pages of ads and replacing them with good articles will play to our strength.

Share or Bookmark

The high school golf team played in a tournament at Pacific Dunes Monday, which is one of the four courses in the Bandon Dunes complex  just north of Bandon, Oregon. It was a rainy, windy day with the low score for the tournament an 85. Very tough conditions that reminded me of what it will be like when they start up the Crook Point course near my home at Pistol River. I wrote about it in a previous blog post.

I recently got hold of an Economic Benefit Analysis on how the Crook Point Course will affect the local community. In a nutshell, it will provide between 89 and 404 full-time jobs a year for the first 10 years, then stabilize at about 213 full-time jobs in perpetuity. Employee compensation for this area will be between $3.6 million and $17.3 million a year for the first 10 years, stabilizing at about $8.3 million a year after that. Part of this money will come from jobs induced in the local economy as the course will attract tens of thousands of visitors to the area.

Not bad huh? The golf course will be a major windfall for our hard-pressed local school districts and fire and police departments, generating $400,000 in new taxes a year, which is 40 times what the property currently generates.

Share or Bookmark

Don Childers, BHM’s artist since Issue No. 1, is visiting us with his wife, Nancy, in anticipation of possibly moving to Gold Beach, the home of Backwoods Home Magazine. Don will be 80 in September, and he says he needs a break from the freezing temps of his home outside Colorado Springs in the Colorado mountains at about 6,000 feet. It’s great to have him here and he’ll do a few paintings for future issues while here. It’s like the old days working on the early issues.

Don is a 79-year-old guy with a 20-year-old attitude. He really hasn’t aged much at all, except he looks older. We still have his old drafting table at the office so today we fixed it up so he can work. It has an old style drafting machine and we went out and bought some new paints and brushes for him.

With luck we’ll get a break in the weather so I can take him fishing. I think this will be a good place for Don to spend his last 10 or 20  or so years. He plans to come to work at the magazine for about 15 hours a week as soon as he moves here.

Share or Bookmark