Posted By:
Rich Klein The biggest issue with all this is print publications are not what they used to be in terms of interest, even of a couple of years ago.
The recent departure of myself, and others, from Beckett; the shrinkage size of SCD (the last issue I received had fewer than 50 pages, including the front cover ad); the ending of venerable publications such as the Baseball Guide and the Football Register from the Sporting News; the cutbacks at almost every daily paper in this country; .... As a matter of record; I just recieved the National issue of SCD which did have over 100 pages. However, I will suspect in advance that the following issue will have somewhere between 48-60 pages.
In many ways, this is a similar issue to the lessening of stores and shows across the country; as many people want their information delivered to them via the computer screen or to order their cards the same way. How this eventually gets solved will be the conclusion of this informational revolution.
As an now unbiased observer, SCD has many issues; although they are a weekly publication and very timely; information can be delivered immediately to a readership via email. Thus, they can't be as fast as they were even 10 years ago when the internet was still in a primitive stage. Sports Illustrated; Newsweek; Time; all of these types of publications have the same core issue of timliness. If you read a Time magazine from the 1970's and you read one today; you will notice less ads and less news.
What I would do if I were SCD (and remember they are now owned by a corporation, not Chet Krause or the employees); is to go bi-weekly to let an advertister's ad breathe a bit to give them a chance to sell some items at a fixed price. Also, it would take some pressure off the editorial staff (Led by TS O'Connell, who does a fine job IMHO); to have to go to war every week. I would also institute some caretaking toward who I allow to have ads.
At some point, this may all be not possible any more as if SCD contiunes to lose their subscriber base; there may not be enough left to have a publication.
The choice is up to them. And as a subscriber for more than 30 years, I hope they can turn it around and make the right choices for themselves and the hobby.
Regards
Rich
Edited to fix some bad grammar in the final paragraph; Edited for some changaing information.