Jon Lowe you write that there isn't significant cost savings on the K-factor if it's mailed to 250 people or 500 people as a member of the K-factor committee that the board appointed earlier this year, I have to strenuously disagree. It's true that from a POSTAL cost point of view the cost is the same 250 or 500 as long as things are carrier route sorted, etc. the cost to PRINT 250 is different than the cost to PRINT 500. Further, for cost reasons we limit length of content and most content is printed in black and white, making it very difficult to perceive details in how-to articles, etc. Finally advertisers have trouble tracking ROI for the advertisements they pay for because there's no tracking telling them that customer X who spent at least $2500 with them over the last year came to them through the K-factor unless that customer remembers to tell them "I buy from you because you advertise in the K-factor", and how many of us actually remember that? You can get some tracking from print media with QR codes or coupon codes that tell you what publication the customer came from, but those are cumbersome and most of the small companies that service RC don't have the resources to do the tracking that way. With a digital distribution, done right the way things like RC Pilot do it, the publication is pushed to your device when it's available, and every ad you see is tracked for how much time you spend reading it, how many of its interactive features you use, and, ultimately, how many people click through the ad to your commerce system all at no infrastructure cost to the advertiser. Color comes for free on all pages, and whether your ad is a full page or a 1/4 page the cost is the same (though you, the advertiser, may need to spend a little extra if you want to add interactive features or have a slick color ad since you need more layout/design expertise).

In the presentation I put together for the board, I covered carefully the revenue and expense implications of various options for going digital or mixed digital/paper. The fact is, without *some* kind of change, the K-factor is a significant COST to the NSRCA, it should be break-even at worst. I don't doubt that there will still be some folk who want paper, but, just as the club I'm with (with over 400 members) records the individuals preference and delivers paper or electronic, the same could be done by the NSRCA. At some point, as Jon Carter mentioned, we need to present the case for change to the membership and let them help the board make the right decision for the membership's needs & wants.

Peter+