ORIGINAL: 804


From Mark Smith's candidate forum:



Bob,
Your assumptions are relatively close. I'm not sure that there is a magazine on the market that would be profitable without some revenue generated from subscriptions. The AMA members who receive Model Aviation are, essentially, the magazine's subscription base. A certain amount of each member's dues is allocated to the magazine as a benefit of membership.

So, yes I agree that an amount from each member's dues goes to "subsidize" the cost of the magazine. But, no more so than an amount of each member's dues goes to "subsidize" the cost of the liability insurance protection each member also receives as another benefit of membership.

Just as I mentioned above that I don't think any magazine could break even without at least some revenue generated from subscriptions, I don't believe Model Aviation can either. What we can do is manage the publication as efficiently as possible so as to keep the amount of member dues earmarked for Model Aviation as minimal as possible. This includes making sure that our advertising rates are inline with industry standards as well as responsibly managing all of the expenses associated with publication. In the past our advertising rates were a bit low relative to some other publications. In January of this year we raised our rates to bring them more inline with the other model aviation publications. These rates will be regularly reviewed and adjusted as needed.

Mark