I personally think that the MA should bring a profit, all I am saying is that in order to do so through the raising of rates, whomever is in charge needs to be careful that they can back up the increase with an equal amount of results. If they can't, then the increase will lead to a mass exodus that will trigger a sharp decline in revenue which usually is followed by a drastic cut in ad rates to get the advertisers back. So what started as a perceived step forward, ends up as a slide down the slippery slope
Exaclty and the AMA has been changing prices both forwards and backwards. In fact right now it's 30% less to purchase a full page spread, then it was 3 years ago ... why do you think that is? Because sales have slowed down. When sales speed up, their raise rates again. If MA decided to raise rates now during an economic turndown, the only thing that would happen is that sales would slow down and advertisers would go elsewhere, just like Hoss would want. Problem is that he doesn't realize that MA would lose even more money.
You start realizing these things when you spend your own hard earned dollars on advertising.