Dear KB members,
I'd like to offer my apologies for not being as available to all of you for the past few months as I should have been. From February of this year, I experienced some very serious health issues that have kept me down for a while and resulted in me losing almost 36 pounds. After all that happened, I was able to get a 3rd medical opinion that proved the problem to be not as serious as thought, and I am back to good health now...and also back to the physique I had way back in high school, so I guess this little chapter of my life ended on a very positive note.
During this period, I had many things to think over. While most of them where personal and quite somber, the magazine was always in my mind during this time whether I was around on this board or not.
You're a rather supportive and understanding group, so I will lay things out for you just as they are.
First and foremost, I'd just like to state that I am a hobbyist. My love of koi has dictated many of my actions over the past twenty years and taken me down some paths that have been very positive and enriching. I owe a lot to nishikigoi and I could never imagine a life without them. The founding of Koi-Bito was done more out of my love for koi than profit motive.
Over the past three years, I've learned a lot about this market and it's dynamics and also about the publishing industry. While it's not all been wine and roses, I consider it a learning experience and also a wonderful opportunity to make acquaintances with many of you...some of which I've even had the pleasure of meeting in the flesh. Overall, it's been a very rewarding experience for me and I hope for you as well.
Along the way, some of the sad facts I learned about this industry is that it is very different from most others. The market is indeed very small and for the most part lacks the promotional budget that most other industries have. Many players can only afford (or are only willing to) to advertise in one publication at a time. This for the most part means advertising in magazines that are sanctioned by national-level koi clubs, and I'll leave it to you to guess which ones I'm referring to with respects to the US and UK markets.
Koi-Bito was started out of my own pocket. There is no "money man" behind all of this, not do I enjoy the sponsorship of the AKCA, BKKS, ZNA or other similar organizations found worldwide. With all costs/labor considered, less profit has been generated than would have been realized working and unskilled part-time job for a year or less. While that comment isn't meant to demean anyone's chosen occupation, I would like to give you and ideal of how little money there is in the way we're doing things now. As-is, the magazine simply cannot generate enough profit to provide even a modest income for me, much less hire staff and other badly needed resources. As harsh as it sounds, that is indeed the reality.
It's surely no secret that a lot of the other magazines are in dire financial straits at the moment. One the started up after KB went the way of the dodo last year when the "money man" pulled the plug, and others have had to make some drastic changes to remain afloat. I know the publishers of all the magazines here in Japan, and they are
all hurting. One well-known one would simply not be able to operate any more were it not for the generousity of some of the wealthiest members of the club that it publishes for. That's a hard fact.
It should also come as no surprise to you that the KHV problem has hit KB's interests very hard and caused the loss of a significant loss of revenue. While we've had a few people step up and try and help us out to make up for the losses, the net effect has sadly remained the same. Picking up new advertisers in Japan isn't that profitable as there is an expectation that for every advert run (meaning every issue) that the price include a new photo shoot. This means that we must go on site and take new photographs of the single koi to be run in an advert each time. When you can spread the cost among 10-20 advertisers from the same region and do them at once, it makes sense. When spread across only 1-2, then it does not. There is simply no money left after travel and accomodation are paid for, and while it makes for interesting new adverts it does nothing for the bottom line. This industry also has a very long accounts receivable time period expectation, which makes it all the much more difficult to conduct normal business operations. I don't wish to recall all the times that I've had to dip into personal funds to cover operations that weren't being covered by income. It seems that with the cancellation of a major koi show, that we will lose yet another advertiser and this hurts as well.
My costs here are incredibly high. Printing is prohibitively expensive, as is postage. Many of our advertisers based here though have no problem telling you their displeasure when the colors aren't correct (a product of the printing process) and that they won't pay the next time it happens. For that and other reasons, I am unable to move printing operations to a country where this is not legal recourse for us should printing specifications not be correctly met. There is not alternative to the postal service here, and for first-class airmail the cost for 6 issues consumes almost all of what the normal subscription price previously was.
A few months back, I started a trial to see whether the market was willing to bear the true cost of the magazine. What it costs for me to produce, post, hire help in getting the magazines out to you, and for me to make a fair (meaning just that, fair and not excessive) profit. At that price, we had very few takers and even worse, some people resorted to digging up old promotional mails that contained a PayPal link with a promotional price in it that is no longer valid, but not removable from PayPal. That was very disheartening indeed, and pretty much drove home for me all that I needed to know going forward.
In the meantime, we've stopped offering subscriptions on the website. Back issues still remain available, and anyone with outstanding orders, these will be filled no later than this upcoming monday. You'll notice that I've started moving content online, and this will continue and accelerate. Advertisers have made it abundantly clear that they do not mind paying for online advertising, but very few can commit to print. I understand the commitment on their part and am sensitive to costs and perceived value. That being said, I can't run a print & post magazine on website advertising revenues though as they are significantly less. Web advertising represents "better bang for the buck" for many though, and I think that this trend will continue.
So for now, the changes I am making is that all content will be produced online only until the beginning of August. None of this content will cost you a penny, but you must be a registered user (free of charge) in order to view it. I don't mind doing things once, but simply cannot keep up with the labor-intensiveness of posting each order out, waiting for settlement and giving the lions' share to the printers and postman. Online content only has to be done once for many thousands to be able to enjoy it. It is more cost-effective and it will be entirely paid for by sponsors. I know that many of you have commented before that you would not be willing to pay for an online magazine, but this is FREE and you know the old adage about looking a gift horse in the mouth.
I am looking at introducing video seminars/quizzes/whathaveyou by autumn, and again I don't mind investing in the programming and licensing costs as long as it can scale and cut down on labor.
I enjoy doing up the articles and travelling around, but cannot run things as they are without another source of income. I don't mind doing them, but could sure use some help so that I'm not serving as host, coat checker, waiter, cook, busboy, and register operator all at once. Anyone that is adept at online article layout is certainly more than welcome to PM me concerning the possibilty of working with us on this site.
Advertisers will now be able to place auctions for free. Free meaning it costs you nothing to post, nor anything when a koi is sold. Free in all respects. We are also looking at a way to integrate logins from the Koi-Bito site with the auction site so that the bidding experience is a smoother one for our members. Any advertisers having questions, please PM me.
I realize that this online solution will not be acceptable for everyone, nor did I expect it to be. I wanted to be frank and honest with everyone here, and I ask that you give me until August to mull over the future of the print magazine and then we will start to address reimbursement for those not satisfied with this solution. If it works though, KB will be free to all that signup for a free account.
Well, there it all is and I thank you all for your patience and perservering with KB. I must apologize in advance, but the next 2 weeks will be extremely busy ones for me, so I may not be able to respond as quickly as I like. I will try my best to make myself available to you though, but please keep in mind that PM is much better than mail considering all the spam I receive.
Thanks again for being a truly wonderful bunch.
, you know, encouragement!
06-04-2006
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