[CQ-Contest] QST vs. NCJ

[Tom Frenaye]

At 08:05 PM 1/12/2002 -0500, K1VU wrote:

>Being a Life Member of the NRA since 1963 I can only say that one of the worst
>things the NRA did was to fractionate the membership into "Us and Them" when
>they came out with "The American Rifleman" and the "American Hunter" option
>for the membership !!!
>
>I see the ARRL doing the same thing right now !!!

Actually, ham radio has divided into lots of interest groups over the past 20 years, and instead of standing together we often fight among each other.  Take a look through the QST Section News column for all of the people involved in emergency communications and the other volunteer programs in the ARRL Field Organization.   There are precious few callsigns you'd recognize from contest QSOs - yet they are as active or more active on the air than most contesters are.   Every group wants more QST space for their specialty.

>I would like to see the League get rid of the NCJ and QEX and put the pages,
>money and coverage back into QST !!!  Add QST pages not cut them.  Get more
>advertising revenue for a single publication that encompasses ALL aspects of
>Ham Radio !!!

I checked into the economics of doing what you suggested.  It doesn't look good.   The advertising sales for both NCJ and QEX  would allow for only six more pages of content in QST - maybe one long technical article.   

The advertisers would probably not move their advertising to QST because with the specialty publications they can reach their targeted audience with a larger advertisement and much less cost.   For the most part, the things published in NCJ (48 pages) and QEX (64 pages) would not be published at all otherwise.

                -- Tom


=====
e-mail: k1ki at arrl.org   ARRL New England Division Director  http://www.arrl.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444


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