[NCC] ARRL Reply

Fri, 11 Jan 2002 07:58:26 EST

------_Part_3c3ee172-0149-4a03-010203040506
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

W8GN forwarded this.  

------_Part_3c3ee172-0149-4a03-010203040506
Content-Type: message/rfc822
Content-Disposition: inline

Return-Path: <bknox@mdtelecom.com>
Received: from  rly-xd05.mx.aol.com (rly-xd05.mail.aol.com [172.20.105.170]) by air-xd01.mail.aol.com (v82.22) with ESMTP id MAILINXD11-0110162751; Thu, 10 Jan 2002 16:27:44 -0500
Received: from  smyk.apk.net (smyk.apk.net [207.54.158.17]) by rly-xd05.mx.aol.com (v83.18) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINXD54-0110162711; Thu, 10 Jan 2002 16:27:11 -0500
Received: from DELTA (na.apk.net [206.183.4.214]) by smyk.apk.net (8.11.2/8.11.2/apk.010219+rchk1.22+bspm1.13.1.5a) with SMTP id g0ALR2s20022 for <nzharps@aol.com>; Thu, 10 Jan 2002 16:27:02 -0500 (EST)
Received: by localhost with Microsoft MAPI; Thu, 10 Jan 2002 16:27:24 -0500
Message-ID: <01C199F3.AFA65220.bknox@mdtelecom.com>
From: "Bruce R. Knox" <bknox@mdtelecom.com>
Reply-To: "bknox@mdtelecom.com" <bknox@mdtelecom.com>
To: "'nzharps@aol.com'" <nzharps@aol.com>
Subject: FW: Here you are.
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 16:27:23 -0500
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet E-mail/MAPI - 8.0.0.4211
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="---- =_NextPart_000_01C199F3.AFADF340"

------ =_NextPart_000_01C199F3.AFADF340
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Ron:

I spoke with Jim Haynie W5JBP about QST and contest results/section news. 
 We had a nice conversation, and here is an e-mail he sent me that explains 
what's going on.  Jim said to feel free to forward it as needed.

Progress?  I guess time will tell.

73

Bruce R. Knox W8GN

-----Original Message-----
From:   W5JBP@aol.com [SMTP:W5JBP@aol.com]
Sent:   Thursday, January 10, 2002 16:13
To: bknox@mdtelecom.com
Subject:    Here you are.

 We're talking about expanding contest coverage using a combination of the 
ARRL Web site and QST. We're not talking about eliminating coverage of 
contests in QST. What we are proposing is publishing contest results and 
rules and information using a combination of QST and the Web, and taking 
advantage of the strengths of each medium. Field Day and School Club 
Roundup would stay in QST as they have in the past.
QST will carry contest write-ups that tell what happened during the 
contest, along with photos and some top score boxes and some soapbox and 
some material to promote the contest to people other than those who already 
participate seriously. There will be more space for the write-ups and we 
expect to have input from multiple sources to tell the story.
The Web will carry the detailed line scores (in several forms, including 
searchable database, printable PDF file and downloadable data file for 
those who want to do further analysis). Space on the Web is virtually 
unlimited, so we can include additional information and tabulations not 
available in QST. For example, we can include QSO/mult breakdowns for 
everyone (not just the top scores). We can let you search for all scores in 
your entry category. If you're a little pistol, you can see how your score 
compares to others in your division or state or section without a lot of 
searching and guessing. In addition, we can publish the results in a more 
timely manner than we do now.
Contest Corral will remain in QST. Announcements for ARRL contests will be 
published in QST, including the information that most people need to 
operate the contest.
The problem we're facing is that the scope of ham radio continues to 
expand, and the pressure on QST to cover it all is intense. For example, 
you and I spend most of our ham radio energy contesting and probably don't 
care much about, say, vintage radio (just an example-I don't know if you do 
or not).  So let's eliminate all the vintage radio stuff and print more 
contest stuff.  But there are a significant number of people who like 
vintage radio and would say, let's eliminate all the contest stuff and 
print more vintage radio stuff.
QST is not a contest magazine. It's not a technical magazine. It's not a DX 
magazine. QST is a general interest membership journal, and it needs to 
devote some attention to many areas of ham radio in a general way. We hear 
from every interest group that we need to run more on their area of 
interest and less on someone else's, so we know that we're doing a fair job 
of balancing coverage. We do extensive surveying to find out what people 
read in QST, what areas need more coverage, what areas need less coverage 
and so forth. We supplement what QST can do for each interest area with NCJ 
and QEX and the Web site and extensive range of ARRL books and CDs.
In the contest world, we receive perhaps 16,000 contest logs in a year 
(excluding Field Day) but the number of different people submitting logs or 
participating in multiops is maybe 6000, or 4% of the League membership 
(and not everyone who sends a log is a member). Yes, several times that 
number make QSOs during contests, but they do not send logs. If people just 
operated and didn't send logs, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
A complicating factor is that advertising pages have been on a downward 
trend for the past 5 or 6 years and we have smaller QSTs. There are many 
contributing factors to that, and it affects every publication in amateur 
radio, not just QST. Part of your membership dues contribute to defraying 
the cost of printing and mailing QST, but advertising revenues pay a large 
share of that cost. Your membership dues also pay for defense of 
frequencies and representation at the FCC and supporting emergency 
communications activities and educational programs and staffing the contest 
branch and the ARRL Web site and other things. As advertising declines, the 
number of pages available in any given issue of QST for articles and 
columns and contest results decreases.
As a percentage of the available editorial space, the pages devoted to 
contest rules and results have fared pretty well. With fewer pages to go 
around, we have had to "nip and tuck" the results through use of smaller 
type, few photos, little soapbox, short write-ups, etc. And we have changed 
the publication schedule and separated the phone and CW SS and ARRL DX 
results to minimize the burden on any particular issue.
We have made more drastic changes in other parts of QST the past few years. 
 We've adjusted the size and frequency of many of the columns to reflect 
reader interest. We've started publishing traffic statistics, DXCC 
listings, propagation charts, club news and other material on the Web. 
We've dropped some regular columns and started covering those topics with 
an occasional feature article.
Now we've reached the point that we need to look at two areas that have 
traditionally been near and dear to our hearts-contest rules/results and 
section news. Between them, they consume 20% of the available editorial 
space in QST. Both of these QST features have a small but devoted 
following.  Both are important to ARRL and have long traditions, going back 
to the early days of amateur radio. But they appeal to a limited number of 
readers. And even the readers who are interested only look at small parts 
of Section News or at a few of the contest line scores. Putting it in QST 
is an inefficient use of pages that could be used for something with 
broader appeal and make QST a better journal for the average reader.
Sure, we could continue to whittle away at pieces of these articles and 
reduce the type size even more and devote even less space to these 
activities. Or we can do things differently and better.
By changing the way we do things, we can improve QST coverage for more 
readers and do a better job of delivering detailed contest results without 
restrictions on space. QST reader surveys during the past 10 years have 
consistently said that contest information is among the least read features 
in QST. This doesn't mean that the contest results aren't important or 
relevant, just that they appeal to a limited audience. The Web is the ideal 
medium to deliver high quality, unrestricted content to a narrow group, and 
it offers possibilities not available in a printed monthly magazine.
73,
Mark Wilson, K1RO

------ =_NextPart_000_01C199F3.AFADF340
Content-Type: text/html; name="ATT00002.html"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<HTML>We're talking about expanding contest coverage using a combination of the
 ARRL Web site and QST. We're not talking about eliminating coverage of
 contests in QST. What we are proposing is publishing contest results and
 rules and information using a combination of QST and the Web, and taking
 advantage of the strengths of each medium. Field Day and School Club Roundup
 would stay in QST as they have in the past. 
 
 QST will carry contest write-ups that tell what happened during the contest,
 along with photos and some top score boxes and some soapbox and some
 material to promote the contest to people other than those who already
 participate seriously. There will be more space for the write-ups and we
 expect to have input from multiple sources to tell the story.
 
 The Web will carry the detailed line scores (in several forms, including
 searchable database, printable PDF file and downloadable data file for those
 who want to do further analysis). Space on the Web is virtually unlimited,
 so we can include additional information and tabulations not available in
 QST. For example, we can include QSO/mult breakdowns for everyone (not just
 the top scores). We can let you search for all scores in your entry
 category. If you're a little pistol, you can see how your score compares to
 others in your division or state or section without a lot of searching and
 guessing. In addition, we can publish the results in a more timely manner
 than we do now.
 
 Contest Corral will remain in QST. Announcements for ARRL contests will be
 published in QST, including the information that most people need to operate
 the contest.
 
 The problem we're facing is that the scope of ham radio continues to expand,
 and the pressure on QST to cover it all is intense. For example, you and I
 spend most of our ham radio energy contesting and probably don't care much
 about, say, vintage radio (just an example--I don't know if you do or not).
 So let's eliminate all the vintage radio stuff and print more contest stuff.
 But there are a significant number of people who like vintage radio and
 would say, let's eliminate all the contest stuff and print more vintage
 radio stuff. 
 
 QST is not a contest magazine. It's not a technical magazine. It's not a DX
 magazine. QST is a general interest membership journal, and it needs to
 devote some attention to many areas of ham radio in a general way. We hear
 from every interest group that we need to run more on their area of interest
 and less on someone else's, so we know that we're doing a fair job of
 balancing coverage. We do extensive surveying to find out what people read
 in QST, what areas need more coverage, what areas need less coverage and so
 forth. We supplement what QST can do for each interest area with NCJ and QEX
 and the Web site and extensive range of ARRL books and CDs.
 
 In the contest world, we receive perhaps 16,000 contest logs in a year
 (excluding Field Day) but the number of different people submitting logs or
 participating in multiops is maybe 6000, or 4% of the League membership (and
 not everyone who sends a log is a member). Yes, several times that number
 make QSOs during contests, but they do not send logs. If people just
 operated and didn't send logs, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
 
 A complicating factor is that advertising pages have been on a downward
 trend for the past 5 or 6 years and we have smaller QSTs. There are many
 contributing factors to that, and it affects every publication in amateur
 radio, not just QST. Part of your membership dues contribute to defraying
 the cost of printing and mailing QST, but advertising revenues pay a large
 share of that cost. Your membership dues also pay for defense of frequencies
 and representation at the FCC and supporting emergency communications
 activities and educational programs and staffing the contest branch and the
 ARRL Web site and other things. As advertising declines, the number of pages
 available in any given issue of QST for articles and columns and contest
 results decreases. 
 
 As a percentage of the available editorial space, the pages devoted to
 contest rules and results have fared pretty well. With fewer pages to go
 around, we have had to "nip and tuck" the results through use of smaller
 type, few photos, little soapbox, short write-ups, etc. And we have changed
 the publication schedule and separated the phone and CW SS and ARRL DX
 results to minimize the burden on any particular issue.
 
 We have made more drastic changes in other parts of QST the past few years.
 We've adjusted the size and frequency of many of the columns to reflect
 reader interest. We've started publishing traffic statistics, DXCC listings,
 propagation charts, club news and other material on the Web. We've dropped
 some regular columns and started covering those topics with an occasional
 feature article. 
 
 Now we've reached the point that we need to look at two areas that have
 traditionally been near and dear to our hearts -- contest rules/results and
 section news. Between them, they consume 20% of the available editorial
 space in QST. Both of these QST features have a small but devoted following.
 Both are important to ARRL and have long traditions, going back to the early
 days of amateur radio. But they appeal to a limited number of readers. And
 even the readers who are interested only look at small parts of Section News
 or at a few of the contest line scores. Putting it in QST is an inefficient
 use of pages that could be used for something with broader appeal and make
 QST a better journal for the average reader.
 
 Sure, we could continue to whittle away at pieces of these articles and
 reduce the type size even more and devote even less space to these
 activities. Or we can do things differently and better.
 
 By changing the way we do things, we can improve QST coverage for more
 readers and do a better job of delivering detailed contest results without
 restrictions on space. QST reader surveys during the past 10 years have
 consistently said that contest information is among the least read features
 in QST. This doesn't mean that the contest results aren't important or
 relevant, just that they appeal to a limited audience. The Web is the ideal
 medium to deliver high quality, unrestricted content to a narrow group, and
 it offers possibilities not available in a printed monthly magazine.
 
 73, 
 Mark Wilson, K1RO
 </HTML>

------ =_NextPart_000_01C199F3.AFADF340--

------_Part_3c3ee172-0149-4a03-010203040506--

--
Submissions:              ncc@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  ncc-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-ncc@contesting.com