Elaine
02-23-2009, 07:24 AM
When I got started in dogs (back when god was a child), there was no internet… not even the idea of the internet. We read all-breed publications like The Chronicle, and breed magazines like The Great Dane Reporter, The Afghan Review, Doberman Quarterly, BARKS (Bull Terriers) and Lhasa Tales (Lhasa Apsos). As I recall, Dog News wasn’t even around back then. We enthusiastically anticipated each issue, read them cover to cover and treasured the collections we had of the breed magazines. Everyone advertised and /or subscribed... you had to, there was no other way to keep current on your breed (unless you were willing to hop on a plane and travel around the country, which I did for a few years). I still have issues of Barks that I’ve managed to keep with me through a zillion and one moves over the years.
For show result, we subscribed to the AKC awards publication and got results weeks and weeks after the fact. There was no such thing as “instant” show results… you either heard from someone who was there ringside or you waited til the results were published and mailed to you. Most ads were simply a win photo and text. Retouched photos were every bit as obvious as they are today... but instead of programs like Photoshop, people used ball point pens and markers on the phtos themselves... in hindsight it was comical. Now the ad people are so much more sophisticated. Still there are telltale signs of “enhancement.” There was a special a while back, the ads were rumored to be made using the template of the body of a previous special Photoshoped in to current win photos. Not sure how accurate the rumors were, but I’d imagine it would be possible to do that.
Last I looked we have the weekly publication Dog News, and the less frequent, Chronicle, Dogs in Review, Showsights. Working Dogs. In Dobermans we have two breed magazines: The Doberman Digest and Doberman Magazine. Some of these magazines, like Dog News are "a must" if you are specialing a dog. Some of these magazines have interesting columnists, but to be blunt, few are worth subscribing to and many are simply boring, with columnists you wouldn’t walk across the street to speak with in person.
As you know, judges get these magazines sent to them for free. Most judges I know read Dog News cover to cover… but the breed magazines get a causal glance at the cover ( maybe a casual perusal) and then are tossed. A judge friend on the west coast used to send me all her magazines after she’d thumbed through them. It was either pitch them in the trash or send them to me, she was willing to pay the postage… we took ‘em. They piled up like fall leaves… there were stacks everywhere… I finally tossed them all too.
So my question, given that we now have the immediacy of the internet, with accurate show results often within 24 hours… and most everyone has a website of their own (where they can update photos twice an hour if they like), is there even a place for print publication anymore?
I once thought thees breed publications were worth advertising in and/or collecting because I’d have a photo of a given dog… but with programs like Photoshop (and having now taken roughly 30,000 photos of the dogs and the horses), I no longer value the ad photos in publications. The photos simply do not resemble the living dog. I’d rather see the dog in person or on video. If I have to be judging a dog fro m a photo, I would rather see informal candid photos of the dog, free stacked or moving freely. Otherwise, you are really assessing the skill of the handler and that varies widely.
Given the expense of print ads, and the shrinking issue size and shrinking subscriptions/distribution, is it worth the money to buy print ads in breed magazines, or is that money better spent on a website that can reach millions?
For show result, we subscribed to the AKC awards publication and got results weeks and weeks after the fact. There was no such thing as “instant” show results… you either heard from someone who was there ringside or you waited til the results were published and mailed to you. Most ads were simply a win photo and text. Retouched photos were every bit as obvious as they are today... but instead of programs like Photoshop, people used ball point pens and markers on the phtos themselves... in hindsight it was comical. Now the ad people are so much more sophisticated. Still there are telltale signs of “enhancement.” There was a special a while back, the ads were rumored to be made using the template of the body of a previous special Photoshoped in to current win photos. Not sure how accurate the rumors were, but I’d imagine it would be possible to do that.
Last I looked we have the weekly publication Dog News, and the less frequent, Chronicle, Dogs in Review, Showsights. Working Dogs. In Dobermans we have two breed magazines: The Doberman Digest and Doberman Magazine. Some of these magazines, like Dog News are "a must" if you are specialing a dog. Some of these magazines have interesting columnists, but to be blunt, few are worth subscribing to and many are simply boring, with columnists you wouldn’t walk across the street to speak with in person.
As you know, judges get these magazines sent to them for free. Most judges I know read Dog News cover to cover… but the breed magazines get a causal glance at the cover ( maybe a casual perusal) and then are tossed. A judge friend on the west coast used to send me all her magazines after she’d thumbed through them. It was either pitch them in the trash or send them to me, she was willing to pay the postage… we took ‘em. They piled up like fall leaves… there were stacks everywhere… I finally tossed them all too.
So my question, given that we now have the immediacy of the internet, with accurate show results often within 24 hours… and most everyone has a website of their own (where they can update photos twice an hour if they like), is there even a place for print publication anymore?
I once thought thees breed publications were worth advertising in and/or collecting because I’d have a photo of a given dog… but with programs like Photoshop (and having now taken roughly 30,000 photos of the dogs and the horses), I no longer value the ad photos in publications. The photos simply do not resemble the living dog. I’d rather see the dog in person or on video. If I have to be judging a dog fro m a photo, I would rather see informal candid photos of the dog, free stacked or moving freely. Otherwise, you are really assessing the skill of the handler and that varies widely.
Given the expense of print ads, and the shrinking issue size and shrinking subscriptions/distribution, is it worth the money to buy print ads in breed magazines, or is that money better spent on a website that can reach millions?