Magazine??

[Canuck]

I was wondeering if there is a National Inline Hockey Magazine. I am pretty sure there isn't and wondering if there is a demand? Kids love to see there names and photos in something tangible and I think it would be a success if someone did it properly.
Any thoughts??

[RichardGraham]

Hi Canuck,

Your timing is interesting, considering a colleague in another country recently asked me about the viability of creating a print inline hockey publication. I told him it wasn't viable, in my opinion.

Right now, there isn't really a national print inline hockey magazine. The closest is USA Hockey's American Hockey magazine, which covers ice and inline. InLine Hockey News and Roller Hockey Magazine, both of which I edited at one time, went out of business about four years ago.

Frankly, I don't know why neither of these magazines got enough support from readers and advertisers to survive, considering there are at least two national magazines that cover triathlon, a sport I worked in from 1986-1991. I'm convinced that there are more inline hockey players worldwide than triathletes, yet our sport is unable to support even one national magazine.

I've got my theories, but maybe they're just as cracked as my latest wood stick blade:

1. The sport's manufacturers created a "gimme gimme" attitude by giving free product away to players to gain customer "loyalty." That loyalty proved as deep as the shallow end of an empty swimming pool when the next company came along offering more free stuff. "Why should I pay for a magazine subscription when I get everything else for free?" is the next logical question by players.

2. The emphasis on the elite players on the part of tournament series and sponsors has shrunk the potential readership of magazines. Who's going to write about house leagues when all the manufacturers are putting their money behind elite events? No one. So, the small elite portion of the sport receives all the glory and coverage, and the rest of the sport subsidizes it. The best players are plucked from house league teams, then the rest of the team loses interest because it can no longer compete, and the sport loses more adherents.

3. Print magazines are incredibly costly to produce and distribute. I initially figured IHC would be a slam dunk because of the lack of printing, newsstand and distribution costs. However, most of the sport's manufacturers seem to underestimate the power of the Web, and after 4.5 years, IHC is still struggling to survive. Part of that may well be my lack of business acumen; I've ticked off a few potential advertisers by demanding that they stand behind their advertising promises. I guess that's how I was brought up: "Say what you mean and mean what you say." I don't understand people who don't operate by that simple concept.

I'll support anyone who creates a print publication that covers inline hockey. I'll write for it, I'll shoot photographs for it, I'll trumpet it on Inline Hockey Central. Maybe someone will return the favor someday for IHC.

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[Hit_U_Hard]

i will subscribe

[Benny_Gulakiw]

I think you are right on with all your points. I would add the fractured nature of ther sport at this time. Except the the top tournament series or the elite and pro levels, everyone plays in their own little world and the organizing bodies want to keep it that way primarily because of greed. A kid that plays in a USA Hockey Inline rink in Buffalo is isolated from the kid who plays in a USARS rink in Rochester and they are both isolated from the kid who plays in a NARCh rink on Long Island. Only kids who play for special organizations that allow their travel teams to play in a variety of different tounament series gets to have contact with these other players in other rinks. For a long time, the Buffalo Wings travel teams only played in NARCh events. We had no contact with other teams, some nearby, that played in other tournament series or that were sanctioned by another body. We are in the process of changing this policy.

This goes to a "chicken or the egg" philosophy. The various grassroots leagues need to get together to potentially make a magazine finacially viable, but a national magazine would help bring these segregated leagues together. I think a magazine could do this but it woulod take a great deal of money and energy and right now is a very bad time, economically, for print magazines to survive, let alone go beyond their primary function of providing information to a specialized niche market.

Benny Gulakiw
Vice President of Operations
Buffalo Wings Roller Hockey

[John_S_Osborne]

While some of your points are correct, I think that there is potentially a market for a national roller hockey magazine. At this point in our sport, it is very difficult to keep up with the diverse amount of competition in leagues and tournaments, and I think a good reporting magazine with an editorial edge could move worlds in terms of uniting the roller hockey industry.

I mean, there is a free magazine printed for the Philadelphia area high school ice hockey scene which is published monthly. All the guy is doing is selling ads from local businesses and the rest of the magazine covers all the top games and players in the area. Once a year, a yearbook edition is published that shows the stats of every player that played in the Philly area that year (we're talking many different leagues here, so it's probably not that easy to compile either).

Just think about the stuff you could cover in a magazine. You could have articles about NARCh, MLRH, PIHA, CRHL, USAHIL, USARS.. jesus, right there is enough to cover a ton of pages with photos and good articles in peak news times.

I've actually talked to people about doing a magazine, as I'm interested in being a story writer if there ever is one. But, my closest contact continues to have "better things to do". Oh, well. Maybe he'll read this and change his mind. ;)



- john

[NLane]

Just think of the cost to attend and write for all those events. I think the cost would really be a factor. I think players might not want to spend all that much to read about other leagues.

[columbus_RHstar]

A way to get the magazine distibuted is to have leagues subscribe to the magazine and then sell it at their games and events. For the leagues subscription they could be featured in the magazine along with say 4 other leagues a month or weekly or bi-weekly depending upon how often it is published.

Another idea would be when players sign up for their league have an option to subscribe to the magazine then the league turns those subscriptions in and gets some sort of exposure, feature article or ad to advertise the league.

I know for one i would subscribe and i know alot of people who would also subscribe.

[umroller]

I know that the ECRHA (Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association) put out a few issues of an unofficial (albeit quickly manufactured) "ECRHA Magazine" during the past season. I think it was a great idea that will be continued in the coming season. Although the money would have to be there (which of course is always a problem -- I know that Rebecca) to put out a quality product which would probably have to be given out or sold for a dollar at ECRHA events (and hopefully given to each player), I think it would be just another way to "spread the word" about roller hockey and especially the college game, even though it wouldn't be a nationwide publication.



http://members.aol.com/umroller/images/benecrha.jpg

[KenFas]

You know a great way to start a national publication without expensing the overhead to anyone who knows how tough it is to profit from a magazine is to begin with the sources we have here at IHC and have an electronic magazine for subscribers. Hire area writers from our current readers and research and write articles for readership to the site. Get the local leagues info from each state and region and real profiles of grass roots to elite players from all over the country. Get someone to research NARCH, TORHS, USA INLINE, USARS, AAU. As well profile all the regional series going on now such as ECHO, SIX PACK, ATLANTIC CUP. Im sure there are enough people who post that are close to all the info in there areas to put together a good monthy journalistic piece of literature out that all would be interested. And all of you Im sure wouldn't mind making IHC profit a little for lets say 4.95 for an annual subscription to test the waters. If it takes off then it grows to a full blown periodical with a base of subscribers to take to advertisers and sell so no one loses a shirt trying to start a new magazine on an already crowded newstand.

Imagine you could have a real national poll of the top 25 teams in the country. Rank the best house leagues. Profile the top coaches in roller hockey. The Ideas are endless. I for one know a lot about Inline Hockey in Florida but would love to read about NY, California, And inline hockey around the country. It would be nice to read real tourney wrap ups of the great games at Narch and see real time Stats of what players all around the country are putting on the scoresheet. Oh what a great dream it would be.

Just a thought.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Ken,

Great post.

>>You know a great way to start a national publication without expensing the overhead to anyone who knows how tough it is to profit from a magazine is to begin with the sources we have here at IHC and have an electronic magazine for subscribers. Hire area writers from our current readers and research and write articles for readership to the site.<<

I don't think it's even necessary to hire writers. If tournament directors would consistently use IHC's Tournament and Calendar Message Board to write up their events and results, I could spend more of my time on creating independent editorial. That's my goal. Apparently, however, many tourney directors feel that coverage on IHC's Home Page is more valuable than it is on the Message Board. I'm not so sure that that is the case, especially as the number of registered MB readers continues to increase daily.

>>Get the local leagues info from each state and region and real profiles of grass roots to elite players from all over the country.<<

The various Message Boards are completely open to such submissions.

>>Get someone to research NARCH, TORHS, USA INLINE, USARS, AAU. As well profile all the regional series going on now such as ECHO, SIX PACK, ATLANTIC CUP. Im sure there are enough people who post that are close to all the info in there areas to put together a good monthy journalistic piece of literature out that all would be interested.<<

I think the key problem is the difference between event-based press releases and independent event coverage. The latter gets you in hot water when it doesn't portray the event in question in a good light, even if it's the complete truth. Any viable inline hockey publication (that people will pay for) is going to have to be seen as independent and credible. That can really only happen when a sport's manufacturers support a publication that tells it like it is. Often, that means honest critiques of events and products. Mature and confident tournament directors and manufacturers would understand that those critiques won't always be positive. From what I've seen since I started writing about inline hockey in 1992, and through to today, I'm not sure our sport is quite ready for that. If we can get Microsoft or Coke to get behind IHC, we'll ROCK. LOL.

>>And all of you Im sure wouldn't mind making IHC profit a little for lets say 4.95 for an annual subscription to test the waters. If it takes off then it grows to a full blown periodical with a base of subscribers to take to advertisers and sell so no one loses a shirt trying to start a new magazine on an already crowded newstand.<<

Thanks for your support, Ken. I appreciate it.

>>Imagine you could have a real national poll of the top 25 teams in the country. Rank the best house leagues. Profile the top coaches in roller hockey. The Ideas are endless. I for one know a lot about Inline Hockey in Florida but would love to read about NY, California, And inline hockey around the country. It would be nice to read real tourney wrap ups of the great games at Narch and see real time Stats of what players all around the country are putting on the scoresheet. Oh what a great dream it would be.<<

I agree. I just don't see that happening until someone can be guaranteed a return for the hard work such a publication would entail.

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[RichardGraham]

Hi Benny,

Thanks for your post and your ideas. Due to the sport's balkanization, it would be incredibly difficult to create a publication that pleased enough parties to survive. If it praised Tournament A, Tournament B would pressure all its sponsors to pull their advertising from the publication, etc.

I especially agree with your comment:

"It would take a great deal of money and energy and right now is a very bad time, economically, for print magazines to survive..."

Down the line, that may change, and I hope it does. However, at this time, print magazines are going out of business left and right.

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[RichardGraham]

Hi John,

>>I think that there is potentially a market for a national roller hockey magazine. At this point in our sport, it is very difficult to keep up with the diverse amount of competition in leagues and tournaments, and I think a good reporting magazine with an editorial edge could move worlds in terms of uniting the roller hockey industry.<<

I think the key words in your quote above are "editorial edge." How do you have that editorial edge in such a fragmented sport as inline hockey? You'd just tick off certain powers that be. The other option is to try and please everyone, and then you have no editorial edge at all...

>>I mean, there is a free magazine printed for the Philadelphia area high school ice hockey scene which is published monthly. All the guy is doing is selling ads from local businesses and the rest of the magazine covers all the top games and players in the area. Once a year, a yearbook edition is published that shows the stats of every player that played in the Philly area that year (we're talking many different leagues here, so it's probably not that easy to compile either).<<

I think regional magazines often are more successful because they can pull in regional advertisers that get a bigger bang for their buck that national advertisers would, mainly because the target market is a niche audience.

>>Just think about the stuff you could cover in a magazine. You could have articles about NARCh, MLRH, PIHA, CRHL, USAHIL, USARS.. jesus, right there is enough to cover a ton of pages with photos and good articles in peak news times.<<

Been there, done that. lol :)

>>I've actually talked to people about doing a magazine, as I'm interested in being a story writer if there ever is one. But, my closest contact continues to have "better things to do". Oh, well. Maybe he'll read this and change his mind.<<

Make friends with Bill Gates, would ya? :)

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[RichardGraham]

Hi NLane,

I agree with you. I once traveled to a tournament that advertised on IHC. After paying for the flight, a rental car, lodging and food, I'd spent a good portion of what that advertiser was paying for a year's worth of advertising. LOL.

I think you're also right when you say that players might not be very interested in reading about other leagues. This is sad, especially when the sport's growth depends on how well we work together, rather than how we compete against each other.

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[RichardGraham]

Hi Columbus,

>>A way to get the magazine distibuted is to have leagues subscribe to the magazine and then sell it at their games and events. For the leagues subscription they could be featured in the magazine along with say 4 other leagues a month or weekly or bi-weekly depending upon how often it is published.<<

Not a bad idea at all.

>>Another idea would be when players sign up for their league have an option to subscribe to the magazine then the league turns those subscriptions in and gets some sort of exposure, feature article or ad to advertise the league.<<

But what if the league stinks and the players agree that it does? :)

>>I know for one i would subscribe and i know alot of people who would also subscribe.<<

Never say never...

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[RichardGraham]

Hi Ben,

>>I know that the ECRHA (Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association) put out a few issues of an unofficial (albeit quickly manufactured) "ECRHA Magazine" during the past season. I think it was a great idea that will be continued in the coming season. Although the money would have to be there (which of course is always a problem -- I know that Rebecca) to put out a quality product which would probably have to be given out or sold for a dollar at ECRHA events (and hopefully given to each player), I think it would be just another way to "spread the word" about roller hockey and especially the college game, even though it wouldn't be a nationwide publication.<<

The more regional publications the better. I hope ECRHA Magazine will be back this coming season.

Again, it's sometimes easier to get regional advertisers than national ones. Because ECRHA Magazine mostly covers a finite geographical area that can be accessed by car or inexpensive flight, advertisers can easily see the benefits of supporting such a publication.

Good luck!

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[Canuck]

If you concentrated on building subscriptions rather than advertising intitally you could maintain the 'editorial edge'. Once you have a following (readers will support something that tells them like it is) and subscription base the advertisers will come. The trick is keeping the thing a float for the first year while you struggle to build numbers. If you only distribute initially to subscription holders (and industry leaders) printing costs should stay down short term. I agree in order to have a successful venture someone outside hockey needs to become a major sponsor rather relying on someone who you need to 'keep happy'.
Bottom line is there has to be a demand in a country with as many hockey players as in America. I know printing costs may be excessive and the industry is trying to promote itself on the internet but there is no substitute for something the kids can take to school and show there mates with stats and photos. You can't shove a computer in your pocket!
I also think people would bend over backwards (editorial, stats, photos) to contribute and get there name in a National Publication of the sport they play.

[NLane]

TORHS already offers online stats of their National event at TORHS.com. I've been following teams since Saturday and it has been great.

[John_S_Osborne]

>>>"I think the key words in your quote above are "editorial edge." How do you have that editorial edge in such a fragmented sport as inline hockey? You'd just tick off certain powers that be. The other option is to try and please everyone, and then you have no editorial edge at all..."<<<

I would like a roller hockey magazine that had the ability to be totally factual; just give me a run down of the games/tourneys in a particular month, final scores, highlights, photos, etc. But, I also believe that a magazine supported by subscribers that are interested in the sport would contain an editorial section, or a more opinionated brand of reporting in certain spaces.

I'm not saying, just for sake of argument, that the magazine should come out and say, well, Mission sucks, or USARS is horrible. I think it would be up to the magazine to give you the facts on new Mission products and USARS events, but it would be up to the readers in write-in letters and the editors in the editorial section to provide intellectual opinion on matters. I think the magazine has a place to provide you behind-the-scenes information on decisions leading to crappy products, but it's the reader's and editor's place to give opinion.

If vendors and industry sponsors are as immature as you portray them to be and would seriously pull out backing to a publication because their product got a bad review or just general bad press, then we are seriously going to be in the same fragmented world of roller hockey forever. Not to be an idealist, but this is the exact attitudes that the power of the press can expose and remove from our sport.

>>>"I think regional magazines often are more successful because they can pull in regional advertisers that get a bigger bang for their buck that national advertisers would, mainly because the target market is a niche audience."<<<

Rich, surely you aren't this nieve! This is the era of the Internet! My mom-and-pop hockey store gets my business because I like the owner, but the rest of my friends are getting their equipment from.... HockeyMonkey.com, ePuck.com, and the list goes on and on. In fact, I heard recently (this is just rumor) that Mission will be liscensing certain on-line vendors to sell their equipment because pro-shops are losing so much business to online sales.

Granted, yes, regional publications can afford to pull in various advertisers that are not directly related to topic matter... for example, advertise bars and restaurants and such. But, my opinion is that a magazine with good distribution and subscription numbers can afford to balance it's advertising space out very nicely with actual content.

Somewhere in this thread, I think you mentioned the USA Hockey monthly magazine American Hockey. You know what I do with that thing when it comes to me? I throw it away. Out of the 15 minutes I would spend reading that magazine, probably exactly two of that would be spent reading about roller hockey. How many people actually read that thing? Let me rephrase... how many people *interested in roller hockey* read that thing?

Here's a little story... I have several friends who are avid professional wrestling fans and who have been for many, many years. They all have subscriptions to a weekly print magazine called the Wrestling Observer and they have all been reading since the 80s. A guy in California named Dave Meltzer publishes it, and even to this day, the magazine is printed on about 7 pages, double sided, black and white, in about a 10 point font. It's terrible on the eyes, but yet there's no advertising in the whole thing and his readers just keep on subscribing because of Meltzer's ability to cram everything in the world of wrestling into any single issue.

About three years ago, when wrestling was at the peak of a wave of popularity, Meltzer finally brought his publication into the Internet, launching wrestlingobserver.com, and despite his weekly publication being critical of virtually every organization in wrestling, advertising dollars don't seem to be a problem for Dave (look at the site). I mean, he's talked about everything from your run of the mill WWF (WWE, now I guess) to independent US federations and even wrestling in Japan, but people still see the need to market to his subscribers.

http://www.liveaudiowrestling.com/wo/store/newsletter.asp

Maybe I'm comparing apples and oranges (or maybe I'm rambling again), but I do honestly think that there is a place in this industry for a magazine or a print publication, and I think that it would be a very big piece in pushing roller hockey in the direction it needs to go.

- john

[sstranged]

I figured I have to throw in my .02 on this issue, a lot of these points were brought up but whatever ... so here it is:
A publication covering roller hockey is very feasible, but moreso on the regional level than the national, as Rich said. It comes down to the advertisers, since that is what makes magazines float.
Having started my own college newspaper, written freelance and worked for a b2b magazine for over a year I like to think that I have gained a small insight to the business of journalism.
No matter how many subscribers you can get, it comes down to advertising. Usually the companies come in the books with the promise of exposure to an audience of prospective consumers. In our industry, why should they bother? There are four major manufacturers that have carved out their fair shares of the sport (Mission, Tour, Bauer/Nike and CCM to a lesser degree). Their advertising is limited as is - they make sure they are represented in the Hockey News' roller issue, but that is about it. All of them, with the possible exception of Tour, get enough resonant interest in roller trickling down from their Ice advertising dollars. Tour has proven that by throwing money into sponsorships, rather than huge advertising campaigns, they can achieve big sales, albiet slower.
I think that if a professional league ever arise that can rival, if not gain more popularity, than the RHI, then a magazine would be feasible.
With the fracturing of the sport, the audiences are all scattered and looking for different things. As for having the individual tournaments advertise - with the exception of the upper level players - how many people go to tournaments far away? And the local ones they already hear about just by playing in house leagues and word of mouth.
A magazine is still possible, but the easiest thing to get it going would be to sell it to a big house. And no houses are looking to expand right now, with the economics being piss-poor.
I did some basic looking around, being as I'm a bored, unemployed freelance 'journalist' that loves this sport. Unfortunately nothing works right now; it isn't worth the basic investment to put out a test issue.
Cest la vie.

[Canuck]

The industry needs to make it work in the interest of the sport. Nothing better than a magazine to lift the profile and nothing better designed to promote the sport than school kids hanging around checking out
photos and stats of themselves or kids/players they know.
If you could cover costs with advertising and make some cream with the subscriptions it could work. The industry need to get together and make it work. The longer it is delayed the more missed opportunities for inline hockey. If they wait for another RHI to start up before the mag we will all be old and grey before we get our first copy. If anything, something like a National mag will make a Professional League work. Then we can start talking about TV coverage... The old chicken and then the egg thing...
You would be suprised the effort people will put in to see there name in a magazine!

How much would you sell subscriptions for and how often do you think it would need to be published?

[headhunter]

Starting off I'd publish quarterly for perhaps $15-20 a year. I don't think that there is enough goin on in inline hockey to merit a monthly right now. But I play in Alabama where there is nothing going on anyway. We don't even have a CRHL team in the state. I definitely think that write-ups on house leagues would be beneficial, maybe doing several states per issue along with national inline news and product reviews, that is something that is lacking for sure. As far as advertising you wouldn't have to concentrate only on the four major manufacturers. There are plenty of retail outlets that I'm sure would love to have ads i a national mag, such as Epuck. I would definetly buy a subscription.

[columbus_RHstar]

I think it would need to be published on less than a monthly basis, maybe tri-weekly or bi-weekly to keep peoples interest.

[SpeedDemon]

I totally (but respectfully) disagree, I think publishing on a quarterly basis would allow more time to make sure the publication is tidy, as well as provide a nice 3-4 months of information. That way you aren't straining for material to fill it out.

[LetsRoll]

What would be in a print publication that couldn't be done by Inline Hockey Central? Heck, if Rich got more support, he could probably add more photos to go with stories, and people who wanted to show off their pics and their names being mentioned could just print the dang things out.

[LetsRoll]

All tournaments should do the same. But do you think ANY tournament would write up something about themselves that was negative? LOL. I doubt it!

[LetsRoll]

>>The industry needs to make it work in the interest of the sport.<<

I agree. I think all of IHC's readers should send e-mail to the top 10 inline hockey manufacturers and tell them to support this site. Why wait till a print magazine exists, if it ever will again? If you don't support sites like IHC, why should the manufacturers?

[RichardGraham]

Hi John,

Me: "I think regional magazines often are more successful because they can pull in regional advertisers that get a bigger bang for their buck that national advertisers would, mainly because the target market is a niche audience."

You: "Rich, surely you aren't this nieve! This is the era of the Internet! My mom-and-pop hockey store gets my business because I like the owner, but the rest of my friends are getting their equipment from.... HockeyMonkey.com, ePuck.com, and the list goes on and on. In fact, I heard recently (this is just rumor) that Mission will be liscensing certain on-line vendors to sell their equipment because pro-shops are losing so much business to online sales."

Me: "It's been proven that equipment wears and needs to be replaced. It's not yet been proven that inline hockey players and the inline hockey industry will support a monthly print publication. LOL. I don't think that's naivete. I think it's hard knocks. LOL."

You: "Here's a little story... I have several friends who are avid professional wrestling fans and who have been for many, many years. They all have subscriptions to a weekly print magazine called the Wrestling Observer and they have all been reading since the 80s. A guy in California named Dave Meltzer publishes it, and even to this day, the magazine is printed on about 7 pages, double sided, black and white, in about a 10 point font. It's terrible on the eyes, but yet there's no advertising in the whole thing and his readers just keep on subscribing because of Meltzer's ability to cram everything in the world of wrestling into any single issue."

Me: "1. How much is a subscription? 2. That's not a magazine. That's a newsletter." :)

You: "Maybe I'm comparing apples and oranges (or maybe I'm rambling again), but I do honestly think that there is a place in this industry for a magazine or a print publication, and I think that it would be a very big piece in pushing roller hockey in the direction it needs to go."

Me: "Yes, you are rambling. However, I agree with you that it would be very nice to have a print magazine for the sport again. LOL."

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[RichardGraham]

Hi SStranged,

Thanks for your .02. I'll put it toward the first issue of Inline Hockey Rules Magazine... :)

I think you make a lot of valid points. California has Hockey & Skating Magazine, and it has been going since at least the beginning of Roller Hockey Magazine, and it continues to exist four years after RHM's demise. I doubt it's raking in the bucks, but there's something to be said for survival!

>>There are four major manufacturers that have carved out their fair shares of the sport (Mission, Tour, Bauer/Nike and CCM to a lesser degree). Their advertising is limited as is - they make sure they are represented in the Hockey News' roller issue, but that is about it. All of them, with the possible exception of Tour, get enough resonant interest in roller trickling down from their Ice advertising dollars. Tour has proven that by throwing money into sponsorships, rather than huge advertising campaigns, they can achieve big sales, albiet slower.<<

Excellent point. I think you're right on target. These manufacturers do put a lot of money into tournaments, too, though probably not as much as they did in the past.

>>I did some basic looking around, being as I'm a bored, unemployed freelance 'journalist' that loves this sport. Unfortunately nothing works right now; it isn't worth the basic investment to put out a test issue.<<

Someone will try, and more power to them. I just hope they don't get the manufacturers all hot and bothered and disappear a year later.

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[LetsRoll]

I'd pay $25-$30 a year for a hard-hitting monthly newsletter full of information. Postage alone ($.37 x 12 = $4.44) would be a big cost for the creator.