I understand that the printed magazines are very nice but very costly. The club spends $40-50K per year just on magazine printing and advertising to offset the cost of the magazines has dropped a lot in recent years. In years past the board discussed this topic and and one problem was that there were quite a few older members who just did not use the internet so could not access an online magazine. I don't think that is probably the case today. The added problem of offering both (online and print version) is that the printing setup cost is most of the annual cost so there is little benefit in having to print fewer magazines. I really have no opinion either way just presenting facts from when I was treasurer.

Can you help with some more details of how that works? The setup costs more than the printing? Or if I understand, offering a choice, wouldn't save money?

I was originally going to offer my opinion that members could choose digital or printed, but I think if I understand, that wouldn't help?

Personally I like reading the magazine, while I'm at work. And I do save them all, but some days I wonder why. I have every newsletter from before there was a magazine and every magazine.

Is there some way the club could make the production and cost of setting up the magazine less expensive? Say for instance, doing it ourselves, in house setup, maybe (sorry if this offends anyone) stapled instead of perfect binding, No color inside, except paid ad pages. I know the magazine is a work of art, and has been for many years, but if the problem is losing money and the expense, maybe, cutting back on the expense of producing it, is a possible answer, instead of no more hard copies?

Another idea, as in easy for me to say because I can't do this myself, could there be anyone in the club who could do some marketing and try to find more advertisers?

I worked on the college newspaper, the size was dependent on the amount of paid advertising. More ads, more pages. I'm not informed about our magazine, actual costs, which would make a difference on possible ideas or suggestions. But much of the content is the same, issue after issue. Maybe some of that could be done on an annual bases, so everyone is informed and not repeated every quarter? That's only if the number of pages is actually adding substantially to the cost?

I understand that the magazine is hard work, creating, writing, collecting and assembling. The club and various editors have won awards for their personal efforts. I hate to suggest cutting back, but maybe tightening the belt on production costs, if we're losing money, might be the answer? I added the alternative, find more advertising.

Whatever the people who do this and the officers decide, I'll accept that decision is made from a more informed view than what I know about the expenses.