At the stroke of midnight

12/31/07 we shout "Happy New Year 2008!" Let me be the first to say now Happy New Year, as the new two-year business cycle has already begun. The 2008 clock is ticking right this second. RBR/TVBR has stated this numerous times, "Technology Waits for No One." PPM and LPM are rolling, gathering real time data. Therefore, I am not waiting for the New Year's baby to arrive to bring forth our electronic improvements. This was stated in both RBR 10/229/07 RBR #211 and in TVBR 10/229/07 TVBR #211

Right now, TODAY, RBR/TVBR goes completely electronic. We will cease printing SmartMedia magazine with this December '07 issue. We are no longer paying alimony to the US Postal Service and we will save a tree by not printing paper. The content in SmartMedia will be delivered electronically in Friday Biz Info Reports. You will control and print the informative on your color printer. YES! Permission granted to forward to your staff and clients at no charge.

This is the 2nd time in 25 years I have had to make this hard decision. The first time was 07/08/02 RBR Epaper #1. Then 19-year-old RBR was a weekly mag. It ceased appearing in print and went daily, electronically, as the now-familiar RBR Morning Epaper. Back then my colleagues thought I had lost my mind. This time the decision was easier. At the NAB Radio Show in Charlotte I saw executives carrying their hand-held devices -- and knowing how to use them! And I saw the trade publication bins - mine and everyone else's - overflowing, as nobody was picking up anyone's magazine or newspaper. Nobody brought extra luggage to take all that paper back home. You, our readers, are online. We go where you are.

In 1983 RBR began as a simple six page monthly radio business newsletter banged out on a very old beat up 1968 typewriter then printed at a quick neighborhood print shop. Our first full year of publishing was souvenir year 1984 when I promised my wife, Cathy, if we did not make a profit I would find a job back in radio. Well, December 31, 1984 we looked at the check book with a balance of $49 plus change and the first words out of Cathy’s mouth were, “Well babe, looks like we go another year” and the rest is history. Valuable history which is all archived.

RBR morphed from print to electronic delivery on July 8, 2002 and on October 18th that year TVBR was introduced. From 1983 to beginning our 25th year we have experienced many improvements but 2008 is the year of electronic communications, the methodology of choice and demand.

In the ’80s and ‘90s and into 2000, printing a media trade served its purpose, but right now any media trade, and you know who they are, that are still in a 52 week paper print schedule will be in deep doodoo as there is no oxygen left in that space. Some of those trades are being rushed right this second to an emergency room but it will be too late and they will be pronounced DOA in 2008.
 

As we begin our 25th year, the best is on the way as "Technology Waits for No One."

Success and Respect,

Jim & Cathy Carnegie