EDITOR’SNOTE
I Jon T. Hutchinson Editor-in-Chief
I’ve been at this job for 10 years; well, a couple weeks shy of 10 years, but that’s close enough to call it ten years. And I’ve enjoyed my job for all ten years. Sure, there’ve been up times and down times, but Markee was my passion for all those years. I looked forward to coming into the office every day; it was never drudgery, it was never dull. Every issue of Markee brought challenges that made the job exciting. This is my last issue. My last issue and the last issue of Markee. After 24 years of publishing the industry’s best trade journal, Markee’s doors have closed. It’s been a great run! I hope all our readers have enjoyed each issue as much as we have enjoyed publishing each issue. Our writers, designers, sales reps and everyone involved in the production of Markee are the best in the business; they were all totally dedicated to bringing you, our readers, the best product imaginable. Over the years there have been ups and downs, peaks and valleys in the economic climate. We weathered those. The current downturn, however, does not appear to be near an end. We’ve heard stories, almost on a daily basis, from film and video industry individuals and companies about how difficult it is today to remain profitable. Advertising budgets in large corporations have been slashed, which means agencies are expected to do more with less. That translates to production companies cutting their fees to get work. And as the dominoes continue to fall, post houses, editors, music and sound companies and effects houses have had to cut their prices. Negotiating for the best (or lowest) price is the norm. Print publishing does not enjoy the opportunity to negotiate the best price. The US Postal Service does not negotiate on their rates to mail tens of thousands of magazines every month. Paper manufacturers do not negotiate the price of paper. While it’s possible to find cheaper printers, the quality of the final product most often suffers. Publishers, though, are expected to negotiate ad rates with customers. That’s a tough position to be put in because printing and mailing magazines is not inexpensive. Without a paid subscription base, most publications can only print as many pages as were paid for through advertising. And as the price of postage, paper and overhead continue to rise the page count in magazines continues to decrease.
The last hurrah Markee has been very fortunate to have had a core of advertisers. Quite a number of companies supported us over the years on a regular basis. Panasonic and Canon, Niche Video Products, Crew Connection and Payreel, CTG in Atlanta, CCI in Florida, Omnimusic, Killer Tracks, Megatrax, Firstcom, American Music Company, Assignment Desk, Locke Bryan Productions, South Coast Film and Video, Camera Copters, Dempsey Film Group, Willy’s Widgets, Production Outfitters, Glidecam, Premier Studio Equipment, Sony Creative Software, PC&E, Barbizon, Bron Kobold, Producers Choice Lighting, HB Group, Crawford, Midtown Video, Virginia Film Office, and so many others supported Markee through their continuous advertising for years. I am truly grateful for their support, and Markee is thankful to have maintained this loyal customer base. More was needed however. There are some manufacturers, international companies, that placed ads in all other trade journals every month except Markee. These companies never hesitated to request that their new product announcements be included in the pages of Markee or on our web sites, for free. These companies never hesitated to request that we interview their product managers for inclusion in our editorial, for free. Our editorial has never been for sale, we have never told anyone we would run their press or include them in our editorial if they would buy an ad. We ran these companies’ press releases, used their photos on our covers, and interviewed them for our features, for free. Their support certainly would have been nice; certainly would have helped with the cost of printing; but they never had any money in their budgets for Markee. Interesting. While this is the last print edition of Markee, the Markee web site will remain active as will the Markee’s ProGear e-zine, and the Markee Film & Video Resource Guide web sites. All of the special features, Galleries, Stock Footage Guide, Music & Sound Guide, Portfolios, and more will remain accessible. This issue will also be posted. The Resource Guide will remain searchable as will the ProGear site for products. Thank you all for reading Markee. It’s been fun, it’s been real. I’ve enjoyed all the interaction with our readers over the years. I will miss bringing this publication to you. n
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009
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