Now I hear what you're saying about your demographic, and yes, we're the tiny drop in the ocean and you can't cover small leagues in the UK without feeling that you're alienating that demographic. But c'mon? Two or three pages on the UK or even a Europe scene as a whole? Is that likely to make Joe American dump PGI for becoming Eurocentred? I'm guessing that every paintballer in the UK who plays tournament in some form (and recball if that coverage is increased) buys PGI at least sporadically...so what you're talking about is a small country with a very high take-up rate for the magazine, which is being dismissed as a very small part of the magazine's demographic, and that's a shame for customers with such loyalty, I know there are other publications in the UK which cover UK scene, but is PGI's response really to tell UK ballers to hand over cash to a competitor?
I have quoted this part of your post because Beaks has answered some of what needs to be addressed but from my point of view, here goes :-
If we say 'yes' to you then we immediately open the doors to the French, Germans and so on..and we do this because, as I have mentioned, we are an international paintball magazine that just happens to be printed in the UK.
Magazines have to be printed somewhere and just because you happen to be in the country of printing, does not automatically mean you will receive preferred coverage.
Our primary responsibility is to make money, and to do this, we have to consider our customers and I'm afraid you have little understanding if you believe magazine sales provide our primary income stream, they do not.
Advertising does and guess what?
Where do all the industry reside?
Now, i don't really need to spell out the consequences of that.
Sales of magazines themselves (subs and newsstands) merely cover costs of production, it doesn't cover editorial or attendant expenditure, just the cost of the physical production.
No magazine sells all of their copies and so every month carries a deficit of magazines that have been printed but not sold and so, the magazines that are sold then not only have to be paid for themselves but also for the ones that didn't....getting the picture?
Now, whilst you may be quite interested to see yourself and your mate at the Cleethrorpes 5 man, I'm afraid the major demographic ain't gonna lose much sleep if in fact we don't cover that event.
The universal attractions only begin to take shape when we start climbing the ladder...and this is achieved when we begin covering international events such as the NPPL, PSP and Millenniums etc.
Parochial events in the UK might be important to you mate but in the scheme of things?
Well.....sorry to disappoint ya but I'm afraid they ain't that important.
And we can't even the beat the drum of the UK being preeminent in Europe (or even, anywhere near the top) like we once were because we have no teams anywhere near able to compete with the big boys, in fact, only Joy and the Ruskies could be ever described as serious European paintball teams, the rest just scrabble for crumbs left behind ....
There have been a few people who have tried to reinvigorate the UK scene but in the end, these people just gave up, tired of the indifference and lack of enthusiasm.
Overall, we get what we deserve ....both in terms of Millennium representation and consequent success, and also coverage in mags.
If we had a team who could compete at the highest level, then we would necessarily cover it but we ain't, nowhere frikkin near it.
