Let’s start with the bad news…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or an ant hill) for the last six months, you will have noticed that the global economy has suffered a significant downturn.
Sadly, despite our best efforts to find innovative solutions to whichever obstacles cross our path (in true Anthillian style), Anthill has not been immune to many of the factors that are currently playing havoc with the Australian (and global) media industry.
While both our retail and subscription sales increased during the month of December (thank you, dear readers!), large sections of the marketing community have reduced or postponed their advertising plans in 2009 and we depend on advertising to keep Anthill at an affordable price for our readers.
(As an aside, we applaud those advertisers that have stepped up and indeed increased their marketing activities with Anthill during this time. You know who you are and so will our readers during and beyond this economic downturn.)
Also, a falling Australian dollar has had the inverse affect on our production costs (namely, causing paper prices to rise), while the turbulent price of petrol has had a similar affect on our distribution expenses.
Clearly, it’s been a tough few months here, packed with internal discussions, financial and process restructures, plus a whole lot of soul searching, as the effects of the economic landscape became more obvious and onerous.
As such, we reached the difficult decision late last month to reduce the frequency of Anthill. So,what does this mean?
As of 1 April 2009, Anthill Magazine will no longer be released on a bi-monthly basis (every two months, six times a year). Instead, it will be published on a quarterly basis (every three months).
If you are a subscriber, you will still be served with the full number of magazines that you have paid for. Your subscription will just last longer.
For example, if you are already half way through a 12-month subscription (six editions), the remaining three editions will be sent to you over the next nine months (on a quarterly basis).
Now, the good news…
Firstly, our new quarterly editions will be fatter, tastier and filled with even more Anthillian education, inspiration and reverie than ever before.
Our first edition under the new frequency will be released on 1 April 2009, as our Apr/May/Jun edition (featuring our inaugural ‘SMART 100’ Index), followed by our Jul/Aug/Sep edition (featuring 30under30), Oct/Nov/Dec edition (featuring our Cool Company Awards) and so on.
Secondly, we have used this time of re-development and reflection to greatly enhance our online presence, and we are adding new features almost daily.
Over coming days and weeks you can expect to see the introduction of breaking news, new blogging identities, a range of educational email series, a new logical navigation structure, webinars, tools, downloads, subscriber giveaways and much more.
Not everything that we’ve described above is ready right now. But, despite the overall circumstances, we are already brimming with optimism about the ways our new structure will allow us to improve Anthill – not just for now, but for years ahead.
Overall, it is a sad but necessary decision that we have had to make. If you wish to cancel your subscription, you can call Lachlan Wharton on (03) 9428 3777 and he’ll immediately refund the amount still owing for any remaining editions.
If you wish to stick by us, I thank you for your understanding, your patience and your support for Anthill Magazine as a strong, independent voice for entrepreneurship in Australia.
Yours faithfully,
James Tuckerman
Founder / Editor-In-Chief
