posted 02-02-2009 12:21 PM               

A Statement from the Owners of LAUNCH Magazine

For more than two years, it has been our great pleasure to invest an enormous amount of time, energy, and resources into LAUNCH Magazine. We have done this because LAUNCH is not just any run-of-the-mill publication. It's very personal to us. We believe in it. We are spaceflight enthusiasts who also love the model rocketry hobby.

We are "magazine people" as well, having devoted our careers to the highest standards in the industry. We have given LAUNCH our best efforts, and along the way, we have had the privilege of working with so many talented people who have helped us produce LAUNCH. These include our very loyal advertisers, subscribers and contacts in the space and hobby industries.

In return for that loyalty, we have worked hard to produce an outstanding magazine. We have also donated a great deal of money as sponsors of the various events that we consider important -- from the National Association of Rocketry's competitions and events to major national spaceflight shows and seminars. It has been a pleasure to do this.

But now we are caught up in an extremely difficult economy, not only for the nation at large, but very specifically in the publishing industry. These are truly tough times. To that extent, we regret that we have no choice but to place LAUNCH on a hiatus of at least two months. We would like to stress that we are not closing the magazine. We have invested too much, and we still believe the nation needs a magazine like LAUNCH. We also are very mindful that many of you have supported us from the very beginning and that you care about it as much as we do. We are very thankful for all that you have done for us.

Over the next few days we will announce a plan that will include an automatic extension of subscriptions for all current subscribers during this hiatus, as well as the creation of a password-protected section on our website available only to subscribers, where you will be able to view original content. Each subscriber will receive a letter with details of their subscription status and their new subscription end date.

We ask for your patience and understanding during this very difficult time. We hope you'll "hang in there" with us. And we apologize for our silence on this matter up until now. We have spent the past few weeks trying to restructure our company and we are close to completing that.

We are aware there have been major distribution problems with the December issue of LAUNCH (our last issue until we come out of this hiatus) and we are working to resolve that now. We will be back in touch very soon.

posted 02-02-2009 12:49 PM               

As unique and well-produced as LAUNCH is, pretty much any "niche" print publication is an iffy endeavour here in the Age of the Interwebs. Good luck to them.

Kevin