We work very hard on each of the issues, but one of the most challenging issues each year for me is the Annual Jack Issue. It is generally one of our largest issues, but it recent years, it has become smaller. We still have a lots of ads, but not near the magnitude it used to. But to each of those advertisers, their ad, no matter what size, is extremely important to them and we try so very hard to get it just right. We know their ad is what can make or break their breeding season. We start working on the jack issue in October, gathering names and working on promotions. It comes with lots of late nights and early mornings, pouring over copy and ad sheets...
We want the best for our advertisers and our industry - but one thing is for sure - the breeding market is getting smaller. We see more and more folks choosing not to breed outside mares and jennets - which means they have no use for ads. We see folks selling off their breeding stock - we get lots of ads from people who wants to "sell out" of the business. These are contributing factors, and when you combine it with the general state of our economy, and that for some people when they have to make cut-backs, they do it from advertising, you might be able to see why our jack issue is decreasing in size.
When I was younger, there would be two and three pages of new arrivals in the magazine almost every month. Now, there are months when we have none. When you think about it, these two things are related. People are breeding less, so there are less cute babies to take photos of.
We know this is disappointing to people. We are disappointed, ourselves. But we are doing everything we can.
