This is a message I never believed I would have to write. It is with great disappointment that I must inform you that we have been forced to suspend publication of Shorttrack Magazine.

It's no news to any of you that these are particularly difficult times economically. These difficulties have severely affected all aspects of the economy, and the racing industry has been no exception. Yet, we at Shorttrack believed we were in position to survive these difficulties.
 
However, with the delivery of the January/February 2009 issue of Shorttrack to our printer, we were informed that they no longer could carry an open-account on our behalf, we would have to pay off our debt in full before they would proceed with preparing that issue for publication, and we would remain on a CODbasis thereafter.

This was a bit of a shock, to say the least. As recently as early November they had assured us that our current status was acceptable for the foreseeable future, and that status had included regular monthly payments to them. Still, the effort to stay as close to current as possible with our payments was becoming increasingly difficult. The simple fact is that payments from our advertisers, by far our main source of revenue, fell further and further behind. Indeed, as of our last issue of 2008 less than a third of our advertisers were current with their payments. Some major advertisers, in fact, had failed to make any payment on ads they'd renewed in previous issues. As we had enjoyed up-to-date and often advance payments from virtually all advertisers in our first few years of publication, it was impossible to avoid the obvious conclusion that our advertisers were facing their own mounting struggles.
 
Still, we spent December trying to formulate an alternative plan for continued publication, redesigning the magazine itself as much as we were comfortable doing, with fewer pages and less color. Three benefactors offered to make considerable contributions to help us eliminate our past- due debt. We then prepared a projection of anticipated expenses as measured against income projected both from advertisers and subscribers.

This included new subscribers we hoped to acquire at winter trade shows where we planned to offer our customary subscription-specials. In the end, the numbers did not offer enough of an assurance that we could publish beyond a redesigned January/February issue. And considering the number of ad and subscription-renewals made at this time of year as well as potential new subscribers, I could not in good conscience take that risk with the money of others paid to me in good faith. And that's before even weighing the possibility that things quite possibly could get worse through 2009, with payments declining accordingly. With all this in mind, I decided I could not continue, at least at the present time.
 
Whether the situation can improve appreciably in the foreseeable future is beyond my ability to speculate. In the meantime we plan to sustain and possibly expand the Shorttrack website, shottrackonline.net. If there's news to share in the future, that will be the place to find it. Or post it.

I am aware of the great disappointment many of you will feel upon learning of my decision. Believe me, no one is more disappointed than I am. I've invested countless dollars, hours and miles in this endeavor. I always knew it wouldn't exactly be a path to wealth, but I was determined to keep publishing as long as I was able to get each issue out. Certainly at one point Shorttrack proved able to sustain itself, and in a world that doesn't smile much upon the little guy. That was enough for me.

But not enough for our readers, who supported us throughout our five years of existence. I want to offer all of you - the faithful subscribers who renewed routinely, the advertisers who utilized the opportunity to access that faithful audience, the racetracks and promoters who opened their back-gates to us, and the talented and dedicated writers and photographers who walked through those gates and came out with the great stories and pictures found nowhere else but in our pages - my personal apologies once again. And my thanks, for at least giving me a shot.

Sorry we couldn't keep it rolling.

Sincerely,
Thom Ring

BullRing Publishing
nopitstops@shorttrackonline.net