Let's Spring Forward into Diving!

As our April turns to May, we are happy to embrace spring and shed our winter coats. The weather was reluctant to release its clutch on us this year. Winter’s low temperatures chilled our hands and fierce storms battered our coats causing many to seek shelter from destructive wind and rain. For those affected by Hurricane Sandy and the many other tropical storms, we send our continued thoughts and prayers for continued recovery and rebuilding. Now as the water slowly relinquishes its grasp and the wind changes course, we find ourselves preparing for the upcoming dive season. We begin our dive season by digging out the old gear and start our spring cleaning. We send our tanks to be visually inspected as well as our hydros, regulators and BCDs to their respected services.

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If You Are Reading This: We Survived!

We are excited about new beginnings. Much like everyone else, even I can get jaded from time to time.  After 17 years producing local dive news magazines, I can get kind of worn out. Each December, I take some time off over the holidays to recharge my personal batteries and regroup both personally and professionally.  What went well last year? What did not?  What did I learn? What do I need to learn? Then,  like many of us, I make New Year’s resolutions to be better in the new year. To get in shape, read, study etc..  We take a look at the business and how far we’ve come-wow! And what we can do in the coming year.

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Dive Shows! We Love Them!

Welcome to the April edition of North America Dive News. As always, we are glad to provide you with a publication chock full of news and information designed to help you become active in the sport - locally where it really matters.

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Different can be GOOD!

This month is a very special month.  We are changing our format for the magazine and rebranding our company Nationally as the Dive News Network Media Group.   I have been publishing regional magazines for 17 years, so this was a big step – not one we took lightly.  

A few months ago we conducted an experiment.  We combined all regional editions: Northwest Dive News, Midwest Dive News, Northeast Dive News, Southeast Dive News and our newest magazine, Southwest Dive News into one combined National Edition.   We maintained our usual regional content, just combined all the areas together into one magazine.  That edition we labeled North America Dive News and sent it out to our entire database across the USA and Canada – then we waited  to see if anyone noticed.

What would our readers and advertisers think of our new format? Where we crazy to abandon our regional approach in an effort to go National? Crazy? Yes, but stupid, No! The response was overwhelming. They loved it!  Our readers almost unanimously said Wow, this is terrific, and demanded more! They loved something about this new product. They loved looking at the local diving in their area but also the diving in the other areas too.
So this month marks our birthday as we are officially launching North America Dive News and going national. We are combining all our regional editions into one magazine each month but are still keeping our regional approach.   Each section will be separate and complete.  We will still be focusing on local diving, promoting the events and activities for local dive shops, we will just be sharing that message with a much larger audience, and more mobile audience.  

Besides sending the magazine to every dive shop in our regional areas, we also have the magazine available online 24-7-365. Divers can read all our stories, view photos, and even comment on them using social media.   Divers can use our new E-Reader (click here).  The magazine looks fantastic and it’s easy to read on whatever device you might want to use - iPad, PC, laptop, mobile phone, etc.  Try it out!

Another new item, we eliminated our free readership.  The only place you can get a free magazine is at one of our participating dive retailers. We no longer offer the magazine for free - anywhere.   According to a recent survey we conducted,   nearly 90% of our readers we talked to love the print magazine but want it for free.  We understand. We love free too.  However, we can’t print and mail it for free so we had to think of an inventive way to get that done.  We came up with a solution.  We made a deal with our local dive shops to carry and support the magazine.   They purchase a shop subscription and then can hand them out to their customers.   If you want a printed copy, go to your local dive shop and asks for it.  If they don’t carry it, call or e-mail me and I will offer them a shop subscription, so that you can get a free printed magazine whenever you visit your local dive shop, hopefully inspiring you to visit and dive more often.    

So, try out this edition. Hopefully it will inspire you to get into or back into diving-locally where it really matters

See you on the next dive!

Rick

Rick's Blog: March 2013

Welcome to the March edition of North America Dive News. 

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The Spirit of Fall

Welcome to the November Edition of the Northwest Dive News. As fall’s chilly winds cool the temperatures, it forces most divers to head indoors. However, the cooler temperatures kill the surface algae layers and greatly improve visibility when you are out diving. Keep the dive gear out of the closet and keep it wet. The best diving of the year is generally in the fall and early winter. We have been diving all summer and have some really great trips planned for late November through mid-December.

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Get Your Dive News Anyway You Want It!

Over the past three years, like many small businesses, we have struggled to reinvent ourselves in the new economy and facing the economic realities of the Great Recession.  I could easily see the decline of print. Newspapers and magazines were going out of business in droves as advertisers chose digital over print or simply doing nothing because they feared that their customer was not interested in doing business with them anyway.  In other words – don’t go fishing, when there are fewer fish…

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Back to Our Roots

Welcome to October! Oktoberfest! Halloween! Back to school, and harvest season. The end of the summer and dive-season always makes me think of history and the roots.

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