BLOOD-HORSE JOB LOSSES: DOES FRANKFORT CARE?
By Ray Paulick
The news just doesn’t get any better at the publication where I spent 15 years of my professional life, but the fact that Blood-Horse magazine has laid off at least five more employees today is just as much a sign of the collateral damage from the Kentucky Thoroughbred industry’s economic troubles as it is a statement on the present and future of newspapers and magazines.
Tick off five more losses from the estimated 100,000 jobs the horse industry contributes directly or indirectly to Kentucky’s economy. I have lost count of how many of my friends and former colleagues at Blood-Horse have lost their jobs in the last 18 months. As my Paulick Report partner, Brad Cummings, and I have traveled from business to business in Kentucky, we’re hearing the same refrain, whether it’s at farms, racetracks, suppliers, tack shops, insurance or advertising agencies: this industry is hurting, and it’s painful to see the continuing losses and the damage it inflicts on the individuals and their families.
Each job loss within Kentucky’s signature industry should send a dire message to Frankfort, but I’m afraid our state legislators are tone deaf. With the news that VLT or slots legislation is almost certainly a non-starter again in 2010, it means that Kentucky’s horse industry faces another year of operating on a playing field that is far from level with a majority of states. Racehorses, mares and stallions are leaving the state, and so are the jobs they contribute.
You’ve read it here and many other places that print publications are in trouble, and there’s no doubt the razor thin issues the Blood-Horse has been printing lately reflect a significant shift in advertising dollars from print to online publications. Advertisers are adjusting out of necessity since their revenues are down, and they have to maximize every dollar they spend. Make no mistake: I’m grateful to be on the right side of the technology curve, but it doesn’t make it easier to see what’s happening to so many former colleagues.
Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report
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Tags: blood-horse, Brad Cummings, Kentucky, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:44 pm
BH is a shell of its former self. Ad revenues are down in all media, but this magazine is more like a flyer now. If it is going to continue to exist, a management change is need to breathe some fresh air into the operation. I’m not sure there is much point in continuing the print edition, given the cost of production and distribution.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:54 pm
I agree Roger that The Blood-Horse isn’t nearly as good as it used to be. I have to scrimp and save to subscribe each year and I do it for the great pictures of the horses, but they are getting smaller and smaller all the time and the paper quality gets worse too. It’s one reason I don’t visit this web site very often, you shoul have much bigger photos of the great horses for us fans.
January 23rd, 2010 at 10:05 am
For many years horse racing was the main source of revenue in states where it was legal.
Now that horse racing needs help (not a handout) the same states are turning a deaf ear. Kentucky, the horse racing capital of the world, has more to lose than the other racing states. People travel from all over the world to see the Kentucky Derby and to visit beautiful and historic horse farms in the Bluegrass area. The legislators in Frankfort are acting like they really don’t care.
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:30 am
I wish we could vote everybody out of Frankfort and start over. But maybe we are going about this the wrong way. Maybe we need to deal with the businesses in Kentucky that have much influence with Frankfort. Lets take Toyota for example. How about someone from Toyota saying “unless you (state gov.) help the horse industry we are moving”. Is this totally nuts on my part? Some company or group of companies carry enough weight to make Frankfort move, don’t they?
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:32 pm
The mistake you’re making is the erroneous assumption that covering every square inch of the planet with slot machines will cure childhood cancer and stop earthquakes in Haiti. Gambling growth is not logarithmic. It reaches a saturation point. Reno used to be the biggest gambling market in the world. In the 1970s, the largest casino, at the time, the MGM Grand, was built in Reno. Today, Reno is barely considered a gambling market, and over half of the joints that existed in the 90s have been shut down, with a couple more in bankruptcy. Eventually, each new venue just cannabilizes the existing joints. Racing handle will diminish. Even with slot machine supplements, racing will be running in place.
The gambling industry, both casinos and racing, are indifferent to the price sensitivity of gamblers, both the overt and covert sensitivity. Walmart has mastered pricing to become the biggest retailer in the world. If the racing industry would master pricing their product, they wouldn’t need supplements.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Picksburg Phil—I completely agree with you that slots or VLTs are band-aid relief when major surgery is needed, but at this point any relief would be helpful to the racing industry.
But, I firmly believe that we can turn things around and save this great game. It will require hard work, dedication to the sport and imaginative ideas to fill the grandstands again.
We don’t need pompous racetrack owners who look out for their own self-interests. We need to support the NTRA and truly make it our “league office” and give it the teeth it needs to lobby for our industry as a whole.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:57 pm
All the VLTS in the world won’t save this industry from itself! How would a VLT save a job at the Bloodhorse? It’s a NATIONAL publication isn’t it, so why would VLT”s in KY save a job at a publisher. The fact is MANY publications in all industries are disappearing.
Yes, many jobs are being lost, but it is simply because of contractions in the entire publshing world…who needs the magazine when you can just go to a website….in fact, maybe the maybe the Paulick Report has more to do with those “lost” jobs than the lack of a VLT…Think about it! I can go to your website and link into many thoroughbred related articles from a countless number of sources……Hopefully you’ll be in a position to hire some of those former coworkers one day.
January 24th, 2010 at 8:37 am
I live in Australia and thus my subscription to The Blood-Horse costs considerably more than a domestic subscription. I keep getting tempting offers to renew my sub, which isn’t actually due until May, with a multi year sub. I have held off taking up any of these offers for fear that The Blood-Horse may not exist in a year or two.
Are my fears justified? Is there a possibility that The B-H may disappear altogether?
January 24th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
As I was saying about saturation, two stories from Equidaily:
“The number of slot machines at the Slots at Fort Erie gaming facility will be cut by more than half in mid-year to bring the size of the center more in line with demand, an Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. spokesman said Friday.”
and,
“In a recent report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Seneca Gaming Corp., which runs the sites, reported a $19.4 million net loss for its three sites, attributing that to the economy and competition with other nearby sites.”
You guys are hitching your wagon to the wrong star. No parking, no gate, 10% rake, fixed odds, peer-to-peer, comps, rebates - and you won’t need welfare. Man up and make your business sustainable - it used to be.