Re: [HCDX]: WRTH Future

["David Onley" <donley@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> >Anyone know what the story is about the WRTH ?  
> 
> The correct answer is that there is no story... at least none that we
> know about. None of us -- Sennitt, Marks, myself -- involved with the
> WRTH have been told of any decisions. 
> 
> 
> My five cents. From knowing Andy and Bart and the way the WRTH was
> produced I conclude the publication is probably dead. The publisher
> didn't really have a big interest in the book and with declining sales we
> might as well not keep our hopes up for a WRTH 1999. Sad.

Thanks for all the postings.. It has been good reading everyones thoughts but 
we still seem to be in the dark about it's future.

I tend to agree that the book is probably struggling a bit due to the fact that 
the hobby is not as strong as it was 5 - 10 years ago.. This in itself warrants 
discussion on whether we as hobby groups & individuals should promote the hobby 
more.

Here in Australia we have 4 clubs all just surviving.. None really viable & the 
common sense thing would be to merge all 4.. but that is a different story & 
something unique to Australia..

The ARDXC back in the 80's had 680+ members yet now finds itself with about 
100.  SPUD has 70 & DX Australia & Southern Cross have between 80 - 150 
members..   

So as you can see the hobby is dying in this part of the world & no doubt in 
other countries as well. It will NEVER recover no matter how hard we try 
to promote it because we no longer get the younger people coming through the 
ranks. There are too many  options for kids these days.. PC's & Cable TV etc..

To SPUD's credit they are promoting the hobby through the Scouting movement in 
Australia to try & educate younger people to the joys & fascination of Dxing.. 
Only time will tell whether that education is a success.

Getting back to the WRTH. I suppose like all business ventures you have to look 
at whether it is viable & where savings can be made. Personally I have not 
liked the changes to the book in recent years.. The address sections are hard 
to read & the MW section at the back is not what it used to be either.. but I 
can understand why the format has had to change too.

If the WRTH is to survive I feel that it needs to have a radical face lift.. 
Change the format & possibly listen to it's readers as to what they would like 
to see included.

Finally it would have been nice to hear the real reasons why Bart & Andy left. 
Credit to them though for not making it public. No doubt it would be easy for 
them to let loose with their thoughts..

If the WRTH does go under for whatever reasons.. it 
would be nice to see someone else pick it up.. It's too valuable a publication 
to let die.

I'm sure there are a few Nth Americans waiting in the wings to see what 
happens.

73
Dave

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