ICMJ Out Of Business

[Mountaineer Matt]

This was posted by Josh Reinke on Facebook yesterday. Update on the ICMJ:

 

"As many of you know, the ICMJ has gone bankrupt. I have been waiting to find a replacement before making an announcement. As of now, no such luck.

Here are the main contributing factors to this issue:

-40% increase in printing bill the first month I took over. 

-All except one writer retired as soon as I took over. 

--20 year old business infrastructure that had to be redesigned.

-60% increase in cost of doing business over the course of the 3 year term I was involved. 

It is very sad, this is very hard on all of us as a community and I apologize it has gone this way. 

I personally am $90k in debt because of this magazine, I put all of my means into it but it simply wasn't enough. 

Please do not ask me what I'm going to do. I don't know yet. I am trying to find someone to take over and continue the magazine. Yes, this will take deep pockets, no it's not for everyone. If you think you might be interested let me know. 

As I'm sure you all can imagine, this is not fun for me, my family and I are going through a hard time and appreciate your support, not anger. 

When we took over the magazine we thought it would change our lives for the better. Soon after, i realized I was working for free. Yes that's right, I ran the ICMJ for free for 3 years, I never took a check at all. I tried everything I could think of to revive it but no such luck.

God bless everyone. Thanks

On a positive note, the RGM (www.reinkegoldmining.com) is still growing and will now get all of my attention! I'm not going anywhere, the mining community is my home and I am going to continue providing my services."

[paradiceau]

Wishing the best for Josh and family going forward, this must be very hard for them..

Thanks Matt for posting this..

[Redz]

All very understandable issues. What is not understandable as a subscriber is still no notification of anything from them. If it werent for this post we would all still be in the dark.

[Mountaineer Matt]

Looks like the website is down too. isitdownrightnow.com says the server is not responding... This would mean we don't have access to the old issues and articles online either, which is a real shame. Hopefully Josh is able to recover from this and time will tell what happens to ICMJ. 

[Steve Herschbach]

Website being down and more covered in prior threads:

https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/26943-icmj-magazine-still-in-business/

https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/26958-what-happened-to-the-icmj/

Prior threads locked due to uncalled for comments so let's not do that here. Thanks.

[Sourdough Scott]

You know when your parents taught you.... "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it!" Bingo! 

[Gerry in Idaho]

Sorry to hear it's official of the ICMJ. 

I don't wish him/them anything bad even though some folks paid for their membership.

Here's the thing, these guys are all humans and all trying to provide us something we enjoy reading.  They have emotions and they have feelings.  It's tough to admit when things are bad and you're in charge. Does that make them a bad thing?  Heck no.  At least the semi new management had the desire to keep it going and afloat.  Just like is, they enjoy talking/teaching mining/gold.  I wish them the best in any future endeavors and hopefully they learn from this experience.

We're such a small community (mining/detecting/collecting/gold) and many of us know some of those (our) people.  Let's hope something good comes of it in the long run. 

[Rob Allison]

It's unfortunate the magazine ended as it did.  Josh did tell me originally many contributors bailed out along with many of the advertisers.  

I dealt with Sally and Scott Harn for many years, they did an awesome job with the magazine, customizing ads and continuing to get new writers for great articles.  I'm sure a magazine is not easy to run, like any business, but they had years of experience behind them to keep it running successfully.  They both did a bunch themselves, Sally customized ads each month, Scott wrote many articles per month in several sections of the magazine.  

It would be great to see someone purchase it and get it back online and printing again.  

Rob

 

[Hard Prospector]

Seems like the industry in general is going extinct. Not just the prospecting/treasure hunting magazines but the manufacturers that support the small miner as well; Tesoro, Whites, Jobe, Angus Mckirk ........gone and the list goes on. When was the last time anyone saw a new mom n' pop prospecting store open up?  A real bummer indeed.