Dr. Frank Brady, who is Chairman of the Department of Mass
Communications, Journalism, Television and Film at St. John's
University, New York and is Professor of Communication Arts and
Journalism at that university, as well as being the founding editor of
Chess Life magazine, has expressed opposition to the plan to put Chess
Life online as follows:

Colleagues:

As the founding Editor of Chess Life, and as someone who has been in
the magazine business for a number of years, I can say the following:

The reason that some magazines and newspapers are switching from print
to on-line versions is because of a lack of advertising (due to the
poor economy). Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times,
told me personally that he was "message agnostic" and that he didn't
care whether there would be a hard copy of the Times or whether it
would eventually be delivered totally online. However, the online
version has yet to make money...and the Times is hurting financially.

Since Chess Life is not an advertising-driven medium (although it has
some ads), it should be looked at from its promotional and "pride"
value.

If I were still on the USCF Board I would definitely vote against
turning Chess Life into an online publication. And for what it is
worth, I have both an online and a home-delivery subscription to The
New York Times, and I rarely ever read the on-line version. I might
also point out that many marketers are giving up on e-mail and online
approaches because it's just not working. They are reverting to the
old tried and true direct mail efforts.

Dr. Frank Brady, President
Marshall Chess Club