L&A Has Been Sold

[nauticalnut]

Bobs big announcement at the St Pete boat show was a doozie: Bob sold L&A, Living Aboard, L&A TV, the whole nine yards to a group of four buyers who said that were going to improve the magazine and fix what needed to be fixed. Bob is still going to have a hand in things in some fashion.

I heard Jodie saying the next morning that the shock of selling it was just starting to hit Bob.

By appearances the new owners seem to be yachtie types but I did not have any interaction with them and I am willing to see where they take this. I this my favorite mag I have either bought or subscribed to every issue since #10, Joined LACC last year, I own several of Bobs books and every L&A TV DVD, and bought a bunch from the store to help support the mag.

I wish them the best but Bob and Jody are the heart and soul of L&A. As Bob says "Attitude is the difference between Ordeal and Adventure" so lets see what the new owners can bring to the table.

[kd3pc]

good news, as their forums were beset by all kinds of spam for months.

Perhaps the new folks can turn this around.

[emoney]

I agree as sometimes things can grow larger than life, so-to-speak. They had a great idea at
just the right moment, and now it's grown into something that probably needs more folks involved
with more energy & know how to continue to grow the brand. I'm sure they felt like the
deal was fair financially, and now they can continue to do what brought them to this point
in the first place; cruise.

[smackdaddy]

Hopefully the new owners will decrease the breadth of the offerings and increase the quality. It's a great underlying idea - just needs to be modernized.

[RedtheBear]

The Bears two cents:
"Attitude is the difference between Ordeal and Adventure" has been my by-phase since I first read the second issue of Lat's and Att's. To me they had whole world of sailing and cruising in a very simple phrase. Lets hope that the new owners don"t go "clubie" on us and reduce the mag to another "Yatchtie" mag for the rich and "fab".
Being one of the 99% not making 250K a year "Lat's and Att's" was the dream world of maybe someday being one who managed to break free and just "go" away to that place just off the edge of the of the charts in my drawer.

Red the Bear

[kwaltersmi]

So I wonder what's on Bob future agenda? I assume he'll probably still write for L&A from time to time.

[canadianseamonkey]

This is terrible news to me. Bob and Jodie are the hearts of L&A and of their small empire. Just because the new owners are "yachties" doesn't mean they know the newsprint business and how expensive it actually is. Profits are small and the undertaking is huge. Pulp and paper prices are steadily increasing and advertising steadly decreasing. I'm not sure why anybody would want to get into the pubilshing game in these times. I wish them luck, but unless they have deep pockets, lots of experience and contacts, I can see L&A going under within one year.

[davidpm]

Maybe they can afford to finish that Global 50 Shannon they were building. Looked like a sweet boat but they ran out of money and put it up for sale partly completed.

[Sabre Dan]

Sometimes a change IS for the better. The new owners would do well to continue to cater to the shoestring yachters out here who don't merely write checks to boatyards, but actually get down in the bilge and fix stuff.

[Night_Sailor]

The new owners got all the company assets? How much rum came with the business?