One of the keys to life and business is an understanding of the nuanced differences between adaptation, progress, and advancement. Whether personal, commercial, or societal, chasing every new shiny trinket and labelling it advancement and progress cannot be assured until due assessment is undertaken on whether that progress is genuine or naive. Such critique is at the core of the world’s most enduring companies, according to noted scholars on the subject.

And then there are the environmental, circumstantial, or induced shifts that trigger adaption within the advancement and progress narrative. At times the need to adapt may well redefine both advancement and progress in the medium term at least.

One of the gifts we received in respect to our current global economic malaise was time. Its impending arrival was well documented, and much of the price we’re paying has its roots in defining naive versus genuine progress in the half decade leading up.

Here at Long Haul Publications, we’ve had a truly interesting and character-defining year. It started with an internal restructure based on redefining the business, how it was measured, the stress it imposed on staff and a finite marketplace, and most importantly its core values – namely the consideration and respect we as owners show to those people giving their all to bring this enterprise to life every day, as well as those who support us commercially.

Framed within our own agenda, we could also see an impending slowdown in the economy, and so needed to shore up as best we could for that also.

It’s been a wonderful journey. As the old chestnut goes, you never learn a thing about yourself in a boom, and today there’s not a shred of doubt in my mind that I have the greatest business partners anyone could ever hope to have; likewise my respect for the character, integrity, and energy of everyone who breathes the life into Long Haul Publications is without boundary.

But it has been a tough year and will continue to be so for some time yet. Every business continues to run the magnifying glass over its costs in what is a small marketplace. As a result, like thousands of other businesses, we’ve had to make some courageous decisions.

For the time being at least, we’ve discontinued printing the Little Trucker Down Under product as a standalone quarterly, bringing the print component within the covers of New Zealand Trucking magazine. As we do with The Business of Trucking section, Little Trucker Down Under will retain its own cover, also retaining Shannon Williams as editor and her band of merry young folk as contributors. It will remain our core children’s masthead, now with a monthly print presence, also retaining its own website and social media activity. On top of all this there will be a stand- alone digital issue produced quarterly.

We have given subscribers the option of a refund on their outstanding subscription balance, or donation of the same amount to Starship Hospital. Our good mates at Truckin’ Life in Australia have picked up the Australian arm of Little Trucker Down Under, and we’ll continue to share cross-Tasman content, ensuring the masthead retains the down under flavour. A huge thank you to everyone – businesses, transport operators, and readers, for their support of Little Trucker Down Under both past and ongoing.

We also made the difficult decision to switch off Trucking Radio 24/7 on 31 July this year. After two years – almost to the day – continued rising input costs, and significantly reduced commercial support as a result of the economic downturn, rendered the station non-viable. It’s worth noting the listening audience was continuing to climb steadily.

However, our broadcast division is alive and well. Looking forward and taking so many learnings from radio, our varied, streamed, podcast series continues to ramp up in audience and interest from the industry, and there’s now a list of people looking to talk to us. It’s a fantastic way to produce informative, entertaining, and shareable industry content. There’s the Keep On Moving Vocational series interviewing industry characters and icons; The Business of Trucking and NRC On Schedule keeping you abreast of business and industry representation; and Blokes Yarning and Chics Chat burgeoning with intellectual might on important topics and issues like, ‘are slash-back stacks superior to straight cuts or curved?’

A huge thank you must go to our commercial broadcast partners who have stayed on supporting the podcasts, making a far more affordable business model sustainable. Contact Pav Warren and her team if you’re keen to be part of this amazing journey.

Long Haul Publications is now leaner, more sustainable resourced, and happier business, and New Zealand Trucking magaine continues to be the beast it’s always been.

Telling New Zealand’s road transport story is more important today than it’s ever been, and doing exactly that, across multiple media platforms, better than anyone else, will always be the mission we strive for.

Dave McCoid
Editorial Director