Yes, We Will Recover From This… But Have Little Doubt That Aviation Will Never Be Quite The Same

Hi folks…

I don't know about the rest of you but I have the unmistakable impression that I’ve just been hit by a truck…

We entered 2020 about as optimistic as we've ever been… We had a major new marketing initiative (the TYS Program… more on that, another time) that was setting the world on fire, we had some new people coming into the mix that were really raising our capabilities, and we were very much on the path to greater things.

Actually; we should have been on our way to the best year we've had in over a decade.

We also spent some serious money (for which I'm now kicking myself) and had completed massive upgrades in some of our video gear, especially our live streaming capabilities in anticipation of AEA 2020, we were getting ready to field our most aggressive coverage of the Sun n Fun Fly–In, we had major changes already underway for ANN, and it was just plain exciting.

Heck, we thought we were getting ready to take over the world.

And then… The virus.

I guess when Mother Nature decides to give everybody a fit, she means business.

So, Aero-News, our staff and partners, and our friends, are getting ready to survive, instead of thrive.

We’re making some changes that you may see in a few places, and there are some areas where we’re still undertaking solid and positive upgrades. But, in other areas, we're tightening up on resources, to make sure that the business we know we have on hand gets us through a reasonable amount of time to see some semblance of a recovery from this god-awful mess.

In and amongst this, is the necessity for us all to protect ourselves, stay healthy, and be a part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

It's a weird realization right now, because most of the members of my family, except for myself of course, are in the medical field. One of them has already been exposed to COVID-19 as a result of her work as a Senior Nursing staffer, and while she was gowned and masked and all that, it's a horrible thing to worry about, and just one more addition to a prayer list that's getting kind of lengthy.

And that's going to be our world for a number of weeks, maybe months, and for way longer than it should be.

In the meantime, I promise you that the Aero-News staff has extraordinary faith in aviation and in all of you.

We believe in you, we care for you, and we have a job to do – for you. We will do our very best, in the midst of all this insanity, to be the best news operation we've ever been, and we hope that you will make sure to read us and support us every way you can.

And yes, for those of you in the world that still have a business that allows for such, we hope you'll give some consideration to sponsoring Aero-News and helping us to keep the aviation world informed.

At the same time, we’ll all do what we have to do.

There's really not much more I can tell you right now than that…

We’ll be making some announcements in the next few days about projects that we’ve  been working on for a while… Including a huge effort that should be on schedule for webcasting this Friday, in which we've invited all the folks that we had hoped to work with, a few weeks ago, at the Aircraft Electronics Association Convention And Trade Show, and where we usually livestream the massive AEA New Product Introduction session – and with whom now we've collaborated to put together an all-digital Avionics Innovation Preview production that incorporates the news announcements and innovations of the ever exciting, and still exciting, world of avionics.

We know that the folks at AEA did everything they could to save their convention, and promote the industry, but even these incredibly capable people couldn't fight a worldwide pandemic. But if anybody could…

So… We have that in the works, we have additions to the overall Airborne video news programming matrix coming… Including what will soon be a new weekly news feature dedicated to the world of Flight Training – which is going to be an even more important aspect of aviation in the weeks and months to come. We think, when all this finally subsides and allows for the world to recover, that aviation will be one of the most aggressive and among the first to recover from the assault we've received… And we strongly believe that the Flight Training Industry has more to offer than ever before.

So, we're on it, and working to make sure that it and some other pivotal topics are covered aggressively, professionally, and thoroughly.

Okay… Enough for now. Masako and my prayers are with you all… The entire ANN staff is fully dedicated to bringing you everything that you expect and more… And when we finally get the chance, we promise you we’re going to be pushing harder than ever to see the aviation world survive and thrive – each and every one of you. We promise.

All the best to each of you…

Jim Campbell

ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief

FMI: jim@aero-news.net