Reader’s Question - Why Does MJ Independent Go Into A Summer Hiatus?

QUESTION - Why does MJ Independent go into a state of hibernation during the summer?

Why don’t you cover more summer events an activities?

ANSWER - With the slowing down of the Moose Jaw news scene during the summer months I move into a phase of special projects.

These are the stories I work on which take months to complete they are intensive looks at the news which may or may not have a Moose Jaw aspect to it.

Last year’s special project looked at the beef industry in the “Where’s the Beef” series.

I will be honest and tell you it did not do well in MJ Independent but in the beef journals or industry publications it had a saturation of 80 percent.

What that means is the estimate is 80 percent of beef producers in Canada read the entire or parts of the series. That’s as big as the Western Producer on the issue.

One of the stories in the series even was published in a US cattle magazine. Another made it - albeit - edited down into an Australian cattle association journal.

Other summers I’ve worked on other issues.

For example I covered the Odessa Film Festival and picked up a bunch of other stories for a German news service.

I hold a German passport and as such I can legally live and work there.

I know parts of Ukraine better than they do - especially in the south and east. Because of that I can access quicker and cheaper than they can.

So I simply piggybacked the stories together. And by piggybacking the stories together, it was more efficient and got what they needed done - done.

This summer I’m planning to do the same and work on a special project.

I haven’t decided what to do this year yet but I have several ideas I’m presently working on.

So that’s why in the summer time it looks like MJ Independent is on hiatus.

As a side note with the anticipated shut down of this publication this coming November or November 2024 - yup it’s time to call it a day - I have already laid plans to work on special projects for other publications not in Moose Jaw.