AIR Cargo Eye (ACE) has a uniquely positioned editorial stance in that it is the only non-advertising-influenced news and comment outlet for the global airfreight business. By refusing to solicit paid-for advertisements, ACE is free to be candid – and therefore more accurate and unbiased – with the information it presents. Without the need to protect advertisement revenues we will fairly and reaso
nably offer adverse and/or critical commentary and reporting where deemed necessary and where relevant to subscribers. Our aim is to dig out the real truth – not provide PR-driven press release text sullied by the need not to antagonise advertisers. The majority of existing air cargo publishing media suffer from this advertising protection curse. Our unique stance brings us editorial freedom. We will tell it as it is. We will ask difficult questions. We will offer critical comment where there has been none before. Most air cargo print advertising is a substantial waste of time and money. Its effectiveness systematically goes unchecked by much of the air cargo industry which does not know how to value or measure it. We will be illustrating this point in researched articles in the coming weeks and months. Airlines, GSAs, airports, etc will discover how to slash their marketing/advertising budgets as we give them tips on how to cut their wasteful ad spends. Where – and where not – to advertise. We’ll also be publishing controversial lists of top and bottom air cargo industry performers/individuals – whilst sometimes naming those people and organisations which we consider are worthy of criticism. In the pursuit of fair comment, there will always be a right of reply on ACE and we will encourage vigorous debate. We will also bring a bit of daily fun, sometimes pointing the finger in a humorous, satirical way if necessary. ACE’s publisher is Nigel Tomkins, one of the world’s most experienced air cargo journalists and event moderators, with a worldwide reputation in the field. More than 30 years ago, Nigel was the launch editor of fortnightly newspaper Air Cargo News. He is very much aware that print publications have been sliding downhill, cutting issue sizes amidst a collapsing market of dwindling printed advertisement revenues. This affliction applies to all those titles which rely largely on advertising revenue. Many have disappeared in the last few years. One of the bi-products of this downwards trend is that most surviving media outlets have been systematically ‘de-journalising’ their products. Accountants and lawyers (usually not taken from the news and information industry sectors) have been taking over the management at these companies. To some of them, quality editorial content appears to be an expendable commodity. They and their colleagues now resort to describing editorial matter as ‘text’ – commoditising it as a cost item on the spreadsheet, a necessary evil around which their advertisement revenue business hangs by a thread. The trend also means that some of today’s journalists have become desk-bound, office-bound press release jockeys, readily prepared to sacrifice editorial vigour and the search for truth. Very soon, there will be no air cargo journalists of any note – only PR people clinging onto the outmoded advertising and promotion paradigm, and dressing up press releases as ‘news’. ACE’s launch editor is former BBC news journalist Thelma Etim. Thelma brings a vibrant approach to air cargo publishing. She is also greatly experienced on online editorial matters, having worked for some years at the BBC News Online in the UK. Thelma also has three years of specialist air cargo reporting, research and features writing in air cargo industry matters, having been deputy editor at Air Cargo News. Thelma is already a highly regarded air cargo and transport specialist writer and researcher. A former BBC multimedia journalist and news editor for Trinity Mirror Newspapers, she has accrued more than 15 years’ experience in general news gathering, reporting, feature researching, interviewing and writing, news and news analysis, blogging and daily website updating, whilst working to hourly, daily, and weekly deadlines.
“I believe good journalism is under attack by an ongoing drive to appease big business by diluting, homogenising and packaging news,” she says.
“News/analysis published by ACE will be truly independent of the shackles of advertising and will also come with a healthy injection of humour.”