An Old Chinese Proverb Warns… Be Care In What You Wish For -- You May Get It!

Analysis/Commentary/Observations by Jim Campbell, ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief

For a number of years, we’ve pondered what steps we might take to jump-start a woefully needed revolution to improve the fortunes of the aviation and aerospace world.

And while we never felt it was our job to accomplish this all by ourselves, we did feel that we could have a positive effect and aid this biz in finding its way to better times.

After years of careful consultation, a few bumps in the road, and a LOT of experimentation and brain-storming, we have embarked on the first CAREFUL tentative steps toward a multi-pronged approach to build a foundation and conduit for changes that we know need to be heading ALL our ways if this industry has a chance of surviving.

There’s far more to it than we’ve disclosed… and not because we’re being super-secretive, but because this thing literally evolves every day… with every conversation, every new idea, and every bit of intellectual support we receive.

So… for now, here’s what we’re starting -- slowly, carefully, professionally, passionately and with every ounce of our greatest hopes and dreams of a better future for aviation… today.

Step 1: Airborne Unlimited Mission Statement

To continue to build a synergistic, creative, and modern industry-wide, aviation/aerospace news/entertainment program, based on the nearly 4 year works created by ANN’s ‘Airborne’ program, the 8 year span of Aero-TV, and the 20 year effort of its parent organization, the Aero-News Network. Our aim is to grow this program to include a significant portion, if not a majority, of the aviation world’s pivotal organizations, interests, viewpoints and to do so in a way that presents a ‘United Front’ for the aviation community to present itself to the rest of the world -- and using the best in new communication/outreach technologies to do so. It is no longer enough, in our view, to build a successful business... but to build a successful structure by which this business (and our valued partners) can, collectively, have a positive, even transformative, impact on the industry that wasn’t possible, individually.

The Airborne Unlimited Basic Program -- What Is It?

We’re going to do it this way… ANN is re-configuring Airborne as Airborne Unlimited, DAILY, Monday through Friday, with breaking news bulletins as important news warrants -- outside our normal working hours -- at the beginning of 2015. Airborne Unlimited will be augmented by affiliated efforts from Aero-News (online written news) Propwash (digital newsletters), and Aero-Casting (Podcasting) to produce news and information in every major digital format. ANN continues to serve as the primary editorial and production staff for these efforts.

Airborne Unlimited, so far, has six planned generations or evolutions ahead of it (with more to follow, quite probably). However; after being one of the industry’s aero-media ‘disruptors’ for nearly two decades, it’s not enough to have great ideas, but to have the patience to execute them carefully, professionally and successfully. As a result, progress toward the future of Airborne and its many iterations will be made slowly, incrementally and constantly in a ‘crawl before you walk, walk before you run and run before you fly’ progression that gives the greatest potential for success. 

One of the true strengths of Airborne is its organizational backbone -- The Airborne Partnership Initiative. The ‘API’ comprises the ‘brain-trust’ of the aviation industry and has taken on well over 100 aviation industry associations and organizations (more possibilities to follow—including other aero-media enterprises) as info/content/distribution partners in order to provide a solid and comprehensive foundation throughout the industry… and through all aspects of aviation and aerospace. This signals an unprecedented level of cooperation among the aviation decision-makers and organizations… and is an incredibly compelling endorsement for this effort.

Airborne Unlimited – Guidance and Oversight

We intend that the Airborne Unlimited program take on a revolutionary mission -- based on dozens of evolutionary efforts – each of which will be supervised and AGGRESSIVLY critiqued by some of the aviation and aerospace world’s most passionate innovators, organizers and advocates.

That being the case, this effort will answer and adhere to the guidance and oversight of a carefully selected Airborne Advisory Board filled with recognized aviation experts, digital media authorities, and some of the most passionate advocates in the Aero-Verse. Their job, simply put, is to be as critical and aggressively pro-active as they can be in offering their guidance to this work so that the program’s potential may be fully realized.

The Advisory Board will be led by Retired AOPA President Phil Boyer (whose advice and counsel has been critical to this effort), and will usually number about a dozen exceptional people, with some expected change-ups in personnel as Advisor’s schedules and availability dictate. The members of the AAB will be announced, publicly, this week.

ANN has set an extremely aggressive plan in place and has put all our resources behind this initiative so that a new future for aviation and aerospace can be won. We do not see the API and AU efforts as being THE ultimate “Game-Changers” this industry needs… but they can and should serve as a pivotal foundation and conduit from which future solutions may be launched. Better put, every amazing adventure in aviation starts with some sort of runway (or helipad, launch point, etc…), we want Airborne (as well as a number of future initiatives) to provide runways and launching points for a number of new and amazing journeys as aviation eventually figures out how to craft a solid future.

While it may seem boastful, we believe our organization to be uniquely qualified to initiate this effort (especially with the able aid and assistance of the many organizations that we’ve partnered with). The Aero-News Network was the aviation world’s FIRST 24/7/365 digital news organization nearly 20 years ago—at a time when the conventional wisdom was convinced that we were doomed to failure. In the subsequent two decade span, ANN and its sister programs/organizations have generated a model that has been copied again and again – the very definition of success. In our time, we have created over 200,000 stories, 7000 Aero-Cast/Podcasts, hundreds of live Aero-TV segments, 2000 Aero-TV programs, and nearly 400 episodes of Airborne – all while introducing concepts like Daily Aviation News, Daily Aero-Casts, Daily Aero-TV and LIVE Special Event programming long before anyone else.

No other organization has produced an equivalent result.

There’s more to this… aggressive SEO and Social Media outreach, extensive branding benefits, web widgets and mobile apps, other programming options and so much more… but for now, these are the brass tacks we promised, and we welcome your questions and/or the reading/inspection of the other details that will follow. ANN is ready, willing and able to be part of the renaissance of our Aero-Verse… and we request your aid and partnership so that we might succeed in doing just that.

In coming communications, we’ll let you in on how YOU can be part of this, what YOU can do to help and a few of the exciting details we have in mind as we blaze a trail to the next generation of the ‘Aero-Verse.’

Jim Campbell, ANN Editor-In-Chief/CEO/Restless Aero-Revolutionary

FMI:

• What Do YOU THINK? What Do YOU Want To See Us Do?
• I want my aviation organization to be part of the Airborne Partnership Initiative – tell me how!
• I, personally, want to help with the Airborne Partnership Initiative – tell me how!