The Card Player State of the Company Address

It comes as no surprise to anybody reading this column that poker grew exponentially in 2003, and Card Player grew right along with it.

Card Player – the magazine: As a result of increased editorial content and ads, the magazine's number of pages grew about 15 percent in 2003.

Whereas we started the year of 2003 with circulation almost entirely in brick-and-mortar casinos, by the end of 2003, the magazine was beginning to be sold on newsstands in the United States ($5.95) and in Australia.

The 2004 plan includes a major push and goal of at least doubling circulation, with most of the growth coming from subscriptions and newsstand sales.

Additionally, we are doing research on publishing Card Player Europe in Europe, with most of the same content but a focus on European players and activities.

You have already seen a change in the look and feel of the magazine as we reach out to new poker players who have not frequented a poker casino. Card Player is becoming more mainstream in order to be appealing to the casually interested poker person as well as our traditional, highly focused reader.

CardPlayer.com: The growth here has been phenomenal. We started the year being visited by 1,000-3,000 people daily, and during the last half of December had more than 10,000 visitors on several days.

Most of the growth has come from people who have not frequented public cardrooms up until now.

2003 saw the site grow to include such things as regular pro tips, statistics, expanded Player of the Year information, audio lessons, the Larry Grossman show, the hold'em odds calculator, and the poker TV schedule. And in a few weeks, the site will undergo another major revamp. More new content will be available and the home page will change every day, with new daily tips, new bits of strategy, and new announcements.

CardPlayer newsletters: We send out two opt-in newsletters monthly. "Opt-in" means people have asked to receive them. We send nothing unsolicited. Last January, we sent 3,000 newsletters. Our Jan. 1, 2004, issue was sent to 24,780 people. Dramatic changes will be forthcoming in the newsletters, too.

CardPlayerPoker: CardPlayer.com instituted a play-money poker site in 2003, and thousands of people have joined. We will be offering many more opportunities this year for players to win prizes, although there are never any charges to play.