It’s bankrupt and closed. Got sold about ten years ago, and the new owner seems to have used it to support other publications that he owned–put their employees on the TB Times payroll–per the story on the Paulick Report. The TB recession and loss of advertising killed it.
Really?? That’s disappointing. 
I enjoyed their publication very much.
The Blood Horse always seemed “on top” of the latest news, but the Times had the best “in depth” articles ,and some very interesting online video features… Darn.
That’s a shame, but to some degree the handwriting was on the wall and I have to suspect that the BloodHorse isn’t exactly thriving either with ads or circulation. (The Chronicle of the Horse is such a niche Bible that it might be fairing better.) Weekly or even bi-weekly print publications unfortunately are offering semi-stale info - even if its presented in a well written detailed form - with the internet/twitter/youtube giving instant results.
Even the Steeplechase Times indicated recently their publication is going to move away from rehashing race summaries as content for their newspaper because of the internet. They may be right with some races and meets, but honestly 'chasing is also so niche that if they don’t document the who/what/where is doubtful its already been hashed about 
I used to subscribe to both the BloodHorse and TB Times and latter was even with a courtesy professional rate it was expensive annually. If I’m not mistaken the TB Times was the reincarnation of the Thoroughbred Record which a granddaddy publication. They use to have on the back page a reflection going back into the archives of what happened that week in say 1912, 1948, 1968, etc
The Daily Racing Form is such a different animal with economics as they are instrumental for the betting community and charge a hefty price per daily issue for the print and/or on-line wagering aide content. Although I have wondered how the recent buyouts (and with it heavy debt loads assumed) have put a burden on their finances.
Rather that losing the TB Times I do hope that a ST Times could entertain buying it - at least for the rights to own all that rich historical content with articles, photos, et al that does have value.
I had to laugh at the PaulickReport readers somehow suggesting a Mike Repole would buy it. Ha! Like a fish needs a bicycle. Plenty of wealthy people are in racing, but that doesn’t mean they would - or even should - be the best candidates to get into publishing. There are obvious reasons why a one-time big racing owner Peter Brandt got out of owning the TB Times much like Bert Firestone got own of owning race tracks.
I saw this earlier today on FB. Sad indeed.
I think everything in print is going to have to reinvent themselves as something other than “news” since even the morning paper is old news by the time it arrives at your house. They need to set themselves apart with great photography or in depth articles that you can’t devote the space to in a regular newspaper or magazine.
Regardless of great photography and in-depth articles – if you can’t sell advertising, you can’t stay in business, and few companies want to pay for print advertising anymore:(
Which leads to an ever widening gap between the haves with broadband internet access and the have-nots who are either shut out of the internet, or, if rural, have access only to crawlingly slow dial-up. Print magazines are available to anyone at waiting rooms, etc, or through the US mail.
I’m sure the debate over the advantages of print vs. electronic have been well hashed somewhere on the internet. What is of considerable risk is that digital stories, reports, and the like which exist solely on the internet do go “poof”. (So too videos on youtube of races with copyright claims and user infighting.) Whereas a library or an office have keep back issues safely archived away.
We all have likely done a google search on say a horse, and you find something good with an article from a while ago, but when you click it either the link is dead or moved to who knows where. As such the benefit of the article is accordingly lost.
Don’t get me wrong I haven’t ventured into a public library to look up a horse in quite some time. Still you have to wonder long term how much information will be lost as sites come and go.
Not to mention a lot of the on-line content compared to the print counterparts is rather breezy to say the least. The thinking being that internet users have limited attention spans so why indulge in too much verbosity.
All that aside if the publication is closed, to be liquidated, staff laid off, how is it their website continues to operate? I’ve assumed they would’ve started pulling that down with an explanation to paid readers that “sorry but no refunds”.
[QUOTE=vineyridge;6562402]
Which leads to an ever widening gap between the haves with broadband internet access and the have-nots who are either shut out of the internet, or, if rural, have access only to crawlingly slow dial-up. Print magazines are available to anyone at waiting rooms, etc, or through the US mail.[/QUOTE]
Well, IME the postal service SUCKS at getting The Blood-Horse and (in the past) Thoroughbred Times delivered on time to anyone who does not live in a “horsey” area.
Both subscriptions consistently used to arrive 10-14 days after the publication date. No matter how much I begged, pleaded, and finally lost my temper and SCREAMED about it, it never got any better over a period of about 8 years.
One week I got all 5 Blood-Horse mags that were scheduled for delivery in my ZIP. Postal worker was too lazy to unpackage them and mine happened to be on top, so I got them all.
It’s not as if I live in the remote outposts - we’re a pretty busy suburb of Atlanta. But when I lived in a more horse-intense part of the metro area (Alpharetta), no problem.
Once it got to the point where I could read pretty much all of the content online, I didn’t see any reason to keep subscribing. Why pay for 2 week-old news?
[QUOTE=Mara;6563155]
One week I got all 5 Blood-Horse mags that were scheduled for delivery in my ZIP. Postal worker was too lazy to unpackage them and mine happened to be on top, so I got them all.[/QUOTE]
Ha! The exact same thing happened to me with multiple issues arriving at once. The worse example of something run afoul was when I receive the Derby preview issue after the Belmont Stakes 
There’s another in-depth thread going on about this in “On Course”.
I’ll bet the website is still up because there isn’t an employee left to take it down – they were locked out! LOL – or not so much:(
Bow Tie Publications
Hi,
I, unfortunately, know quite a bit about this. Thoroughbred Times was under the auspices of Bow Tie publications but had a separate owner. He mismanages some things and poof we lose a wonderful publication.
But, there are problems with several Bow Tie publications like Horse Illustrated and others. Freelancers in some cases haven’t been paid since March…and they’re getting no solid assurances that they’ll definitely be paid anytime soon.
I could go on and on but I better keep my yap shut.
Hallie
[QUOTE=haligator;6569948]
Hi,
But, there are problems with several Bow Tie publications like Horse Illustrated and others. Freelancers in some cases haven’t been paid since March…and they’re getting no solid assurances that they’ll definitely be paid anytime soon.
Hallie[/QUOTE]
Yes - Bow Tie has ceased publication of “Bird Talk”, “Wild Bird”, & several other magazines. What’s funny in a bizarre sort of way is that folks who just recently subscribed or renewed subscriptions to the cancelled mags have been getting letters telling them that due to the fact that the mag they wanted no longer exists, they’ll be getting a subscription to one of the other mags still around. But - you don’t get a choice. From what I’ve heard, folks who subscribed to “Bird Talk” have been automatically subscribed to “Dog Fancy” instead. This has made for a LOT of grumpy people who don’t have nor plan to have a dog - lol!! (However, I’ve also heard that those who are “squeaky wheels”, have been getting refunds.)
I’m sick about a lot of it, but the worst thing now is that Ridker is saying he and Bow Tie are owed millions and should be the first paid. What a loser this guy is. Smart of him to stay on the West Coast – far away from Kentucky!
Who the heck could possibly owe him “millions”?
I was not a subscriber, but it always saddens me when we lose another equine publication. I am sure most, if not all, are struggling to survive between the internet competition and the economy.
[QUOTE=Bacardi1;6570112]
Who the heck could possibly owe him “millions”?[/QUOTE]
According to the bankruptcy paperwork, he’s owed ~$1.8 million (his name personally) and Bow Tie is owed ~$2.3 million – both owed by the company Thoroughbred Times. (Numbers might be a little off – don’t have it in front of me – but they are close.)
Paper advertising is almost a thing of the past these days. As a marketing rep, I can assure you that the Internet is the present and I’m sure, the future. Now if things can just be archived as Glimmerglass said…
Still - one has to wonder “who” & “for what”.
