Why Is This Magazine So Thin?

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Editor's Notes

The April issue of National Defense is by far the skinniest since the magazine was established in 1920. A paper shortage exacerbated by a paper mill strike has forced us to make some difficult choices.

After shaving eight pages off the March issue, we were faced with a starker choice of cutting subscribers or cutting pages in April. We chose to drastically reduce pages so everyone receives an April issue.

Unfortunately, we have chosen to temporarily cut some features such as "Government Contracting Insights" and "Up Front" and have reduced the number of news briefs and features.

"NDIA Policy Points" for April and May will be available online only. Look for it at https://bit.ly/PolicyPoints.

May is normally one of our largest issues of the year because of its distribution at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference being held in person this year in Tampa, Florida. However, the sacrifices made in April have helped us ration paper, and we will have a larger May issue.

All this will eventually end and we will go back to normal-sized magazines.

Along with supply chain issues, another COVID-era trend is workers taking the opportunity to move on during the growing economy. That sadly has come to the magazine as well with the departure of two of the best reporters in the defense business, Managing Editor Jon Harper and Senior...