10-4 Magazine September 2023

12 10-4 Magazine / September 2023 In January 2020, our matriarch Ms. Jean Osugi, at 79 years old, decided to retire and pass all the office duties to my wife, Shannon. At that point, the “office” was moved from Jean’s home in Southern California (Huntington Beach) to ours in Central California (Dunlap). Today, at 82 years old, Jean is still a significant shareholder and owner of the magazine, and she continues to provide us insight, assist us with some of our mailing, and help us at our truck show. Another change that occurred after Erik Sieben’s death was a transfer of some ownership to his favorite nephew, Tim Sieben. Tim now owns a small portion of the magazine and is 50% owner of the TFK truck show with me. His official title is TFK Truck Show Manager, and along with me and my wife Shannon and his wife April, we all work together to make TFK run smoothly and raise lots of money for charity! Staying relevant and moving into the digital age, without changing who and what we are, has been an important aspect of our business for the past five years. We know you folks out there love the printed magazine, and we have no plans to ever NOT print the magazine, but over the past few years, we have shifted some of our focus and growth toward the areas of mobile availability, our digital version of the magazine (which is exactly the same as our printed version and free to view on our website), improving our website, and building our digital presence with social media, our live weekly show, and live remotes from events across the country. With rising costs in printing and distribution, our long term focus is now more on subscriptions than continuing to build our vast mass distribution network. That model worked well for us for over 25 years but is now becoming dated, hard to manage, and very expensive. We encourage our hardcore fans to jump on our website and pay for a subscription. The cost merely covers the printing and postage fees, but this will ensure that you never miss an issue, and since it gets shipped in a clear plastic sleeve, you are ensured to get a perfectly clean copy in your mailbox each and every month. I have always said, “Showing up is half the battle!” Well, we have been “showing up” each and every month for 30 years now, and a lot of other truck publications cannot say that because they are gone. We weren’t always taken seriously as a publication because we were an independent sort of “renegade” magazine (rag) that did what we wanted, and, truth is, we still are! And we are proud of that. We have always wanted to create a fun publication that caters to real truckers and truck nuts out there – not the trucking industry and its corporate executives. We have nothing against the big companies out there, but our focus has always been on the little guys, and we plan to continue in that tradition on into the future for as long as we can. I would like to personally thank all of you for continuing to pick up and read 10-4 Magazine. Our goal is to keep providing you with great content and information, fun stories, and cool truck (and owner) features, because the owner of the truck is as – or more – important than the truck itself! Trucking is made up of an amazing group of people who are independent, hard-working, and totally committed, no matter the cost, and that describes everyone at 10-4 Magazine, as well. Here’s to 30 more years! Thanks for being part of our history and allowing us the honor of bringing this magazine to you for three decades. Our job is to make dreams come true, but truth be told, you all have allowed mine to come true, as well. And for that, I am forever grateful. Thank you. n