Concord, North Carolina - After more than 37 years of printing a magazine, WKA’s Karting Scene is entering a new era in 2010. With the improvements in today's technology and the increase in printing costs, after careful deliberation the Officers and Trustees agreed it was time for us to follow suit of many publishers and take our magazine online. This new method of delivering the Association’s magazine to its membership and others will bring with it many enhancements that were never possible by way of traditional printing methods.

The new format will not only improve delivery time by eliminating the need to wait on the postal service, it will allow for a fully interactive experience for the readers and advertisers alike. Readers will now be able to perform an electronic search of the magazine to find just what they are looking for within an article, a magazine, or in past issues. See a cool photo, but you want a better look? Zoom in and see what you were missing when reading the magazine via the traditional printed method.

Members and subscribers will receive 12 interactive digital issues per year, and WKA master members will receive the 12 digital issues plus two bonus issues: the Champions Year in Review (formally known as the Champions Edition) and the WKA Technical Manual.

With this change to a digital magazine also comes a lower subscription rate of only $9.95 for non-members. Subscribers who wish to receive the WKA Technical Manual as a part of their subscription can sign up for a special subscription offer that will get them all 12 digital issues plus the WKA Technical Manual at a discounted price of only $27.95. To let everyone get their feet wet with the new digital magazine, we will be offering the first few online issues at no charge to all.

The 12 digital issues will continue to provide official event coverage from WKA national events, but due to the fact the magazine is not being printed in the traditional fashion, we will be able to bring our readers more photos and expand some on our event coverage. In time, we will be bringing back some content that we were forced to remove in order to save on printing costs, such as human-interest articles and technical stories that in the last few years we had minimal room for. Some content that was formally found in the magazine will only be available via the Web site as it was being duplicated in the past (on the Web and in the magazine).

The Champions Year in Review, which is printed in the spring of 2010, will be similar to what readers experienced in the past, but in 2011 we are planning on many improvements so we can showcase our national and divisional champions in a fashion befitting a champion, plus our special award recipients and more. This special printed publication will truly become a keepsake issue that is certain to be read through time and time again. This special publication will also give WKA’s Karting Scene advertisers the greatest long-term exposure of any publication we produce to showcase their business.

The WKA Technical Manual is our second special printed publication, and it’s released in the fall of each year. WKA members and subscribers who take advantage of the special subscription offer and those who purchase the rulebook separately will find a somewhat simplified publication with its focus on the rules and regulations, plus there will likely be some additional technical content that can enhance a competitors experience on the track.

Mailings will be sent out to current subscribers whose subscriptions expire in the coming months of 2010. Since these subscribers have not received all of the 12 printed issues they originally purchased, generous offers will be made to fulfill these subscribers of their $19.95 purchase. These offers will be expressed in the mailings.

While it’s difficult to say goodbye to the 12 printed issues of WKA’s Karting Scene, we’re hoping members and subscribers find the new online version of the magazine worthy of their time and reading. We’re confident that if you simply give the digital version a chance, you’ll learn to appreciate the technology and convenience it offers.

We invite you into this new experience with us, and remember, at least the first two issues of the digital edition are free. We’ll kick things off with an online reprint of the Dec. 2009 issue followed by a new January 2010 edition, which will feature coverage from the Speedway Dirt, Road Racing and Manufacturer’s Cup events at Daytona KartWeek.

For more information: www.worldkarting.com