Firstly I would like to wish all of you a happy new year. I am also sorry to inform you that I decided to suspend the regular updates to MagicTimes as of today -- January 1, 2004.

I feel that I do owe the 20,000+ loyal readers an explanation. Although this was never a moneymaking project (and it lived up to that goal) the opportunity cost was too high. During the six years of operation (since December 1997) MagicTimes has been updated 2,093 times. It took around five hours per day for an unbelievable 10,465 hours, which translates to more than 260 workweeks.

This time of year is when most of us reflect on our past accomplishments and future goals. So the question that must be asked is, is it worth continuing at this pace? From your point of view the answer would be yes but from mine unfortunately it is no.

Now for the good news: The TV Magic Guide and the Live Magic Guide, which are just as popular as MagicTimes, will continue to run and be upgraded with more features. We also just launched a free E-mail Newsletter ("MyMagic Headline News") to keep you up-to-date on what's happening in magic. And best of all we will now have the time to produce more outstanding magic products and DVDs. The MagicTimes database of news will remain on the web for research purposes and will be upgraded and updated.

Magic Times will sporadically be updated with news and features when events call for it. There are several exciting things on the horizon and we expect to cover them in detail. Please sign-up for the free "MyMagic Headline News" newsletter so we can keep you informed when news breaks and when the sites are updated.

I am sure that for a short while we will have some withdrawal symptoms but pretty soon someone is bound to pickup the slack.

I always considered MagicTimes as a fan site disguised as a news site and this approach made it user friendly and fun to do. I promise to reevaluate my decision every six months and who knows we could be back.

Thanx again for your loyalty and support,

Meir Yedid
Publisher, MagicTimes