In Part One I began with the why, who, and how BORDERPOL came about.
The broad overview in Pt. One was from 1998 to early 2008 and frankly it was a painful learning experience for me and my colleagues.
As with any learning experience the most valuable lessons were delivered by two distinct types of people and organizations. There are those that have hidden agendas and are unethical and those who are honest and principled. After 9/11 BORDERPOL was an “international association” embraced by a small group of positive individuals that saw real value in the concept and was good at working together. BORDERPOL was also targeted by commercial and state actors for differing reasons but not necessarily in support of its mission.
The internet twenty some years ago was not as advanced as today for promotional purposed. Fax machines still whirled, and emails were displacing snail mail but glossy catalogues and magazines were still being published and were more appreciated by readers.
Never the less our first efforts to promote the organization globally was launched on January 25, 1999 with the creation of our first webpage. The page and the initial responses to it were less than satisfactory, but more on this later.
Our first real foray into media was via the print media in the early days post 9/11.
To promote our organization to a very niche market internationally required a niche publication partner. An advertising firm in the UK approached me with the idea of creating a “trade” magazine as a co-production with BORDERPOL. The magazine would be published by the advert firm for for profit by selling various products and services associated with the military and border security. BORDERPOL would drive the content and help with distribution opportunities. This was to be a barter arrangement, and “Cross Border Control” or CBC magazine was born.
CBC magazine was essentially a catalogue published every two months advertising the wares of military and law enforcement equipment manufacturers. It was sprinkled with wire stories and one op ed piece on border issues penned by me. This foray into the print media world was short-lived because it became financially burdensome for me and it was heavily weighted towards the promotion of military equipment. Our audience was not part of that community. After a year the magazine was wound up.
In 2002 a UK based advertising firm advanced the idea of publishing a magazine on behalf of BORDERPOL. It was once again a barter deal that saw the investment being made by a commercial interest with all risks and all revenues going to it. BORDERPOL did however have total editorial control and it could advertise its wares as it pleased. This was an opportunity to promote our workshops, consulting opportunities for our technical committee members that now numbered over two hundred people and to grow subscribers.
To our surprise the magazine was a success. It spread the word and was published regularly in print form until June 2006. Unfortunately the cost of printing and postage was outstripping revenues from adverts which ended its publication.
The first BORDERPOL JOURNAL was a glossy magazine published quarterly and published in the United Kingdom. It was a compendium of border news and commentary submitted by a broad sector of state, educational and private interests under the moniker “The official publication of the Borderpol International Association”. It was free to subscribers and was solely advertiser supported. It had a circulation of about 5000 worldwide. It was continued as a monthly online newsletter publication and was renamed “Border Security Matters” and was published for over 60 months.