Boating Times Boating Times Long Island Boating Times Magazine Boating Times Holding Company Sold Boating magazine publishing partnership. Violated terms of agreement, failed to provide required services, evaded franchise disclosure requirements. Kings Park New York

Boating Times Long Island is a free local print magazine in Long Island, NY.  They also have multiple website locations throughout the country.

They advertise for partnerships of the print magazine and website in various geographic locations.  They offer to do all the publishing work, and you will only have to secure advertising and run the local operations.  They ask for a $40,000 investment in exchange you get 99% ownership of the local publication.  They will charge you a minimum of $6,850 per month to publish and print a version of the magazine for your locality.  You are obligated to pay this fee regardless whether you have any paying advertisers, and you are obligated to pay 12 months of the year.

In my situation, they failed to deliver a mobile appliaction that was the cornerstone of the deal.  They also stole my local customers for ads in the Long Island version of the magazine, and failed to pay me the contractually agreed fee.  They refused to allow me to have any editorial input.  They also refused to share the contents of upcoming articles with me, which made it impossible for me to leverage the article content to secure advertisers who may see value in advertising against that article.

Most important, they deliberately circumvented the franchise law requirements in my state.  Fulfilling the franchise requirements would have required them to provide me with legally defined disclosure documents, relating to financial and other matters.  They claimed they had an exemption from the franchise filing requirement.  That was false.  According to the law, any exemption under the franchise law must be requested in court, and an order issued granting the exemption.  They never requested an exemption and were never granted one.

The franchise filing requirements are very important laws designed to protect consumers from unethical and illegal business practices.

Additionally, the publisher, Barry Mines, entered into magazine publishing "partnerships" in 5 other locations beside my location, the Chesapeake Bay.  Each and every one of those locations failed in a matter of months, and none were ever profitable.