WE WELCOME IDP TO THE JCK FAMILY

I am happy to report to you that, following some months of negotiations, International Diamond Publications based in Ramat Gan, Israel, joined the JCK jewelry family in late October. IDP, headed by Isaac Arikha and his principal editor Steve Benson, is a fine publishing house with five magazines and two directories already in place and a sixth book, Russian Diamonds, about to be launched.

Two of the magazines – Israel Diamonds and Diamond World Review &endash; are published in Israel and two others &endash; New York Diamonds and Miami Diamonds – are published for the U.S. market. The fifth magazine, Tokyo Diamonds and Jewelry, is designed for the Japanese market. The directories are for the Israeli and New York diamond markets.

We’re delighted with this new association. It provides JCK with a vibrant entry to many important foreign gemstone and jewelry markets and bolsters our standing with the U.S. diamond community. Industry response already has been enthusiastic. De Beers invited us to a congratulatory luncheon in London, attended by many of its top executives. In addition, ceremonies of support are being organized in Tel Aviv and New York. Eli Izhakoff, president of the New York Diamond Dealers Club and of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, actively encouraged the joining of JCK and IDP from the start of the negotiations.

One clear result of the association is that JCK now has the premier diamond industry reporting team in the world. Our own Russ Shor has an outstanding reputation as a top diamond reporter. He’ll now be joined by Isaac Arikha, one of the most knowledgeable men in the business with key contacts in Israel, the Far East and Russia as well as the U.S. South African-born Steve Benson is another veteran of the diamond circuit. To round out the team, we have Whitney Sielaff, editor of New York Diamonds.

The most pressing issues we now face are how to take best advantage of this great team to make even better our reporting on the diamond industry and how to tap our new international sources to widen coverage of the market for JCK and the IDP publications. Both publishing houses will devote a lot of time to these matters in the coming weeks and months. I feel confident that all the publications now under the JCK umbrella will become ever more useful to their readers as a result.

For us, the IDP acquisition is only a first positive step into international markets – a necessary step because we all are in such a global business. Once Russian Diamonds is established, who knows what will come next?