Sailing Magazine Content !

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by msponer

I like Practical Sailor, but canceled my subscription when they turned off subscribers free online access to back issues. I'm not sure what their idea is, that people will keep old issues of Practical Sailor in a box and then go searching through the box whenever they want to buy something, looking for an issue that might have a relevant review. These days my first and last step is the Internet.

Practical Sailor has free subscriber access to back issues; I just spent a few hours looking over the past year.

You must have caught a glitch.

[Zednotzee]

+1 Good Old Boat. Bob Perry, restored boat review, Ted Brewer's comparison of the reviewed boat with comparable ones- all great stuff.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Nostrodamus

It seems as though you can pick up several sailing magazines printed in the same month and the content is pretty much the same.

Having written for magazines in the past--not sailing magazines--I can tell you that special issues are something that marketing departments dream up. The sales staff love to be able to call paint manufacturers and tell them that they're running a special issue on bottom painting in the spring. They can sell pages in "special issues" far more quickly than in regular issues.

The editorial department ends up having to provide content that matches the theme of a special issue. If a given issue is successful in terms of selling ad content, it's sure to run the following year. Then the sales staff can just call back last year's advertisers and ask whether they're in for this year's special issue, since the readers liked it so much last year.

[Nostrodamus]

Sailing magazines have lost touch with the readers and are unwilling to listen to what they want. It is all about what advertisers want.
You know in winter there will be an article (probably a copy of last years about the winter lay up and in spring re commissioning.
They will review the same type boat from the same manufacturers and nothing else.
In the UK we had a go at them for covers because of the ammount of writing all over it making it near impossible to see the picture. We wanted the covers of old, with a good picture and nothing else on the front. They said it was just suicide to do. We suggested numerous thing we would like to see but they just blanked everyone.
As has been said, there are some excellent blogs out there (including my own of course) so why not get some of them in the magazine. Real people doing real things in a variety of boats.
What sort of thing would you like to see?

[Nostrodamus]

There was an excellent thread on here about sail trim which went on and on but the point was most people struggle to fully understand sail trim.
There were however a few contributor who really knew what they were talking about. The magazines should be contacting them, taking them out to get photos and asking them to write one or several articles on sail trim.
Cheap,easy but interesting.

Why always stick to GRP boats, are other (steel, aluminium, ferro, wooden) but you never see a test or article on them.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Yup that's kind of what I meant. The internet provides a LOT for free (we're here, no?) and so publishing has to provide something we can't find:

• Better accuracy. Though not always, magazines and books receive more technical and editorial review than internet chat. The internet requires more fact checking.
• Better depth. Research things few individuals have the resources, expertise, or persistence to chase. We're not all "Mainesail", and even those that do studies are not strong in all areas. I chase chemistry and rigging but don't care much about electronics or wax.
• Better writing. But some blog writers are very good. Some less so.

Or go home.

I think you have hit the nail on the head .

Obviously folk don't like change - especially when it does effect their livelihood - but a long line of industries (and workers) have had to cope with that, Journalism / Publishing are just one more category.

The only effect that Rupert Murdoch style whinings will have is preventing the current players (who are in pole position) from exploiting there current advantage over the new players. The future always arrives - whether folk like it or not.

FWIW, I see the key role as being the Editor's chair - except that the job has to get a lot more hands on than simply corraling a staff of Journalists.....not least because there won't be anyone to corral, at least not on the staff and also more of a Managing Editors role. The upside is that the Industry will require a lot more Editors (and good money to be made - including from self employment, as costs radically drop). Downside for the Journos is that much (most?) of the copy will be written for free - or in exchange for peanuts, so far less paid / full time Journos will be required.

I don't see why (with some smarts and the application of technology) that a Magazine could not be produced by one person in the Editors Chair, plus a part time Webmonkey / gofer......with those being the principle costs. Hell, could even also do so in printed form - for Free! (IMO first mover on that one will be in prime position).....albeit the money to be made from online (and not from subscriptions ), nor from simply flogging electronic versions of printed adverts (although nothing wrong with that as one of the revenue streams). and no, am not giving up any ideas .

For new entrants into "publishing" the new world will not seem strange nor will they be comparing to what went before - will decide on whether or not a viable business opportunity based solely on whether can make enough money for them today - not what folks made in the past, doing a job that in effect no longer exists.....

[Factor]

On the internet everyone is an expert

[Mr B]

A magazine is very limited,

Google is your friend, no matter what you want, Its all there, and zillions of pages of it,

Specific Forums on what ever floats your boat,

Youtube video's of any thing you want on film, Etc,

Cruiser Forums was found by me through Google,

A magazine doesnt even come close to CF or any thing else I want,

And its all free,

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by Zednotzee

+1 Good Old Boat. Bob Perry, restored boat review, Ted Brewer's comparison of the reviewed boat with comparable ones- all great stuff.

-- but they don't do overseas subscriptions? Not that I could find

[Ziggy]

Originally Posted by meuritt

I enjoy the how to, informative articles, about any boating related topic. Reviews of boats, not at all. Exotic destinations, no, but real cruises, especially weekends away by people with boats and abilities like me, are fun tor ead.

Sea Kayaker magazine has had a series of articles over the years of things that went wrong, the whole story, endings, and some end in death, and the analysis of where things started going wrong and lessons learned. I think they have helped make kayaking a safer sport. A regular series like that for keel boats would be great.

New products reviews, particularly electronic, but that is handled pretty well on panbo.

The January 2012 Cruising World article ("Hard Lessons Learned in the North Atlantic") attempted to do just that, but in my opinion, it was rather superficial and fell short of presenting a really insightful analysis of lessons learned. They really need to do better.

[Nostrodamus]

Originally Posted by Ziggy

The January 2012 Cruising World article ("Hard Lessons Learned in the North Atlantic") attempted to do just that, but in my opinion, it was rather superficial and fell short of presenting a really insightful analysis of lessons learned. They really need to do better.

Trouble is they are getting like newspapers..... It isn't news unless there is doom and gloom.

You can get good stories where the boat doesn't sink and no one dies or is eaten by a sea snail.

[Zednotzee]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

-- but they don't do overseas subscriptions? Not that I could find

They have a foreign subscription section. Better yet, they have back issues on cd-rom.

http://www.goodoldboat.com/subscript...ibe_online.php

[lolarose]

Originally Posted by Nostrodamus

It seems as though you can pick up several sailing magazines printed in the same month and the content is pretty much the same.
What is worse the same stories and ideas seem to be re used every year, ie winter lay up, re commissioning etc.

you found it now. last time that i bought ANY sailing magazine it was ten years ago.

[JoeDiver]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Practical Sailor has free subscriber access to back issues; I just spent a few hours looking over the past year.

You must have caught a glitch.

Oh man....that's kinda funny actually...canceling your subscription because of a glitch in the system....


I'm really excited about what is coming. With the arrival of the Digital Age and the Internet, our content consumption desires have changed. Now that Apple has entered the textbook market and positioned the iPad, things are going to get really cool.

Several years ago, PADI (I'm a scuba instructor) came out with a digital version of The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving. This digital version of the textbook ran from DVD. It has rich, searchable text, embedded video, interactive features, music....all sorts of things that made the paper textbook come alive in a whole new way!

When the iPad first came out, honestly I thought about the PADI ERD DVD, and how digital textbooks were gonna change the education system. No more stacks of heavy, dead paper books....only an iPad loaded with incredible, interactive, rich media textbooks. What a great time to be a student now!

Paper media magazines are on their last dying breath. It's only a matter of time. Sure, they may still have 5, 10 years or so....but eventually they will be gone and it will all be rich digital content on tablets.

I'm waiting for the next "Sail" magazine (or whatever) that is all digital, with embedded videos, links, hypertext, hi def pictures, and whatever else can be dreamed up for a digital magazine.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by Bash

Having written for magazines in the past--not sailing magazines--I can tell you that special issues are something that marketing departments dream up. The sales staff love to be able to call paint manufacturers and tell them that they're running a special issue on bottom painting in the spring. They can sell pages in "special issues" far more quickly than in regular issues.

The editorial department ends up having to provide content that matches the theme of a special issue. If a given issue is successful in terms of selling ad content, it's sure to run the following year. Then the sales staff can just call back last year's advertisers and ask whether they're in for this year's special issue, since the readers liked it so much last year.

Having been a magazine publisher (also non-sailing!), I can attest that the above is true. Corralling advertisers into a "themed" issue (and charging them more per ad, and perhaps printing it on different paper stock for that feeling of specialness) is one of the oldest games going.

What is actually written is there to separate the ads. Beyond a bare minimum of coherence and applicability to the theme, it needn't differ much from the regular offerings at all. It needs to appear to differ.

The fact is that most magazines could be given away for free. The sticker price is usually among the smaller of the revenue streams in play. What really matters is the ad count. If we hit 40% (which was rare), we all gave ourselves a bonus that month. Women's fashion magazines, which can be 300 pages, 200 of which are full-page ads, should, in a fairer world, pay their readers, not the other way around.

Whatever Practical Sailor's other shortcomings we could discuss, and there's definitely a few, the absence of ads does contribute to a believability and purity of motive that is largely absent in the glossier boating magazines.