Are Sailing Mags Dead?

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

I think Waterwayguy has something there.

I don't see any fresh ideas in the Sail, CW or other high gloss mags. Practical Sailor lost me when they started evaluating sunglasses. Good Old Boat lost me when it became a family social mag.

I saved Sail and CW for 30 years and have gone through the old ones that had some great articles. Now I see new authors writing about the same things with the same ideas. I know it is not plagarism and I think it is just that the new authors are new to sailing and didn't know there were old articles out there.

I've pretty much given up on mag subscription.

regards,

I'm still hanging in there with PS. It's the only subscription I have now.

You'll want to grab a copy somewhere .... they did "sailing sandals" this month!!

[bstreep]

I still get:

CW - sorry, but Fatty is worth the cover price alone. We just wait until the price gets to about $16 for the year, and then renew.

Practical Sailor - they kept jacking up the price, so I dropped them. I offered them the price I paid about 3 years ago, and they renewed me, and said they will keep me at that price.

Yachting - it comes for FREE.

Lats & Atts. Sorry, at $4 an issue, they got dropped. I offered to pay them the same amount as CW, and they declined. They got a whole lot more reasonable, but not enough. Besides, I would pay NOT to have to read Tania... They are in SERIOUS trouble. And, they tick the Admiral off with their covers.

Bottom line? You CAN negotiate with them! Surprising, but it DOES work.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by GordMay

At least you didn't specifically cite me by name.

He's trying to be nice and discreet!
Seriously, we all appreciate your knowledge on this board.

[sailorboy1]

I currently have MORE subsrciptions that before. It was because I would buy one once in whiule at ythe book store and came to realize is was less expensive to. But the context is 90% worthless and does nothing to keep me excited about sailing or cruising.

I find myself reading the ads more than the articles. Of course the Boat Reviews are just long ads.

[dpons]

Originally Posted by GordMay

At least you didn't specifically cite me by name.

Actually, you seem quite reasonable.

In any case, depending on the topic, we all alternate being idiots or genuises. I know I'd like to erase forever some of the things I wrote on the net.

[Sandero]

I used to subscribe and buy sailing mags and use them as a source for information about products mostly and techniques secondly... as in how to do various things on sailboats.

The advertising is more annoying than informative and with the net you can research products more effectively and bypass the PR hooey.

As the WWW became omnipresent in our lives it seems that print media was not going to survive and for very good reason, we simply have access to so much in one place - our access point to the www.

This forum is more informative than mags for technical matters and how to and you get to read and see real "solutions".

For those who race and follow that side of sailing, perhaps print media has some value. Don't know, I'm not interested in that side.. that is anything commercial.

I think print media is going to disappear and the signs are already writ large.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by defjef

I think print media is going to disappear and the signs are already writ large.

But the fundamental nature of the business that currently involves printing a magazine still has a future. If not a better one than pre-internet.

It might not be so great for those printing and distributing and retailing the magazines, nor for those who make money from providing content (both proffesional and part-timers) - but those are not fundamental to the business of providing information that folks want to read.

[Liam Wald]

All print media is dying. Ad revenue and subscriptions have been on a downward trend for the last 5 years.

"Print Media is to the Internet what the Telegraph was to the Telephone".
Not my quote. I heard it at a newspaper management seminar at the American Print Institute in Reston Virginia 5 years ago.

That said, I still subscribe to Sail, Cruising World, water sailing">Blue Water Sailing and I pick up Latitude 38 every month. Latitude 38 is the best by far, the others are sometimes good. As others have stated, I really don't care for the "Big Boat Issues" or the "Multi-Hull Issues".

[marshmat]

All print media is dying.

I keep hearing this. My generation (those born in the '80s) usually seem to take the blame for it- the idea being that those of us who grew up with electronic media would prefer to get our content on our iThings. And yes, subscriptions and ad revenue are declining- quite possibly due more to saturation effects than anything else.

But my engineering colleagues still prefer to get their tech mags in paper form. My wife and I subscribe to an old-style printed newspaper. Until someone comes up with a digital device that's as cheap, flexible, light and easy to read as ink on paper, print media will survive.

Oh, right, sailing rags: I subscribe to Cruising World (Fatty's rants and Wendy's column alone are worth it); CW is a good 'dreaming' mag and is pretty good about differentiating between 'this is genuinely interesting' and 'an advertiser wanted us to write this'. I like Proboat (except for the bit about taking 12 weeks to process a new subscription). WoodenBoat is also quite a good read and, while still carrying ads, feels generally less commercial than many others. I tried PassageMaker for a bit, but found it to be mostly about buying ridiculously expensive things.

My main beef with most of the magazines I've subscribed to is that they spend half of my subscription fee on postage for renewal notices every six weeks. Perhaps I should take Bill's advice and negotiate this bit out of the deal next time....

[Auspicious]

I'd be very happy with PDF mags, and would pay for subscriptions. Only a few of the magazines will do that and those that do make it hard. For example, L&A requires you to load the flash version in order to get to the button for a PDF. That means I can't do it from my iPhone and it's a pain with a skinny pipe to the Internet from my boat.

Accordingly, I cruise through the local library every few weeks and read whatever they have.

[Kettlewell]

Writer here. I think one thing we are seeing is that without good content magazines won't thrive. That's why say WoodenBoat keeps on going strong, because they are willing to pay for and work with writers who can deliver the goods people want to see. Most of the mags have laid off or fired their former senior staff and they pay a lot less for freelance content than they used to. On some writers forums we have discussed this a lot. A writer gets less dollars today than he/she did in the 1980s even ignoring inflation. I suspect a lot of you might enjoy reading more articles by the likes of Nigel Calder, Beth and Evan, or even some voyagers who maybe don't own one of the boats that is advertised in the magazine. Instead we get charter round ups, new boat splashes, and the latest fashion trends, which all make the advertisers happy. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

[sneuman]

I think Lats & Atts (and the whole Bob Bitchin phenomenon, frankly) are highly overrated. But that's me. I really like Practical Boat Owner, but it's nearly impossible to find in the U.S.

[Ti' Punch]

I laughed out loud when I got my issue of Sail yesterday. I just posted a thread on here the other day asking about effective anti-fouling for props and got some great advice. And right there in my new Sail was an article by Nigel Calder addressing the same question and giving the same advice I already got for free on the forum. I think the old saying about being a day late and a dollar short applies here.

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Writer here. I think one thing we are seeing is that without good content magazines won't thrive. That's why say WoodenBoat keeps on going strong, because they are willing to pay for and work with writers who can deliver the goods people want to see. Most of the mags have laid off or fired their former senior staff and they pay a lot less for freelance content than they used to. On some writers forums we have discussed this a lot. A writer gets less dollars today than he/she did in the 1980s even ignoring inflation. I suspect a lot of you might enjoy reading more articles by the likes of Nigel Calder, Beth and Evan, or even some voyagers who maybe don't own one of the boats that is advertised in the magazine. Instead we get charter round ups, new boat splashes, and the latest fashion trends, which all make the advertisers happy. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

These two quotes are very interesting to me. I like Calder Beth and Evans but find that they are in every magazine I read. I used to try and find Lat 38 as soon as it came out b/c you got so much info from it that was current. The glossies would take an extra month and not have anything new to add to the article. Now with the E forums you'll read an article in Lat 38 and it will be a week or two out of date and the situation will have changed. Plus there is more of a give and take with the forums so you can share your knowledge and gain from other people. I do have to agree that I like to read on paper more than on the computer screen.

Originally Posted by Ti' Punch

I laughed out loud when I got my issue of Sail yesterday. I just posted a thread on here the other day asking about effective anti-fouling for props and got some great advice. And right there in my new Sail was an article by Nigel Calder addressing the same question and giving the same advice I already got for free on the forum. I think the old saying about being a day late and a dollar short applies here.

[dpons]

Originally Posted by sneuman

I think Lats & Atts (and the whole Bob Bitchin phenomenon, frankly) are highly overrated. But that's me. I really like Practical Boat Owner, but it's nearly impossible to find in the U.S.

L&A used to be a good reading, if only for the more natural and candid writing. But, as someone said above, they are running out of ideas, and the merchandising is very annoying. Most "technical" articles about gadgets include an ad for said gadget in the same page, which I think should be considered unethical journalism. L&A is more a catalog than a magazine by now.