Articles. What types of articles do you like to see in magazines?

[Seaworthy Goods]

There is another model that could be useful to generate ideas for what kinds of info cruisers (and other boaters) find useful. https://TheBoatGalley.com started several years ago, focusing on food related posts. Since then it has greatly expanded its coverage and grown to a library of 1000+ articles on individual practical topics of value to boaters. These are almost always free.

A small example of TBG's published materials includes several spiral bound cruising guides, blank logs books, boat document organizers, and cheat sheets for sale. They also provide online courses and lots of recipes, plus many articles & tips about storing food while cruising.

Their goal is to "Make Boat Life Better."

[Kettlewell]

Yes, non-marine can be very good or very bad. The benefit of buying marine grade stuff--and paying more--is that the quality is generally much better vetted than just guessing on Amazon. Remember that I said generally. You are paying for the vetting.

It really depends on what you are buying. For example, I don't believe marine-branded engine oil is any better than say Rotella oil you can purchase at WalMart and is used in millions of over-the-road trucks and other vehicles. Same with oil filters--cut them open and the marine ones are often subpar. Another one is batteries, at least in LA flavors. They are mostly made by just a few companies and I have purchased identical ones with different branding on them. Buying West Marine versions does nothing to make them better. Another product is LED bulbs for many non-critical lights--automotive replacements seem to work perfectly. There are lots of landlubber products like these that can be purchased at big box stores or even auto parts stores for much less than you would pay for marine products.

[Dave Lochner]

Thus far not mentioned is humor. Short pieces that offer a humorous take on common boater issues.

Another vote for ProBoat and Practical Sailor, although I have grave concerns about the direction PS is headed with their foray into YouTube. (Take a look at the clickbait video using the tragedy in B'more for a video of someone reading ads from Amazon. Pitiful and reprehensible.)

Travel ideas for places I might interested in sailing to.

Articles on things I should be concerned with but haven't thought of. I once wrote an article for GOB on shackle strength and how to repair a common traveller.

Upcoming changes in the systems we often use. For example, NOAA is working with the CG to incorporate NOTMs into ENCs that can update quickly. Who knew?


Author and subsequently publication credibility is most important.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

It really depends on what you are buying. For example, I don't believe marine-branded engine oil is any better than say Rotella oil you can purchase at WalMart and is used in millions of over-the-road trucks and other vehicles. Same with oil filters--cut them open and the marine ones are often subpar. Another one is batteries, at least in LA flavors. They are mostly made by just a few companies and I have purchased identical ones with different branding on them. Buying West Marine versions does nothing to make them better. Another product is LED bulbs for many non-critical lights--automotive replacements seem to work perfectly. There are lots of landlubber products like these that can be purchased at big box stores or even auto parts stores for much less than you would pay for marine products.

Good examples.


Oil is an interesting. Rotella is an excellent diesel and a top choice for boats. But 2-stroke chainsaw and motorcycle oil is a terrible choice for outboards. It is designed for a different temperature range (air cooled vs. water cooled) and does not meet the anti-corrosion standard. Buy it at a chandlery and you won't make that mistake. 4-stroke gas engine oil is more confusing; there is a marine standard, but most good MV oils will pass, the makers just didn't bother testing (tiny market by their standards).



As for filters, standards vary all over the place, remembering that different engine manufacturers have different requirements. That's a part of an engine that doesn't know it is marine. Same with engine coolants.


But people have blown up boats with non-marine carbs and alternators on gas motors. They are cheaper and good quality, but not spark-safe.



LEDs that are well sealed work fine. But nav light need to meet very specific visibility standards (angle of light intencity) that non-marine versions probably don't meet. I tested one glaring example, where if an LED bulb was retrofitted into an anchor light housing, it failed the requirements because the LED was in the wrong position relative to the lens and the light all went up into the sky! Thus, nav lights are ONLY USCG approved if used with the exact bulb design they were certified with. Some LED conversions have been tested, some have not. And then there is the matter of VHF interference; not a big deal in the cabin, but critical at the masthead.

---

The point is that vetting has value. You can do your own research or you can pay for it, but if you rely on Google or AI as your sole source of information, you're more vulnerable to crap. Of course, nothing is sure. Credibility is key, and that requires doing legwork.

[Benz]

What I used to like about Cruising World were four things:
1: features about epic voyages and faraway destinations that weren't in the charter circuit, with good photos.
2: Serials about someone's journey, whether to build, refit, or a series on a cruise that you could follow month to month and see what they were getting into. I wrote some of these myself back in the day.
3: New gear on the market, specifically non-electronic, like advances in rigging gear, binoculars, plotting equipment, foulies, etc.
4: A humorous cruising column--Tom Neale was my favorite from the era before I was writing.
I'd add tips on piloting/navigation/etc, except I prefer these to be embedded into larger pieces, sort of just told as part of the greater story. Which leads me to the necessity of everything in print being well-written and only sparingly altered by editors. A writer with a good voice, telling a good tale, can hold my interest even on the most cliche'd topic better than the most faraway voyage told poorly.

[Cpt Mark]

A lot of interesting info and thoughts here.

Video or print? If print, in what form? Magazine, website etc.

I like both. I've been around boats for a very long time and the videos I watch/follow are very few. They're either sailors who really know how to sail or great videographers who can tell a good story. Pretty much all the people "we bought a boat and are going sailing around the world" disgust me. They act like they know something but in fact it is painfully obvious how little they really know. So the question, is why do people watch these videos? Jealousy? Dreamers? Big tits? Want to learn from those who "know"? Armchair sailors?

Most of these channels might have tons of followers or want to at least but who watches them? Not people who want to really learn, are experienced and want to learn something new.

It seems you want to write quality content articles which is admirable. Magazines like Latitude 38, Lattitudes and Attitudes might be good for a few well though out relevant articles. Latitude 38 for sure is read by sailors and cruisers.

FWIW- I loved practical sailor. I wish they'd update their content. Some of the reviews were done back in the stone age.

[Invictus69]

"The remainder are struggling to figure out what people want and what content will attract advertisers"


The above sentence got my attention to reply.


Currently subscribed to Sail and Cruising World but it is a question of when they will get the 'cancel' order. Normally they end up in the bin even before the start of the month for which the issue refers.



Practical Sailor was kind of disappointment especially given the price for 20 pages of content easily found on the web.


I cancelled most of my other magazine subscriptions (incl sailing mags) when they all started declining in their quality in the last decade. Now, the main issue is that even the boating magazines started pushing the 'woke' and other political b.s. which culminated during Covid (masking on boats in 20kts wind, 'diversity and inclusion' articles, etc.) So, it is not really what readers want but what their ESG-infected corporate owners and advertising partners want.


To answer your question, any informative article from which somebody can learn something useful will always be in demand. Destination reviews should include some 'cruising guide' details and practical tips, not just describing generic sunsets, friendly locals and snorkeling beauties.


Boat reviews are shallow and more look like a paid advertising then an actual review with pros and cons. Again YT has the same but in real video.



Either the publishing industry adopts or dies. That's the reality. They also play part in their own demise (aka go woke go broke)

[Ken of KC]

thinwater, I see you have gotten a lot of useful information. I'll add my take. For a very long time I took about 7 different magazines, then as I fell a bit behind I started pruning them. Five years ago I was at five, then I cut down to four. Sail, GOB, PS and a factory one. I was also noticing a difference in them and also the turn over in people as well. In fact your main print copy your writing more articles that ever before. I was wondering why the contributors were declining, it almost seems at times like your the last writer standing as well as they have you doing articles that are really not worth of your talents and expertise. I was also wondering how you got it all done. So the differences have been noticed. I also write for the factory one and have for over 10 years. My consumer take on them all would be as follows, I like Sail or parts of it mostly technical articles, the charter stuff is more of the same just worded differently, I do charter or take group charters that I am hired for, the multi million dollar cats are of no value to me, it's day may be numbered. They have recently changed up content a bit and it seems a bit better actually, certainly different. So I will stay another year and see how the woman's perspective goes. I just dumped GOB about a year ago, I liked it but it just got to be more of the same, I did like many of the tech articles and was geared more toward DIY, tech articles and older boats. I was about to let PS expire but then got one of the new video's, well a couple now from Tim and decided I may renew to see how that all pans out. It has also seemed they have all been searching for where to go. Just before COVID, GOB reached out to me for some possible articles as well as video's. I thought I had a good dialog going on with Karen and there seemed to be an interest, then they retired and it went silent. I actually sent a short video, the editor changed and I never heard anymore. PS sent out an inquiry for people to do testing, I actually answered it and never heard a thing. I have worked on boats for over 42 years and am primarily a lake sailor and you have to do it all we don't have a guy for that, what ever it is, I'm the guy. I have also been a lead instructor for a sailing school for over 20 years. I have delivered boats all over the US via truck and via water from Nova Scotia to Caracas Venezuela, as well as from central California to Austrailia so feel myself pretty well rounded. I wanted to do less boat yoga as the body aged and even considered trying to break into the mags and maybe some books, it seems almost impossible to break into as well as does not seem to pay very well compared to what I can get doing the work but then those days are numbered. So it would seem that unless you have already made it and have name recognition the odds are slim. Thanks for the hard work that you do it's obvious that you love it. Thanks again, Ken

[Island Time O25]

Still not sure if OP is looking for a profitable solution or a wikipedia type one with donations for support.

I believe the sailing "written word" and mags in particular were "West Marinized" for years now. As WM drove local chandleries out of business only to become glorified sellers for overpriced "sail" clothing and toys, so did content driven sail mags were replaced by ads driven appendages to some other money making schemes.

Years ago I used to get free or almost free subscriptions to a bunch of sail mags at the boat shows. Sadly the boat shows themselves stopped being relevant for me as they became more and more geared toward dreamers and not actual boaters. The only one I would attend would be Boat Builders Show in Portland, ME but that is 100+ miles from me and too small to make that round trip meaningful.

Anyway, IMO the wikipedia model may work online but not sure about in print as printing and mailing are expensive and get stale quickly. To get past wiki's weaknesses of being too accesible for off the wall contributors and thus unreliable a system of checks and balances can be instituted. Contributers would be vetted for their experience, marine background, quality of previous contributions, etc. There should be an easy cross reference to alt opinions as there can be many valid solutions to a problem or need.

This forum is already a treasure trove of marine info of all kinds and can be used as a kernel to built this "wiki type" structure around. I suspect that not one of the members have read all the advice or reviews posted here since the forum's beginning. So this "clearing house" of sailing/boating/cruising info just needs someone to catalog and cross reference what is already here and to make future contributions more reliable and indexable. Perhaps a system of public up or down votes by verified marine pros to confirm or challenge/critique this or that technical post may help to weed out bad advise or what not may work.

As a side note I find search function on CF very frustrating and not user friendly. Especially its "by default" display but also its content search. If I am looking for info on engine repair it will give me a gazillion threads, even those where "engine" is mentioned in passim. But if I make my search request too specific it may show 0 results. And asking the members will often generate "it was already asked and answered, use the search function" bringing me back to square one.

[Benz]

Some have mentioned up-thread that magazine content has grown stale and repetitive. One reason for that, from a writer's perspective, is that the mags aren't willing to pay for good writing. CW paid me less per word for the latest piece I wrote (in the current issue) that they did when I started writing for them 20 years ago, and less by 1/3 than the piece just before it.
Being all short-staffed, their response time is worse than when we were corresponding by snail mail. Ocean Navigator has gone dark on me after a slight hiccup in a piece they solicited. It's simply not worth the time and effort anymore to do the best writing you can only to be ignored, neglected, and ultimately insulted by an offer of 25 cents a word and nothing for pictures.
When the mags figure it out and pay decently for writing, they'll get the thoughtful, experienced, and skilled writers back again, and the mags will be worth reading. But they've got to get their act together.

[barcoMeCasa]

Originally Posted by Benz

Some have mentioned up-thread that magazine content has grown stale and repetitive. One reason for that,

....is maybe because it's all been said already....

[Kettlewell]

When the mags figure it out and pay decently for writing, they'll get the thoughtful, experienced, and skilled writers back again, and the mags will be worth reading. But they've got to get their act together.

It's a chicken-or-egg problem. Every publication has lost tons of advertising to the Internet, meaning a loss of revenue, meaning they had to reduce staff and pay contributors less, meaning the quality declined, forcing an increase in subscription prices, and meaning they lost subscribers due to lower quality and higher prices. Our local newspaper is a shell of its former self, publishing mostly non-local news, and yet they just raised their price to $140 per month! I have no doubt that price is justified by their costs, but it seems to be a death spiral for them in the long run--lower quality + higher price = lost readership. It's not something I am into, but I do know some folks make good money with their YouTube channels, and there are some good ones. Maybe Panope could weigh in with how it went for him. We all agreed his anchoring channel was great, but apparently it is not worth it for him anymore. Frankly, I think a lot of stuff that is done on YouTube would be much more useful to me as a short written article, but nobody wants to read anymore so I am in the minority.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

It's a chicken-or-egg problem. Every publication has lost tons of advertising to the Internet, meaning a loss of revenue, meaning they had to reduce staff and pay contributors less, meaning the quality declined, forcing an increase in subscription prices, and meaning they lost subscribers due to lower quality and higher prices. Our local newspaper is a shell of its former self, publishing mostly non-local news, and yet they just raised their price to $140 per month! I have no doubt that price is justified by their costs, but it seems to be a death spiral for them in the long run--lower quality + higher price = lost readership. It's not something I am into, but I do know some folks make good money with their YouTube channels, and there are some good ones. Maybe Panope could weigh in with how it went for him. We all agreed his anchoring channel was great, but apparently it is not worth it for him anymore. Frankly, I think a lot of stuff that is done on YouTube would be much more useful to me as a short written article, but nobody wants to read anymore so I am in the minority.

A beginner (aka new customer) needs to know how to tack, the basics of winterizing, and he dreams of cruising. An experienced sailor might be more interested in some arcane detail of COLREGS, tips on sailing after joint replacement, and he doesn't dream much any more (he's been there). Thus, it is unlikely any mag can have more that 30% articles that are relevant to any one reader.


I've notice something interesting at boat shows. Only a few percent of the boats are less than 40 feet long and they are ghastly expensive. Many are charter models. The few smaller boats have no visitors. People are there to gawk. I'm guessing that is also where the profit is. I've noticed something sailing as well. The marinas are as full as ever, but there are fewer boats on the water. They just sit. I'm guessing it a bit of work to take the 40- to 50-foot boat out for a day sail, so they only mount up if they are going farther. That's the dream anyway.

Has the marketing-driven dream changed from day sailing, enjoying time on the water, and just messing about in boats, to world cruising, therefore requiring a bigger boat? Very clever. There is no glory in something small. I downsized from my cruising boat to my current trimaran because the big boat was boring to sail. Some of my best days are in a kayak.


I also notice that the public library used to have 20-30 titles on sailing. The last time I looked there were two. Readership must be down.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Benz

Some have mentioned up-thread that magazine content has grown stale and repetitive. One reason for that, from a writer's perspective, is that the mags aren't willing to pay for good writing. CW paid me less per word for the latest piece I wrote (in the current issue) that they did when I started writing for them 20 years ago, and less by 1/3 than the piece just before it.

This is what I've come to as well. I don't write for publications because I need to scratch an itch. I do it to be paid. But freelance rates seem to be the first thing cut when a magazine is getting squeezed financially. It's frustrating, and short-sighted. It's also rather silly because the amount spent on freelance rates is usually one of the smallest line-items of any publication's budget.

The fact is, rates across the periodical industry (not just in the sailing mag world) peaked decades ago, and have been declining ever since. In recent years, they've been in free-fall. I understand everyone's lunch is being eaten by various new Internet-based formats, but driving away professional writers by lowering rates, and grabbing more and more rights, has helped create this self-fulling prophesy.

This is why I'm pretty much retired from professional writing. I'm not interested in working for beer money. If I really want to write for free, I can always do so on my own blog, or babble away here on CF.

So yes, it is a death-spiral. But largely one of the industry's short-sighted making.

[rslifkin]

[QUOTE=thinwater;3890000]I've notice something interesting at boat shows. Only a few percent of the boats are less than 40 feet long and they are ghastly expensive. Many are charter models. The few smaller boats have no visitors. People are there to gawk. I'm guessing that is also where the profit is. I've noticed something sailing as well. The marinas are as full as ever, but there are fewer boats on the water. They just sit. I'm guessing it a bit of work to take the 40- to 50-foot boat out for a day sail, so they only mount up if they are going farther. That's the dream anyway. QUOTE]

The boat show thing makes sense. They're going to show off the shiny, attention getting boats that get the attention of people who don't really know what they want or need. Those are the people that will see it and think "yeah, we should buy that one!".

Builders aren't going to show off the practical, reasonable cost cruising boat or the nice, sturdy, slow trawler. I think most of the people buying those boats already know what they want, so bringing one to the boat show isn't likely to generate many sales.