Is this the future of magazine publishing?
Every time I pick up a new copy of Woodworking Magazine I have the same feeling. I can’t help it. The magazine is so thin…a mere 32 pages. As a quarterly, that means my subscription cost of $20, or to be precise, $19.96 gets me only 128 pages of magazine. Many monthly magazines have that many pages in each issue.
But then I open the magazine and I’m reminded of why I subscribe. Woodworking magazine isn’t full of advertising. In fact, it doesn’t have any advertising all. Most magazines are 50-60% advertising, or at least they used to be. What Woodworking has, though, are 32 pages of hardcore, “we gonna teach ya how”, information about woodworking. There are no “tool roundups” to fill the pages; no reviews of battery-powered C-clamps or wood welding machines either. Just good, solid information. I like that. In fact, ‘thin’ is actually a virtue.
This latest issue has two chunky articles on wood grain – one showing you how to understand it while the other shows you how to use it to improve your creations. There’s a wonderful article on building an 18th Century dry sink, an article on countersink bits and how to use them. These articles are accompanied by smaller, yet equally interesting and useful short pieces on water-resistant finishes, floating shelves, and a bit of philosophy on helping others to enjoy the world of woodworking.
One thing I’ve noticed is that it takes me about the same time to read an issue of Woodworking as it takes me to read any other woodworking magazine regardless of size which, by the way, is shrinking for many magazines. The magazine business, like the newspaper business is in trouble. Not only are recessions reducing industry adertising budgets but marketing strategies are changing as companies are moving much of their marketing to the Internet.
Without advertising, magazines have to rely more heavily upon subscriptions to make ends meet. We can expect the cost of those subscriptions to rise and the number of pages delivered to decline. This seems a bleak prognostication to magazine junkies like myself but then I think of Woodworking Magazine. Things might work out pretty well after all. Thanks for F+W Publications for showing us how bright the future can be.
Cheers — Larry
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Great insite, Larry. I think the folks at F+W have (pun intended) hit the tack on the head. The information contained in each issue of Woodworking Magazine is priceless – well worth the price of admission. This is my favorite publication and I think I learn more from each issue than I do from any of the other woodworking publications I buy or subscribe to.
Plus, I am a total sucker for black & white photography.
-Pete (the Hafwit)
Didn’t think about the B&W photography while writing the blog post but that’s another thing that Chris and company have taught me. Particularly with wood photos, less is definitely more. Ansel Adams meets Roubo
Cheers — Larry
You’re on the money with the talk of magazines Larry. I know you’re a magazine junkie because I’m the same way and we’ve talked about them for years. Your years as editor in chief of one of the top model airplane magazines in the world gave you exceptional insite to the workings behind these magazines. You understand both the upside and downside to advertising dependent magazines.
I hope the magazine business survives. I love the feel of a real book or magazine when I want to sit and read so the thoughts of having to live with a laptop on my lap makes me cringe when I want to read. Online things are nice….but they aren’t paper in the hand.
Charge me more for the subscription and give me content….I can live with that.
Keep up the good work.
Greg
Larry
First off, really like the website and blog. I’ll be back for more!
Working in the Library, Archives and even Publishing fields, I see more journals and magazines turning towards digital distribution as a means to offset the rising costs of mailing and materials. Can’t say that I particularly like this as an all purpose change, but I also understand the pressure to maintain a reasonable subscription fee or item price.
That said, I hate to see any publication disappear due to a lack of financial support. I’m hoping that Woodworking Mag will continue to survive and buck the trend of more and more advertising. They’re showing what can be done by simply providing excellent content. More power to them.
Woodworking has been around, I believe, for 8 years and in that time they’ve never had any advertising. The result is interesting, as they have been able to bind their magazines into hardcover books, selling them as library resource. They have them available digitally on DVDs. Clearly they are demonstrating at least one way to survive without advertising.
Cheers — Larry