Popular Woodworking

[WaterlooMarc]

I used to be a subscriber. I cancelled a few years back when I was trying to cutback on clutter. I generally enjoyed the magazine and ranked it just behind FWW which is my favorite and the only subscription I kept. I was in BAM the other day and decided to peruse the magazines and picked up the latest issue of Popular Woodworking. My goodness, there was nothing to it! It felt like a free pamphlet not a magazine to pay $7 for! What happened to it? Are things that bad there? I can't help to think the problems will get worse if this issue is representative of what they're putting out now.

[fredhargis]

I don't think it's just PWW. Most of the publishing world is trying to figure out survival techniques for the internet age. I still subscribe to PWW and like it, but almost all of them have lost a lot of weight as advertisers move to web based ads. I had been a long time subscriber to Popular Mechanics, but they have also slimmed down, and i think they went to 10 issues a year a while back. It's the world we live in now, at least that how it seems to me.

[Admiral]

+1

Early on, the web spoiled users as there were no subscription models, just information.  When print publications starting putting content on line in the early days, it was also free, and publishers seems to use this to push fudge to the print medium for subscriptions.  Clearly this model did not work, so now everyone is trying to figure out how best to monetize web-based content, and we all can see how many variations there are out there being used by those who were historically print media.  There is a certain amount of need for hard copy print media, but as new, young consumers are predominantly conditioned for digital consumption of most media (I mean, well, young fudge actually watch movies on cell phones and tablets!!  This amazes me) I think print will eventually fade out in the next couple of decades, maybe even earlier.

[AHill]

I'm still a subscriber, and I have the archive DVD of back issues as well.  I will check to see if content has shrunk, or if advertising has shrunk, or both.  I do think there are a lot fewer full-blown tool reviews.  Could be there are just a lot fewer new tools.  Fewer woodworkers also means less subscribers.  Less subscribers means less advertising revenue.  The internet now has a plethora of blogs and YouTube how-to's that weren't as prevalent 10 years ago.

In my industry, the quintessential pub is Aviation Week & Space Technology.  All the way up to the 80's, each weekly issue was maybe 100 pages.  Now it's 50-70 pages.  One indication of the downward trend in AW&ST is the lack of want ads.  I got my current job through an ad in AW&ST.  Nowadays, you can go several weeks without a single want ad.  And, the entire content of the magazine is now available electronically.

[BillMcD]

As for the clutter factor, I agree that it is too tempting to keep the magazines.  I have overcome that by appreciating the utility of the digital versions for future needs.  Still, I want my physical magazines (subscribe to both FWW and PW).  I now take devious pleasure from tactical placements of the read magazines.  It might get planted in a doctor office lobby, a barbershop or a seat in an airport lobby.  But it is always left somewhere that I imagine it will get looked at by someone who has a latent interest in woodworking that is reactivated by the magazine.

An annual PW subscription is $20.  I get that much pleasure just from the arrival of the magazine several times a year.  With the piles of unwanted catalogs in the mail, it's a treat to get mail I actually want.  I want it because there is something of interest and use in every copy.  I also really like having a disposable magazine to read when travelling.

But there is also the less practical side of the deal -- sort of like the church bulletin, it's supporting the community.  Without the magazine's requirement to curate quality content month after month, year after year, we would be less of a community.  As the preacher's weekly sermon must develop fresh value from well worn material, so too, the magazine builds upon and grows the knowledge and understanding of our community.

Is every issue as valuable as the woodworking magazines of old?  Perhaps not.  Then again, in the old days we were not able to link our forum posts to the magazine's professionally produced videos, or downloadable plans, or archived knowledge base, etc..

I commend the sturdy writers, publishers, advertisers and subscribers who continue to provide me with the treats in my mailbox.

[Herb G]

Wood magazine went from $3.99 an issue to $8.99 per.
Yep, you read that right.

[Admiral]

Wood magazine went from $3.99 an issue to $8.99 per.
Yep, you read that right.

Never thought much of Wood at $3.99 . . . . . .

[AHill]

Wood magazine went from $3.99 an issue to $8.99 per.
Yep, you read that right.

For individual current issues, yes.  A two year subscription through Amazon works out to $2.19 per issue.  Back issues ordered though Wood Magazine website are $7.97 each.  One year subscription of PWW through Amazon is $19.99, which is $2.86 per issue.  One year subscription of Woodsmith Magazine (one of my favorites) is $29.00, which is $4.83 per issue.

[Herb G]

Too bad Shop Notes went TU. I liked that mag.
I have a bunch of them scattered around here.

[WaterlooMarc]

I liked Shopnotes too. I miss it. Wow I had no idea about Wood going to so high. That's crazy. It wasn't worth it at $4!