New Popular Woodworking Magazine

[hbmcc]

New, or continuing publication, Pop Wood website: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/

I stumbled through the site and there are several free articles and blog posts many here will find of interest. Enjoy your trip!

[Bill_Houghton]

I've subscribed to Pop Wood for some years, even before Chris Schwarz was editing it.  This is the latest iteration.  They're really putting their efforts into the web, it seems; the quality of the print magazine has frustrated me under the new editors, and it's hard even to find the print magazine on the website.  I recognize that I'm a dinosaur when it comes to language, but an article that refers to "door jams" for half the article before someone realized the term is "jamb" - but didn't go back to correct the earlier word misuse...it leads me to question the quality of the content of the article, too.

I've got another couple of years on the subscription, but am not sure I'll stick it out.

[Rob Young]

I've subscribed to Pop Wood for some years, even before Chris Schwarz was editing it.  This is the latest iteration.  They're really putting their efforts into the web, it seems; the quality of the print magazine has frustrated me under the new editors, and it's hard even to find the print magazine on the website.  I recognize that I'm a dinosaur when it comes to language, but an article that refers to "door jams" for half the article before someone realized the term is "jamb" - but didn't go back to correct the earlier word misuse...it leads me to question the quality of the content of the article, too.

I've got another couple of years on the subscription, but am not sure I'll stick it out.

Not sure if can be found on-line but PW under C.S. and M.F. created a pretty nifty style guide for woodworking articles. Standardized "molding" vs. "moulding", etc. (not on this PC so I can't confirm which they picked...)

[hbmcc]

In other words, they are missing someone on staff who can write englixh and be gramit correct. Was it WoodNet, or some other forum, that members almost ridiculed new people who either parked penmanship on the other side of the screen, or should have flunked 5th grade grammar. Had to be another forum. Some of the loudest complainers used translation programs.

The point of forcing correct language was that anyone who couldn't/wouldn't communicate properly wasn't worth the time and effort for a response. It was successful persuasion.

Funny(?), I love to hunt down online information. However, what strikes as interesting is always downloaded to a Word doc. which I will often print.

[Handplanesandmore]

It was brave for the owners of WS (& WN) to buy out PW. They must have their own calculations, but they're swimming against the tide, if you ask me. More than half a dozen of woodworking/craft magazines have folded/merged over the past 10 years or so. It's such a tough industry, especially when free contents are competing via social media.

I took a brief look at the latest issue of PW while picking up some lumber from my friend. The front cover project (door bookcase) gave me a DIY feel (think Family Handyman).  I was surprised that some 5 or 6 pages are spent on a hinge topic....to fill pages? For that kind of space, you could run a full cabinet with drawers project. They recycle their old shop tips, too.

Paul Sellers at one time toyed with the idea of a hand tool only magazine on his blog. He probably decided that it wasn't worth a try.

Simon

[bhh]

Sad to see it go.   For years, I lived closer to the office than most of the people that worked there and became friends with many of the old timers.  It seemed to be drifting, so I didn't renew a year ago (shortly before they filed for bankruptcy).   It seemed to go downhill when the venture capitalists took over and drove out most of the talent and then tried to hire new ones who soon thereafter got laid off.

Most of their online postings now are re-runs of stuff of the last 20 years' content.

I still occasionally read Fine Woodworking at the library.   It was inspirational when I first started woodworking with some seriousness, but less so now.   I consider myself a hybrid woodworker but didn't really enjoy reading a long article on how make some joints with hand tools that I could make in 1/10 the time and more accuracy on a table saw.

WOOD, I think has improved.   I let my sub to it lapse when it seems every issue had two articles on making "Pukey Ducks" to borrow a galoot phrase.

[Derek Cohen]

As I understand, Pop Wood mag was a thriving magazine in a company where everything else was failing. It was sinking as the parent company was drowning. It was worth purchasing because it was a money earner.

It makes NO SENSE to me to change a winning format (largely the influence of Chris Schwarz), which is what the new owners have done. The new format is Wood magazine. My subscription was not renewed.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[bhh]

Some internal comments: 

https://blog.lostartpress.com/2019/03/11...-fw-media/

[Bibliophile 13]

I let my subscription to PWW lapse. I miss the kind of content I got back in the CS & MF phase. Like Chris says in the blog post linked above, there IS a healthy market for a good wwing magazine. Look at how Mortise and Tenon is thriving. It’s expensive, has no ads, and they have no marketing budget. Woodwork Magazine made money consistently until it was rolled into PWW. It’s not the market. It’s that the owners don’t know the market, and they haven’t bothered to find out what that market is or how to reach it. Maybe the Woodsmith folks can figure it out?

If there were a wwing mag being published today that had the quality and price point of PWW in its heyday, I’d be a faithful subscriber.

[AHill]

I let my subscription to PWW lapse.  I miss the kind of content I got back in the CS & MF phase. Like Chris says in the blog post linked above, there IS a healthy market for a good wwing magazine. Look at how Mortise and Tenon is thriving. It’s expensive, has no ads, and they have no marketing budget. Woodwork Magazine made money consistently until it was rolled into PWW.  It’s not the market. It’s that the owners don’t know the market, and they haven’t bothered to find out what that market is or how to reach it. Maybe the Woodsmith folks can figure it out?

If there were a wwing mag being published today that had the quality and price point of PWW in its heyday, I’d be a faithful subscriber.

The combining of Woodworking with PWW was an internally-driven decision, proposed by Steve Shanesy to F+W Media.  There were no layoffs from the merger (so states the linked article).  The reasons provided in the article were kind of vague.  I suspect publishing two different magazines with different kinds of artwork and printed on different media was taxing on the existing staff.  I do think cost savings was at least a partial reason for the switch.  Schwarz started Lost Arts Press in 2007.  The demise of Woodworking was 2010.  That would support the lack of time for staff (Schwarz) to devote to publishing two different magazines.

https://www.foliomag.com/f-w-merges-popu...-magazine/