New Popular Woodworking Magazine

[Bill_Houghton]

Not that I'm in the business any more of sticking up for PW...but that article is from a 2011 print edition. :-) 

Megan

My.  Featuring a nine-year-old article on the "front" page of the website...

I do feel for the editors.  It's clear that the publisher is understaffing the entire effort and probably under-supporting it, too.  It's just a darned shame that what was at one time one of the best woodworking magazines around is now dying a slow death.

[hbmcc]

Not that I'm in the business any more of sticking up for PW...but that article is from a 2011 print edition. :-) 

Megan

With all of the grousing about ruining a good tool, I don't think any parts were damaged or fed to the cutting torch artist-com-painter. We just have multiple functions for a spare tool. Or, a tool volunteered for that purpose.

And, regarding Bill's "slow death" remark, even Schwarz and daughter are critiquing twenty-year-old magazine bench builds, right now. He's growing quite a museum. Any benches in the room made by Fred Ziffel or, friend?

Ps. This virus will be the death of us all!

Ed. I thought the censor grew up.....

[Handplanesandmore]

As I flipped through its pages (June 2020), I saw Alan Lacer's Heirloom Awl article which looked so familiar to me. As it turned out, the article is a reprint, word for word, coming out of Alan's book (PW is the publisher).

It's ok to take something old and present it as "new," but shouldn't there be some editorial decency to at least quote the source for that article?

Simon

[Handplanesandmore]

Pop Wood did it again! Reprinting an old article (2012) as a new one (August 2020). No acknowledgement. Hey, you could even find it here on their web site - https://www.popularwoodworking.com/proje...fts-knobs/

They do a similar thing to their tips column. Many newer subscribers, unlike us oldies, of course wouldn't know their magic trick.
It's the only woodworking magazine that I know does tricks without acknowledgements like that.

In case you wonder what the grand project is in their latest issue - a plywood desk.

Simon

[AHill]

As I flipped through its pages (June 2020), I saw Alan Lacer's Heirloom Awl article which looked so familiar to me. As it turned out, the article is a reprint, word for word, coming out of Alan's book (PW is the publisher).

It's ok to take something old and present it as "new," but shouldn't there be some editorial decency to at least quote the source for that article?

Simon

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  How sad to witness the slow death of a once respected magazine.

[GNP]

Like watching Sears, and Kmart go down the drain. Let my subscription expire last winter.

[MarkSingleton]

Like watching Sears, and Kmart go down the drain. Let my subscription  expire last winter.

I did the same thing.

[bandit571]

What is really sad, yet amazing.....is this continual bashing of a horse that is either now in a glue pot somewhere, or buried.  

Maybe go out to the shop, build a few things, and start up a magazine that you do approve of....Make sure the content is "fresh", readable.....and we'll see how long that lasts.

Or, better yet...take over that magazine, and remake it into your own image.....of course, with this current Crusade....I doubt IF you would get any readerships to come back.....

What killed these magazines?    Look in your mirror.....while you ask Sancho for another lance, to replace the one you broke charging that Windmill......

[Admiral]

What killed these magazines?    Look in your mirror.....while you ask Sancho for another lance, to replace the one you broke charging that Windmill......

"Look in your mirror?"  I beg to disagree.  Most people here hung on for a long time after the content started to drop, watched the editorial and author staff be drastically cut, and the resultant overall decline in the publication.  You want to blame someone, blame those responsible - the serial private equity ownership that has no real commitment to long term anything (remember WIA?), but manage quarter to quarter so they can suck out their money and leave the corporate entity burdened with debt service that is unsustainable, then put the shell into bankruptcy and sell off the name.  I've done a lot of M&A for a living, you should read up on it, you might find it interesting, here's a link pertaining to PE's involvement in  the retail industry:   https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/busin...Position=1       

People are hungry for content, ideas, technique... and will support a publication that gives value; value takes investment in people and ideas, which ownership is not willing to fund.  PW is a shell of what it used to be, and they are not even giving it a proper burial.


EDIT:  Another viewpoint by Bob Lang:      https://readwatchdo.com/2019/03/popular-...ankruptcy/

[bandit571]

After slogging through( need a shower..) this thread.....

Some would rather just sit back and person, rather than get out and FIX the problems.   Cry and complain about the content, yet will not do anything to improve things?   Guess the armchair is a safer place...eh?    

"I will follow this path, no longer"