Is it just me, or are wood working magazines becoming prohitively expensive?

[Jack Wilson]

Like them or not, it seems to me that pricing for most wood magazines is excessive, and on that topic, trade magazines are often times even more so.

Even when annual subscription price is taken into account, most only print 6-9 times a year:(. I have subscribed to several different titles over the years but as of late have pulled back to a month by month purchase, if I flip thru and nothing interests me, I pass. So I try to save by only buying if the topics are relavent, but that is expensive as well, it's like a crap shoot, 6 of one, half dozen of the other.

Tonight I looked at one magazine and wondered why I would pay almost $8.00 for it, the better part of ten dollars to look at some pretty pictures, adds, and read a lot of stuff I am already familiar with. Not to mention so much is available free online. I seem to remember when an annual $16.00 subscription was considered fair, now some are twice that or more. I know about inflation, still...

Which begs the question, is it just me?:confused:

[Montgomery Scott]

I no longer subscribe to any ww magazine. I have an incomplete set of FWW from issue #1 through #198 and a couple years of Wood that I have stored somewhere. Any more I just buy books. They are much more comprehensive than any article and no ads throughout. Better bang for the buck.

[Dave Lehnert]

I love magazines but yes, they are getting expensive. Fine woodworking $8 on the news stand WOW!

I like what Chris Schwarz is doing at Popular Woodworking promoting hand tool woodworking. So I gladly send my money to them.

[Tom Veatch]

...
Which begs the question, is it just me?:confused:

Nope, not just you. I'm letting my WW subscriptions expire. I may keep the Shop Notes and Woodsmith subscriptions, but that's not a given.

[George Sanders]

I dropped my subscriptions a long time ago. They became too repetitive. Bought more books as they are far more comprehensive and specialized as to subject.

[Mitchell Andrus]

I stopped reading them when I could have written the articles or the articles didn't interest me. At some point, we don't need the training wheels anymore and dropping the how-to's becomes a right of passage.
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[Myk Rian]

Too many ads in Wood, so I'm dropping it.
PopWW and WoodSmith I like. I get a lot of tips from them.
FWW is available on-line, so I don't subscribe.

[Larry Browning]

Too many ads in Wood, so I'm dropping it.
PopWW and WoodSmith I like. I get a lot of tips from them.
FWW is available on-line, so I don't subscribe.

I know that a lot of folks seems to despise ads in a magazine. This attitude baffles me. I like the ads. I can keep informed about the latest gizmos, check out prices, and most importantly, share the cost of the magazine with someone else. Where is the downside? Are you afraid that their reviews will some how be slanted toward their sponsors? Well at least we know who those sponsors are. I just don't get it.

[Myk Rian]

I know that a lot of folks seems to despise ads in a magazine. This attitude baffles me. I like the ads. I can keep informed about the latest gizmos, check out prices, and most importantly, share the cost of the magazine with someone else. Where is the downside? Are you afraid that their reviews will some how be slanted toward their sponsors? Well at least we know who those sponsors are. I just don't get it.
I get the info I need right here at SMC, and yes, Wood reviews are slanted toward who pays the most. Their latest table saw review was a .pdf download, for $5. That was the real turn off.

I look at Wood mag, and it is 60-70% ads. I look at PWW and WoodSmith and they are no ads. What don't you understand about that?

[dennis thompson]

I agree with Larry, I find the ads helpful & if they're not helpful I just skip them, no one is forcing anyone to read them. I would imagine that part of the reason for the increased pricing of magazines is the reduction in advertising they've been seeing as companies either reduce advertising or shift it to the internet.
Dennis

[Scott Loven]

I find it hard to balance the lap-top on my knees in the reading room so still prefer to buy hard copy magazines!
Scott

[Jim Rimmer]

I don't find the pricing too bad. If you subscribe and then hold out to the last minute on renewals you can get really good offers. Now, as for the content, that's a different story. I will porobably let some of mine subscriptions run out because I have enough issues now that I could spend the rest of my life building the jigs and storage systems they feature. Most of the plans are pretty poor and the tool reviews that I see have gone way beyond the hobbiest price range.

[Bob Lang]

Your interests may have changed, but Popular Woodworking Magazine for example is $19.96 for seven issues a year. That price has been the same for the 5+ years I've worked here, the 12+ years my boss has worked here, and if I'm not mistaken the 15+ years his boss has worked here. Given what's happened to prices in general over the last few years that seems like a bargain to me. The subscription price works out to $2.85 an issue, about half the price of lunch at the nearest fast food drive through.

Bob Lang

[John alder]

My libary has just about any one I would want to read and mine allowes to take home any but the latest issue,pay enough in taxes for it so might as well use it.

[Steve Peterson]

I signed up for 3-4 different magazines, but plan to let most of them expire when they are done. The cost/benefit ratio is just not there anymore.

I just received a letter from one of them (forget which one) that they are stopping publication by merging with another magazine. Judging by the responses to this thread, I suspect that we will see many more failures in the near future. There are too many sources of free information on the internet for the magazines to compete. Rising magazine prices only makes the situation worse.

Steve

[Pat Germain]

I think FWW is still well worth the subscription price. As for the others, meh.

I was really disappointed with Woodworker's Journal. I didn't know it was Rockler's magazine until after I subscribed. That in itself didn't bother me since I like Rockler. But their "review" of the new Unisaw should have been labelled "Special Advertising Supplement". Then they started sending me books and DVD's that I didn't order. Therefore, I didn't renew. And when someone called me asking me to renew, I flat out told her it was the unrequested books and DVDs that turned me off.

I don't mind ads in the magazines so long as they're woodworking related; and they're not promoted as reviews.

[Don Jarvie]

The special issue publications are the worst. The special issues on shop desing are hitting 10 bucks or 11.

Costco and BJ's sell magazines at 30% off so the prices are a little better.

I only have FWW online and buy a magazine if it interests me.

[John Pratt]

Given what's happened to prices in general over the last few years that seems like a bargain to me. The subscription price works out to $2.85 an issue, about half the price of lunch at the nearest fast food drive through.

Bob Lang

This is not directed at PWW directly, but more of a statement on the broad spectrum of WW mags. It is not so much the price (I spend a fortune on tools), but more so what I get for that money. If it is just a rehash of the same old material, it becomes a waste of my money. $2.85 is half the price of lunch at the nearest drive through, but if they started serving only lettuce on half a bun it wouldn't be such a great deal at that price.

[Jack Wilson]

I know that a lot of folks seems to despise ads in a magazine. This attitude baffles me. I like the ads. I can keep informed about the latest gizmos, check out prices, and most importantly, share the cost of the magazine with someone else. Where is the downside? Are you afraid that their reviews will some how be slanted toward their sponsors? Well at least we know who those sponsors are. I just don't get it.


No, I don't despise the ads, and yes I do find them interesting, but there are ads in my weekly Penny Saver, and that's free. It just doesn't have the pretty pictures.

[Jeff Monson]

Your interests may have changed, but Popular Woodworking Magazine for example is $19.96 for seven issues a year. That price has been the same for the 5+ years I've worked here, the 12+ years my boss has worked here, and if I'm not mistaken the 15+ years his boss has worked here. Given what's happened to prices in general over the last few years that seems like a bargain to me. The subscription price works out to $2.85 an issue, about half the price of lunch at the nearest fast food drive through.

Bob Lang


Amen to that, $5 wont cut it at 95% of the gut bomb drive through's anymore.

[Dave Lehnert]

I look at PWW and WoodSmith and they are no ads. What don't you understand about that?

PWW= Popular Woodworking?? I am looking at my new issue now and it shows 60 ads in the advertiser's index.

[James Artibee]

I agree that most prices are too high for what you get, although there are deals out there. I used to get a lot of car magazines,but they went with who advertised the most got the best reviews. There seems to have been a great deal of that in several mags, people responded and canceled or did not renew. Hardly a day goes by I don't get an offer for a fraction of the old rate . Some have gone from 19.95/year down to 6.00/ yr ,and they are national mags. I guess I trying to say the consumer can change things with our pocketbooks.Let them know how you feel , what do you have to lose?? JIM

[george wilson]

My new PWW is full of ads too,but I like them. I like to see what's out there,what's new,etc..