American Woodworker out of business -- so fast?

[Simon MacGowen]

The subscriber link on AW site no longer works. PW's parent company took over AW not too long ago or is my server not connecting?

Simon

[Dave Lehnert]

https://ssl.palmcoastd.com/03402/apps/-196030?iKey=I**N07

If the above link does not work at your end it says the Aug/sep issue is the last.

[Matt Meiser]

Won't be the last either. Magazines are a fast-dying breed. TEN (The Enthusiast Network, former Source Interlink Media) just shut down a number of car-enthusiast brands. They also recently spun off their magazine distribution business, which then subsequently folded a few weeks ago.

The magazine stands at grocery and drug stores around here are shrinking. Haven't been in an Barnes and Noble for a year or more but I bet its true there too.

[Simon MacGowen]

Thank you. The notice doesn't say if refunds are an option for current subscribers as some of them may not be interested in traditional woodworking projects. Not sure if the demise also means the end of Woodwork, too.

Simon

[Cody Kemble]

I remember the PW posts about how they were "excited" to publish 2 magazines. I didn't think the higher-ups would see that as cost effective for long.

[Simon MacGowen]

Sometimes a business is not bought for its continued operation but for tax (benefits) purposes. But the fact that magazines are shrinking like newspapers is going to continue, more so when the new generation(s) know computers or the like as the only way of communicating and learning. Personally, I think the print newspapers have no future, just like pagers, fax machines, and yes, non-digital cameras and films.

Simon

[steven c newman]

Just came from the Forum pages on-line.....stay going strong there.....maybe the paper side is going out, and they went on-line? I do have a few blogs/projects posted over there, too.

[Dale Murray]

Sorry, this does not address the American Woodworker issue but is instead about the magazine industry as a whole.

My biggest gripe about magazines with lack of actual content.

I recall the early days of FWW, they had multi-page articles with few pictures. These days it is all pictures with few words followed by additional content on the web. I recall reading a good long article on Tage Frid and Maloof. I'm not sure when the last time a magazine had regular deep coverage of with more words than pictures.

I may let my FWW subscription lapse.

Do something compelling like have a 12 part series with each part covering 8-10 pages in depth. Dont give me three pages then suggest I hit the web. I read magazines on the train to work, I dont have a laptop and internet connection on the train.

[Daniel Rode]

I believe newspapers and magazines are more or less a dying form.

The last time I bought a paper magazine or a subscription was 5-6 years ago. Even then, I would have preferred to receive the content online if it were available. A decade ago, I had 3 woodworking mag subscriptions. I used to read 2 newspapers every day plus the weekly local paper. I haven't had a newspaper delivered to my house in many years and I hardly ever glance at the free local paper. Moreover, despite being a news junkie, I almost never watch the news on TV. Online content delivery is king for me and I'm nearly 50. Imagine how the 20-somethings view it.

I now have only the FWW online subscription. As for PWW, I never really read it much. I do check out the free site but I've only purchased 1 electronic issue. That was specifically for the April chipbreaker article.

I don't want to see them disappear but they must find out how to create compelling online content that will earn a profit. I'll pay but only for regularly updated, high-quality content. FWW appears to be doing well, I think (I hope).

[Simon MacGowen]

Just came from the Forum pages on-line.....stay going strong there.....maybe the paper side is going out, and they went on-line? I do have a few blogs/projects posted over there, too.

If we go by the news release, AW is gone and its online content may still be around for a short time. Unless they plan to sell the AW to another party, maintaining the website costs money.

I agree it is stupid to put some contents in the print issue and ask readers to check the website....I still prefer to read the paper format and I seem to get less out of an online reading, but search is great with the digital archives. I only stick with the FWM as contents aside, it feels more like a magazine with its quality photos and papers. AW in recent years has lost its focus and readership and I hardly found any projects worth trying, except for its shop tips and ideas. Nothing new under the sun seems to be killing the magazine industry...how many chairs can you make and how many tables can you put in your house, after all?

Simon

[Cody Kemble]

I agree that newspapers and magazines are a dying form. I still prefer paper magazines. I can read a paper magazine when I cant connect to the internet.

The lack of original content is becoming a problem. I subscribe to PWW and enjoy it, but I end up seeing half of the content on flipboard before my magazine comes. I still reread it in print.

[Matt Meiser]

I read e-magazines without Internet access all the time. Neither Kindle or Zinio platforms require a live connection after you've downloaded the content.

[Cody Kemble]

I read e-magazines without Internet access all the time. Neither Kindle or Zinio platforms require a live connection after you've downloaded the content.

I'll have to give it a shot for the next trip out to sea.

[lowell holmes]

I take two of the popular magazines and I average about 30 minutes each when a new issue arrives. I used to read them 2 or 3 times before putting them away.

I don't see much reason to renew the subscriptions.

[Simon MacGowen]

Just came from the Forum pages on-line.....stay going strong there.....maybe the paper side is going out, and they went on-line? I do have a few blogs/projects posted over there, too.

Forum also closed:

http://www.americanwoodworker.com/msgs/default.aspx?MessageID=90

[David Weaver]

When the forum is there to draw people to the magazine and its advertisers, there's no great reason to pay to keep it going if the magazine and the advertisers are gone.

[steven c newman]

Just came back from checking my posts over there, no problems I can see. So, what's up?

[Jay Radke]

with FWWs iPAD app you dont need to be connected to read it either. just need to be connected when you down load the newest issue. yes you would have to be connected to use links. either way beats packing mags in carry ons for trips. or the hardcover library my wife use to like to take in her suitcase, which i had to lug.

[Brian Thornock]

Give it 20 years and all of a sudden there will a paper resurgence. People will be debating the proper paper to use, so that it will be as accurate as possible to the paper used on antique books found in previously undiscovered libraries. Ink types will be all the rage on the forums, as will fonts and stitchings. Good thing this doesn't sound familiar at all:D I'm just kidding of course, because if I was serious then I wouldn't be here in the first place.

[Mike Brady]

Didn't PW move one of it's editors over to AW? Talk about a short assignment!

[Matthew Hills]

Give it 20 years and all of a sudden there will a paper resurgence. People will be debating the proper paper to use, so that it will be as accurate as possible to the paper used on antique books found in previously undiscovered libraries. Ink types will be all the rage on the forums, as will fonts and stitchings. Good thing this doesn't sound familiar at all:D I'm just kidding of course, because if I was serious then I wouldn't be here in the first place.
You're mostly focusing on the book makers and connoisseurs. The users will be debating how to best turn the page -- whether from the upper corner or from the lower corner, or if it doesn't matter as long as you pick one and stick with it. Then there is the entire stylus crowd -- who want to use their tablet styluses with the rubber tip to provide better control on the page turn. Some mail-order specialty shops will probably even feature April first gags with contraptions that can turn 10 pages at once for faster reading...

Matt

[Simon MacGowen]

I suppose you are referring to Glen. He has been doing his job for both PW and AW (as editor) and I think he will be going back to his old role at PW. Since AW subscribers are given PW as the substitute magazine, the readership of PW will expand...until they decide whether to renew their subscriptions. When my Woodwork magazine folded, they gave me the option of receiving AW instead which I didn't like, to say the least. I would prefer cash and choose the magazine I wanted.

Simon

[Simon MacGowen]

American Woodworker is now flooded with pharm. spams in its Contributor's Blogs section. I suppose the site is no longer maintained.

Simon

[Derek Cohen]

... The users will be debating how to best turn the page -- whether from the upper corner or from the lower corner, or if it doesn't matter as long as you pick one and stick with it. ...

Matt

I must say that it is great that I no longer have first to lick my thumb. I did try it with the iPad, and sent the screen flying across the room! :)

The future of magazines is uncertain (I think that Chris Schwarz was very astute and read the future well). Today we rub shoulders with all the authors, and discuss beforehand what will eventually wind up on paper. All a bit of an anticlimax. I have all the early FWW and the entire library of Woodwork on my iPad. Fantastic reading. Still fresh every time I re-read it on long plane trips. By contrast, the current paper mags get read once (if that) and lie in a pile waiting enthusiasm. Same old same old. Ho hum and all that. To survive, magazines will need to do something that forums do not do, and that the magazines of olde did not do. This is likely to go live, that is, present everything as a video. You cannot do that on paper, so we will see a migration to the screen.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Joel Moskowitz]

In the 1980s there was a theory that people didn't have a lot of time so magazine articles became shorter and shorter. Unfortunately short breezy articles work perfectly on the web - so its no wonder magazines are dying. If magazines wish to survive in print then their editors need to figure out content that people feel is worth paying for and doesn't translate directly to the web. Longer articles are the first thing that comes to mind.
But certainly if I can read a magazine cover to cover in 30 minutes And I spent more time on free sources, I am less Likly to want to pay for it. And even if 10times as many people read the web site, which is hard to do in a hobby with a limited audience, the advertising revenue on line in tnearly as much as print.

[ian maybury]

+3 on quality of content, and on the need for mags in general to come to come up with better than sound bite article formats and content - stuff that works in print.

My feeling too is that if mags want readers to pay good money for their product that they will have to properly look after their interest - who is going to pay out for sound bite infomercials bigging up advertisers wares when these are handed out free down at the local supermarket? I touched on these points and some more general ones (posts 8 and especially 26 http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?218937-Another-Woodworking-magazine-goes-bye) in the parallel thread a while ago in the General Wooodworking section.

It's such a pity that the various titles are fading out/at risk of doing so - because I think there's great things they can do on a topic like woodworking that the web cannot. Many of the problems I think date from the corporatisation of much of mag publishing in the 1980s, and the subsequent drives to minimise costs and maximise short term revenues and profit. Somewhere along the line the need to look after the reader's interest and maintain the quality of creative content (fancy full colour schemes are no substitute) got lost... The sort of highly aggressive web based selling of subscriptions indulged in by many of the titles is no substitute either, and has become a serious put-off too.

Maybe it'll come full circle - with some of the titles sold off to smaller publishers with heart that are ready and able to place creative writing high up the priority list again…..