Another Woodworking magazine goes bye

[Dan Rude]

I was trying to set up my online part of my subscription for American Woodworker today. In the process I was having trouble with it taking the password on the site. When I tried the help menu I got a notice that they were ceasing publication with the Jul-Aug issue. Our subscriptions would all change to PW for the remainder. https://ssl.palmcoastd.com/03402/apps/-196030?iKey=I**N07 I know it isn't what it used to be, but still I have enjoyed some of there projects and there free online material. It still is sad though.:( Dan

[Jim Andrew]

My observation is that there is less activity on this forum than a few years ago. Seems this economy is claiming small businesses. Personally, my income is 1/3 of what it was before the banking crisis.

[Dan Rude]

All too true, I am only now making what I made back in 2000. That doesn't include inflation. Many are doing much more with less, so we make do. Dan

[Bruce Wrenn]

I remember AWW from the Rodale days. It was as good as they come. The NYW router table was actually the American Woodworker router table. Norm lifted it from them (with permission.) Since then AWW has been sold a couple times, with readership falling. Advertising revenue is figured upon readership #s. That's why every once in a while, Wood will go on sale for $4.00 a year. It's to keep the numbers up, so there is a steady revenue stream from advertising. Unfortunately AWW couldn't keep up. I used to subscribe to six magazines, but am now down to just three (Woodsmith, ShopNotes, and Wood.)

[Paul McGaha]

Sorry to hear it. American Woodworker is the only magazine subscription I have. I've liked getting the magazine. Must be about 10 years now.

PHM

[Tai Fu]

I wonder what if magazines just gave them away or close to free to boost readership, and so they'd make their money from advertising? I know newspaper does that.

Truth be told almost all forms of paper publication is not doing well. Why buy publications when you can read it for free online?

[Dan Hintz]

Advertising revenue is figured upon readership #s. That's why every once in a while, Wood will go on sale for $4.00 a year.

And I took Wood up on that deal a couple of years back... picked up 5+ years. I haven't seen anything in it yet that makes me want to renew, and their insistence on allowing their mailing list to end up in the hands of junk peddlers, I won't be renewing.

[ian maybury]

Don't know anything about AW, but to take a slightly controversial position. The mags thrived in times when there was much less disposable income about, and at relatively speaking much higher prices too. My feeling is that the mag trade (across the board - not just in woodworking) has while facing indirect competition in the form of the various digital formats largely eaten its own seed corn. As in the era of corporatism (since the late 80s), accounting led management and maximisation of short term profit (and to hell with even the medium term) has led to most becoming paid for infomercials claiming to represent reader interests - but in practice often demonstrating scary levels of allegiance to their advertisers.

My sense is that many (given the worryingly high levels of overselling that have become pretty much the norm in respect of woodworking tools and equipment) have been put off by the feeling that they were paying to buy advertising. Perhaps not immediately, and perhaps not even consciously - but once money starts to tighten people start to think it through and the proposition risks being found wanting.

Think that over reliance on an older and now fading generation of writers/failure to develop new people/the opportunist presumption that there's an inexhaustible line of Joes out there clamouring for the honour to write on piece rates has increasingly led to problems with contributor and content quality too. Production values (pretty photos, sound bite writing for those of short attention span) may divert the attention for a while, but are no subtitute for this. Even very good woodworkers (smart guys) need developing - they need time and support to develop their writing. They have to be invested in while this is happening...

There's other issues too - for example testing per se is problematical in the current legal and resource environment. There's surely no reason not to report user experience though. Then there's the little matter of the role of the mags in to quite some degree leading/encouraging/enthusing their woodworking public. When did anybody last see a flow of pieces showing how woodworking skills can be used to practically improve our quality of life/standard of living for example? When for that matter even a piece that was genuinely creative/out of the ordinary - that didn't just grind out yet another in the hackneyed old format that has become the norm? Accountants are highly risk averse - look what's been done to the music industry - but this behaviour destroys what they think they are saving. True strength lies in diversity, while overdoing the efficiencies/taking out too much profit leaves an organisation so stripped of resources that it's unable to react to changes in its business environment...

None of this is to say that there's a business strategy that can guarantee the survival of woodworking print media, but it seems pretty much a basic that it's got to deliver something of genuine value to the reader/subscriber that digital media does not. That this can't be expected to spontaneously materialise - that it needs investment in development of product that truly delivers value. The pity is that as sales and margins decline the argument for cutting costs/not investing become hard to oppose. Those pushing it despite having potentially brought the situation about end up seeming to be right in the end. Nobody sees what might have been. Beyond a certain point there's no easy coming back........

[Paul McGaha]

I don't know, sometimes I just like a hard copy. I like thumbing thru a magazine.

I don't really seem to make use of old copies but I have kept them all.

I think I'll probably replace my American Woodworker subscription with something else. Maybe Fine Woodworking?

I'd appreciate your thoughts on the woodworking magazines.

PHM

[Ed Wood]

I'm just getting back into wood work after following other interests for the past 15 yrs. I use to subscribe to a few magazines back then. I recently took a subscription to WWJ for $10.00 just to see what the mags offer today.
Before the internet magazines were the main way to stay in touch most any hobby, now there is some much information on line people just click and look.
Another problem with all hobby magazines is that there is not that much new ideas (how may different ways can you build a book case).
I do prefer a magazine in my hand then reading one online but I think print magazines are going the way of mail, when was the last time you wrote a letter put a stamp on it and mailed it ?

[Don Huffer]

I used to subscribe to three mags. Now I get it info on line. I thumb the mags but if nothing jumps out at me it goes back on the shelf.

I think we are seeing where trends have changed and the mags will be few as time goes on.

Don

[jeff shanz]

Must have been a last minute decision for AWW to call it quits, but they should have shot customers an email thanking them. What a nice way for customers to find out.

I don't currently subscribe to magazines but if I did it would be FWW and Popular Woodworking. I do peruse them on the newsstand along with Fine Homebuilding.
As someone mentioned there's not much new in woodworking. I have the entire FWW on DVD and I'm still trying to get through that.

I wish there was a magazine dedicated to period furniture reproductions.

[steven c newman]

Just came back from there a couple minutes ago, I'm still logged in over there, and was getting views/hits on the posts of mine. Only the Forim part has been put on hold, I can still post over there on the on-line part.

[Gary R Katz]

Recently I was given a perfect hardbound set of Fine Woodworking from Vol. 1, No. 1 through 2005, along with a complete index to all articles. The public library recieved this as a donation, couldn't sell it and was going to THROW IT AWAY. Someone saved it for me and after spending a few months looking through about 5% of the articles this treasure is sitting in a closet gathering dust. Usually I go directly to the internet, especially this site for all my questions and problems.

[Frederick Skelly]

Recently I was given a perfect hardbound set of Fine Woodworking from Vol. 1, No. 1 through 2005, along with a complete index to all articles. The public library recieved this as a donation, couldn't sell it and was going to THROW IT AWAY. Someone saved it for me and after spending a few months looking through about 5% of the articles this treasure is sitting in a closet gathering dust. Usually I go directly to the internet, especially this site for all my questions and problems.

Wow. What a find! I envy your good fortune Gary. Sorry to hear they are gathering dust.

FWIW, I prefer my WW magazines in hardcopy because I can spread them out on my bench while building. I dont have a large format tablet, so its not very conducive to reading plans and building from it.

Fred

[James Baker SD]

I am far from being a craftsman, just a so-so hobbyist who enjoys his time in the shop. I long ago let all my subscriptions expire as there was just no content that justified the costs and the storage space. No techniques (or way too few) that I had not heard of (even if I haven't mastered them) and no striking designs to compare with what I will see next week when I volunteer at the Design in Wood exhibit at the San Diego County Fair. I also like holding a paper copy, but now it is only my astronomy magazines which still offer me something.

[Curt Harms]

I wonder if the magazine format as we know if will evolve. Online delivery in a format that is not too easily pirated and periodic archives as a DVD, flash drive or .pdf compilation? FWW and Wood already offer digital archives. Want a paper copy of a plan to take to the shop? Press the 'print' button. I wonder what % of a magazine's costs are printing and distribution? Those costs would be dramatically reduced with electronic distribution. Another benefit to electronic distribution over paper? Video.

[Brian Tymchak]

... I wonder what % of a magazine's costs are printing and distribution? Those costs would be dramatically reduced with electronic distribution. Another benefit to electronic distribution over paper? Video.

When eBooks/ereaders were first becoming popular and again when tablets first hit mainstream I looked at costs of getting my wood mags online instead of print. Even though the electronic distribution has to be way less expensive (in materials, postage, and labor) than printing and mailing, I did not see much in the way of price breaks to the end consumer. In fact, some of the magazines were more expensive online than what I could get for a print subscription. Also, the first tablets were small and I felt did not lend to a easy reading experience. Time has passed though and I know tablets are larger and I'm on the cusp of pulling the trigger there. But I wonder if the cost savings of electronic distribution has been passed on to the consumer yet. I'll have to check that again.

[Matt Meiser]

Some e-magazines are cheap, others are the same price as their print versions. The same is true of e-books. I suppose it goes to whether the publisher's mentality is that you are paying for the content or the item.

[Tai Fu]

I think the publisher's mentality is that you are paying for the content, not the printing cost. I would probably argue (correct me if I am wrong), printing cost is probably about 10% of the retail price of the books.

When E book was becoming popular publishers were also offering textbooks in E book as well. Problem is it used to be you could buy used textbook and save, and when the class was over you could sell that book back and the cost to you would be a little lower. You can't do that with E books.

[Myk Rian]

I haven't seen anything in it yet that makes me want to renew, and their insistence on allowing their mailing list to end up in the hands of junk peddlers, I won't be renewing.
That's why I never renewed. The mag is nothing but ads.
PWW is a good magazine. Has real projects in it.

[Kevin Womer]

Newspapers will never be the same again with the invent of the internet and 24 hour news channels. Tablets have begun to replace textbooks in schools. It's no surprise many magazines will stop publishing just as many newspapers have been bought out or gone away altogether. It's just a sign of the times, but I am still saddened another woodworking magazine has gone down. AWW was the first magazine I happened to pick up and then subscribe to shortly after that.

[Don Selke]

What will happen to all the people that subscribed to the sketchup series or tetorials from Joe Zen? Good luck on trying to get a refund.

[lowell holmes]

The subject matter magazines put in their publication does matter. I only saw 2 or 3 issues of AWW, but was not interested in what I saw. I recently accepted a promotion that Woodworker's Journal has going.

I have all of the Woodworker's Journals for the years of 1984 and 1985. If the subject matter doesn't measure up to their past, I will be disappointed. I don't expect much.

[Jason White]

Sorry, but you lost me halfway through this...

More likely, F+W Media just decided they didn't need 2 different woodworking titles (American Woodworker & Popular Woodworking).


Don't know anything about AW, but to take a slightly controversial position. The mags thrived in times when there was much less disposable income about, and at relatively speaking much higher prices too. My feeling is that the mag trade (across the board - not just in woodworking) has while facing indirect competition in the form of the various digital formats largely eaten its own seed corn. As in the era of corporatism (since the late 80s), accounting led management and maximisation of short term profit (and to hell with even the medium term) has led to most becoming paid for infomercials claiming to represent reader interests - but in practice often demonstrating scary levels of allegiance to their advertisers.

My sense is that many (given the worryingly high levels of overselling that have become pretty much the norm in respect of woodworking tools and equipment) have been put off by the feeling that they were paying to buy advertising. Perhaps not immediately, and perhaps not even consciously - but once money starts to tighten people start to think it through and the proposition risks being found wanting.

Think that over reliance on an older and now fading generation of writers/failure to develop new people/the opportunist presumption that there's an inexhaustible line of Joes out there clamouring for the honour to write on piece rates has increasingly led to problems with contributor and content quality too. Production values (pretty photos, sound bite writing for those of short attention span) may divert the attention for a while, but are no subtitute for this. Even very good woodworkers (smart guys) need developing - they need time and support to develop their writing. They have to be invested in while this is happening...

There's other issues too - for example testing per se is problematical in the current legal and resource environment. There's surely no reason not to report user experience though. Then there's the little matter of the role of the mags in to quite some degree leading/encouraging/enthusing their woodworking public. When did anybody last see a flow of pieces showing how woodworking skills can be used to practically improve our quality of life/standard of living for example? When for that matter even a piece that was genuinely creative/out of the ordinary - that didn't just grind out yet another in the hackneyed old format that has become the norm? Accountants are highly risk averse - look what's been done to the music industry - but this behaviour destroys what they think they are saving. True strength lies in diversity, while overdoing the efficiencies/taking out too much profit leaves an organisation so stripped of resources that it's unable to react to changes in its business environment...

None of this is to say that there's a business strategy that can guarantee the survival of woodworking print media, but it seems pretty much a basic that it's got to deliver something of genuine value to the reader/subscriber that digital media does not. That this can't be expected to spontaneously materialise - that it needs investment in development of product that truly delivers value. The pity is that as sales and margins decline the argument for cutting costs/not investing become hard to oppose. Those pushing it despite having potentially brought the situation about end up seeming to be right in the end. Nobody sees what might have been. Beyond a certain point there's no easy coming back........

[ian maybury]

No doubt they did Jason, but the background in the broader woodworking and other mag markets is surely fundamental? Hence my writing about trends in these, and in the advertising of machines, tools and equipment as a whole. (not about AW) To summarise:

It's not a given that there has to be an ongoing role for print media, and it's customary to rationalise the web and electronic media as the cause of any decline - but my feeling is that there is still a very good market out there. Trouble is that accessing it requires that the quality of writing/content makes a mag worth subscribing to/buying regularly. (offers value to the buyer/subscriber - targets and satisfies their real needs)

When (as has become widespread since the corporatisation of publishing from the late 80s) the drive to maximise advertising revenues and cut cost/maximise profit leads to important (and often unspoken) subscriber needs being left unaddressed and domination of even the creative content by advertisers and formulaic writing then only one outcome is possible. Loss of reader trust/loyalty has to be a major factor in the scenario.

This isn't to suggest that mags must survive without running advertising, but there's a line which has been crossed. It's a pity, but it seems likely that once any publisher heads off down that road that significant change has got to become very difficult...