Contacting sailing magazines

[Magic_Sailor]

How many of you have tried to speak to any senior staff at sailing magazines and what luck have you had?

Kim always answers his emails and James Jermain likewise I would add.

Magic

 

[snowleopard]

mostly good...

at ym. jj always has time. not the same at yw, makes you feel like something he stepped in.

 

[Magic_Sailor]

Re: mostly good...

Is he at both then? Or have I misunderstood.

Magic

 

[walter]

Yes at the Southampton Boat Show one year i stopped by and asked a simple question as to why I could always buy the YM at the show but my newsagent that supplied me couldnt get one for at least a week after, the attitude from the senior staff present was typical of somebody saying "go away little boy you smell" having always been an avid reader of YM and all the other publications I was absolutely disgusted by the attitude of total disdain from them.

 

[kimhollamby]

Apologies - let me have the name

If you have a name of the person responsible please PM me.

A very belated apology but that's not the kind of company I like to work for (or the kind of company I like to keep).

The answer to your question should have been a polite explanation that, for boat shows, we have the luxury of being able to bypass the distribution arrangement that takes our mags and pushes them out to as many as 18,000 locations for sale. We draw some advanced copies straight out of the printers (literally straight off the binding line sometimes) and get them to the show because we know people like to see them there and also, being honest, because we can obviously make better sales with new ones than editions that are nearly one month old.

Once again, apologies and do send me that name if you have it.

kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[vyv_cox]

I've recently been e-mailing Paul Gelder and his replies have been prompt. JJ has responded to PMs and replied to questions on the forum. Andrew Bray has been helpful without being asked, has participated in a couple of threads on Sadler 34 and Aquadrive.

 

[kimhollamby]

Tell us what you would ideally like to see in terms of contact; I'm interested to know. I've got firm ideas about the way I like to run a magazine or website; ditto my colleagues here but give me some feedback.

The probs from our end are that the email inbox gets ever bigger and in this modern age the administrative support tends to get ever smaller and/or tied up in a broader range of tasks. Incoming phone calls now sometimes hit voicemail because we are often working remotely at locations and editorial offices can look a bit like a ghost town with only tumbleweed moving through them at times. Editions are generally larger (and/or more complicated) to produce. At boat shows there are also plenty of other things that need to be done such as writing, reporting, meetings and, of course, getting an issue out. But we should also be there to meet you and often are although not always easy to spot - for example I was on site at London for the whole time but still conspired to miss plenty of forum users on my odd forays off of the stand.

None of this a sob story; anyone working in an office environment will probably recognise similar patterns. Not fishing for compliments - be as rude as you like (within reason). But for me a big part of the job is what my marketing colleagues love to call being 'market-facing' - so where in this day and age should we be doing that and what are your realistic expectations of the team that brings you a magazine or website?

kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[warrior40]

ignored e-mails

I wrote an e-mail to Yachting World from Tahiti, as I had just paid the equivalent of £10 for a copy in the newsagents in Papette, it was a bit light hearted really, along the lines of, 'what is the most anyone has ever paid for a copy of YW?'
I was eternally disappointed that they never even acknowledged my correspondence, as this is my favourite mag that I have been buying since I was 12 years old! I was planning to mention it at the stand at the show, but there was only a bunch of kids working there on the stand, trying to rail road me into a subscription, with a free Ellen book, which, lets face it, most people have read by now anyway!! [Superb reading]
In Tahiti, all the cruisers were tripping over themselves to get a glipmse of our fresh copy of YW, it went back and forth around about 50 yachts! It was the jubilee regatta edition, I thought it would have made a great little piece to fill a corner of the letters page or something... anyway.

 

[warrior40]

I agree with Walter, I was at the Soton boatshow one year, and went to the PBO stand, a magazine I have read since childhood, the latest edition at the time had a Sadler 25 on the cover and there was a big enlargement of it on display, I was about 22 at the time and had just bought my first real boat, a Sadler 25. I asked the lady on the stand if I could have the blow up photo of the boat after they had finished with it, but, I was looked down upon like a little schoolboy who had no buisness to be at the show!
It always amazes me that on the stands of the magazines there seem to be people working there who have little interest in boats, it irritates me a great deal, as I would give anything to be doing what they are doing, chatting all day with fellow readers and passing on advice and anecdotes.
By the way, I must add that the lovely, late Geoff Pack[My cruising hero] always answeed my letters, so its not all bad, and this was before the days of e-mail!!

 

[kimhollamby]

Re: ignored e-mails

I'm sorry you didn't get a reply - the answer might possibly be no and you might have been trumped by someone as the further that heavy mags travel the more they cost (also local distributor controls mark-up).

Also sorry you missed the team at LBS.

kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[kimhollamby]

We do use temporary staff to assist at the shows; not all of them are from a boating background (although we should always ideally have someone on site who is - PBO generally runs a well organised rota) and I'm sorry if one of them was unhelpful. We might not have been able to oblige with the photograph as some are used for other events but you should have received a polite explanation regarding that.



kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[snowleopard]

what i meant was..

the ym staff have always been helpful/friendly.
yw on the other hand seem to me to have no time for anyone whose boat is worth less than £300K.
...or maybe it's just a personal impression.

 

[warrior40]

Re: what i meant was..

I know what you mean, but Andrew Brays boat doesn't look to be worth much.!

Anyway, thanks to Kim for the replies.

 

[walter]

Kim, Thank you for the reply to my posting as for names lets just say it was two of the best known faces from YM that should have known better and should have fielded a simple question like that without any problems and leave it at that.
I have been a shorebased instructor for 16 years and have always enjoyed the magazine, other than that one occasion i have always found the average staff on the show stalls very pleasant.

 

[jamesjermain]

Dear Walter,

I do hope this wasn't me, though from your description I fear it might have been.

If I did give you the impression that I wasn't interested, please forgive me. This is not generally my style and I hope others who have met me at shows will agree. Your question was a good one with a perfectly good answer which should have been given with courtesy.

At boat shows we always get a few advance copies of the next issue in early before the general distribution to wholesalers and retailers. Your local newsagent will have his copies on the normal date which may be as much as four or five days later.

The reason we do this is purely promotion - it is better to have the latest issue than one which is already three weeks old and past its sell-by date (if such a thing could ever apply to YM).

JJ

 

[jamesjermain]

A point worth making.

The stands of the different magazines at boat shows are staffed differently. This difference is partly historic, partly reflecting the different areas in which the magazines operate and partly due to available personel.

YM employs two people more or less full time at the show who do know something about boats, the trade and the magazine itself - Mark Fishwick and myself, both of whom are freelance and have few other distractions for the duration of the show.

PBO has a good reputation for having staffers on the stand as well as agency people, but inevitably they have other duties, as Kim has pointed out, by way of getting magazines prepared and printed, so occasionally the stand might be bare.

Both these magazines make a point of being accessible and reader friendly both in person and through there pages

YW is in a slightly different position though no less good for it. With a majority of its readers overseas and less of a reader to reader content in its pages, it receives far fewer visitors to its stand. Inevitably, therefore, it tends to make less provision to meet them. I don't think this should be seen as an adverse reflection on the magazine, but on its different role.

JJ

 

[Sybarite]

Re: A point worth making.

I was interested in your diffrent takes on the magazines. I have lived abroad now for 30 years and still frequently buy the various UK titles (if not every issue).

A basic difference with the French mags is that there is proportionately more image to text in a French magazine (this distinction is however diminishing). The French mags tend to show more photos of the boat so that you can visualize yourself in it or on it and then they discuss in more detail how one feels about the boat or what its sailing reactions are. In the UK mag you are told about the boat and by now, without seeing the name of the author, I usually know who it is because of where he is coming from in his or her description and personal prejudices or tastes.

James, do you realize that you are regularly photo'ed sitting at the saloon table with both your hands around a book?

Personally I want to dream about boats on two levels - those that I might reasonably aspire to one day ( normally second-hand and bigger and better than I have at present ) and those that I can drool over and fantasize winning the lottery for. But I do that about private planes too. ( My current pipe dream in this area is Diamond Twin Star twin diesel engined plane 4 seater that cruises at 180 knots using 35 litres an hour which would enable me to get quickly to wherever my Trintella 49a happens to moored.. or my Cigale 14m (Finot design) if I am feeling more sporty - specially adapted with aero rig, twin profiled keels and Open 60 type dog house)

I enjoy the diversity anyway but I would prefer more and larger photos. I can satisfy my desire in this area by going to the YW personal shopper site and looking at the photos of boats actually on the market.

Keep up the good work.