Content for sailing magazine?

[Richard Shead]

I beg pardon, was too busy editing my own words to notice RichardShead's question.

Competitions?

As you're at IPC, are you privy to just how financially worthwhile the yachting magazine competitions are? I mean, do you sell enough additional copies that month, to cover the cost of the prizes and the use of print that their descriptions require? Or, are the prizes all sent free to the editor's office, with the compliments of the manufacturer, whose name is then printed large and lauded in the text?

Fair enough, if you do profit thereby. I will have to stay unhappy about what I see as the descent in copy-quality. Competitions in the yachting press, to me, are like unsolicited pizza take-away leaflets, stuffed in with the post and obstructing the things which I go through my mail to find.

We're constantly surrounded by opportunities to gamble/compete in competitions rigged up by wholly cynical scam-merchants; the internet has become a veritable iVegas. I despise it.

And while I hope the yachting press isn't so mean-minded, I find that reading 'competition' or 'win' on a cover, has the opposite effect from that which I presume you hope for: to me, it really lowers the magazine's happily serious tone, which becomes urgent and ephemeral, completely at odds with enjoyment of the sea and sailing.

I don't have to buy it, though...so I won't! No hard feelings.

Interesting...

We do competitions because they always rates highly in reader surveys, they have an uplift in sales (not all the time) and of course we are able to collect data (subject to opt in opt out etc...)

Judging by the number of entries we receive I would say they remain incredibly popular.

We don't buy prizes and the winners are drawn at random and I have a very long list of people who are happy with their prizes.

The only stipulation to the provider is they must advertise and we choose the prize based on what we think (and know) the reader will be interested in. Believe you me we turn down far more than we accept.

As for the pizza inserts you are referring to this must be the inserts that go with the magazine that are from a central department and have nothing to do with editorial or marketing and to be fair are few and far between.

The competitions you see on the page cost nothing to enter.

And just in case you dont know what I do, I run the marketing department for the marine portfolio which includes the running of competitions in title.

Hope that helps..

 

[snooks]

And just in case you dont know what I do, I run the marketing department for the marine portfolio which includes the running of competitions in title.

Hope that helps..

I did wonder

 

[Richard Shead]

I did wonder

well some people do ask.....

 

[Little Five]

I usually buy both YM and PBO as between them they cover both the aspirational and practical sides of sailing for me.
Here's what I ilike.
As mentioned by a previous poster,passage articles are my favorite as they are always fresh, appealing to both those that have and those who haven't.
General seamanship info/articles-always good.
As the majority of readers would buy a used boat, the articles on boat tests are also good.
Its always nice to see any articles about sailing which are not about or based around sailing/sailors on the south coast of England.
The learning from experiences articles.
As also mentioned by a poster, any given issue will most likely only cover a part of what interests the reader but, to be sure, wide knowledge is a fine thing.


I never do competitions. Waste of time.

 

[Richard Shead]

I usually buy both YM and PBO as between them they cover both the aspirational and practical sides of sailing for me.
Here's what I ilike.
As mentioned by a previous poster,passage articles are my favorite as they are always fresh, appealing to both those that have and those who haven't.
General seamanship info/articles-always good.
As the majority of readers would buy a used boat, the articles on boat tests are also good.
Its always nice to see any articles about sailing which are not about or based around sailing/sailors on the south coast of England.
The learning from experiences articles.
As also mentioned by a poster, any given issue will most likely only cover a part of what interests the reader but, to be sure, wide knowledge is a fine thing.


I never do competitions. Waste of time.

I love all this waste of time entering competitions.....if I could enter them believe me I would..

 

[Greenheart]

That's all very fair comment Mr Shead, very lucid.

I suppose, personally, I separate (and like to keep separate) what's new, from what's on the bookself for regular future reference. Hence I don't look for 'news' in a yachting magazine, because I'm likely to read the latest on the internet, long before publication.

So, magazines (at their best) become sources of detailed, sometimes local, obscure but interesting information, and are handy for pleasant, considered accounts of sailing situations, product development and problem solving, and contain high-quality editorial that rewards re-reading, time after time; hence the purchase can be a useful, enduring companion to the subject...

...whereas, competitions are frothy, very temporary attention-grabbers. Necessary, perhaps; but noteworthy, I doubt. Then again, a competition which requested ideas for marina redesigns, or alternative solutions to problematic seagoing situations, might be thought-provoking and generally beneficial, rather than merely frothy. And heaven knows, every reader will have his or her own point of view.

Re pizza-leaflets, I wasn't thinking of the loose paper pushed inside magazines (although, they are wretched!); I was thinking that if, while reading the cover, my attention is drawn to the opportunity to WIN!!, that in itself is rather like finding trash amongst legitimate mail. Sorry!

 

[Little Five]

I love all this waste of time entering competitions.....if I could enter them believe me I would..

As i live in the Republic of Ireland I am not eligible to enter competitions. I am however eligible to pay €6.80 for a copy of YM which costs £4.40 in the Uk.

 

[Richard Shead]

That's all very fair comment Mr Shead, very lucid.

I suppose, personally, I separate (and like to keep separate) what's new, from what's on the bookself for regular future reference. Hence I don't look for 'news' in a yachting magazine, because I'm likely to read the latest on the internet, long before publication.

So, magazines (at their best) become sources of detailed, sometimes local, obscure but interesting information, and are handy for pleasant, considered accounts of sailing situations, product development and problem solving, and contain high-quality editorial that rewards re-reading, time after time; hence the purchase can be a useful, enduring companion to the subject...

...whereas, competitions are frothy, very temporary attention-grabbers. Necessary, perhaps; but noteworthy, I doubt. Then again, a competition which requested ideas for marina redesigns, or alternatives to problematic seagoing situations, might be thought-provoking and generally beneficial, rather than merely frothy. And heaven knows, every reader will have his or her own point of view.

Re pizza-leaflets, I wasn't thinking of the loose paper pushed inside magazines (although, they are wretched!); I was thinking that if, while reading the cover, my attention is drawn to the opportunity to WIN!!, that in itself is rather like finding trash amongst legitimate mail. Sorry!

But what happens if you enter to win an Echopilot Forward sounding echo sounder package and you win it? like the person we have just called, and very happy they are to, or the lady in Jersey who won the ipad 2 at LBS, or the chap that won the 33k Chris Craft a few years back...

All genuine cases with genuine winners, one of the best parts of the job is calling a winner to say they have won and I know there are a few on here.

But it wont please all, the mag never will, it cant.

But we do have a number of good comps involving thoughts, design and opinion coming very soon.

 

[snooks]

As i live in the Republic of Ireland I am not eligible to enter competitions. I am however eligible to pay €6.80 for a copy of YM which costs £4.40 in the Uk.

Have you thought about Zinio?

Not idea if you want a magazine to hold and cherish, but it's readable and cheaper

 

[Little Five]

Have you thought about Zinio?

Not idea if you want a magazine to hold and cherish, but it's readable and cheaper

Hi Graham
Thanks for that. Had never heard of Zinio. Looked it up on the net and seems very good. I know exactly what you mean by having a copy in hand, so much easier than taking the laptop to the loo.

 

[snooks]

Hi Graham
Thanks for that. Had never heard of Zinio. Looked it up on the net and seems very good. I know exactly what you mean by having a copy in hand, so much easier than taking the laptop to the loo.

A magazine can also handle having a winch handle dropped on it and can be read with oily fingers.

OT - We're replacing our engine, the final nail in it's coffin was when you saw us in Howth

 

[Little Five]

A magazine can also handle having a winch handle dropped on it and can be read with oily fingers.

OT - We're replacing our engine, the final nail in it's coffin was when you saw us in Howth

Good news re the engine Graham. Kirsty and you won;t know what to do with yourselves when on passage as you will have nothing to worry about and you will have to find something else to pray about. Delighted for you guys.

 

[Greenheart]

Blankety-boat? The Electricity Generation Game?

But what happens if you... win an Echopilot echo sounder package? Like the person we have just called, very happy they are too, or the lady in Jersey who won the ipad 2 at LBS, or the chap that won the 33k Chris Craft a few years back...

...umm...the cuddly toy!...the 'teasmade'...the miniature golf set...

Okay, doubtless they're delighted, I know I would be. But if I wanted a lot of chances to win prizes, there are bingo-halls and lotto-shops in every street, and casinos all over late night TV. From Yachting Monthly, YW etc, I just want to read, about sailing.

Actually I'm not that wilfully grumpy. And I'm glad you enjoy calling people, with the good news. In fact...do PM me if you can offer me a copywriting job...I'll even show you when to use apostrophes! Not kidding, really. I'd love to be involved in future competitions which look for new thoughts from a public arena of ideas.

 

[Richard Shead]

...umm...the cuddly toy!...the 'teasmade'...the miniature golf set...

Okay, doubtless they're delighted, I know I would be. But if I wanted a lot of chances to win prizes, there are bingo-halls and lotto-shops in every street, and casinos all over late night TV. From Yachting Monthly, YW etc, I just want to read, about sailing.

Actually I'm not that wilfully grumpy. And I'm glad you enjoy calling people, with the good news. In fact...do PM me if you can offer me a copywriting job...I'll even show you when to use apostrophes! Not kidding, really. I'd love to be involved in future competitions which look for new thoughts from a public arena of ideas.

I dont do grammma or spellin thats why we have sub editors...this is a place to chuck words down quick...

 

[Twister_Ken]

Hi Graham
Thanks for that. Had never heard of Zinio. Looked it up on the net and seems very good. I know exactly what you mean by having a copy in hand, so much easier than taking the laptop to the loo.

Yup. You can't hang Zinio on a nail behind the bog door.

 

[doughnut]

What about your ideas for content. What would you really like to see in a sailing magazine?

I'd love to see a regular section on passage planning and navigation. I'm fresh out of dinghy sailing - just bought myself a trailer sailer and though I've got my DaySkipper, I'm not convinced that I was on a very thorough course. I look at some of the threads here and in the PBO forum such as the recent Tobermory to Largs and another one which I can't find right now about Preston to Anglesey and I want to find out more about the type of decisions made when passage planning.

I'm not particularly interested in the start and finish points. I'm more interested in the decision processes. I just finished reading Kim Sturgess' book about his trip around Britain and found myself reading stuff like "set off at 4.30am so that I'd catch the favourable tide at xyz and reach such-and-such harbour before the forecast increase in wind". This all makes my brain itch - I'd love to see excerpts from the tidal charts, a weather forecast chart and a map on the same page as a description of the passage plan. That way I can read the text and work through all the calculations and decisions myself. I want to see what Plan B and Plan C could have been and what situations would make me choose either plan. Give me a plan for a particular boat and I'll try to work out how the plan would change for my boat using the same charts, maps, weather forecast.

Just to be clear I don't want a high level description of things to think about when passage planning and I'm not after pilotage notes for getting into harbours, etc. I'm after something with a title like "Passage Plan : Tobermory to Largs - 1st Feb 2012", with the actual weather forecast, actual tidal data and an actual plan that could have been created on that day.

Give me a couple of pages of this every month (new location, dates, weather forecasts, different boat, etc each month) and I'll take out a subscription.

 

[PhillM]

I'm a mag tart. Stand in smiths and flick through to see which has something I want to read at lunchtime.

Last month I liked classic boat. I like to pretend my 1961 25 footer is a real classic. Well it makes me happy.

This month I bought sailing today. One day I want to do the west country and they had an article on that.

One mag never gets bought. Don't recall it's name. It's in a plastic jacket so I cannot flick through to see if it catches my mood.

Words on the front help grab my interest.

 

[Nostrodamus]

Doughnut,

I think what you suggest is a good idea although I would suggest giving the details of the passage and what the "experts" would do on another page and why. It would be interesting to compare your imaginary passage to the experts.

 

[doughnut]

Nostrodamus,

Yes, agreed. Also, I guess after a couple of years IPC would have enough content to sell a passage planning workbook for beginners like me.

 

[Little Five]

Nostrodamus,

Yes, agreed. Also, I guess after a couple of years IPC would have enough content to sell a passage planning workbook for beginners like me.

IPC could run it as a competition with the answer the following month. That might please Richard Shead.