PeterGibbs
New member
Re: The Magazine Mess
Geoff,
See if you find anything in this analysis:
It seems to me UK sailing magazines have reached a point that reflects the competing cross currents in our sport - traditional conservative vs new wave. On the one hand, the ageing sailing population (as in the USA) is trading across to motor cruisers, and away from sailing vessels with their limited comforts and a tendency in any seaway to lean over, and take time to reach their destination – at least that’s what the wives say! Given the choice, the ladies prefer a power cruiser, and they’re getting their way - just look around in any marina!
On the other hand, younger folks want fun plus sun (that’s why visitors to the Channel Isles, for instance, have halved in recent years.) so they charter. They are interested in the fun and adventure side of sailing for a couple of weeks a year but not often to the point of buying a boat.
Small wonder the RYA reports a major decline (down to 600,000) in numbers sailing, hence the circulation and income pressures on the sailing magazines.
Sailing / cruising for its own sake remains a limited calling. It’s aspirational. However, a lot of boats don’t do many miles a year. The more adventurous gear up, and join up with the ARC. But they are few. Some sell up and cruise, but not many. UK cruisers to the Baltic or Medi know that British sailors are a scarce breed there. Most Brits stay close to home. Competitive / club racing is a specialist activity, mostly one day, but does occasionally lead on to ownership of a cruiser when bashing the cans loses its charm. And sailing is expensive, not least the cost of our magazines where cover prices are amongst the highest on the newsagent’s shelf.
The general magazine market has moved on over the last twenty years - it is highly sophisticated, supporting many niches. A look along the shelves of any newsagent shows how fragmented the market for magazines has become - from health and beauty to you name it. This has not happened with sailing mags because, in part, of common ownership, and the type of editor that gravitates to our mags and the long duration of their tenure.
One could expect mag sales to decline, yet we have more mags in the UK than any country I know. But the move in recent times to direct selling with discounted subs is evidence that impulse purchasing and shelf marketing alone will not sustain this turnover. So sales are sustained in the short term by multiple subscriptions, rather than attracting additional new readers. We are surely seeing UK mags’ sales at their peak today. As value for money they have to rate poorly, but apart from club membership what other way is there to stay in touch with developments in our sport?
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that our editors seem to have a real problem in choosing their targets / sector of expertise and marketing to them. In no other sector of the wider market do different titles look so alike (excepting YW) Even the titles are meaningless - PBO is no more practical than any other offering. Sailing mags are more driven by advertising pull than by any other factor- so circulation is king; each has to have the widest appeal if it is to optimise revenue. So they cycle and recycle the same general material, and only YW has any semblance of a distinctive positioning.
Sailing lends to visual communication and lots of nice pictures; but the quality of the copy is mainly banal and repetitive. It was not always so.
Content is a major worry. The evaluations of boats are mainly cosmetically descriptive, subjective and, light on technical content. Similarly for equipment ; this will not progress whilst mags are in thrall to advertisers for revenue, so no real hope of value delivery here.
DIY tips alone will not sustain a magazine and methods of berthing a boat are becoming seriously worked out!
Which leaves pilotage notes – more nice pictures and directions to the nearest pub!
I bet the items that are most often read are none of the above, but the personal adventures which, if handled well, are I believe, where this will all wash out. A good account does more to encourage and uplift than any article on shroud tensions. But, as pointed out in another thread, there are only so many stories one can stomach of the “wish list” experiential variety –ie “how I escaped death by…” Is this progressing the sport? I think not. But neither is the account that begins with the immortally stupefying “ the next day the dawn broke grey….” We need quality writers with style and wit. We need editors who know how to engage, even if they are light on the difference between spinnakers and spanners. Then we will have arrived somewhere. If the current editorial teams cannot deliver them, let’s have some bright lights in from elsewhere in the IPC stall – after all they have hundreds of wannabee’s!
Looking abroad it is instructive to view the mighty USA market. Sail Magazine for instance is predominantly a cruising adventure publication, much cheaper than UK mags; less advertising, but also with occasional easy to digest technical articles on boat handling and weather. Sail is a cosy non-hyperventilating mag that speaks of sunsets and, occasionally of storms, and presents as a friend. It surely points the way ahead for some observant general editor over here as a better fit for our market in 2003.
PWG
Geoff,
See if you find anything in this analysis:
It seems to me UK sailing magazines have reached a point that reflects the competing cross currents in our sport - traditional conservative vs new wave. On the one hand, the ageing sailing population (as in the USA) is trading across to motor cruisers, and away from sailing vessels with their limited comforts and a tendency in any seaway to lean over, and take time to reach their destination – at least that’s what the wives say! Given the choice, the ladies prefer a power cruiser, and they’re getting their way - just look around in any marina!
On the other hand, younger folks want fun plus sun (that’s why visitors to the Channel Isles, for instance, have halved in recent years.) so they charter. They are interested in the fun and adventure side of sailing for a couple of weeks a year but not often to the point of buying a boat.
Small wonder the RYA reports a major decline (down to 600,000) in numbers sailing, hence the circulation and income pressures on the sailing magazines.
Sailing / cruising for its own sake remains a limited calling. It’s aspirational. However, a lot of boats don’t do many miles a year. The more adventurous gear up, and join up with the ARC. But they are few. Some sell up and cruise, but not many. UK cruisers to the Baltic or Medi know that British sailors are a scarce breed there. Most Brits stay close to home. Competitive / club racing is a specialist activity, mostly one day, but does occasionally lead on to ownership of a cruiser when bashing the cans loses its charm. And sailing is expensive, not least the cost of our magazines where cover prices are amongst the highest on the newsagent’s shelf.
The general magazine market has moved on over the last twenty years - it is highly sophisticated, supporting many niches. A look along the shelves of any newsagent shows how fragmented the market for magazines has become - from health and beauty to you name it. This has not happened with sailing mags because, in part, of common ownership, and the type of editor that gravitates to our mags and the long duration of their tenure.
One could expect mag sales to decline, yet we have more mags in the UK than any country I know. But the move in recent times to direct selling with discounted subs is evidence that impulse purchasing and shelf marketing alone will not sustain this turnover. So sales are sustained in the short term by multiple subscriptions, rather than attracting additional new readers. We are surely seeing UK mags’ sales at their peak today. As value for money they have to rate poorly, but apart from club membership what other way is there to stay in touch with developments in our sport?
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that our editors seem to have a real problem in choosing their targets / sector of expertise and marketing to them. In no other sector of the wider market do different titles look so alike (excepting YW) Even the titles are meaningless - PBO is no more practical than any other offering. Sailing mags are more driven by advertising pull than by any other factor- so circulation is king; each has to have the widest appeal if it is to optimise revenue. So they cycle and recycle the same general material, and only YW has any semblance of a distinctive positioning.
Sailing lends to visual communication and lots of nice pictures; but the quality of the copy is mainly banal and repetitive. It was not always so.
Content is a major worry. The evaluations of boats are mainly cosmetically descriptive, subjective and, light on technical content. Similarly for equipment ; this will not progress whilst mags are in thrall to advertisers for revenue, so no real hope of value delivery here.
DIY tips alone will not sustain a magazine and methods of berthing a boat are becoming seriously worked out!
Which leaves pilotage notes – more nice pictures and directions to the nearest pub!
I bet the items that are most often read are none of the above, but the personal adventures which, if handled well, are I believe, where this will all wash out. A good account does more to encourage and uplift than any article on shroud tensions. But, as pointed out in another thread, there are only so many stories one can stomach of the “wish list” experiential variety –ie “how I escaped death by…” Is this progressing the sport? I think not. But neither is the account that begins with the immortally stupefying “ the next day the dawn broke grey….” We need quality writers with style and wit. We need editors who know how to engage, even if they are light on the difference between spinnakers and spanners. Then we will have arrived somewhere. If the current editorial teams cannot deliver them, let’s have some bright lights in from elsewhere in the IPC stall – after all they have hundreds of wannabee’s!
Looking abroad it is instructive to view the mighty USA market. Sail Magazine for instance is predominantly a cruising adventure publication, much cheaper than UK mags; less advertising, but also with occasional easy to digest technical articles on boat handling and weather. Sail is a cosy non-hyperventilating mag that speaks of sunsets and, occasionally of storms, and presents as a friend. It surely points the way ahead for some observant general editor over here as a better fit for our market in 2003.
PWG
