Shocking shrinkage of Yachting Monthly.

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jonjo

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My Summer 2017 edition arrived this morning in the post, think it has fewer pages than the monthly White Company discount vouchers booklet.

I doubt the magazine will survive into 2018 given the present rate of shrinkage, even the page dimensions are contacting.
 
Hacker said:
Wasn't the summer one last year the same? If so more a summer phenomenon than a trend?
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Maybe but the page dimension shrinkage is long term. On currents trends it will soon qualify as a booklet magazine.

I had previously told Swmbo not to renew the subscription as a Christmas present.
 
They changed the format of PBO two or three issues ago, and in the editorial they mentioned that it was a company-wide policy, made at a much higher level than either magazine. Fewer adverts, smaller and thinner pages, poorer print quality, but they claimed that the word count of the articles/columns remains the same.

One thing I've noticed is the paucity of boat adverts in the back- SWMBO and I can no longer play the 'pick me a boat for £X' game.
 
The editorial content has changed very little and the size shrinkage is a Time inc policy to reduce costs to try and keep the titles viable given the minimal advertising. It may of course backfire and lose readers.
 
I would guess that even if the mags disappeared, the forum would stay as long as it was profitable.
 
The hot-off-the-press ABC (circulation) figures for a variety of UK boating magazines make sobering reading.
Below is a sample of titles, with 2016-17 circulation and year-on-year comparisons:

PBO 21,386 -11.2%
YM 20,252 -8.8%
YW 13,973 -13.5%
MB&Y 11,177 -15.7%

These are truly tiny numbers. 25 years ago, when I was editing magazines, only the smallest shoestring operations would have been able to sustain them. In those days EMAP (now Bauer), a company not dissimilar to the publishing arm of Time, had a rule of thumb that anything with a circulation under 30,000 was not worth its place. The digital revolution changed that a little, but in no way compensates for the rise of digital media.

It won't be very long before people look back with a tear in their eye at the days when they belly-ached about shrinking titles.
 
zikzik said:
Yes, same in pbo. Very few advertisers nowadays I notice. A sign of the times. These two mags need to merge probably.
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I noticed last month that YM was bundled with YW for £6.50p, the two together made a reasonable read; so that may be the future?

A few weeks ago I picked up Voile which is expensive at around 6e but has a some interesting stuff (even as I struggle to decode it), and the staffers actually take review boats out for a long trip (nice work). Don't know what the circulation is though.
 
westhinder said:
Any idea about the numbers of digital only subscriptions? I would be surprised if they made up for losses in print
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I think those figures include digital copies. It's a sad fact that paper publications, newspapers, magazines, books etc are in a downward spiral. The figures for MBY are about where MBM was when it was canned. Doesn't bode well, although, for once, I would be happy to be proved wrong. If you like paper magazines, now is the time to show your support by buying them otherwise, I suspect, in a few years time they simply won't exist anymore.
 
I've just flipped through my copy. In terms of reading matter, it seems much the same as ever. The paper is thin, but I can't say I mind, though I never thought I would miss the fun of looking at adverts.
 
But they keep rehashing the same old stuff! I have just gave away to our local yacht club about 20 years worth of PBO and you can only make anchor threads a bit interesting. The older copies had lots of interesting boating stuff.
 
macd said:
The hot-off-the-press ABC (circulation) figures for a variety of UK boating magazines make sobering reading.
Below is a sample of titles, with 2016-17 circulation and year-on-year comparisons:

PBO 21,386 -11.2%
YM 20,252 -8.8%
YW 13,973 -13.5%
MB&Y 11,177 -15.7%

These are truly tiny numbers. 25 years ago, when I was editing magazines, only the smallest shoestring operations would have been able to sustain them. In those days EMAP (now Bauer), a company not dissimilar to the publishing arm of Time, had a rule of thumb that anything with a circulation under 30,000 was not worth its place. The digital revolution changed that a little, but in no way compensates for the rise of digital media.

It won't be very long before people look back with a tear in their eye at the days when they belly-ached about shrinking titles.
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Macd
Do you have the latest figures for the Chelsea Magazines trio of Sailing Today, Yachts & Yachting and Classic Boat?
Peter
 
chrishelen said:
But they keep rehashing the same old stuff! I have just gave away to our local yacht club about 20 years worth of PBO and you can only make anchor threads a bit interesting. The older copies had lots of interesting boating stuff.
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I think that this is a problem with all special interest magazines. It certainly applies to gardening ones, which have to explain the annual cycle to each new set of readers, and I wouldn't be surprised if magazines for fly-fishers or surfers weren't similarly handicapped. In defence of YM, I would say that there are some decent boat reviews and reports and several narratives that might seem to have covered old ground but clearly were new to their authors.
 
Kelpie said:
One thing I've noticed is the paucity of boat adverts in the back- SWMBO and I can no longer play the 'pick me a boat for £X' game.
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I can remember when there used to be page after page of private ads ... "Boats under £5000" ... "Boats under £10,000". All scuppered by the internet. Who's going to pay YM whatever they charge for an advert which will be seen by at most 20,000 people for a month when you can stick an advert online for somewhere between free and not a great deal more? Autotrader dumped its print version a few years back and even the website is clearly in decline - hardly anybody uses it for cheaper cars any more.

Tranona said:
The editorial content has changed very little ...
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Well, there's your problem, right there. Most specialist magazines (Yachting Monthly, Brides and Setting Up Home, Sailplane and Gliding, ...) depended previously on a steady flow of newcomers, keen to find out about whatever it is. Sailing is dying as a committed pastime though. Few new people come into it and most of those only take a charter holiday or maybe two before going on to something else. It's therefore important now that sailing magazines interest the old lags as well as the newbies. Perhaps that's not possible, but if it is it'll take more than the ninety seventh guide to Yarmouth.

Incidentally, what on earth is PBO doing with an antifouling guide this month? Am I not the only person in Britain who didn't slap it on months ago ... about the time they were running that bizarre spring gudie to laying up?

brainstorm said:
What is the future of this forum if YBW sponsor it, or are is the website under separate control?
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I expect that the forums are highly profitable. Perhaps it's time that we had "Supported by Scuttlebutt" printed across the top of the Yachting Monthly cover ...
 
The comment was about the volume rather than the actual content. But you are right the dilemma for them is trying to attract new readers when we know that new entrants to the pastime are declining in numbers and unlike cars or IT for example there are far fewer sub groups that follow new trends -are there any real new trends?

I have not done the analysis but suspect the big change has been the reliance on outside contributors at minimum wage type fees rather than staff journalists. Rarely get the big budget investigations such as the boat sinking series or group tests of comparable boats. Even this month's big feature on berthing which fills several pages is only a day's work for two with a borrowed Bavaria in Swanwick marina.
 
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