Upheaval in the French yachting magazines

GrahamD said:
Despite the dropping circulation reported in this thread, we have found that gear reviews in the UK yachting press, carried out by reputable and trusted reviewers, remain very influential with many sailors in the UK.

During 2015, Pontos 4-speed winches were reviewed by Toby Hodges in Yachting Monthly (January), by Graham Snook in Yachting Monthly (August) and by David Harding in Practical Boat Owner (September).

At the Southampton Boat Show, we asked the boat owners who came to the Pontos stand where they had heard about Pontos. A significant majority of them told us that they had sought us out because they had read the reviews in one or more of the magazine, and now wanted to try the winches for themselves. In retrospect we should have noted down the number of such visitors, and which magazine they had read, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and we were constantly busy!
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Out of sheer idle curiosity: did you sell any?

UK RRP Inc VAT

Pontos Compact £682.73
Pontos 40 £1,046.85
Pontos 46 £1,593.04
Pontos 52 £2,321.29
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OR4751 said:
Out of sheer idle curiosity: did you sell any?
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Absolutely. We took a good number of orders at the show and were very pleased with the level of interest and response : we are still getting orders from people who we met at the show. Like many upgrades, new winches are not really an impulse buy!
 
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Sybarite said:
What was for many years France's leading magazine," Bateaux" closed during the summer and was put into liquidation. As has "Course au Large".

"Voiles et Voiliers" has reduced its staff from 29 to just 7 and has relocated to Rennes.

"Voile" seems to have emerged as the strongest of the three, acquiring the "Bateaux" title for just €25000.

"Loisirs Nautiques" disappeared about 10 years ago and would have been the closest equivalent of PBO.

All the magazines are reporting dropping subscriptions and advertising revenues and rising costs for paper copies.

What a pity. I thought that all of these magazines were very professionally produced.
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dunedin said:
They need to think about how to monetise their product in the new world - and the same prices for paper and digital ain't the answer
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That's not the case. I recently went over to digital only and the nice subscription person explained that it would be better to cancel my old sub and start again as digital only was significantly cheaper. Don't remember the figures but it is. (We are Liveaboards currently in the Caribbean and used to collect our print editions once or twice a year from the UK. Baggage allowances just don't make that viable any longer)
 
GrahamD said:
Despite the dropping circulation reported in this thread, we have found that gear reviews in the UK yachting press, carried out by reputable and trusted reviewers, remain very influential with many sailors in the UK.

During 2015, Pontos 4-speed winches were reviewed by Toby Hodges in Yachting Monthly (January), by Graham Snook in Yachting Monthly (August) and by David Harding in Practical Boat Owner (September).

At the Southampton Boat Show, we asked the boat owners who came to the Pontos stand where they had heard about Pontos. A significant majority of them told us that they had sought us out because they had read the reviews in one or more of the magazine, and now wanted to try the winches for themselves. In retrospect we should have noted down the number of such visitors, and which magazine they had read, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and we were constantly busy!
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This is quite a powerful endorsement of the current yachting publication industry.

Sadly there are few innovative items like the Pontos winches coming to the market every month, or even every year. This limits the number of refreshing articles that can be written every month - and I suspect this results in some of the repetitive articles that act as fillers. But how are the boat builders, to name the big ticket item, going to have independent reviews published without YM or PBO. On a smaller scale - where will the work conducted by Vyv be published, or will we be left with advise from armchair experts - based on technology of 30 years ago.

If YM folds how is Snooks going to fulfil his role as an independent tester? how is he going to publish? and critically how is he going to earn any money from his testing?

Until there is an answer to the final 3 questions we 'all' need YM and PBO - there is no alternative.

Jonathan
 
snooks said:
Luckily (it's not luck of course) boat testing isn't my only income source.

I do high resolution 360° tours http://bit.ly/windy48

And of course I have my http://yachting-photography.com to keep me busy.
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Sorry,

I was not trying to suggest you did not have other talents nor that you might not have other income streams - just I did not see you doing yachts reviews for love! (but, even then, maybe I misjudge and you would continue to do them foc for the common good :) )

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
This is quite a powerful endorsement of the current yachting publication industry.

Sadly there are few innovative items like the Pontos winches coming to the market every month, or even every year. This limits the number of refreshing articles that can be written every month - and I suspect this results in some of the repetitive articles that act as fillers. But how are the boat builders, to name the big ticket item, going to have independent reviews published without YM or PBO. On a smaller scale - where will the work conducted by Vyv be published, or will we be left with advise from armchair experts - based on technology of 30 years ago.

If YM folds how is Snooks going to fulfil his role as an independent tester? how is he going to publish? and critically how is he going to earn any money from his testing?

Until there is an answer to the final 3 questions we 'all' need YM and PBO - there is no alternative.

Jonathan
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Jonathan,

I suspect you have inadvertently mentioned another possible reason for the decline of the magazines; this is NOT aimed at Snooks, but it is a general perception on these forums that the mag' reviews have for a long time been anything but independent.

One rarely sees critiscm and the perception - rightly or wrongly - is that the magazines will not print anything which might upset boat building companies; a very significant part of the advertising revenue.

I feel for the reviewers and editors, they are in a cleft stick on this one.
 
Seajet said:
Jonathan,

I suspect you have inadvertently mentioned another possible reason for the decline of the magazines; this is NOT aimed at Snooks, but it is a general perception on these forums that the mag' reviews have for a long time been anything but independent.

One rarely sees critiscm and the perception - rightly or wrongly - is that the magazines will not print anything which might upset boat building companies; a very significant part of the advertising revenue.

I feel for the reviewers and editors, they are in a cleft stick on this one.
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That is the oft-held, cynical view. Ignoring the testing I have done (mostly of smaller, cheaper items), YM have reviewed expensive kit in the past couple of years in a totally independent manner, particularly those by Emrhys Barrel. His windlass review was honest and quite critical of some big-name manufacturers who are regular advertisers. As a subscriber to both mags I do think that PBO reviews can sometimes come across as non-critical but YM doesn't fall into this category. For example, taking one at random from the top of the pile in my office, in October 2015 a lifejacket from a big manufacturer in the review of 10 was given a score of 4/10, others 5/10 and 6/10. This one was by Duncan Kent, who I think always offers constructive criticism. There are many other examples, in particular I recall the apps test last month in which none of them was recommended.

I have only ever experienced one example in which YM have asked me to hold an article, in this case a current one concerning failure of vital equipment, where if my diagnosis is incorrect the magazine could be at risk of legal action. In fact the manufacturer has now agreed with me, so we will have to see what happens.
 
"One rarely sees critiscm and the perception - rightly or wrongly - is that the magazines will not print anything which might upset boat building companies; a very significant part of the advertising revenue."

I sympathise with them in the case of boat reviews but feel it is rather a case of upsetting owners. The most guarded comment on some boats, will trigger outrage, we see it all the time on here.
Even when the observations are widely recognised and obvious to most.
 
I don't think mere boat owners carry anything like the weight you hope for, even if we do or don't buy magazines !

A disgruntled yottie is easily ignored, and their input was only a fiver a month if they do clear off.

If they said something really outrageous about a boat of mine I might push for a statement of my rebuttal & why, and certainly mention it here, but I think that's as far as any boat owner or mag buyer will get.

Incidentally my boat has been reviewed in ' buying secondhand ' articles by David Harding for PBO and Duncan Kent then of Sailing Today.

They were both very positive, which was heartening, but both made small detail mistakes I never saw until the magazines were on the shelves; slightly annoying as it means as I run the owners association I have to repeatedly mention corrections, but they were only small details.

It's a risk when anything one is connected with is published, I'm much more upset about a book I contributed to which has deeply misquoted me !

Back to reviewing boats or indeed equipment, with the increasingly Americanised legal system here it's a miracle anyone comments about anything, and I feel this is a problem which will have to be addressed sometime along the line.
 
snooks said:
Probably cos he'd have to pay me 50% more for them :rolleyes:

:D
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Snooksie. I do like your tests & on the odd time I buy a mag I do read your bit first.
I also look for any Youtube stuff & I do tend to notice the sharp intakes of breath as though you have asthma.
I sincerely hope you have not - but I wish you did not do it ( Sharp intakes that is , not breathing in general!!!)
 
Daydream believer said:
Snooksie. I do like your tests & on the odd time I buy a mag I do read your bit first.
I also look for any Youtube stuff & I do tend to notice the sharp intakes of breath as though you have asthma.
I sincerely hope you have not - but I wish you did not do it ( Sharp intakes that is , not breathing in general!!!)
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Quite right; we don't want anyone getting onto our screens and speakers who didn't learn their breathing techniques at RADA, that would be the slippery slope into anarchy I say ! :)
 
Daydream believer said:
Snooksie. I do like your tests & on the odd time I buy a mag I do read your bit first.
I also look for any Youtube stuff & I do tend to notice the sharp intakes of breath as though you have asthma.
I sincerely hope you have not - but I wish you did not do it ( Sharp intakes that is , not breathing in general!!!)
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I don't think you'll find any videos of me on YouTube, for most of them I'm behind the camera and not mic'd up :0) I think you may be confusing me with Mr Beeson, former boat testing chappy
 
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