What has happened to Around The Coast?

C

chrisbailey

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 Apr 2005
Messages
107
Location
Essex
Visit site
the last couple of months 'Around The Coast' had been abreviated so much that there was little of intrest in it, now it has been removed completely.
'Around the Coast' was extremely interesting up until recently. YM Please bring it back.
 
The content of ATC (Around the coast) has now been incorporated into the bigger (and we think better) news section at the front of YM. We'd had comments at boatshows that people couldn't understand why there were two news sections in the magazine.

Rather than scraping the news barrel to fill in each geographical section when really there wasn't any "news" worth reading, and conversely having to edit out other better "news" to fit the format of the magazine, the decision was made to have each story entered into the news section on it's merit rather than it's location.

We still have contributors from around the coast that supply us with news, so in reality the news content will be better and the only thing missing is the "Around the Coast" name.
 
fergie_mac66 said:
more dumbing down ! laziness
Click to expand...

If you believe putting all the news in one place, to make it easier for our readers, is "dumbing down" then we are guilty.

Why should the news be in two separate places?...Newspapers have all their news at the beginning, and don't add regional news after the sport at the back. The Beeb have their regional news after the national and international news, not after Eastenders or Holby city etc or tucked away in the early hours of the morning which was where ATC essentially was at the back of the magazine hidden between chandlery and brokerage

We've brought the news from around the coast forward to give it more importance in the magazine, and changed the name.

That's all :)
 
well I guess bbc should do away with look north and other regional news progs perhaps Itv also and the various local news progs on the radios.Squash everything up make more room for ads.

edit: only being devils advocate here . as I haven t bought one a few months, so I cant comment on whether improvement or not . I only buy the odd one now because of stuff iv said on other threads.My guess is that It will be harder for someone from say the north east to know whether there is some news or not, or whether no journalist could be bothered to look if there was something going on
 
Last edited:
Snooksie - I suspect that from IPC Towers the fact that Jeremiah Snodgrass has been appointed assistant berthing master at Mudslide-on-Sea might not seem like hold-the-front-page stuff, but that YM readers love this sort of local minutia and will resent having big bro take it away from them.
 
Hi Ken,

It's not big brother taking it away, it's still there, but instead of being called ATC, it's called news, and the appointment of Ms Snodgrass might well make it into the news section :)

The same people are editing the news and ATC that have been editing it for the past 8 or 9 years, it's the same news but without the ATC branding :)
 
snooks said:
The content of ATC (Around the coast) has now been incorporated into the bigger (and we think better) news section at the front of YM. We'd had comments at boatshows that people couldn't understand why there were two news sections in the magazine.

Rather than scraping the news barrel to fill in each geographical section when really there wasn't any "news" worth reading, and conversely having to edit out other better "news" to fit the format of the magazine, the decision was made to have each story entered into the news section on it's merit rather than it's location.

We still have contributors from around the coast that supply us with news, so in reality the news content will be better and the only thing missing is the "Around the Coast" name.
Click to expand...

How can it be better? there used to be many pages of interesting contributions from around the coast, I even found the news from other areas than my own interesting, now there is just the 'News' with a very brief mention of any local activity. This is not an improvement and you should listen to your readers. I for one had already been considering cancelling my subscription for YM which I have been reading for more than 30 years because of the dwinderling content and haphazard presentation and your attitude doesn't help. Please reconsider and give us back our local news.
 
chrisbailey said:
How can it be better? there used to be many pages of interesting contributions from around the coast,
Click to expand...

Hi Chris,

We do listen to our readers, this was why ATC was moved to the front of the magazine, after the feedback we received at boat shows

There are the same amount of news pages as there were this time last year, be that local, national or international, but they are now all together in one place, gone are the fast track interview and the sailing stereotype which both took up a page of news at the front, and in comes the ATC section.

Compare it with the Jan 09 issue

5 pages of news at the front (of which 1 page was taken up by the FT interview and stereotype)
4.5 pages of around the coast at the back (1/2 page was lost each month with the mugshots of the contributors)
That gives a total of 8 pages

Jan 2010 issue

8 pages of news

So the number of pages of news hasn't changed, the only thing that might have upset the balance of news in the Jan 2010 issue would be the update on the Chandlers, which was changed at the the last minute as we were going to press

I'm sorry you feel you're not getting the news you used to, if you know of anything happening in your area that you feel we should be aware of, feel free to contact us and let us know.
 
Hi Snooks thanks for the kind offer but quite happy to just buy. I usually buy one or 2 mags over christmas as usually have a week and a few days on the boats at xmas.Will reserve judgment till after looked however have just looked at novmber 1976 ym which was not even the the xmas one which always had extra reading in.

News content was: page 1607 and around the coast covered 10, 3 column pages with only 1 picture 3 1/2 inch 2 and 4 pic 2 by 2 pictures a lot of interesting xmas reading ! also had looking around with bevis which I guess would be the news covered another 5 pages 2 column with again 5 small picture and no mug shots which is :

15 pages of news ...good reading.

In comparison with the last Ym I bought there is was heck of a lot more reading in the old mag all the pictures are B+w which doesnt matter 2 much but would have been better in colour but dont need to be big can get big pics on the net. I tend to want to read content, its nice to see pics but its the entertaining reading that keeps you entertained for a week .. I tend to find it only takes an afternoon to read the modern mags

EDIT: Actually the old around the coast can be quite interesting particulaly if your of on a trip to an area.Its nice to know what minutia is going on. It annoys the hell out of me that I cant get bbc regional news over the internet for the areas where my boats are.
 
Last edited:
I'm a subscriber and I'm also dissapointed to see the demise of ATC. The "news" content may still be there, but the "character" has gone. A lot of the pleasure was not in the News per se, but in the sense of place ATC gave the reader.

I appreciate magazine's have to move with the times to a certain extent and balance the different needs of advertisers and readers. However, I really do feel YM is losing it's character and becoming just another sailing magazine.

I don't want to knock the editorial team who I am sure are trying to produce as good a magazine as they can, but it seems to be more and more "what the editorial team did/tried this month" and less about yacht cruising, readers accounts and the sense of being in a wider community. It also seems to be becoming very Solent-centric.

I buy the magazine because I want an entertaining and interesting read. At the moment it's starting to feel more like a collection of "advertising features", whether that be for equipment or the services of a particular destination.

I am very seriously considering cancelling my subscription in the new year, other than the excellent columns by Libby and Tom, there seems to be little of the cruising soul left in the magazine that used to make me eager for every issue.

Chris
 
EastCoastChris said:
other than the excellent columns by Libby and Tom, there seems to be little of the cruising soul left in the magazine that used to make me eager for every issue.

Chris
Click to expand...

thats what I was calling the Magic of the Swatchways element in another thread.

Im not sure but all magazines are going down the " comic road" now its so easy to stick a clever picture in to replace a few thousand words.:(

Perhaps its for people to look at in waiting rooms . Maybe there so many people coming out of the ejucaton route having taken media studies.... by pictures
 
There was an great account of an Arctic Cruise in a 1909 Pilot Cutter in this month's Classic Boat. In my Club Year Book there are a variety of entertaining accounts from the year past, add a little professional gloss and even these would be perfectly good contributions.

There seems to be no shortage of content around, I can't quite see why there are so many accounts of "what we did in a borrowed boat on the South Coast last month in 200 word snippets each in it's own box". These make for a very poor read and rarely cover a subject well.

Chris
 
fergie_mac66 said:
thats what I was calling the Magic of the Swatchways element in another thread.

Im not sure but all magazines are going down the " comic road" now its so easy to stick a clever picture in to replace a few thousand words.:(

Perhaps its for people to look at in waiting rooms . Maybe there so many people coming out of the ejucaton route having taken media studies.... by pictures
Click to expand...

I was pleasantly surprised by PBO this month: several really good articles, and they didn't assume that 10k was loose change. On the other hand, the new boat review was the Fan Class 32, which YM has already done, in almost exactly similar terms.

Snooks, you said once that YM does 30+ feet (or thereabouts - correct me if I'm wrong), leaving the smaller stuff for PBO. Has anyone told PBO that, because every single boat reviewed or discussed this month is 30+ feet ... ?
 
orbister said:
Snooks, you said once that YM does 30+ feet (or thereabouts - correct me if I'm wrong), leaving the smaller stuff for PBO. Has anyone told PBO that, because every single boat reviewed or discussed this month is 30+ feet ... ?
Click to expand...

You're right, I did say that YM covered new boats from around 30ft upwards

There has always been a blurry line between 30ft and 35ft in the new boat market between the two magazines (PBO and YM), and the host of new smaller boats in that size that came out at SIBS this year (Fan 32, Elan 310, HR 310, Sun Odyssey 33, First 35, Arcona 340) has meant that there has been more crossover than before...Having said that PBO did test the Bavaria 50 when it came out years ago, which I think YM discounted as being to big for them!

YM will still cover used/older/not new boats of whatever size, be that used boat tests, general cruising account, boat handling, seamanship, or good old cruising yarns. After all, 4 of the staff out of the 5 who own boats on YM own boats that are under 33ft, and if we couldn't include those in the magazine, they'd have to pays us more so we could afford bigger boats!! :)

It's just the new boats tests where lines in the sand have been drawn, and where there was an unfortunate doubling up earlier this year.

PBO will focus on new boats up to 30-35 ft and YM will take up the baton from there, before passing it onto Yachting World from around 45-50ft.

The length isn't set in stone, it's still also dependant on the price of the boat, so you won't see a 30ft £500,000 day boats tested in PBO or YM for example, that IS Yachting World, likewise Yachting World won't be testing a 27 ft bilge keeler any time soon :)

But as I said, YM will still cover boats of all sizes, and we'll continue to do so for some time
 
Yachting Monthly content no longer reflects my interest so have now cancelled my subscription. Rather sad after nearly 40 years of reading YM.
There now seems to be a poor attitude to readers by YM
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

R
My boat trip hopefully in May Around Scotland
2 3 4
Replies
65
Views
2K
RobBradley
R
T
Notices to Mariners - Week 02(!!)
Replies
0
Views
303
tillergirl
T
Baggywrinkle
Test run of the Lithium system that has been sitting in my cellar for most of this year.
Replies
16
Views
623
Baggywrinkle
Baggywrinkle

Share this page

Top