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Forums : to blame for the death of shooting magazines ?


robbiep
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There was a thread a week or 3 back which discussed shooting forums, and the loss of 'pub life'.

However, going from here : http://www.guntrader.co.uk/News-And-Reviews/#AColdSpringforPublishers

 

it would surely be more likely that forums are more likely responsible for the continuing drop in sales on the newsagents shelves ?

 

Though I'd accept that the actions of retailers (WHSmith being a prime example) won't have helped matters

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I think that the Internet in general has promoted the decline of print media, in fact I don't think there is any dispute in that. The nature of forums in particular where you can have interactive discussion makes a huge difference too as it allows people to be much more specific.

 

There is always the risk that the Internet and especially forums are the domain of the uninformed yet opinionated who are happy to spout rubbish to anybody who will listen, but that is not unknown in print media either, they have a whole genre in tabloids that covers that!

 

I think that traditional media publishers need to be much better in embracing social media if they want to keep print sales up, there is still something nice about having a printed magazine that is tactile and can be picked up and put down, or left in the small reading room, but they are far too one dimensional in our interconnected world. The majority of magazines that do have an online interactive element tend to be desperately poor in managing that.

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I stopped subscribing years ago, then used to buy them occasionally, now I can't be bothered at all, they are full of adverts and the amount and quality of content is not what it used to be, I believe most of the present day contributors (with a few notable exceptions) are nowhere near as knowledgable, entertaining and authoritative as they were 20 or 30 years ago, they seem unable to paint a picture with words like the old boys did!

 

I hardly ever read the stuff the magazines send me via email nowadays either, it is, as someone said previously, repetitive and frankly I find it uninspiring.

 

Though I don't think the Internet has helped, for me the rot set in long before this.

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why buy any of the mags anymore, if you have a couple of years worth, you already have pretty much everything you need from them, apart from biased views of every new product going, look back over any you have and you`ll see what I mean, pick up a couple of September issues of any airgun magazine and you`ll be guaranteed to find recycled night vision and lamping tips, pretty much every month will have articles exactly the same as it was 12 months previously

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I stopped subscribing years ago, then used to buy them occasionally, now I can't be bothered at all, they are full of adverts and the amount and quality of content is not what it used to be, I believe most of the present day contributors (with a few notable exceptions) are nowhere near as knowledgable, entertaining and authoritative as they were 20 or 30 years ago, they seem unable to paint a picture with words like the old boys did!

 

I hardly ever read the stuff the magazines send me via email nowadays either, it is, as someone said previously, repetitive and frankly I find it uninspiring.

 

Though I don't think the Internet has helped, for me the rot set in long before this.

pretty much right. I used to wait avidly every week for the shooting times but I stopped subscribing years ago. The mags are just full of adverts and repetitive without any real practical substance. I know that you couldn't print stuff nowadays like they used to donks ago such as how to use homemade explosive to blast up a new duck pond and the like. The old boys such as Gough Thomas used to write practical and knowledgeable stuff about guns etc instead of the romantic fairy stories of shooting in later times. I think that the last one that I bought was something like the sporting rifle up until Hesletine closed it down. That was a proper gun mag. Sometimes a mate brings a bag of mags over for me to read through but I just give them a quick flip through and bin them. The reviews are just a load of nonsense because no one wants to slag off a company that buys advertising space for fear that they will advertise elsewhere. Shooting use to be a practical country thing but recently products are geared to be showy possession things rather than working tools. I know someone that calls his berretta pigeon >> “his baby” and he bought a 4x4 to go off road shooting with but doesn’t want the dog in it or muddy boots. It isn’t right. He gets the wee wee taken out of him big time. I told him straight >> No dog, NO shooting. You’ll just walk past stuff. I think that he just thought that he was going to walk round a field and the game was going to run out and surrender. Still he had his BABY to keep him company.

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Both of the comments below are correct IMO.

 

I don't believe so. The downturn in sales is due to repetitiveness of the subject matter. A lot of stuff is recycled year after year. Plus there are far less people participating in shooting and fishing these days.

 

 

I stopped subscribing years ago, then used to buy them occasionally, now I can't be bothered at all, they are full of adverts and the amount and quality of content is not what it used to be, I believe most of the present day contributors (with a few notable exceptions) are nowhere near as knowledgable, entertaining and authoritative as they were 20 or 30 years ago, they seem unable to paint a picture with words like the old boys did!

I hardly ever read the stuff the magazines send me via email nowadays either, it is, as someone said previously, repetitive and frankly I find it uninspiring.

Though I don't think the Internet has helped, for me the rot set in long before this.

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I don't believe so. The downturn in sales is due to repetitiveness of the subject matter. A lot of stuff is recycled year after year. Plus there are far less people participating in shooting and fishing these days.

I think more people have taken up shooting ( not sure about fishing) these days. That's why permissions are so hard to come by. Even the townies are at it!!!!!!

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I think it's very interesting that the BASC membership is now at record levels, with more than 140,000 members. So I don't think there is a big decline in interest or people prepared to spend money on their shooting sports. I don't buy the argument that it's the sport that's declining. You only need to look at the activity levels which break records monthly on Pigeon Watch to know that the Shooting in the UK is in very good heart.

 

I think all print media are suffering, but quality content like Private Eye and The Economist are able to hold their own and even increase circulation. If magazines don't offer high quality and original content that is worth paying for, then they need realise that they don't hold a monopoly any more, and can expect their circulations to continue their decline into oblivion.

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yes theres the repatition but its all the same stuff , all the writers are middle aged men with thousands to spend or to borrow, theres nothing for kids, youngsters aor starters and nothing for all the other derivatives of the sports

 

i used to buy a lot of air gun magazines but gave up due to lack of any connection with middle aged men and £2,000 weapons and me and my set up or my lads set up

 

sorry but if the same old twaddle is spouted then people walk off

 

i spoke at length to one person involved with a magazine a few years back at a show and he was of the same views but due to the s ponsers views and target demographics it stays the same, the like of the you tube video blog and such like it also doing a fine job to kill magazines

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I think that at getting near to £4 or possible over for a magazine with over its fair share of pages filled with Adverts, of which as commented, are way above Jo public's budget or just there to entice dreams. Then its never surprising that sales drop, yes the www has got to have a direct impact on the sales directed at maybe the buyer looking for a review feature on possibly there future purchase. Used to have my monthly Air Gunner and Airgun World until i found out i was reading the very same story from a couple of years before.

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There was a time I would avidly read all the monthlies, but you can only read so much about pigeon decoying, lamping foxes and stalking. I don't read any of them at all now though I still think they are a valuable source of info' for those new to shooting.

The only reason I kept up with ST for so long was their up to date news items, but i can find all that online nowadays.

An internet forum such as this is invaluable in my opinion; and most queries etc can be answered within hours if not minutes.

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My local newsagent is now a convenience store stacked high with cheap booze and rubbish food. The only time I get to browse magazines is at Paddington Station when Im getting the train down to South Wales. Then I do have a good look but don't usually buy

Edited by Vince Green
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There was a time I would avidly read all the monthlies, but you can only read so much about pigeon decoying, lamping foxes and stalking. I don't read any of them at all now though I still think they are a valuable source of info' for those new to shooting.

The only reason I kept up with ST for so long was their up to date news items, but i can find all that online nowadays.

An internet forum such as this is invaluable in my opinion; and most queries etc can be answered within hours if not minutes.

Quite agree about newcomers.

Whatever new hobby anyone takes up be it Fishing, Diving, Shooting, Airguns or Motorcycles.

The 'Honeymoon Period' demands we have to buy every available Magazine.

But as has been said it all gets replicated every 12 months.

So we stop.

If you spend a few moments in Smiths, its unbelievable what they write magazines about, hundreds of different titles.

My favorite at the moment is the Colouring In books advertised on T V !

Aimed at Adults !

Free crayons and feltswith the first issue???

Someone must buy em !

Edited by mickyh
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The magazines pay peanuts for articles which are published and therefore do not get the best writers.

 

Also the readers questions are obviously made up.

 

The articles like 'how to shoot incomers' with photos with arrows on are just nonsense.

 

Have you ever read an article on a days shooting that says it was awful?

 

The last time there was a thread on this subject I put a copy of my article of a days driven shooting and review of the latest Brownetta 34" sporter that everyone is raving about.

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Guest topshot_2k

Are archant not releasing another shooting mag this year? Magazines come and go, its not just shooting mags affected.

I like reading them (mainly sporting gun, air gun world and shooting times) they have some good articles. The reviews i take with a pinch of salt but interesting to read none the less. If you subscribe to them they are good value imo

Edited by topshot_2k
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I think that the Internet in general has promoted the decline of print media, in fact I don't think there is any dispute in that. The nature of forums in particular where you can have interactive discussion makes a huge difference too as it allows people to be much more specific.

 

There is always the risk that the Internet and especially forums are the domain of the uninformed yet opinionated who are happy to spout rubbish to anybody who will listen, but that is not unknown in print media either, they have a whole genre in tabloids that covers that!

 

I think that traditional media publishers need to be much better in embracing social media if they want to keep print sales up, there is still something nice about having a printed magazine that is tactile and can be picked up and put down, or left in the small reading room, but they are far too one dimensional in our interconnected world. The majority of magazines that do have an online interactive element tend to be desperately poor in managing that.

Absolutely correct, but speaking as someone recently culled from the print media world I should point out that publishing online takes as much effort and man-power as printing (possibly more) but it brings in a fraction of the revenue. It is easy to say print media should embrace social media and innovate but the reality is there is no money, and in many cases no staff, to do it well.

 

Even the best performing publications are loosing print sales year on year but the smart ones, and those that can afford it, are managing the decline whilst innovating online until some bright spark finds a palatable way to monitise online content - not an easy thing to do if everyone is used to getting it free.

 

There will always be a niche market for printed material but my great fear is that, outside of the BBC, sky, ITV and a few other big players, small scale journalism will be allowed to fade into obscurity to be replaced with something much less informative, much more invasive and almost completely uncontrolled. If you think tabloids are bad now then the future looks rather uninviting.

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Too many reviews that are a "cut & paste" of the importers press release.

Total lack of impartiality....and in the case of the main culprit getting fat on the resulting profits, literally.

"We get a bad revue, we pull our advertising...."

 

One of the best magazines was Guns Review. Something for everyone.

Handgunner was also a great read.

Both folded, and one of them was relaunched for ONE ISSUE before the new owner pulled the plug (Lord Archer I think...?)

 

Not sure why the magazines became glossy photo heavy idiot sheets...maybe to appeal to the emerging market (following some management lead initiative)

 

Stopped buying them years ago....more fun going through old copies of proper magazines and finding more at boot sales.

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There have been some seriously good writers in recent years, not all of them are pony. Im thinking specifically of Laurie Holland in target sports who is a god in my eyes but generally the pay peanuts get monkeys rule applies.

 

I wrote some articles for shooting magazines years ago but it is a labour of love. Magazines like Guns Review were absolutely top notch as saddler has so rightly said, Handgunner too was very technical, the editor Jan Stevensen I met several times and he could talk the talk. Raise any subject and he just had all the numbers, dates velocities etc in his head.

 

Where the magazines have failed is that they are no longer the source of information that you could not get elsewhere.

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Absolutely correct, but speaking as someone recently culled from the print media world I should point out that publishing online takes as much effort and man-power as printing (possibly more) but it brings in a fraction of the revenue. It is easy to say print media should embrace social media and innovate but the reality is there is no money, and in many cases no staff, to do it well.

 

Even the best performing publications are loosing print sales year on year but the smart ones, and those that can afford it, are managing the decline whilst innovating online until some bright spark finds a palatable way to monitise online content - not an easy thing to do if everyone is used to getting it free.

 

There will always be a niche market for printed material but my great fear is that, outside of the BBC, sky, ITV and a few other big players, small scale journalism will be allowed to fade into obscurity to be replaced with something much less informative, much more invasive and almost completely uncontrolled. If you think tabloids are bad now then the future looks rather uninviting.

That is a really interesting insight from someone who was in the trade. I didn't mean to come across as being overly critical of the sector, although re-reading my post it is maybe a bit harsh and dismissive.

 

I hear what you are saying and there are an awful lot of businesses are wrestling with how to embrace the internet in a meaningful way, i.e. making money out of it. I think that a lot of the problem is that traditional media relied on advertising revenues as there was no other way for suppliers to get their brand in front of a mass market, but now it is very different and if you are a potential buyer you don't need to go via printed media to find out who the suppliers are.

 

As a few others have said a lack of quality content is a problem so there is no compelling reason to buy in to a particular publication, whether it be print or online, as there is as much perceived quality available for free as you get via a subscription, although maybe that is too much of a generalisation.

 

I also see where you are coming from with having a few, but very large content providers that all provide a fairly generic and anodyne level of content, with the rest and often much more valuable or insightful views being limited to the blogosphere which is also sadly the domain of the conspiracists, the loony and the unhinged.

 

I think that there is an overwhelming sense of tabloidisation pervading everything now, even the general election campaign is all 'tabloid'. The social revolution of bite sized snippets of information has perpetuated that creeping trend too and even things like YouTube that are highly content specific and short duration are all tabloidisation at work.

 

The larger print media are doing ok with paid for content, like the FT, The Times, etc, but I do think that the smaller content specific players or subject based media will struggle unless they have a fundamental shift in their approach.

 

I do have some thoughts as to an alternative approach for the more traditional journalism sector and how it can embrace the Internet and harness social media, but that is a very different and much bigger discussion.

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As touched on in previous answers, the mags don't help themselves as they tend to repeat themselves with the same type of articles at the same time year in year out, also full of adverts for guns ie here's a test for this xxxx gun hey presto always either excellent, good or reasonable budget model. Never seen its a croc of **** don't buy it

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