Just a thought

[knotheadcharters]

You know I really enjoy Reading Passagemaker magazine but how about a mag about normal people with normal boats and modest means. I love to dream about owning a 55 Kadey- Krogen but unless I hit the lottery, not going to happen. I mean a good mag with real life boating issues and maintenance articles not the latest whiz bang overpriced thimajig. Alright of my soapbox I've been in Afghanistan the last couple of months and am missing my boat.

 

[markpierce]

Don't put much stock or have much interest in boating magazines, but will read when they are free...

But, please come back healthy and whole.

 

[FF]

Magazines require advertising to exist.

With many folks being creative is part of the boat as a hobby fun.

At $10,000 a page for an add , who would be the market?

 

[O C Diver]

Might see it in an emagazine (online only magazine). Definitely a lot cheeper to produce than a paper one.

Ted

 

[Portuguese]

Knothead

I made the same question to a friend of mine who edits a nautical magazine in Brazil. His answer was this.
“Even those who do not have money to buy a dinghy, prefer to buy a magazine with high end yachts than small affordable ones. It is just a question of dreaming. The harder is to get the object of your dreams, the more you want to see it....this is a psychological fact

 

[O C Diver]

It is just a question of dreaming. The harder is to get the object of your dreams, the more you want to see it....this is a psychological fact

Clearly the theory worked well for Playboy, Penthouse, etc.

Ted

 

[skipperdude]

Seems you have to hunt and peck to get what you want.
Practical sailor is a good one.
Sea Mag has a few good tip's now and then. The most receient had a few articals about using Home depot stuff to alarm the boat. Like putting a home smoke detector in the ER.
There is always Trawler Forum.

Sd

 

[Karl-FL]

Knotheadcharters,

Passagemaker magazine was just that for the years it was published by founder Bill Parlatore, but once bought up by the conglomorate, it changed into just another yachting magazine catering to the advertisers, but I guess that's the way of the business world.

I used to enjoy a very practical nautical website called Living Aboard, but it seems that they too have gone by the economic wayside.

Karl

 

[healhustler]

Clearly the theory worked well for Playboy, Penthouse, etc.

Ted

I wouldn't know that. I only bought those magazines for their quality articles.

Still, Knothead has a point. I began a magazine about vintage trucks and farm equipment long ago. It had a huge classified "for sale and wanted", an 800 number to place ads, a book review, product testing, feature vehicles, historic artlcles and even legal data on the hobby. It exploded in popularity as fast as it starved to death in lack of vendor advertising.

I'd love to have a rag about projects and how-to's on our old trawlers and cruisers, but it would need an advertising market to support it. With enough yards, re-fitters and accessory manufacturers.....who knows...maybe it could work, but the cost and effort to support such a venture until it could stand on its own may exhaust the best of us. Then, after all that work, you'd sell out to someone who always wanted a magazine like that, but didn't want to go through the strain of start-up, thereby reaping all the benefits of your struggle. Sounds rather negative, doesn't it?

 

[Phil Fill]

When Passagemaker starter 15+ yeas ago it was oriented to the affordable/owned/remodeled passagemaker/trawlers. We had just bought the Eagle, and quickly found out/learned, we had bought a trawler that was not common and fashionable with the pleasure boating crowed. At the time the word TRAWLER had a negative connotation of being slow and boxy looking. I was thrilled to find Passagemaker Magazine that had article and advertisement on trawlers. I was ecstatic the fist time I want on line to Passagemaker board where the other member actually owned trawler. However, being the new wantabe/newby I took many a lumps.

However, over the years as the magazine grew and the word TRAWLER start to become the new marketing term the magazine became orientated to new large expensive trawlers. Over the years the term trawler has lost its meaning, now it’s a marketing term for any boat that looks salty. As mentioned before there is a limited market and advertizing.

 

[Ataraxia]

I have worked a couple of years for a boating magazine and unfortunately I must conclude that magazines are only there for the advertisers. They have no interest in the readers who pay only a fraction of what the advertisers pay. Do yourself a favour and just compare the size of the adverts with the number of reviews of certain brands. Funny that the big adverts always get the good reviews isn'it?

 

[LarryBud49]

As an owner of an older sailboat, Good Old Boat is a great magazine. It is full of articles for the do it yourselfer about fiberglass repair, creative and inexpensive ways of solving problems. Many of the articles will apply to my "new to me trawler", too, I will have to review the old editions and see how much relativity there is. Isn't there a magazine like that for trawlers?

 

[FF]

“Even those who do not have money to buy a dinghy, prefer to buy a magazine with high end yachts than small affordable ones.

This explains why folks purchase lottery tickets , even the ones smart enough to understand the math.


A dollar a dream is cheap!