Paper Fishing Magazines Are Dead

[Wildfisher]

Did that get your attention?   

This is a serious point though. How much longer have they got? I am sitting here looking at a pile of various fishing magazines and contemplating how much or the content interested me and how much was skipped?  In a good month I reckon I find 25% of the content is of interest to me.  Sometimes it is a lot less. 

In these environmentally conscious  days  that  is not a very good use of trees is it?

Is the future not gong to be more focused -  specialised – like buying books?  What is the point of   buying something and chucking 75% of it away initially and the other 25% later? Specialisation must be the way – but is it viable or  economic to print lots of small specialist fishing magazines? I don't believe it could be. The way forward must be on-line with its low cost base and flexibility.

What's that  I hear you say? Computers too cumbersome and inconvenient compared to  picking  up "Trout and Salmon"? 

I agree.

At least I agree that is the situation at this moment in time. Twelve  years ago laptop computers were like  suitcases and mobile phones were like ?  bricks. Look at them now. Twelve years from now what will we have?

I reckon that as soon as technological advances make reading an electronic magazine as easy as picking up a paper one, the days of the printed magazine will be over and a new breed of subscription based, specialist online publications will take their place.

What do you think?

[mossypaw]

Computers cumbersome ?  I just threw out nearly 20 years of magazines (now that was cumbersome) all the info in those (Land Rover) magazines can be found online now so I've got more space. Another plus for the computers, try finding anything about,say, ferox in a magazine from your local newsagent.

[Richy]

Now remember Fred,

When Wild Fish becomes the norm.....................just remember the inspiration from that infamous first experimental front cover and cut me in on yer millions  :lol: :lol:
As far as paper magazines against lap tops...........

Ye cannie light a fire with you lap top ( unless its the ones with the dodgy batteries )

Ye cannie wipe yer arse with your lap top  :shock: :shock:

Ye cannie roll yer lap top up and swat flees

With these in mind I feel it will be a while before we stop looking at the shelves at W H Smith, and before anyone jumps in...............not the top shelf  :lol: :lol:

All the best

Richy

[Ptinid]

A slightly serious reply 

I'm living in Sci-Fi land, and have started doing something I read about in the old Asimov and Heinlein books years ago - reading books electronically on the move.

I have a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ and, with Adobe Reader, can read books. Real ones - not 'just for nerds' ones - from the classics up to some modern (free) sci-fi from Baen.

Anyway, the point is that, IMNSHO, electronic mags will not really take off until they're transportable on PDAs or whatever the next generation of hand-helds looks like. You can't swat a fly with a PDA, but you don't need to balance it on your knees on the bog!! :lol:

[Wildfisher]

I think it's important to point out that I am talking about the  "throw away world"  of magazines and not books. Books tend to, by their nature,  be more specialised. How many books do you read 25% of then chuck in the bin?  My guess would be very few if any. Books are  with you for life, while most magazines end up on the bottom of the budgie's cage or are used to wrap up the entrails of your catch (unless you are 100% C+R). I have second-hand books  that were printed  in the 1930's  or earlier  and  are still relevant. From an environmental standpoint it might be argued that fishing (and other)  magazines are very bad news and a manifestation of our throw away society. What really started me thinking about  this was newspapers. I seldom buy one now as I can get all the news and a  much wider editorial viewpoint from TV, radio, Internet etc. Just wonder if fishing mags will end up the same once the technology makes it convenient. My guess is that it will happen, perhaps not totally but online will take an ever greater share of the market as it has done in other areas.

[Pearly Invicta]

I think we are definitely seeing a shift. I haven't bought any magazine (except Private Eye) for more than a year and I don't miss them. They just can't cover the specialised areas I'm interested in well enough. The magazines I used to buy were FF + FT (not enough wild trouting), Kayak mags (not enough sea kayaking). I find better resources on the web.

I used to buy a lot of mags at the airport to read on the plane. Now I just buy books. Much more reading for the money.