Done with WW Magazines?

[Dave Lehnert]

I'm Just about ready to toss in the towel.

I like to read magazines so I subscribe to a lot of woodworking as well as others. I get magazines on the new stands and if I like I subscribe.
Well thats my first problem. I send in my card and guess what? I get that same issue I purchased on the news stand as my first issue. You would think the card would be coded as to what issue it came from.
I sent in a card for Fine Woodworking. I get 3 back issues all in two days??? So I receive 1/3 of my subscription in two day and they are old issues. A quick call to them fixed the problem.
WOOD magazine I have been a subscriber since around 1986-87. I was going to let that one go but got an offer 3 years for the price of one. Sent in on-line but they only gave me 2 years. A call fixed that but now I get my magazine in my Mom name???? and now receive all kinds of cooking and the like magazines???? A call fixed that problem for now.
We move on to Popular Woodworking. I get my new issue today with a renewal notice. "Please extend my subscription before I miss a single issue" it says. "We haven't received your renewal instructions. And sooner than seems possible, Your Subscription will expire". I'm paid till sometime in 2010
I am not done by a long shot but this is getting long winded.
Am I the only one that feels this way.

[Joe Vincent]

I stopped subscribing to any magazines of any kind because of similar issues although not with the mags you listed. I had been thinking about starting up a subscription to Popular Woodworking, but hearing this kind of thing certainly is a disincentive.

[Dave Lehnert]

I stopped subscribing to any magazines of any kind because of similar issues although not with the mags you listed. I had been thinking about starting up a subscription to Popular Woodworking, but hearing this kind of thing certainly is a disincentive.

I think I like POP wood the best right now. There shop is about an 20min drive from my house. I like what they are doing with hand tool education. This months issue is a good one.

[Neal Clayton]

i think the internet is gradually making these things obsolete just like it's done with the newspaper business.

just about anything for sale in print can be one-upped by a google search in about 30 seconds.

[Randal Stevenson]

I like the magazines but get tired of the fact they take no more then 30 minutes to go through (then you go back when your ready to build something out of them).

But I ordered a subscription for me (after receiving a one year subscription gift, that cost what the three year did), that was three years, and renewed my fathers for three years.

Last month he started to write a check to them to renew, due to the "renew now, your subscription will expire soon" bs. I had him go grab his copy and shown him the 2010 expiration date on the mailing label. That is a misleading practice to try to get more money out of people (because when they come due, they offer three year deals again), that I think should get the attention of the BBB and local attorney generals (deceptive practice). The older you get, the smaller the fonts.

[Joe Vincent]

I think I like POP wood the best right now. There shop is about an 20min drive from my house. I like what they are doing with hand tool education. This months issue is a good one.

I agree. Popular Woodworking is my favorite. I still pick up FWW once in a while, like their current issue which I think is good.

[Don Bullock]

I take several woodworking magazines. On some magazines the renewal notice comes more that a year before the subscription expires. My wife pays the bills and keeps a list of them and their expiration dates because it's very easy to send in money every time they send out a renewal notice. Like others, my favorite right now is Popular Woodworking.

[Alex Shanku]

I dont subscribe to any, as some of the issues I dont find interesting (or more likely, redundant from a previous publication)

I still think Woodwork is the best mag out there. FWW a close 2nd.

[Sean Kinn]

Yep same here...I get a 2yr subscription, and on the second issue I receive they have the "renew now or risk missing an issue" warning. Drives me buggy since I usually ask for magazine subscriptions as gifts and can't quite remember when they started. I'm pretty much letting them all expire at this point and sticking with online and/or dvd archive versions.

[glenn bradley]

I learned to avoid the problems (mostly) by subscribing directly from the publisher. The "great deals" some magazine selling outfits offer is lost in the frustration. FWW online seems to be about the best overall bargain out there for me.

[Jim Becker]

I've tempered my magazine reading in the past few years. Fine Woodworking, and Woodwork have been my main reads as of late and have been my only subscriptions, although I did subscribe to the non-advertising Woodworking magazine that Chris Schwartz edits recently.

FW has also done me a big favor in offering the first 201 issues on DVDROM which I just ordered. A very large pile of paper magazines will no longer be vying for storage around here. (I just had another woodworker pick up many years of several magazines) In the future, I'll just buy the annual disks for archival and sell or give away the paper issues.

[Rod Sheridan]

The only magazine that I continue to subscribe to is Fine Woodworking.

I became tired of more deck building and bird feeder articles that the other magazines seemed to promote.

My interest in woodworking magazines tends to be towards methods of work, rather than build this table type of article.

I know the basics, what I need is information from experts on specialised items such as marquetry or finishing techniques.

If I see one more article on why I need a planer or jointer, my blood pressure monitor may go off.

Now, this changes of course as your experience and knowledge changes, there isn't anything wrong with an article on why I need a jointer, it's just that for me, it's redundant information.

Regards, Rod.

[rob mason]

At one time, I got them all, but the proliferation of information on the intarwebz has helped me more than the magazines.

I did recently re-subscribe to Popular Woodworking only because my sone was selling them for a school fund-rasier.

[Heather Thompson]

I do not subscibe to any magazines, buy them at my local bookstore, the mailman can be brutal and I hate that. The magazines that I buy ever time are FWW and WoodWork, to me WoodWork brings the true spirit of woodworking home, the intellectual and spiritual side of the craft. The issue of technique and style are very important, but for me what drives the artist is paramont, it helps me find my own creative self. I would take WoodWork to a deserted island along with my hand tools and be very happy.

Heather

[Tom Hargrove]

I agree that the marketing techniques used by magazine publishers are annoying. But it seems like they all do it, and I can't say that that one publisher is worse than another. These tactics are not so offensive that I have cancelled a subscription, or refused to subscribe. The end date of each subscription is generally printed on the mailing label, so I keep track of things that way. I quickly review and then recycle all other marketing junk that I get.

I still like getting paper documents, since I often re-read an article several times. This is especially true if I am using the article for inspiration for a project. I also enjoy the information in some of the advertisements, specifically material, tool and hardware suppliers. It is more difficult to do this when I get information from an internet source, unless I store and print the information.

I am a relatively new Pop Wood subscriber, and recently bought a news stand copy of Woodworking. I think the projects they feature are more in line with the projects I might actually build. The photos look less staged than in other publications, and often show actual sawdust and clutter in the work areas. The Pop Wood editors also admit that they are still learning after many years of experience in the craftmake, and often make mistakes, which I find refreshing.

I gave up my FWW subscription last year after about 15 years, but still read issues at the library from time to time. If I like something, I make a photo copy, then scan it into my computer.