Done with WW Magazines?

[Ray Schafer]

I am not going to renew any of my woodworking magazines because of the deceptive practice of trying to get me to renew when I still have several years on my subscription. I hate that!

I am going to start using the web exclusively. I can get FWW from the local library.

Here is a notice to the WW magazines: If you stop being deceptive, I will renew!

[Alan DuBoff]

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 have noticed this also, and I know I'm paid for a couple years. This is very misleading to the subscriber, IMO.

To be honest, Popular Woodworking seems to be turning into a similar magazine as FWW, more and more advertisements, more tailored to projects I probably won't do, and more and more SPAM falling out of it on the floor. I don't plan to renew at this time, although have a year or two left, maybe I'll change my mind.

Woodworking, which has no advertisement in it is still my favorite, even though it only comes out 4 times a year.

I find I can get much of the information online these days, so magazines are becoming less important. Much of it is re-hashed anyway...

[Bill Arnold]

The only subscriptions I take are Fine Woodworking and Wood. I've been getting 'renew now' notices from Wood for a couple of years, although my subscription runs until March, 2009. Their renewal rate was also higher than a new subscription, so I challenged them on it. I sent an email asking why I could get a substantially lower rate through a third-party. They asked what rate I had found and offered me the same deal for a renewal.

[Lori Kleinberg]

I agree the constant renewal notices do get to be a pain. I have also started to keep a seperate list that has the magazines subscription ending date. On the other hand, I have found at least with the woodworking mags, a quick email to the publisher or editor usually clears up any problems.
I like getting the actual magazine in hand, as opposed to reading it on the internet. I have kept all the past issues, because I like to go back over them. Sometimes for the plans for myself or if a family member wants me to make something but not quite sure how to explain it, I give them the magazines to thumb through.
I have subscriptions to Wood, Shop Notes, Woodsmith and Popular Woodworking. I do not presently get FWW. I would like to but they are expensive. I have been thinking lately of doing the online subscription for this one magazine, otherwise I like to cuddle on the couch with one of my woodworking magazines and my little girl (dog).

[Jim Becker]

Heather, hopefully, the new publishers of Woodwork will keep all that is good with the magazine intact....

[Paul Steiner]

I do like woodwork magazines but they rotate topics about every five years. I have been give some old WOOD magaizines and I have three that claim "build the best router table". I have built a few projects from the magazines, but I wonder if the money is better spent buying plans or contributing to this site.
But my best project for my woodshop classes comes from a 1986 WOOD magazine. Plans for a boomerang, my students love it.

[Adam Cavaliere]

I wish magazine publishers would use something like Zinio to publish their content. I like having it in electronic form. I can still print out an article if I want to have it in the shop (even though there is a computer in there ). I get other magazines through there and enjoy it greatly.

[Jon Grider]

I gave up my subscription habit a decade ago. Occasionally,I'll spend an evening at the public library perusing current and back issues to see if I'm missing anything,but generally,I'm not. The trend seems to be less substance and more ads. For 8 bucks a pop for FWW, it's just not worth it for what you get imo.

[Rick Potter]

I subscribe to about 10 magazines, several on woodworking. I found out years ago that I get the best deal by calling their subscription dept. number and asking what kind of deal I can get. Often it is a multi year, sometimes it is a great deal for only one year. On the one year only deals, I can usuall call a couple weeks later and extend it for another. I never subscribe through the mail unless it is a smokin' deal.

I have found that many of the early extension offers I get are from 3rd party companies that sell subscriptions in a bundle. Apparantly the magazine publishers allow them to do that.

I may find several magazine issues that are of little interest to me, but during the subscription period I always find tips, or projects that make the whole subscription worth the money, especially since I usually get a year for the price of two or three issues. Therefore, I keep subscribing.

Rick Potter

[Jeff Nicol]

Hey all, My Dad is 70 and he has years and years of WOOD, FWW, SHOPNOTES, and a couple others! He dropped off about 200 so far and I have a lot of reading to do! So I guess this is a gloat and I love it!! When I am done maybe they will go on the sale page!

Have a great night!

Jeff

[Gary Lange]

You need to watch your subscriptions very close and write down when you sent it in and when it may be up for renewal. They send out what looks to be a renewal slip and before the wife figured out the scam we were 10 years up on my Outdoor Photography. Now everything we subscribe to is written in a book and when these things come she checks the expiration if it isn't do in the trash they go.

[Randal Stevenson]

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.

For those of us who aren't up on it, how many DVD's would it take to get to the current issue, do you think? (I don't know if they increased the number of issues or anything, so as someone with some older issues, you might have a better feel for it).

Thanks

[Jim Becker]

Randal, all 201 issues are on one DVDROM data disk. At $149 for the disk, it's a steal... Free shipping, too, for a short period of time.

[Randal Stevenson]

Randal, all 201 issues are on one DVDROM data disk. At $149 for the disk, it's a steal... Free shipping, too, for a short period of time.

So the current issue is 201, then? I will probably be ordering it pretty soon then. (work had me order something, which I found new, via ebay, and qualified for the cashback, and work still saved some $ and I keep the cashback).

I am being harassed by the family for a Christmas list, I may have to put the other half on it, but would prefer to put the part I emailed EZ about.

Thanks

[John Carlo]

And then the best part! You will now learn to build a workbench and do hand cut dovetails and build the latest jigs over and over and over....You will also start feeling guilty that your shop needs just a bit more organization so you will not really have time to build anything. I just don't find much new to offer in WW mags anymore.