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Canal boat magazine


Adam

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What in the world has happened to this, haven't read it for perhaps 10 years and took out a subscription recently. Many oddities I have noticed, the missing of a expert in "ask the expert" (I always enjoyed reading Tony's answers) they infact seem to be missing many questions asked at all. It reads now more like a advert for rcr.

 

The highlight this month is a picture of a domestic water pump in a article entirely about bilge pumps and stern gear...

 

 

Has this magazine essentially lost its reader base and is dying a slow death?

 

Discuss 

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8 hours ago, Adam said:

Has this magazine essentially lost its reader base and is dying a slow death?

 

Discuss 

You've answered your own question by asking it on CWDF, rather than sending a letter to the magazine editor, to perhaps be published a month later, or more likely, placed in the round file under the editors desk.

CWDF, other forums and social media groups are easier, quicker and cheaper, so have taken a lot of their readership. For news, anything in a magazine is weeks out of date. For boat sellers and brokers, especially in a fast market like the current one, a boat can be sold in an on-line ad in days, rather than wait weeks before the boat even appears in a classified, or as part of a full page spread. An online listing on the brokers web site, or Apollo Duck can have more detail and visuals than a dead tree advert ever could. That leaves equipment, marinas and other advertisers for ad revenue.

A death spiral for magazines. Lack of readership and ad revenue decreases the number and quality of writers and articles it can afford. Space is filled with cheap ads that don't bring in much cash and put off readers, leading to cancelled subscriptions and the spiral spins down another level towards closure. Fewer people prefer their information arriving on slow, low information density, glossy dead trees. Those that do skew towards the older end of the population, though I probably shouldn't say that, since I'm heading towards that end of the distribution!

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We subscribed to both the major boatimags for years, but last year we didn't renew our subscriptions when they became due. I do enjoy the magazine formet - three or four mags, principally music- and railway-related, arrive here each month. But I found that I was enjoying CB and WW less.

   This could be because for me two of the key features were the canal of the month and the new boat test. Regarding the former, there are only so many canals to write about and they don't change that much over the years, so by the time the Morth Oxford, for example, was featured, I felt that I'd read it all before en and five years ago. For the latter, the boats tested seemed latterly to lack variety, a dreary procession of 57' Tyler Wilson shells with reverse layouts, corian (what is that?) work tops and Beta 43 engines. Oh, and every boat they tested was apparently wonderful (and offering great value at just £120,000), an aspect probably not unconnected with the full page advert taken out by the builder.

   So, we found that as we read each issue we were getting a sense of déja vu, and we felt that we'd vu'd enough.

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Tinternet is mainly to blame for the demise of such publications, there are way more sources of info out there now than when such as Tony gave brilliant service in magazines. Much of the stuff on tinternet is rubbish but you can sift some of it out. For instance, when we were looking for our first liveaboard in 1989 the couple of canal mags were invaluable for the boats for sale adverts, no internet then for boat stuff. We found our first boat in Waterways World, how often would that happen these days?

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8 minutes ago, nicknorman said:


I think the reason why the editor couldn’t find someone to replace you was that you would be a very hard act to follow. Your combination of decades of practical experience across a wide range of boats, theoretical knowledge, and experience of passing that on to others via training courses, was unique. A lot of people think they are irreplaceable, but in your case you were.

Creepy.  But true.

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6 minutes ago, nicknorman said:


I think the reason why the editor couldn’t find someone to replace you was that you would be a very hard act to follow. Your combination of decades of practical experience across a wide range of boats, theoretical knowledge, and experience of passing that on to others via training courses, was unique. A lot of people think they are irreplaceable, but in your case you were.

 

Thank you, but I am sure there will be others with similar attributes out there, the problem is finding them. For instance, I think Tracy could do it, but I did not ask because of what she has let on about her condition, she would be in a similar position to me.

1 minute ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Creepy.  But true.

 

I don't think so, I am sure that you would be good at it under other circumstances. See above.

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2 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

You've answered your own question by asking it on CWDF, rather than sending a letter to the magazine editor, to perhaps be published a month later, or more likely, placed in the round file under the editors desk.

CWDF, other forums and social media groups are easier, quicker and cheaper, so have taken a lot of their readership. For news, anything in a magazine is weeks out of date. For boat sellers and brokers, especially in a fast market like the current one, a boat can be sold in an on-line ad in days, rather than wait weeks before the boat even appears in a classified, or as part of a full page spread. An online listing on the brokers web site, or Apollo Duck can have more detail and visuals than a dead tree advert ever could. That leaves equipment, marinas and other advertisers for ad revenue.

A death spiral for magazines. Lack of readership and ad revenue decreases the number and quality of writers and articles it can afford. Space is filled with cheap ads that don't bring in much cash and put off readers, leading to cancelled subscriptions and the spiral spins down another level towards closure. Fewer people prefer their information arriving on slow, low information density, glossy dead trees. Those that do skew towards the older end of the population, though I probably shouldn't say that, since I'm heading towards that end of the distribution!

I cancelled my subscription last year, for some reason I was paying peanuts for it and they caught up with me! Wanted a fortune to continue, I could not justify it

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1 minute ago, peterboat said:

I cancelled my subscription last year, for some reason I was paying peanuts for it and they caught up with me! Wanted a fortune to continue, I could not justify it

peanut ! Sure it wasn’t crispto.🤣

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I like the magazine format and I still subscribe to both CB & WW but I think Canal Boat Mag declined after editor Nick Wall retired about 6 years ago. I'd never pay the extortionate prices for buying them from newsagents but with a subscription it's not too bad. They are both quite 'same old' though, but then it must be a challenge at times to keep coming up with new stuff.

 

I think that of the two, WW is by far the better one. Mind you I write the occasional article for them so I'm a bit biased 😃.

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I initially started taking WW in the 70's. Indeed somewhere I still have the first 4 issues from 1972 I think.

 

Then I took Canal and Riverboat magazine as well until its demise and then Canal Boat magazine when it first came out.

 

I dropped them all over the last 15 years because they became less relevant to me and repetitive.

 

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58 minutes ago, cuthound said:

I initially started taking WW in the 70's. Indeed somewhere I still have the first 4 issues from 1972 I think.

 

Then I took Canal and Riverboat magazine as well until its demise and then Canal Boat magazine when it first came out.

 

I dropped them all over the last 15 years because they became less relevant to me and repetitive.

 

 

I think that the reply above and several others have hit the nail on the head. They are probably a good resource for those coming to or who are new to boating, but as readers gain experience they become less and less relevant. Because WW covers ore than just the boats and cruising, it can probably hold onto readers interested in the waterways for longer than CB.

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I was chatting with a CanalBoat magazine bloke yesterday. Just random chatting as he had a boat and he did mention things had changed. 

 

I asked if he knew Bones and yes he did. 

 

I don't do magazines but I can imagine with the internet situation there is probably more pressure than ever to gain income from advertising. 

 

 

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The Canal Boat Magazine seems to have published an article on the Derby Canal in December 2022 which is a useful catch-up on that waterway's progress, or lack of it. The problems of the Society seem as challenging as the Lapal Canal and yet they persevere with a trip boat on the Derby and revised plans to get around obstructions which would have stopped some restorations.

mapderby-5.jpg

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On 12/03/2023 at 08:11, Athy said:

so by the time the Morth Oxford, for example, was featured, I felt that I'd read it all before en and five years ago.

 

Blimey and I've never even heard of that one. 

 

I should probably get out more....

 

 

 

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On 12/03/2023 at 10:10, peterboat said:

I cancelled my subscription last year, for some reason I was paying peanuts for it and they caught up with me! Wanted a fortune to continue, I could not justify it

Many years ago a nephew gave me a years subscription as a Christmas present. The following year he bought me something else. CB continued to send me copies. (I checked with nephew who confirmed that he had NOT renewed subscription). Copies only stopped arriving on my doorstep a couple of years ago and yes I did send several emails trying to stop them but to no effect.

 

On a totally different subject how do I change my displayed personal details ie name of boat? 

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