Popular Woodworking Magazine--Major changes in personnel

[bffulgham]

Quoting Megan Fitzpatrick (Her full blog entry is here):
[INDENT]Following a restructuring of the woodworking team by our parent company, three people have elected to leave the company. October 15 will be the last day as part of the F+W woodworking community for Robert Lang, Glen Huey and Chuck Bender.[/INDENT]

It will be interesting to see if Pop Wood flourishes or wilts with the changes. The parent company for Pop Wood bought the parent company for American Woodworker and have stopped publishing American Woodworker. If Pop Wood can hang on to the contributing authors for AW(Mario Rodriguez, and others), they might have a chance.

It is also going to be interesting to see what Huey, Lang, and Bender do with their new venture 360_Woodworking

[Ed in Tampa]

I was never of a fan of Popular Woodworking.
However I am interested in this new venture 360 woodworking. The website is under construction at this point. If you track it, will you please let us know when it gets up and running?

Thanks

[WmZiggy]

I subscribe to Popular Woodworking because it is one of the few mags that blends hand and machine tool work, which is what my shop is all about. I hope they survive the corporate ax.

[bffulgham]

I was never of a fan of Popular Woodworking.
However I am interested in this new venture 360 woodworking. The website is under construction at this point. If you track it, will you please let us know when it gets up and running?

Thanks

I 'signed up' on the 360 site and will watch for updates.

Likes and dislikes for magazines is about the same as the "best" make/model/version of vehicle, computer, or operating system. EMV (Everyones' Mileage Varies)

Pop Wood is the only magazine I've got a current subscription to, and it's probably not going to be renewed next year. I'm just about to the point I got to on gun magazines several years ago.... Nothing new is being published and I've got access to lots of various articles on whatever on the web. Periodical publishing is a tough, tough business in today's world.

[fitzhugh]

Interesting news.
I've been reading through all the old fine woodworking issues, starting with no. 1. They sure were much more to my taste then, back when i was still in diapers. I like the longer format articles with real writing and a totally different focus than the modern "7 Jigs You Didn't Know You Need!" "5 Shades Of Stain To Use Everywhere!" "New Colors Of Sandpaper To Make You S Better Woodworker!" "Yet Another Tool You Must But If You Want Your Wife To Love You!"

I don't like the modern 'grab eyes in checkout line' format.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll see what we 360 is all about.

[WmZiggy]

I was looking at my old issues of The American Woodworker. It was an honest 9x12 format in black and white. Great line drawings. Indepth articles. Great photography also in B&W. I remember when it went to color, cut the size and it was downhill from there. I dropped them when they became like everyone else. That's progress.

[cincinnati]

Popular woodworking shop is local to me here in Cincinnati. I keep up with the magazine because I felt they were doing their best for the woodworking community. Will be interesting to see what's next.

Not far from the shop is a Half Price Books store. It was not uncommon to see someone from Popular Woodworking in the woodworking book section.

[charlese]

It's sad - at least to me - when a woodworking publication comes upon hard times, or worse yet if publication stops.

That said, I stopped subscribing to PW Several months ago because The Mag plainly became my least favorite out of 8 subscriptions. I really hope they keep on going, even though I feel they have not fulfilled my needs for the past year.

[bffulgham]

I had an email this morning with this link to a YouTube video that gives a basic plan for what Bender, Huey, and Lang are trying to put together.

It sounds like a grand plan that is going to be boom or bust for 360 WoodWorking.

[forrestb]

I tried it for a while but found that its articles on actually doing woodworking projects were written at too high a level (missing a lot of detail) for my capabilities leaving me . Maybe in a few years I will know how to 'fill in the blanks' left in their projects. I have subscribed to 360 Woodworking and will check them out - thanks for the link.

Forrest