Shopsmith Forums

Yesterday I visited my favorite news stand and discovered they no longer stock any magazines on woodworking. I know sales of magazines in general are way down but at one time this place must have carried about 20 different magazines dedicated to wood working and now there are none!
I have stopped most of my subscriptions for two reasons, despicable marketing practices and practice of jazzing up the print until it is unreadable to me. Seems like the tend of using dark purple ink in a black background has found favor but I can not read the text. And why should I pay 4 times the monthly subscription rate of a new subscriber. One magazine wanted to charge me $48 per year but new subscribers were offered a $10 per year rate. Then once they have your charge card number they almost secretly automatically renew subscriptions. You have to call and cancel which most people simply do not do.

But I think these complaints effect practically all magazines in one form or another but it is still very disturbing to see the newsstand has stopped carrying any wood working magazines. Perhaps the cost of lumber and tools has killed the hobby?

I think this is an old man's game now. Old men that were around back when, and that's a dwindling supply. The new breed of old men replacing us want robots and electronics, they never took wood shop in school, and there's less of a chance their dad had any woodworking tools.

In general, people aren't interested in things made of wood, they prefer plastic.

Or glued mix of wood chips with plastic faces.

I can't comment on why that particular newstand stopped carrying them, but I just think print materials, particularly magazines are dead. The print industry (books, newspapers, magazines, etc.) has been in decline for some time now. I get a few magazines delivered at my house, but I didn't order any of them! I have never gotten a bill for them and have tried canceling to no avail. To the best of my knowledge they are not a gift subscription from anyone that I know so why am I getting them? I have no answer, other than to say perhaps they are stuffing their enrollments by sending it to me to justify the ad revenue they get. It is frustrating to get this kind of junk mail like this and the publisher doesn't care when contacted about the subscription. Granted none of these "free" magazines are woodworking related, but I just think all of them are in decline. To me, it seems like woodworking manufacturers have finally caught on with social media. Why would they continue to pay for costly ads in magazines when they can reach customers online with influencers on Instragram and free advertising from fanboys on their social media? I would argue that woodworking isn't in decline, but rather the content has shifted from print materials to online materials (YouTube, Instagram, etc.). In the past, I would have read a magazine article perhaps by Nick Engler, but today he has his YouTube channel pumping out videos every week or two. I would have checked tool reviews in Fine Woodworking in the past, but now I can get opinions of my favorite online woodworkers from their YouTube channels or talk with members here on forums like this. I just think the industry has shifted more online, i.e. woodworking itself is not in decline (IMHO), just the magazines are.

Social media has definitely displaced hardcopy. I had woodworking magazine subscriptions a couple of times but didn't renew them. I did keep them for a while, they had bits of useful info and ideas from time to time but they didn't serve the function of a magazine for me with a month size serving of reading and viewing with each issue. They are better off now in the virtual world although it may be tough for them to survive if they can't generate ad revenue.

I don't have any hard data on the popularity of woodworking as a hobby or even the demand for fine woodworking products but based on the small sample I can observe it is just not the thing it used to be. That may not mean much because many such interests run in cycles and I may be seeing the bottom of the curve as new more affordable home shop tools are appearing and YouTube videos show how to make all sorts of interesting and attractive cutting boards. So maybe woodworking will be the next big retro interest.

Okay I do agree that print media is in decline. I wonder what people do in the bathroom, I read.

But the news stand had magazines, fashion, electronic, hunting/fishing, cars, motorcycles, boats, guns, history, travel, photography, TV, porn, model building, computer, tablet,scientific, archeological, astronomy, gardening, crafts, sewing, almost any subject but no wood working or even house building.

Maybe a change of ownership at that newstand prompted them to remove ones they aren't as familiar with? I do wonder how woodworking mags are doing these days compared to the rest of the magazine industry...

Ed,

It looks like your news stand has had to trim less popular subjects. If they have to buy a minimum number of copies and cannot sell all of them they are operating at loss. When I look at what magazines are for sale at the grocery checkout it is mostly fashion and what I call "gossip" magazines (tabloids). I guess that says something because even that marketing/product placement has to be fed by some demand. The checkout selection hasn't really changed for decades. Specialty subjects may have moved to just the stores supporting that specialty. Some may be lost to electronic media while other are lost altogether.

As to woodworking being on a decline, maybe not as much as we may think. I am part of the older group but I see younger people buying my Shopsmith restorations wanting to get into woodworking. That and the continuous flow of new woodworking tools that come out on the market shows there has to be some demand there to support that.

F&W Publications, which owns 4 woodworking magazines, went bankrupt in 2019. I believe they were auctioned off and have new owners now, but perhaps they are struggling again. This wouldn't explain why 20+ woodworking magazines left the newstand, but maybe some of them have had to close up shop. F&W owns Popular Woodworking, American Woodworker, Woodworking Magazine, and Woodwork.

https://readwatchdo.com/2019/03/popular ... ankruptcy/

sadly, many industries are declining, many things will disappear, not just some magazines