Are Performance-Boat Magazines Dead?
 

In light of the "Sad Day for Powerboat Magazine" thread, I offer the following, http://features.boats.com/boat-conte...agazines-dead/.

I suspect this provoke discussion, and that's a good thing. Like everyone involved with Powerboat, I appreciate your support and value your feedback.

Dead? No, not completely. Just as newspapers will never completely disappear, so will magazines continue to live on.

Missing a gigantic on-line opportunity? Absolutely.

The demand is there, and sites like this are a testament to that. Paying for printed content that you already saw on-line months after you saw it on a site like OSO is a losing proposition.

Who cares if bloggers or testers keep a lid on a boat test until the issue is published? Inevitably the detail, and then some, will surface on-line on one of the various hi-perf sites.

You would think the with the connections and capability of the organization that owns/runs Powerboat, that a top notch website would exist that would have people lining up to pay a monthly fee for exclusive content that could not be had elsewhere else.

Am I completely missing something here?

+1

To this end, Powerboat has done a lot to improve its site in the past couple of years. It is far from finished, but the push is, most definitely, on.

You are right. The opportunity is there. Trust me, the site you're talking about will happen sooner rather than later.

But anything done well, including a great web site, requires investment and—this being the real world—a revenue stream. No site I am aware is profitable, much less exists, on member fees. But display advertising online has now surpassed newspaper advertising in terms of dollars spent, so the potential for profit exists.

Still, as I said, resources are tight and most magazines, Powerboat included, are still figuring out how to build and run a site that compliments, rather than cannibalizes, the magazine itself.

The two most powerful aspects of the Internet are speed and reach. The interactive component of it is yet another compelling element . Magazines can still exist rather well, but they have to work harder on presenting feature stories rather than "game" stories.

Hey Matt, I love all the work you do and look forward to reading all your articles in Powerboat.... I support the mag. completely and hopefully things are looking up long-term... I look forward to saying HI at DS in April.....!!

PokerRun388,

Thanks for the kind words. I am flattered and grateful for your support.

That said, we can do a hell of a lot better in the online realm, as was pointed out in an earlier post.

I spend a lot of time on OSO and I also have many an issue of Powerboat Mag in my favorite reading room. I find myself looking through old issues too especially in winter. I don't want to see the print buisness go away.

Good luck Matt, I enjoy your articles.

I personaly hope the printed magazine stays around. We all see alot of info online but when i open the mailbox and see my new issue of Powerboat among the stack of bills it always brings a smile. I just renewed my subscription for 2 years. Good luck PB mag. and the performance boat industry in general.

I would have thought that Powerboat had a vision into the future years ago and bought OSO or started its own online forum to coincide with the magazine. Along with subscriptions would come an annual online membership fee. If it was me, I would try to buy this site or one like it with an established following already in place.

Chop down some trees, print a story that was actually written last month, squeeze the 30 pages of info in between 45 pages of ads, deliver it through the US Postal service and then charge the guy $12-20 a year?

Yeah sign me up! :D


The model of subscription magazines is going to go the way of tv repairmen and travel agents. The most successful print model I can think of is the Wall Street Journal. They are getting decent subscription rates for their online version and while it does cannibalize their print version to a point it also supplements their bottom line. The threshold of profit is to be lower for online vs. print so the price should be as well!


Would you rather read a boat test or watch a 8-10 minute video like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5mBk6gRifw ?