Wahoo ATV

got mine today. very disappointing, but understandable

vtec

This website is the reason.... I'm sure blogs and forums have taken away market share from printed media. I get the Wall Street Journal(in print) and I find some of the articles on Google News before I even look at the paper. There are just so many good websites with information, and they are easily searchable.

The mags are/were mostly glossy pictures and not much technical information. After a while, I almost felt stupid for looking at them.

I get better photos and inside stories from offshoreonly than from the mags. And here, you can get a dissenting opinion.
Before this website I could only see T2X on the television, now I can send him a person question.

Matt Trulio

Certainly, forums and websites all of kinds have cut into readership (or viewership if you prefer) of magazines, but that's not what has put several magazines out of business and others in survival mode.

It's display advertising cutbacks. And again, it's not that the those dollars are going elsewhere, meaning online, in any significant way. Look at this site and its competitors. Where are all the performance-boat company ads?

Three years ago, Powerboat was routinely more than 120 pages from cover to cover. What changed was that the high-performance powerboat industry went into the tank in a way it never has. Consumer magazines run on advertising dollars. Look at the latest issue of Powerboat in terms of who isn't advertising—and once was—and you'll get a clearer picture.

Lest you think I'm trying to protect my print "turf," I've made more than half of my living, for the past 10 years, creating and managing content online for Boats.com. And I'm still heavily involved online. So I am a big, big booster of the Internet. It is in my vested interest for it to succeed, and succeed big.

But I'm also big on separating myth from truth, and while it is true that many readers have opted to go online for information rather than print, it is a myth that advertising dollars have followed them, at least at present, in any significant way.

Smarty

Agreed, one bathroom break, five to ten minutes later, read cover to cover. WTF

SpeedGirl

iTrader: (1)

That is exactly what my husband said!!!!

The poor thing isn't even perfect bound but stapled!

RICHARD CUNY

THANKS MATT
It is thinn but we are all feeling the crunch keep up the good work
Rich

heatwave3

Anyone know the status of Hotboat magazine? I used to have a subscription and enjoyed the mag alot. Is it still around or out of business?

elvisali

They are unfortunately done. Held out hope when they revamped it, but I think it was too little/too late, and in my opinion, the execution of the revamp wasnt very well done. I respect the effort, but the result left something to be desired in my mind

Matt Trulio

Thanks for the support, Richard and others. And for those of you who are pissed and disappointed ... I understand completely.

I have been with Powerboat for 15 years, 10 of those as a freelance writer. I loved it when the magazine was thick. I understand why things are the way they are, but I don't like it.

Aoteoroa

Some interesting discussions here about magazines and websites so thought I would add my two cents worth.

I have been publishing magazines for about 12 years and they include aviation ones, horse racing and boat racing, and now motor racing. I think people give the internet a bit more credit than it deserves. Yes its THE place to go for breaking news and those online type features but we have found that nothing replaces the feel of having a hard copy of a magazine in your hands to read, and like it or not a full page advert for a company like Cigarette or Hustler has a LOT more impact than looking at in on a computer screen. For our helicopter industry magazine we are getting more and more advertisers coming onboard and more and more subscribers. For this magazine we have both a printed edition and a digital edition, which is available as a freebie for anyone.

The reason for this is people read the online issue, and then decide if they want to subscribe or not. We have people who have collected every single issue of HeliOps since Day 1, you cant do that with an online magazine. When I am sitting on a plane going from A to B or in a car going from Miami to Key West its much easier to sit back and read a printed copy of a magazine. I was in Hawaii recently and asked the people at Borders books in Honolulu if they noticed any drop off of people buying magazines, the answer was No, in fact they said they notice more people buying magazines. The other advantage we find with our digital edition is that people in far flung places like Afghanistan, Iraq and northern Alaska are reading it online as sometimes its impossible to get copies to them through normal mail.

I agree that the internet provides a logical solution for anyone wanting hot off the presses things like results from races, and poker runs etc, but NOTHING beats looking at a double page spread photo of an offshore boat out of the water, or the latest NorTech at full speed in a poker run. EVERY boat owner loves seeing his pride and joy in the pages of a magazine and if you say you dont then you are a liar

Internet presence is important for a magazine and especially these days when you can include video clips and interviews and instant news etc. Both the internet and printed hard copy go hand in hand to provide the best customer experience. One cannot survive without the other, and I refer to magazines here, not just sites like OSO etc.

Now onto advertisers. Every advertiser is different and has a specific target audience they are after. For example NorTech wants to ensure their magazine gets into the hands of those who can afford their boats, advertisers like Powerboat P1 and Class 1 want to target both the fans and those who have boats and would enter their series etc. Not every magazine is going to provide everything one advertiser wants so therefore its important to have a variety of magazines out there. I will use Powerboat and H2O as examples. I get people asking me how do we compare the two magazines, and my answer is very simple. Whereas H2O covers the "frontline" of the industry, ie: race reports on Class 1, poker runs, Hydroplanes, Jetsprint Boats, etc etc, Powerboat cover the back Back End of the industry primarily with their boat tests, engine features, technical features etc.

Powerboat does a lot of boat tests and they are the leader in it so its absolutely pointless in any other magazine trying to take them on head to head with that. With people like Bob Teague doing them then its a no brainer to leave it to them. We pride ourselves on our imagery from the events and that will never change. Powerboat used to have the world leader in photography doing all their best stuff but unfortunately he isnt here with us anymore (Rest in Peace Tom). Yes they still have some great photography but Tom was in a league of his own.

This economic climate sucks for any magazine and I personally dont see the internet sites reaping the benefits other than they can get banner ads for very cheap prices compared to magazines. There are some companies who dont have budgets to support the magazines and thats fine you have to do what you can afford. Even some of the big players have cut back, look at Mercury Marine, they used to be in every magazine you could think of, now they are nowhere. Will they start advertising again when times get better, yes I think they will. And then you have your stalwarts of the industry like Cigarette who still have full page ads out there and I take my hat off to them. Skip Braver still supports the industry in good and bad times, and that takes a dedicated powerboater to do that.

Have we had advertisers who have stopped advertising because of the economic conditions, absolutely. Have we had advertisers who have cut back - Yep. Will that change later this year - We Hope So.

Magazines have to make sacrifices so they can stay around. Like Matt said Powerboat used to be 100 plus pages, now they are a fraction of that size. We have shelved the mag for the majority of this year with plans to bring it back in December, as long as the support is there. With powerboat the cost savings of going from 100 pages down to their latest issue is substantial and why continue to run up the expenses when the ads arent there to cover them. Thats just plain stupid if you do and thats why we shelved H2O. Am I going to piss away $30K + each issue just for the hell of it, not on your life. Thats the fastest way to ensuring the magazine dissapears for good. I take my hat off to Powerboat, they are continuing on and keeping the mag out there, albeit in a smaller form. Will Powerboat and H2o go the way of Extreme and Hot Boat, NOPE. They will still be around but this year will see Powerboat in a smaller size and H2o on the shelf but coming back.

So thats just my two cents worth. Reason I havent bothered to mention Perf Boat mag is that after what they did to Eric Colby (a good friend) I couldnt care less whether they are around or not. But thats just my personal opinion.

There are some awesome people in this industry and its always fun out shooting their boats and meeting people but 2010 is a tough year and its not finished yet, but this industry breeds tough people, just look at Smitty, Augie, Patnaude and others. This is one industry that when it bounces back it will bounce back bigger and better than ever.

Cheers everyone and I am back to watch the Formula 1 qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix

Ned