Pop Woodworking Renewal Solicitation

Re: Pop Woodworking Renewal Solicitation

David Bassett

Pop Wood was sold by F+W, from a bankruptcy proceeding, to AIM the parent company of Woodsmith magazine and (they said) they plan to continue operations.

Chris Schwarz, among others, has written about this:

https://blog.lostartpress.com/2019/06/19/popular-woodworking-acquired-by-woodsmiths-parent-company/

He doesn't say, but relocating the operation doesn't seem unreasonable.

Re: Pop Woodworking Renewal Solicitation

Ray Newman

I am going to wait until the dust settles before thinking about or a future renewal of my subscription.

My subscription expired in June(?)'19 and I did not renew as the last few issues were thin and did not have very much to interest me. Same with the last few issues that I perused at the local book store.

But what I was surprised was after I received the last issue, I received a bill for a 3 year renewal which Popular Woodworking automatically renewed. Luckily it only took one E-mail to cancel.

I hope the magazine continues, but I think the loss of the Old Guard (Schwarz, et al) has/had something to do with its problems. Makes me long for the day when we had a wide variety of woodworking magazines and books to pick and choose from.

Re: Pop Woodworking Renewal Solicitation

Don Stephan

I had made a one year renewal as a favor to the person who was editor at that time, but thought the articles were addressed to brand new weekend woodworker hobbyists and wasn't offering anything for experienced woodworkers aiming to gain additional knowledge and understanding.

How I miss the heyday of Fine Woodworking before it ran within 12 months cover articles claiming to present the ultimate table saw sled. Fortunately I have years of back issues - re-reading them refreshes my memory of additional knowledge and understanding I forgot since the first reading decades ago.

Re: Pop Woodworking Renewal Solicitation

Woodie49

I like Fine Woodworking of Old where they showed How to build Tools! Been a subscriber sense Day One!

Old issues

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I find joy in reading the old FWW issues. So it is not my maturing as a woodworker that has caused me to loose interest in the current issues. They must be different and by comparison useless.

I just finished going through Home Furniture beginning to end. About 1.5 years from its demise the magazine changed. Early issues were captivating. And then the format changed to long articles that didn't feature craftsmen building stuff. I didn't care about woodworking in Silicon Valley or a general discussion of American Period Furniture. I wanted to see current stuff coming out of contemporary shops.

One fault I had with the magazine that caused me to quite it about 2 years in was its lack of information on how pieces were executed. Early on there would be a discussion or two on how some part of a piece was made and later nothing. I was not looking for plans. I was not interested in copying the piece but I was often interested in copying the technique. I would have liked to see every piece have some detail unique to the piece/builder explained. There just wasn't enough there for the builder part of their subscribers.

Re: Old issues

Woodie49

I agree with what Bill said, don't know why I still get Fine Wood Working, but I still read it.

Re: Pop Woodworking Renewal Solicitation

Martin

Mr. Bob Lang posted a historical business narrative about PW on his website back in March 2019.

It is a good read. I saw it as fair with no bashing. But a familiar sad story of a good

business run into the financial ground.

Re: Old issues

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

FWW is the only magazine to which I still have a subscription. I dropped PW some while ago after Megan left. The writing was on the wall.

I miss Woodwork magazine, which was filled with biographies, interviews, discussions of technique, and photos of completed works. FWW does provide some of this still, but nothing like their early years. PW is now much like Wood magazine, which catered for those who needed to be taken through everything step-by-step.

I want my creative juices to be inspired and to further my technical skills. Magazines today are not geared to do this. This is now the role of fori, such as WoodCentral.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Attention magazine editors.....

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

What I find lacking in my woodworking universe is a description of how to execute some part of woodworking that isn't- hasn't been- described in dozens of places. When I am looking for inspiration for the next project I often see something I would like to make and wonder, "how did they do that"? If only one of these techniques was described per issue I would buy the magazine.

If some editor thinks there is a market and lacks ideas I could provide dozens. All one has to do is thumb through early issues of Fine Furniture and almost every page shows something made with techniques uncommon to most woodworkers.

For example:

I was in Grove Park Gallery and saw an extension leaf table with an ingenious means of pulling a leaf from the table end which then self elevated to extend the table, without hardware. It did make a loud clunk as it elevated into position which sent a staff person scurrying to investigate. I was unable to investigate further.



Wil Neptune could provide years of topics. I attended a seminar where he described how to build a domed structure, and many other ingenious techniques. I was so smitten by the cleverness of this technique I went home and built a domed structure just to experience his creativity.

I agree Bill, if FWW runs another dovetail article

Dick Coers

I'll scream. The most recent issue has several good articles on wood bending. Good choices this time.

Chris Gochnour's sideboard ...

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

... with the case constructed with half-blind mitred dovetails, was excellent. I have not seen this in FWW before. I am thinking of doing this joint in my next piece.

Regards from Perth

Derek

It's inevitable, anyway..

david weaver

In the old days, shows and print media attracted all of the ad money. Where else would it go? mailers and catalogs, I guess, and there was probably more room for profitability in well made tools (the last part is important, because there's plenty of profitability in overseas junk).

It's inevitable that the publications would go downhill and get stuck focusing on data (which I believe is probably the cause for catering to beginners - they're the ones who buy the most) until they're toast. There are too many other sources of information that are free or low cost.

I had PWW and FWW subscriptions years ago, but it didn't take long before I realized that there were far better sources of information on the forums. FWW was too power tool focused for me, and I don't much favor Chris Schwartz's writing or preachiness. If you have a real question, you can post it somewhere like here and get answers from professionals (or elsewhere, George Wilson comes to mind, or Warren here).

Man can only take so many blanket chests and folding book stands. (and for the turners, I'm sure there's a similar thing "great, another bowl hollowing tools. Wheee!")

The point of it being inevitable is this - if the industry is flush with cash (as it was years ago - print magazines, etc), then you can get over the bumps without any issues. The mediocre survive and the strong thrive. The market of subscribers and the value that they perceive is now such that the mediocre disappear quickly in retrenchment, and there are seemingly no particularly strong players, but the longest lasting will have the same end. It's not the mediocrity that caused the lack of revenue, it's the difficulty in revenue that creates the lack of focus.

Re: Attention magazine editors.....

William Duffield

A couple years ago, one of our forum participants asked about those pull out leaf tables with the "clunk." He got help from several of us, including myself. I went out into the shop and photographed several details of the mechanism on my commercially manufactured table. Here is one example:

With our help, he figured it out.

If I can see and understand the mechanisms and principles of operation and construction, I don't need dimensions or plans or detailed instructions. A long time ago, Woodsmith and Shop Notes were useful for those details. I certainly found Woodwork and Home Furniture to provide enough clues for most of their illustrated projects that I would want to build. Here's one of my interpretations:

The only magazines I subscribe to any more are Mortise and Tenon and the SAPFM Journal, American Period Furniture. I dropped FWW before I dropped PopWood, but I have old FWW archives I refer to often.

Re: It's inevitable, anyway..

Bill White

I'm not renewing any 'scripts this year. Redundant stuff seems to be the norm today.

Re: Attention magazine editors..... *LINK*

Bob Lang

Like a lot of businesses in the last 20-30 years, magazine publishing became less about the content and more about crunching numbers. William Duffield mentioned the SAPFM journal, American Period Furniture, which I now edit. It is only available to members, but you will see things in the journal you won't see anywhere else, written by people who know what they're talking about.

Bob Lang


https://www.sapfm.org/american-period-furniture

Deficiency of that Journal; lack of alternatives

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

It deals with Period Furniture only. This furniture is currently largely unpopular, and of all the styles, its construction is the most thoroughly documented and available for study.

Try building a Krenov wall cabinet, for example, without someone from the school to advise on the novel means he had of assembling his airy structures. I'll wager one won't figure it out from looking at a picture. There may be a good reason when I see a Krenov style the makers pedigree includes at stint at the school. This style is not readily reinvented by looking at a picture and there aren't books that describe it in sufficient detail.

Ditto for most any of the modern designers. Most of the stuff I encountered in Fine Furniture left me wondering, how did they do that. Novel design oft times involves novel, not obvious construction.

Re: It's inevitable, anyway..

Buckaroo

Last one i 'scribed to, i cancelled first issue. The lady asked why was i cancelling, told'er first 14 pages were all adds, commercials, etc. you name'm. I can't see paying to see adds.

That table design: possibly Dutch pull out

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

Not sure why the name; you might gooogle "Dutch pull out table," which got me 14 million results, although Google was unwilling to show me all of them.