The New Popular Woodworking Magazine
This is old news for some of you, but in case you haven’t heard, Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine have merged! This has caused quite a stir amongst subscribers of both publications. Popular Woodworking was a bit more of a “something for everyone” offering, with projects, reviews, special interest articles, and of course, ads. But Woodworking Magazine was something all together different. The look of the magazine was somewhat subdued with a simple layout and black & white images. There were no ads and as a result, the reviews tended to be a little more hard-hitting. The projects went into greater depth and featured more advanced techniques. So you can see how a fan of either magazine might be concerned about what a merging of the two might result in. Would it truly be the best of both worlds? Would it be a two-headed monster of the Woodworking world? Or will the stronger monster head simply eat the other one, resulting in one very powerful monster head, and nothing more than a stump to remember the other one by? I really don’t know why I resorted to a monster head analogy, but speaking of two-headed monsters, please enjoy this video of the two-headed monster shopping for shoes.
So, the first combo issue arrived at my doorstep this week. I eagerly cracked it open and started taking it all in. Keeping true to their promise, the magazine is bigger, brighter, and printed on better quality paper. The layout for the cover is all Woodworking Magazine. As for the inside, I definitely see more Popular Woodworking. And really, that’s to be expected. Some of the most notable features of Woodworking Magazine were black and white photos, no advertising, and projects that span multiple articles. Obviously, these things just aren’t going to work for this single magazine that needs to be as many things as possible to as many people as possible (including advertisers).
All that said, the content was excellent. I found myself really getting into the Jerome Bias article on Thomas Day. A free southern black woodworker that owned his own slaves!?!? Yeah, you should read that article! I also found Bob Lang’s primer on tables to be very informative. Its one of those articles you want to cut out and put on your shop wall so you never forget this stuff. And of course there are some great offerings from other notables, like Chris Schwarz, Chuck Bender, Bob Flexner, Roy Underhill, Glen Huey, and Kari Hultman.
Now there’s one other aspect that we can’t ignore. The folks at Popular Woodworking Magazine are making a considerable effort to have more of an online presence. At the end of each article there is a small box that refers you to various online resources. This gives the author an opportunity to expand on a particular topic in a way that is just not possible in the magazine. And if you ask me, this is where the most exciting stuff is going to be. For some odd reason, I seem to favor video. Go figure! Now while the list of links is handy in concept, I find the TinyURL links to be rather off-putting. For those of you who aren’t familiar, TinyURL is a service that takes very long links and shortens them for you. This can be very handy when space is a consideration. So instead of a link like Popularwoodworking.com/marcs-awesome-article, you might see tinyurl.com/3s5u5hy. This works well on the web, but in a magazine, it just doesn’t work for me. Furthermore, should TinyURL go down the pooper, all links published in this magazine will be non-functional. A meaningful link with proper words would be much easier for me to remember, and I wouldn’t necessarily need the magazine by my side to find the content online. But of course, there isn’t enough space to put a full-length link in the magazine. While reading, I found myself in one of those virtual/real-life cross-over moments where all I wanted to do was click the link on the page. Of course, this is all a work in progress and I won’t even pretend to have a better solution for them. But what I hope to see is a dedicated page for each issue (on the website), where you can find all the supplementary material in one place. Then perhaps at the end of the article, they can refer people to PopularWoodworking.com/April2010. This way, its an easy link to remember and I don’t actually need the magazine when I am at my computer. Once readers get to the web page, the site itself will help them find the content they are looking for. For all I know, this might already be in the works.
Well, enough griping about a minor detail. Overall, I really enjoyed reading the new issue. I also love the fact that the Popular Woodworking staff, in addition to being a darn nice group of people, are very much aware of the changing landscape in media. And rather than waiting for the current to push them to their destination, they strapped on an outboard motor and are steering themselves in the direction they feel they need to go. I suggest either subscribing, or picking up a copy at your local newsstand. When you read it, come back here and let me know what you think. A discussion was already started in the Community if you would like to chime in with your thoughts.
***Just heard from The Schwarz: “The tinyurls will go away in a couple issues once we switch to Drupal. Then we’ll have meaningful urls.” That’s great to hear!
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It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. I love paper mags for sitting, browsing, reading articles. I love online INDEXES that include searchable content and keywords.
Online mag as a SUPPLEMENT to a paper copy is a nice to have. But as a standalone, without the paper version, online mag browsing via the web leaves a lot to be desired with current technology.
It looks like MOST publications — newspapers, mags and books — are going digital because of costs and/or loss of readership and ad revenue. I hope somebody comes up with a really good total package that works well.
I am really interested to see how this works out as well. It seems as though everyone is trying to go paperless nowadays, which is fine, but it should be an option. Especially to those of us who still like paper copies.
3rd to comment! Where’s my prize? I like actual magazines. It is still somewhat normal to carry books around and pull them out and read them when you have free moments, almost anywhere you go. Even with the plethora of personal electronic media web browsing products out there, they aren’t always appropriate everywhere you go. At least, I get funny looks when I take my laptop into the bathroom because I want to watch the latest podcast from the Wood Whisperer! Like Jim, an internet supplement to magazines is nice, but not a replacement. I had never heard of tinyurls before, but I can see how that could cause problems. And no, I hadn’t heard that the two mags were merging, but it sure clears up a lot of confusion! Thanks, Marc.
I was fortunate to be in a class last week in Atlanta with Chris Schwarz. He talked briefly about the changes to the magazines, and pointed out that the same editorial staff produced both Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine. The same folks are still responsible for the new Popular Woodworking Magazine, so there is some comfort there.
I don’t know about this internet thing though – I think it is just a passing fad. Ha!
Still waiting to see if I have a subscription or if I need to hit a newstand. Looking forward to the new format, though. Definitely want to read Chuck’s new article. I’ve liked the articles in both mags, so I don’t mind seeing them shrank to one. Should give them a bit more free time for the online content.
As for online content, I would like to see the woodworking magazines develop a presence on mobile reading devices like the Kindle, Nook or upcoming iPad. In fact, the iPad could be nice since it should be able to link straight to videos and more info. Fine Woodworking even had a chat about this a few weeks back. Google Sketchup, Pop Woodworking and WoodWhisperer/WoodTalk Online on an iPad and I’m set!
Love the two headed monster video! The “Sporting” shoes were awesome.
I don’t think it will be a monster, although the vid was entertaining. Should be a good thing if they get it all merged properly.
I stopped my subscription because the magazine has terrible graphics for explaining construction of projects. I think Fine Woodworking and Wood Magazine have fine illustrations. I prefer FWW. It is a shame that Popular Woodworking can’t pump more money into improving their illustrations.
I subscribed to both. Pop Woodworking had some good stuff, but it always felt like something I’d pickup at an airport newsstand when desperate for reading material. Woodworking Magazine was perfect for me though bigger or more often would have been fun. I liked the b&w photos (which are not really straight b&w, could be duo- or even tri-tone, which explains the richness) being a old-timey graphics person. Spreading a topic over several articles felt like a graduate seminar or something special. I do repeat reading of those mags frequently. Just received first edition today. Felt good that they copied many aspects of the Woodworking Magazine look and feel. Just read Kari’s article and Chris’ introduction. Time will tell how the magazine holds up to my expectations and desires. Chris is a great blogger, but the old pop woodworking website home page would totally put me off. Just seemed like ad for books, DVDs and such and totally cluttered, but without obvious content. Never made it past that intro. Yuckkk. I suspect that they’ll develop the online aspect much stronger. Degree of usefulness to little ol’ me, we shall see. Rock on.
should be interesting indeed. I haven’t had a script to a mag in years…Seemed to me like they were nothing more than a book of ads.
I am looking forward to the new format and am anxious to get my hands on one to see what they have done.
The paper magazines are my preferred method of relaxing and enjoying articles on woodworking. I find a certain value in the online supplementation though too.
A blending of the two seems very attractive to me as a reader. A publication with strong articles being supplemented with online videos and regular blogs seems like a good mix.
First I think the merger could be very good if they stay focused on the customer and not the advertisers. Without magazine buyers you have no advertisers. Now with that said I believe they must combine traditional print with the web.I am a commercial printer by trade and trust me I have watched companies in the last decade try to save a buck by going web only to return printing with a smaller mailing list. Not all readable material should be web only. News papers are on exception, they average person will be happy reading the news online. The average woodworker will not in my opinion. It comes down to on key point give your customers what they desire and they will come, continue providing for them they will stay, get caught up in the advertisers and forget about the customer, fade away. Case and point Marc provides a great web based site that is truly web based could you imagine it as a magazine? no but us magazine readers will love to visit it because it provides a different view. So as mentioned earlier combine the two in a good way and get great rewards. They should join up with the woodwhisperer let Marc do what he knows how to do and they should stick to printing. Wouldnt it be cool if they included the average customer maybe vist their shops say hi and do a story each month?
“But of course, there isn’t enough space to put a full-length link in the magazine.”
Nonsense. Full length links need be no more complicated than: popularwoodworking.com/issue17/article02.htm or something similar. Drupal, as Chris indicates, uses a fairly simple (if more opaque) scheme.
No need for TinyURL or those long keyword filled (and mostly meant so that Google ranks your page highly) URL’s either.
I really like the new magazine. I like mags but I figure in about three years I will buy a nook, or kindle or something and get all my mags electronically. Just because it takes up less space!