More adverts than stuff to read about...

[Series1boy]

Just received the latest what hifi mag and half if not more of the content are adverts. Are the writers struggling to find stuff to write about. The mag seems to be getting less and less with content and I'm seriously thinking of cancelling my subscription!

 

[tinkywinkydipsylalapo]

Don't most magazines run with at best a mix of about 50:50 adverts and editorial content, with some having a much greater proportion of ads? Usually a magazine with a lot of adverts is the mark of a successful one, isn't it?

Provided the number of editorial pages isn't going down, I'm not sure there's any reason to complain (though I have to admit I only look at the magazine fairly rarely these days, as just about everything seems to be on the website, for free!).

 

[Series1boy]

Compared to other magazines such as what mountain bike, home cinema choice, and singletrack I read, they are around 70/30 editorial/adverts.

The reviews can be found for free on other free websites so I'm going to cancel my subscription.

 

[chebby]

Being a bit bored I have just done a 'content vs ads' count of HFN & RR from January 1984 (85 pence).

Ads = 72.5 pages (Including back cover, inside back cover and inside front cover.)

Content = 68.5 pages (Including front cover, contents page, letters and crossword.)

So - almost - 50/50.

But the articles and the features and letters and reviews (of equipment LPs and CDs) are so well written and absorbing that they are easily forgiven for the - slight - preponderance of adverts. In fact, many of the ads are a damned good read too! (Thanks Harman Kardon especiallly.)

The product photographs (in the 'content') are much smaller and less frequent and the fonts smaller. A recent WHF? can be read in a lunchbreak. A 1980s issue of HFN&RR could probably last a couple of days and still demand some re-reading (especially with legends like Barry Fox writing for them).

This Audiolab review was over four and a half pages long (including the lab report) so you can imagine how much there was to read in the whole magazine. You also have to actually read a review to find out if they liked the item (at the very least the conclusion which, just by itself, could run to more paragraphs than an entire WHF? review). Nowadays you get a big photo a star rating and 'For' 'Against' columns and a couple of large print paragraphs (concerned mostly with how much 'wallop' it has) written - and part pasted - by some marketing intern probably.

 

[Xanderzdad]

I'd back up your findings Chebby. I cancelled my subscription for exactly these reasons.

Older copies, which I only recently recycled, lasted me a few days whereas the recent copies were a few hours at most. Too many advertorial type pictures, larger simpler language and not enough content.

I was sad to cancel but it just isn't worth the money any more.

Personally it feels like Andrew Everard maintained a standard that the magazine generally could not match and once he was gone it went downhill rapidly.

 

[spiny norman]

A 1980s issue of HFN&RR could probably last a couple of days and still demand some re-reading (especially with legends like Barry Fox writing for them).

See also longer, hotter summers, chickens with real flavour, proper snow in the winter, smoking on the top deck of buses, chips wrapped in newspaper... ;-)

 

[Vladimir]

A 1980s issue of HFN&RR could probably last a couple of days and still demand some re-reading (especially with legends like Barry Fox writing for them).

See also longer, hotter summers, chickens with real flavour, proper snow in the winter, smoking on the top deck of buses, chips wrapped in newspaper... ;-)

You got him with that one.

 

[MajorFubar]

This Audiolab review was over four and a half pages long ...Nowadays you get a big photo a star rating and 'For' 'Against' columns and a couple of large print paragraphs (concerned mostly with how much 'wallop' it has) written - and part pasted - by some marketing intern probably.

Times have moved on. WHFSV is a mainstream magazine like Stuff and Which, aimed at a predominantly young mainstream market. Today's young generation wants information thrown at them in concise bullet-pointed chunks they can quickly digest and then move on. They don't want to read meandering paragraphs of blurb explaining how with the latest Flibbetybob IA-1 amplifier you can hear Yehudi Menuhin fart during the quiet bits of Bach's Violin Concerto in A Minor . I'm not saying I agree because at nearly 46 I'm not of today's generation, but that's the way it is, and the magazine has to adapt to survive. Same as how it had to adapt to reviewing TVs and videos, which by and large is when I stopped buying it. (It wasn't entirely their change of direction which pushed me away. I got married and bought my house round about then as well, so my days of spending whatever I wanted on new kit with no other monetary commitments was over.)

 

[tinkywinkydipsylalapo]

Today's young generation wants information thrown at them in concise bullet-pointed chunks they can quickly digest and then move on.

Young people today - tsk! ;-)

 

[MajorFubar]

Today's young generation wants information thrown at them in concise bullet-pointed chunks they can quickly digest and then move on.

Young people today - tsk! ;-)

It wasn't meant to be insulting, though I accept it's generalising. Point is, times change, and the mag has to adapt to survive. In 1984 many established HiFi enthusiasts came from a generation which started their hobby by building their own gear from kits a decade or two earlier. That's not the case now. Not too long ago I innocently suggested on here that someone soldered-up their own cable because the cable they wanted wasn't easily available pre-made but the component parts were easily available cheaply. I've done this hundreds of times without thought and I didn't class it as a specialist or esoteric skill. The response I got made me realise that today's HiFi 'demographic' for want of a better term is not what it once was.

 

[tinkywinkydipsylalapo]

It wasn't meant to be insulting, though I accept it's generalising. Point is, times change, and the mag has to adapt to survive. In 1984 most HiFi enthusiasts came from a generation which started their hobby by building their own gear from kits a decade or two earlier. That's not the case now. Not too long ago I innocently suggested on here that someone soldered-up their own cable because the cable they wanted wasn't easily available pre-made but the compoent parts were easily available cheaply. I've done this hundreds of times without thought and I didn't class it as a specialist or esoteric skill. The response I got made me realise that today's HiFi 'demographic' for want of a better term is not what it once was.

Didn't take it as insulting, but then I don't think WHSV was ever meant to appeal to that DIY generation, but as a buying guide for people wanting to buy 'off the shelf' equipment. Didn't the same company once have a stable of other magazines aimed at a more enthusiast market? I guess they died off as that interest waned: let's hope the 'adapting to survive' strategy works, as it would be a shame to lose this website.

 

[chebby]

A 1980s issue of HFN&RR could probably last a couple of days and still demand some re-reading (especially with legends like Barry Fox writing for them).

See also longer, hotter summers, chickens with real flavour, proper snow in the winter, smoking on the top deck of buses, chips wrapped in newspaper... ;-)

I'll have to take your word for it. I wasn't around between the world wars.

 

[tinkywinkydipsylalapo]

I'll have to take your word for it. I wasn't around between the world wars.

The sense of regret almost leaps from the screen ;-)

 

[jjbomber]

See also longer, hotter summers, chickens with real flavour, proper snow in the winter, smoking on the top deck of buses, chips wrapped in newspaper... ;-)

Wagon Wheels that were the size of, er, a wagon wheel.

 

[tinkywinkydipsylalapo]

Wagon Wheels that were the size of, er, a wagon wheel.

Ice-lollies in triangular packets, jumpers for goalposts, etc.

 

[chebby]

Wagon Wheels that were the size of, er, a wagon wheel.

Ice-lollies in triangular packets, jumpers for goalposts, etc.

... rickets, polio, diptheria ...

 

[tinkywinkydipsylalapo]

... rickets, polio, diptheria ...

... Gold, Steward, Kettle...

 

[idp_1]

...Ebola, Aids, CJD... Yes things are so much better now aren't they Chebby!

 

[john1000000boy]

Creamola foam....