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Ryan Farrow

Where is the Beef?
« on: October 11, 2011, 09:09:52 AM »
.... in major golf publications?

Why the same nothingness every month? Grab your stack of Golf Magazine or Digests and tell me what your most intriguing cover story is this past year....

Why are they so fluffy? Why so much love for the status quo? Why no hot button topics or progressive ideas?

Why don't these magazines and their writers try and shape the future of golf a bit?

Who are they afraid of offending most?

Why not emulate a publication like ESPN the magazine?

Your the editor of Golf Digest, what would be your feature cover story?
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Chip Gaskins

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2011, 09:14:09 AM »
Follow the money.  Ad budgets.  Who writes the checks to keep the magazines around.  Do you think those that write the checks will keep writing them if the magazines start big industry wide controversies?
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Ryan Farrow

Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2011, 09:19:15 AM »
Does this make you want to buy a magazine?

 

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Tim Bert

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2011, 09:28:50 AM »
Chip is spot on.

Ryan - very few people are paying much money for these things. Pennies or dimes on the dollar.   It took me way longer to cancel my subscription to Golf Mag than intended because they just kept sending the thing. They need to keep the numbers high to keep the ad dollars flowing. They don't care if anyone is paying for or reading their product. Except for the people buying on impulse at the airport for cover price. They probably love those guys.

I agree with you it is garbage but at the same time I am not sure what content would get me to read a golf periodical on a regular basis in this day and age.
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Kalen Braley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2011, 09:31:45 AM »
Tim,

I was wondering the same...what content would keep me reading these.  Perhaps if it was architecture content...but then again I realize hardly no one else would be interested and the advertising dollars would dry up.

Ryan?  Any thoughts on what content should be?
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Jim Franklin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2011, 09:48:37 AM »
I love their Top 100 issue.
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Mr Hurricane

Michael Goldstein

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2011, 09:54:39 AM »
All those magazines have instruction on the front page!! Who cares...

It just goes to show that the huge majority of golfers are concerned most of all not by the architecture, the conditioning or even the camaraderie, but by their own score.   

I used to be like that.  And I played three times a year because golf was a constant frustration.
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@Pure_Golf

George Pazin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2011, 09:56:17 AM »
The interviews are generally worth a read, and there is usually one other article worth reading. This month there is a mini tour article, and the interview with Norman was interesting. I don't generally read the instruction articles, but I like looking at the swing sequence photos.

What more do you want for the meager amount of $$$ they ask? :)

If you want the beef, read the Australian GCA mag.
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Big drivers and hot balls are the product of golf course design that rewards the hit one far then hit one high strategy.  Shinny showed everyone how to take care of this whole technology dilemma. - Pat Brockwell, 6/24/04

David_Tepper

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2011, 10:02:10 AM »
"The interviews are generally worth a read"

George Pazin -

You are right about that. The interview/article Golf Digest had earlier this year with old-time British pro John Jacobs was excellent.

http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/2011-03/jacobs-diaz-lessons

I also enjoy the GD "What's In My Bag" feature. 

DT
« Last Edit: October 11, 2011, 10:06:36 AM by David_Tepper »
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Dan Kelly

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2011, 10:34:38 AM »
Quote from: Ryan Farrow on October 11, 2011, 09:19:15 AM
Does this make you want to buy a magazine?

 



No.

I agree with George: The interviews are often interesting (or were, when I subscribed to Golf Magazine and Golf Digest).

I, too, looked at the swing sequences -- and at some of the non-cure-your-slice instruction pieces.

I enjoyed the GD feature (by Guy Yocom?) that consisted of short outtakes from a longer interview. Always some good lines there.

But I no longer subscribe, despite GD's never-give-up solicitations.
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"There's no money in doing less." -- Joe Hancock, 11/25/2010
"Rankings are silly and subjective..." -- Tom Doak, 3/12/2016

Mac Plumart

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2011, 10:49:38 AM »
Subscribe to Golf Course Archiecture magazine.  I get giddy every time it is delivered in the mail.
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Sportsman/Adventure loving golfer.

BCrosby

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2011, 11:01:31 AM »
I've subscribed to GD for years. Mostly out of habit. Many issues never get opened before going into the recycle bin. This thread reminds me that I should not renew.

We've talked about this before, but the difference in the coverage of gca in mass circulation golf mags today and the coverage given to gca in the twenties and earlier is shocking. The little on gca that we get today - to paraphrase Hobbes - is second rate, predictable and short. What was once a main topic of golf mags now feels like an after-thought.

Golf course rankings do not fill that void. In fact, they are a reminder of the void.

So, like many of you, I'm bailing on GD.

Bob  

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Jud_T

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2011, 11:14:20 AM »
I'm still surprised that what sells is the 300th variation of "Surefire Slice Cures"
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Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Garland Bayley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #13 on: October 11, 2011, 11:26:44 AM »
I bailed on GD a long time ago. Every 3 to 4 months I get a specially packaged issue with a cover that says this is the last issue you will ever get unless you renew. I do nothing, and they just keep coming.

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"I enjoy a course where the challenges are contained WITHIN it, and recovery is part of the game  not a course where the challenge is to stay ON it." Jeff Warne

Tim Bert

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #14 on: October 11, 2011, 11:27:01 AM »
Quote from: Ryan Farrow on October 11, 2011, 09:19:15 AM
Does this make you want to buy a magazine?




I'm guessing what keeps our friend Mr. Huntley coming back for more issues is photos like this one of Mr. Fowler with his hat on backwards!
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Dan Kelly

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #15 on: October 11, 2011, 11:32:15 AM »
Quote from: Jud Tigerman on October 11, 2011, 11:14:20 AM
I'm still surprised that what sells is the 300th variation of "Surefire Slice Cures"

For most slicers, there's only one surefire cure:

Quit!
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"There's no money in doing less." -- Joe Hancock, 11/25/2010
"Rankings are silly and subjective..." -- Tom Doak, 3/12/2016

michael damico

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #16 on: October 11, 2011, 11:33:04 AM »
Quote from: Mac Plumart on October 11, 2011, 10:49:38 AM
Subscribe to Golf Course Archiecture magazine.  I get giddy every time it is delivered in the mail.

agreed, and don't get me wrong, I love GCA Mag, but possibly something more than just the ASGCA's 'By Design' could be compiled for us folks on this side of the 'pond'

better yet...a more organized section that would help hopeful archies in their pursuit of finding the right firm to work for. Employment possibilities within the industry ranging anywhere from shaping to drafting/rendering help, etc. Hmmm, now I've got myself thinkin instead of workin...
« Last Edit: October 11, 2011, 11:53:42 AM by michael damico »
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"without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible"
                                                                -fz

Sean Leary

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #17 on: October 11, 2011, 01:48:05 PM »
Like GCA.com, there is only a certain amount of topics to cover, so many things will be rehashed over and over....
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Brent Hutto

Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #18 on: October 11, 2011, 02:25:27 PM »
I've never subscribed to any of them except for one year of Golfworld back in the 90's. Yet there are two different ones (Golf Digest and Golf) that have sent me issues in the past few months. One or the other, forget which, has sent me magazines three or four months in a row now.

I leafed through one of them a while back to see if I was missing anything. I wasn't. They get binned along with the credit card offers and flyers promoting yard services.
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Bob Jenkins

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #19 on: October 11, 2011, 04:27:11 PM »

In my humble opinion, Golfweek is by far the best golf magazine. Lots of interesting content, none of the fluff you find in GC or Golf Magazine. Next would be Golf Architecture.
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John_Conley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #20 on: October 11, 2011, 04:29:49 PM »
Ryan, you should read GolfWorld and GOLFWEEK.  Then you won't care what is in Golf Digest.
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Mike Cirba

Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #21 on: October 11, 2011, 04:36:38 PM »
If you think the general instructional content is lackluster, you should see their golf course ratings!  ;)
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Ronald Montesano

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #22 on: October 11, 2011, 04:38:40 PM »
Ron Kapriske's fitness stuff is outstanding.
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Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
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~Maybe some more!!

Mike Hendren

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #23 on: October 12, 2011, 10:03:07 AM »
Does this want to make you buy a magazine?

Only this edition, in which Bogey appears.



Mike
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Two Corinthians walk into a bar ....

Bruce Wellmon

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where is the Beef?
« Reply #24 on: October 12, 2011, 12:21:02 PM »
I miss Travel & Leisure Golf.
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