August 2014 Golf Digest....

[Howard Riefs]

Serious questions--

1.  How many monthly magazine delivery subscriptions do you have, where you actually pay for the magazine to be delivered in the mail?  (For us, it's none.  We do get National Geographic, but that's because my dad got the subscription for our kids.)

2.  How many times in 2014 have you bought a monthly magazine off the rack?  (For me, I'd say 3 times.  I travel a decent amount for work, but for various reasons I rarely grab something like Golf Digest to read on the plane.)

1.   3 monthly; 3 weekly; 1 bi-weekly

2.   None

[Tim_Cronin]

Serious questions--

1.  How many monthly magazine delivery subscriptions do you have, where you actually pay for the magazine to be delivered in the mail?  (For us, it's none.  We do get National Geographic, but that's because my dad got the subscription for our kids.)

2.  How many times in 2014 have you bought a monthly magazine off the rack?  (For me, I'd say 3 times.  I travel a decent amount for work, but for various reasons I rarely grab something like Golf Digest to read on the plane.)

1. Monthly: 3   Weekly: 5   A few others come in complimentary since I'm a golf writer.

2. Not so far.

[Rees Milikin]

1. None

2. None

[Mark Pavy]

1. None

2. None

Whilst I agree the future doesn't look promising for magazines, the proceeding problem is just as worrying, the next generation believe everything on the internet should be free, so online magazines struggle to get paying subscribers.

[Bryan Icenhower]

I think there is some truth to Mike's OP. But, I think it's more of an indication of the sales numbers being way down for the manufacturers than an overall demise of the game.


When an idea like Hack Golf is being endorsed openly by a major industry player, that's a pretty good indication that the white flag is being waived.

I never attend but wonder how the size of the exhibit hall (number of exhibitors, number of square feet) at the PGA Golf Show has held up since the recession.   

If those numbers are holding up then I suspect Golf Digest has screwed the pooch.   If they are way down then this could be an industry wide problem. 

2014 was their biggest year since the 2008 show

[Paul Gray]

I guess everyone finally cured their slices.

WW

And can drive it 450 yards. 

[Paul Gray]

As someone completely ignorant to the printed media world, perhaps someone could explain something to me:

I get the impression that the big magazines are struggling but more niche publications are perhaps fairing better? Is so, why are the costs of publishing so much higher for, say, Golf World, as opposed to Golf Course Architecture magazine. I struggling to believe that a small architectural firm can keep the latter afloat through advertising whilst money from Top Flite isn't enough for a major publication.

[Tim_Cronin]

Paul, that I don't know but I discovered this: Comparing the first quarter of 2014 to the first quarter of 2013, ad pages are down for Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and Golf World. Ad revenue was up slightly for Golf Magazine, but down for the other two (11.4 percent in the case of Golf World, with ad pages down 20.1 percent). Overall, magazine ad pages were down 4 percent and ad revenue off 1.6 percent quarter-to-quarter.

[Richard Hetzel]

Up until the last few years I a had a GD subscription since 1983 or so. The new format is terible as is the content.  I someohow have one now (not sure how I got it; joining GAM maybe?) and it totally BLOWS.

[Brent Hutto]

Serious questions--

1.  How many monthly magazine delivery subscriptions do you have, where you actually pay for the magazine to be delivered in the mail?  (For us, it's none.  We do get National Geographic, but that's because my dad got the subscription for our kids.)

2.  How many times in 2014 have you bought a monthly magazine off the rack?  (For me, I'd say 3 times.  I travel a decent amount for work, but for various reasons I rarely grab something like Golf Digest to read on the plane.)

Zero.

Zero.

We used to subscribe to the New Yorker because my wife likes the cartoons. Other than that we haven't paid for any magazines since back in the late 90's, early 00's.

I've never subscribed to any golf magazines except a one-year trial sub for GolfWorld back when I first took up the game. Until the last few years I would grab a Golf or Golf Digest at the airport to read on plane trips but the last time I did that was about three years ago and it was total dreck.

[JLahrman]

Serious questions--

1.  How many monthly magazine delivery subscriptions do you have, where you actually pay for the magazine to be delivered in the mail?  (For us, it's none.  We do get National Geographic, but that's because my dad got the subscription for our kids.)

2.  How many times in 2014 have you bought a monthly magazine off the rack?  (For me, I'd say 3 times.  I travel a decent amount for work, but for various reasons I rarely grab something like Golf Digest to read on the plane.)

1. I get National Geographic, have been a subscriber for 18 years. Even National Geographic has evolved, it's a much different magazine than it was when I started receiving it. I can't tell what my wife subscribes to. It's been a mixture of Shape, Entertainment Weekly, maybe one or two others. But I don't think she's getting anything right now.

2. Zero. If I buy something off the rack to read on a plane it's the WSJ.

[Craig Sweet]

Have you checked out Sports Illustrated lately?  Geez...I will say this about SI..the last issue I received devoted 98% of the pages to a "Where are They Now" story.  Considering the World Cup is underway, the men and women just finished the US Open, and Wimbledon was in mid tourney, the Open was a week away, and Del Mar and Saratoga were getting ready to kick off a new season of pony racing, and the Tour de France was about to kick off...it showed a LOT OF BALLS to run a story about the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs....

[Jim Nugent]

Not to lecture--but media is about the reader or viewer on the margin, not the average.  I doubt that anyone on this site is on the margin when it comes to golf.

So how is the design affecting the margin?  Does GD have more subscribers or less?  Greater ad revenue or less?  Bigger profits or fewer? 

I take it all GD's numbers are down pretty hard.  No surprise when golf itself is getting hit on the margin.  I wonder if GD has any way of measuring the actual impact of the design, separating out other major factors that affect its bottom line. 

Even if the media is about the margin, GD can't afford to alienate its base at the same time.  And while one swallow does not a summer make, you're hearing pretty wide condemnation of that design from the guys in this thread, who as you say are unlikely members of the margin.   

[Dan Herrmann]

Examples of why I hate the new format:
*  Article about smoking pot while golfing
*  Long story about playing music from your golf cart
*  Cover story about Jimmy Fallon, who is not a highly skilled golfer
*  Advice to ignore the rules
*  Men's cologne inserts
*  More ads for clothing than for golf equipment
*  Seems to be targeted to metrosexual hipsters.  I'm neither metrosexual or a hipster

To me, it's now an extraordinarily poorly attempt to be a golf-centered Esquire.  It now fails on both counts - its golf coverage is lousy and fails to even come close to Esquire.

I personally think all management involved in these decisions should be reassigned and they should hire actual journalists and golf experts to bring back GD from the brink.

[Mike_Young]

Dan,
Just use this and you don't need anything else.   www.globalgolfpost.com/

[John Kavanaugh]

Dan,
Just use this and you don't need anything else.   www.globalgolfpost.com/

I am troubled by the conflict created by members of their team who remain raters for the print magazines.  Has Globalgolfpost ventured into the rating of courses or equipment?

[Joel Zuckerman]

Have you checked out Sports Illustrated lately?  Geez...I will say this about SI..the last issue I received devoted 98% of the pages to a "Where are They Now" story.  Considering the World Cup is underway, the men and women just finished the US Open, and Wimbledon was in mid tourney, the Open was a week away, and Del Mar and Saratoga were getting ready to kick off a new season of pony racing, and the Tour de France was about to kick off...it showed a LOT OF BALLS to run a story about the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs....

The WATN issue of Sports Illustrated is an annual event. It is considered a double issue, I think it is their way of giving the entire staff a week off in summer. Personally, I always enjoy the issue, though you do make a good point that there is plenty of current sports action that could be covered

[Mike_Young]

Dan,
Just use this and you don't need anything else.   www.globalgolfpost.com/

I am troubled by the conflict created by members of their team who remain raters for the print magazines.  Has Globalgolfpost ventured into the rating of courses or equipment?

Interesting...had not noticed....

[Carl Johnson]

Serious questions--

1.  How many monthly magazine delivery subscriptions do you have, where you actually pay for the magazine to be delivered in the mail?  (For us, it's none.  We do get National Geographic, but that's because my dad got the subscription for our kids.)

Four: Art News, American Craft, The New Yorker, and Consumer Reports.  Within the past year or so I've dropped both Golfweek and Sports Illustrated (the latter to which I'd been a charter subscriber - since 1954).

2.  How many times in 2014 have you bought a monthly magazine off the rack?  (For me, I'd say 3 times.  I travel a decent amount for work, but for various reasons I rarely grab something like Golf Digest to read on the plane.)

Zero

[Bill Shamleffer]

Serious questions--

1.  How many monthly magazine delivery subscriptions do you have, where you actually pay for the magazine to be delivered in the mail?  (For us, it's none.  We do get National Geographic, but that's because my dad got the subscription for our kids.)

2.  How many times in 2014 have you bought a monthly magazine off the rack?  (For me, I'd say 3 times.  I travel a decent amount for work, but for various reasons I rarely grab something like Golf Digest to read on the plane.)

1. About 10 monthly (or bi-monthly or quarterly) magazines; and 3 almost weekly magazines; and 2 daily papers - all delivered in paper form and all paid for.  AND - the 2 best of the lot are Smithsonian and Lapham's Quarterly.  I can pick up one months or years old and each is still just as relevant and enjoyable.

2. None bought at rack other than daily newspapers when traveling.  (But I do like to spend about an hour a month in the periodicals section of our local library.)

[Peter Pallotta]

I don't know anything about marketing or the internet/social media or even much about what people like to read. But it seems to me that Golf Digest is a "brand" and a still (potentially) valuable one, and that if it were to remake itself as an on-line, by subscription only source, it would (still today) have a built in audience and some good will and a name that would/could give it a leg up on everyone else and set it apart to be whatever it wanted to be. So, my two cents, counter-intuitive though they may be: go high-brow, Golf Digest, go smart, go with top writers from other disciplines or with the Tom Doaks or Ben Crenshaws of the world -- have Ben write 3000 words about his library of golf books, where he got them, what they mean to him; have Tom pen 5000 words on the meaning of golf course architecture, personal and collective; have that Blink guy write his head off about golf.

Peter

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Online is the wave of the future. A lot of ads here:

www.golfdigeststix.com

[Mark Pritchett]

Online is the wave of the future. A lot of ads here:

www.golfdigeststix.com

Online is the wave of the future present.

[Bruce Katona]

I receive GD for free by attending the NJ Golf Show every year.  It's easy reading; like People; and what I content I don't like I skip.