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Magazine changes

PARAGUAY

PARAGUAY

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Joined
13 Nov 2013
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Location
Lancashire
Had a bit of a tdy up( redecorating )and moved a load of of
old PFK magazines, had a bit of reread and found the earlier issues well a little bittersweet, many fine articles by Amano,George Farmer,Jeremy Gay and Ivan Mikolji and others but the whole format appeared better. than todays.Many pages of classified ads but around 30 pages thicker and the Q&A section much more complete, with a double page on Aquascaping and Plants alone, things have changed plenty of t5 latest version of lighting on show,sadly a lot of good shops and businesses not here now🙁 A whole half page feature on the Green Machine🙁
 
Andy Taylor said:
I find it hard to locate magazines like PFK in newsagents and supermarkets. Maybe the good old magazine is dead.
Click to expand...

Indeed - I went in our local WH Smith two weeks ago, and they didn't have a single fish keeping magazine in the place. Plenty of choice if you wanted magazines on shooting things, interior designing things, sewing things, or even programming things, but not a single fish keeping mag.
 
I think PFK has been in decline for some years. Perhaps the number of potential subscribers just aren't out there any more. It's part of the Warners Group Publications plc. The group publishes a whole load of magazines on different interests. I guess it wouldn't be economically feasible otherwise.

Generally though magazines are in decline. Folk tend to find what they're looking for online, and for free these days. My local Tesco superstore has recently stopped selling magazines and papers completely, obviously more trouble than it's worth. Another example of declining interest in mags might be ADA’s Aqua Journal. It used to be available in several languages, but the last I heard it was only available in Japanese.

We did try and get together with PFK a couple of years ago, for some mutually beneficial marketing etc. The idea seemed to have legs at first, but never really got off the ground what with one thing and another.

I think the format of PFK has changed as well. I know a few years back Nathan (PFK editor) was looking for more short instructional pieces, how to guides etc, rather than longer articles centred around related interests. Perhaps a focus group oriented decision, in hope that it'd attract more readers. Either way, I hope it finds a way to keep going. It'll be a sad day for the hobby if PFK disappears from the news stand, and goes the same way as the Aquarist and Pond Keeper, which I used to read as a kid.
 
Well yes I would say so too, pre 2000s there was a good choice of aquatic literature available .
I can think of three uk aquarium magazines and one American, two koi mags, four sea fishings mags two weekly freshwater fishing mags, five music mags, two woodworking mags and many more I would buy every month!
 
The only reliable way to obtain niche oriented magazines these days is to take out a subscription and have them delivered by mail.

As far as distribution goes for these magazines it's pretty abysmal. For instance Tropical Fish Hobbyist (TFH) is issued 6 times annually and print circulation averages around 4500 copies per issue and about 3500 electronic copies according to this. Amazonas magazine that reaches a bit further, is about 10000 copies per issue. This is why these magazines needs to be jam packed with ads to make it.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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Amazonas magazine is pretty good, you get the odd planted tank article in there too. I subscribe to the digital version.

Haven’t seen a copy of PFK anywhere in years now, used to be quite common in WH Smith.
 
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