My thoughts currently are no magazines at all.
I find i already have more than ample projects to get at that are not being got at because i get motivated to build xyz each time i get one of these mags. Inevitably something causes a halt and it goes to the side to source or wait for some reason. So until i get to the stage where i have depleted my list and am waiting for something interesting i dont bother with any anymore and have not missed them. I recycle my old ones.
I find just reading only this forum is more than enough inspiration and way better instruction and solutions for my problems than a magazine has given me.
Never got one word of advice from my magazines and never got one word of encouragement either.
After reading this thread i learned something about myself. I guess i am stuck in the past despite my life long exposure to tech field.
I like the paper. As was said you can take it to the throne and somehow i just dont see myself reading a tablet on the throne or for that matter lying on a couch.
No one has mentioned it but are the CDs completely free of advertising?
That would be a requirement for me to get my feet wet. I am becoming very anti the commercial pitching up in everything. I know the argument that its what makes it possible but hey we manage here without any pop ups and side colums etc and its so cool to have a place like this.
The other thing i noticed that put me off magazines is the amount of recycled information. I dont mean the actual article but hey dovetails are dovetails lets move on i want to learn more than using Porter Cables new fandangled jig to cut them.
This is where i feel a guy like Chris Schwarz will be missed at PW.
Also i think FWW has probably got the lead in the content side right. I dont envy their job of having to appease as broad a spectrum of the audience as possible. But it does dilute the content.
One would think that with all the people participating in woodworking today some more specialization in the mag area would be possible rather than having so many mags all throwing up a broad array of media in the hope of attracting as many of us as possible.
I would like a mag devoted to design. So we can get away from strictly square box designs and raised panels etc to something more elegant and artistic.
There is way too much of the content driven by advertising and that fundamentally puts me off. Articles get short circuited to fit in an advert and loose the detail we get here when we ask a question of someone in a post. Dont think i dont understand the why its done. Dont mean i have to be happy with it.
I can still wish for difference.