Acoustic Guitar Magazine fades

[Tahitijack]

Got my Acoustic Guitar magazine this week with a notice that monthly issues are no longer possible. This issue was noticably thin. So its every other month now.

My wife subscribes to several magazines. Many have sent notice that they are going out if business. Cooking Light and Coastal Living are morte.

We may be seeing the end of the print media.

[Wadcutter]

Originally Posted by Tahitijack

Got my Acoustic Guitar magazine this week with a notice that monthly issues are no longer possible. This issue was noticably thin. So its every other month now.

My wife subscribes to several magazines. Many have sent notice that they are going out if business. Cooking Light and Coastal Living are morte.

We may be seeing the end of the print media.

Maybe magazines are doing the long good bye like many newspapers. The internet is killing them I guess.

[6L6]

I still like to pick up and read an actual magazine vs reading the same online.

But that makes me old school, I guess.

I dropped my subscription to Acoustic Guitar Magazine years ago. To much fluff in the reviews and coverage of things not of great interest to me. YMMV.

[dkstott]

They said that due to costs and the internet, they're transitioning to every other month issues.

While it's not the level it once was, I still enjoy it and happily renewed my subscription for another year.

I still maintain my subscriptions to 2 strictly paper guitar magazines... AGM & Fretboard Journal.

I also subscribe to Bill Piburn's digital quarterly magazine "Fingerstyle Guitar Journal".

Dave

[Wadcutter]

Originally Posted by 6L6

I still like to pick up and read an actual magazine vs reading the same online.

But that makes me old school, I guess.

I dropped my subscription to Acoustic Guitar Magazine years ago. To much fluff in the reviews and coverage of things not of great interest to me. YMMV.

Completely agree. That’s why I’ll never be a Kindle person, not that there’s anything wrong with Kindle, I simply prefer the book, magazine, newspaper, whatever in my hand. But hey, I’m 70 years old so you know my frame of reference. I embrace technology, but not all of it.
As far as AG Magazine, same here. Subscribed for a while, but as you said 6L6, WAY too much fluff and a lot of stuff I didn’t really care about or relate to.

[Steve DeRosa]

I still look forward to my monthly issue of Vintage Guitar - granted the heavy advertising keeps it going, but there's a load of interesting stuff comparable to what AG used to publish back in the day...

[Earl49]

AG started out in 1990 as an every-other- month magazine. I subscribed starting at issue #2, and kept that subscription going up until about three years ago. I dropped them because the content was getting pretty light. A banner headline on the cover would lead to four column-inches of text - essentially a tweet - and not much of a story. I don't know if it is the content, what they paying writers, or simply the shortening attention span of younger readers.

I prefer a print magazine over digital, but either works.... if the content is worth reading. It is a tough business for print media and buggy whips these days.

[RustyAxe]

Most periodicals are merely vehicles for putting ads in front of prospective customers. Maybe the internet has allowed advertisers (like those here and in other forums) to tailor their advertising to the particular interest of an individual, specific player for less money with a greater return. Like when you look up a piece of gear, and for the next six months it pops up in the border of your web page.

To be profitable every mag has a ratio of content vs advertising space. Vendors can now advertise without having to pay for content!

[PorkPieGuy]

Originally Posted by Tahitijack

We may be seeing the end of the print media.

I remember I came to this realization 10 years ago this April that print media was becoming obsolete. I received a subscription to CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) Magazine as a gift in December 2007. Their last issue came out in April 2008. It was weird to think of that magazine not existing anymore. Many more magazines have gone by the wayside.

[Denny B]

I've only been playing for a few years now, and I subscribed to AG mag about that time...being new to the game, there was always something in there that interested me and helped me out...

But I can tell just in that time that the ads have increased, and the content has gotten a little fluffier...I don't think I've ever read a negative review for a guitar, gear, or a new offering from an artist...I mean, I don't want to see someone rip a guitar builder a new one, and they're not going to bite the advertiser hand that feeds them...but sometimes a little heads up that something on the market isn't up to par, would be nice...

I'm not sure how the new format is going to go, but I've always renewed my subscriptions when they would run the $15.99 specials, and I'm good thru summer of 2020...

I'll see how it goes till then...

[frankmcr]

My local Barnes & Noble has an entire wall full of magazines. Six racks high plus a shelf under those for magazines lying flat. All the racks stuffed with magazines to the point where you can only see the first few letters of the title.

[Silly Moustache]

I've subscribed to AG for many years. They line my office. I did't renew when it came up last year. I have found increasingly less of interest in it.
I stoped my sub to the British "Acoustic" sometime ago for the same reason.

The only magazine I'm staying with if Fretboard journal.

[muscmp]

that has been happening for quite a while. other than fretboard journal and vintage guitar(and i'm giving it up in march), i've stopped all magazines. no content and all advertisements.

play music!

[Edgar Poe]

Here is So. California, we have seen our daily paper go from a thick paper for 25 cents to, maybe 6 or 10 pages for $2.00 for Daily and $2.50 for Sunday.

Ed

[architype]

My brother-in-law worked for a large printing company for about 20 years and was good at his job. He would design how to reconfigure the printing presses each month to accommodate the desire of the advertisers to have unique adds that would grab the readers attention...think complicated fold-out adds and removable sample products. He became the company troubleshooter flying to several of their plants to help solve these issues every month. The advertising dollars were disappearing due to falling magazine sales and his job disappeared too. This was about 10 years ago.

Print media has been dying a slow death, and as the younger people that have spent their whole lives online become the majority of consumers, the industry will gasp it's last breath.

As far as AGM goes, there just isn't much happening on a monthly basis within the guitar industry and hobby, to fill up a magazine.
Fretboard Journal seems to have more interviews with players and interesting people that makes it a more compelling read. It is not just mostly about gear.