Replies

1. 
   john_c2 | May 05, 2021 03:50am | #1

   ???

2. 
   Xgemone | May 05, 2021 11:27am | #2

   ?

3. FWW Editor
   tommckenna | May 06, 2021 03:59pm | #3

   The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on our retail and distribution channels, forcing us to make the difficult business decision to discontinue the sale of Fine Woodworking on newsstands for the foreseeable future. You can buy individual digital issues in the FWW app.

1. 
   lat_axe | May 06, 2021 05:13pm | #4

   We can look forward, then, to a reduction in the charge for the "Unlimited" membership, equal to the reduction of FWW costs in not making and distributing the paper magazine.......?

   Of course, this reduction must apply also to we overseas members, who have never had the paper magazine yet paid the full whack, perhaps to provide extra chocolate biscuits and posh coffee to the FWW staff. :-)

   Lataxe, an amateur accountant.

1. 
   weymouth2 | May 07, 2021 06:03am | #6

   In my mind this is a somewhat solemn occasion, not one to seek personal gain. I’d bet that a lot of the FWW staff put their lives into their work, maybe to satisfy their “instinct of workmanship” as much as to pay the bills (let alone get rich). They deserve respect and admiration IMO, not barbed criticism. The editor has said it was a difficult decision. I believe that.

1. 
   mikeinohio | May 07, 2021 11:51am | #14

   Well said Weymouth2. My nearby Lowes home center always had FWW on the magazine rack and it seemed they rarely sold any. Discontinuing newsstand distribution will save resources that could potentially get diverted into this website.

2. 
   elmaduro | May 07, 2021 10:48am | #13

   Damn — sorry to hear that. Will the annual Tools & Shop issue and Tool Review still be distributed ?

4. 
   killernewfie | May 06, 2021 07:03pm | #5

   Surprised? The entire magazine industry will probably dissappear in the next few years

5. 
   sclause | May 07, 2021 06:28am | #7

   If I am reading between the line correctly, I don't think the magazine is going away. It is just not going to have distribution via single copies at the newsstand. Of course this may have the unintended effect of reducing copies in circulation each issue which advertisers use to place a value on the medium.

1. 
   weymouth2 | May 07, 2021 06:38am | #8

   That was my take on it too (or at least my hope...I don’t like reading things on glowing screens).

2. 
   john_c2 | May 07, 2021 09:15am | #11

   Exactly my read too sclause.

6. 
   _mj_ | May 07, 2021 07:01am | #9

   Had to be a math problem with unsold issues coming back. Magstands here in NYC used to be jammed, now they're ghost towns. Cutting how many are printed back to the subscriber base makes sense.

7. FWW Editor
   ben_strano | May 07, 2021 09:02am | #10

   Hey all. The magazine isn't going anywhere! It's just not being sold on the new stands. News stands have taken a hit industry wide, but thankfully we work more on a subscription model. If you're an unlimited member or a subscriber–like 95%+ of the readers–nothing changes at all.

   The numbers just didn't make sense to keep sending out issues to news stands. So, if you picked up an issue every now and then, now is a great time to become a subscriber.

1. 
   john_c2 | May 07, 2021 09:17am | #12

   The industry is nothing like what it was before color pictures. But, nothing else I can think of is the same either.

2. 
   user-7789176 | May 08, 2021 10:44pm | #15

   Im sure the people in charge have good data on this decision. But having the magazine on the rack in store is what introduced me to the magazine. I still buy woodworking magazines off the shelf. Its expensive to subscribe to every magazine. Sometimes I see an interesting project and buy that magazine then.

   I hope the compilation style issues will still be sold on shelves. I really enjoy those and buy them even though I may have a copy already or it in a digital archive. Saving me the hassle of digging through my pile of magazines is worth the extra sometimes.

1. 
   lat_axe | May 09, 2021 05:01am | #16

   Personally I avoid shops of the physical kind - a habit handy in a Covid world but one I've had for many years. It's too easy to wander about in a shop doing impulse-shopping!

   Another personal habit, slowly acquired as the virtual world increases, is to avoid paper magazines. They're not so easy as the virtual version to search through; and do take up a lot of energy and resources .... although virtual stuff also uses quite a lot of energy too. I gave away the hundred+ copies of the physical magazine, some years ago, that I'd bought, in favour of those FWW DVDs of back issues.

   It does seem a cheek, though, of Taunton to charge the full whack to we overseas virtual-only consumers of "unlimited" membership when their domestic consumers have the additional product of the paper magazine, all for the same price. Taunton might get few more overseas customers if they knocked a bit off to compensate for lack of the physical magazine to we foreigners. I feel like I'm paying for something I can't have - even though I don't want it! :-)

   Still, the price of "unlimited" membership is still worth it to me personally, so I'll keep buying. FWW content remains very high quality.

   On the other hand, if they move to a model in which only streaming (no downloadable) content is provided, such that it all disappears if you don't renew your subscription ..... then I'll be departing with whatever PDFs I already have downloaded.

   Lataxe

3. 
   joeleonetti | Mar 16, 2022 07:45pm | #20

   For what it's worth Ben, I spend more on FWW that I probably need to. My dad "gives" me a printed subscription every Christmas (for 20 or 25 years) and I do the unlimited membership on my own. If I were ambitious, I could probably sort out some sort of way to make it cost less. However, the only two woodworking magazines I would be see disappear would be FWW and Mortise and Tennon. The rest, though I read them and subscribe to them aren't of the same quality as FWW.

   I still get annoyed about newspapers and how they have turned to absolute crap compared to when I started reading them as a kid in the early 70s (for the comics initially).

8. 
   jfsksa | May 09, 2021 02:10pm | #17

   Maybe now those extra resources can be directed to finding a way for unlimited members to NOT see the popup ads?

9. 
   robdurante | Mar 12, 2022 08:58am | #18

   At $100 per year it should be an ad free experience. Tripling the rate is excessive.

10. 
    _mj_ | Mar 12, 2022 09:14am | #19

    Robdurante, we get it. You don't like the cost or the business model. Reviving every complaint thread ever started does nothing for the rest of us. Selfish of me perhaps.