Magazines

[Focal_Plane]

Gary,

When I first started "chasing planes" I used to buy everything going, right from Aviation News through to Aircraft Illustrated. As time went on and magazines began to increase in price, I guess I tailored my purchasing to what I was really interested in - like many people; namely modern military and warbirds. In this respect Aviation News, Air Forces Monthly and Flypast remained the three magazines of choice. Over time I have whittled this down to just AFM and FP, partly for cost reasons, partly for space reasons, but I still buy these regularly as I feel both cover said subjects better than anything out there.

I must confess that Aviation News, although it used to be a favourite, no longer features on my purchase list; not just because of cost and space but largely because the `net has become my primary source of up-to-date news. As far as Air International goes, well one could say a lot of the Mil` content could go into AFM and a lot of the civil into "Airliner" to provide more content in them, but that`s a very personal opinion.

As has been pointed out, there`s a lot of free content on the web but to be honest, I just don`t like reading large volumes of text on the web or downloading them to read later for that matter. Maybe it`s a generation thing but when I observe people using the web they seem to spend little time reading pages and pages of text and skip quickly from one place to the other searching for interesting snippets or photo`s. Of course anyone conducting research doesn`t mind large volumes of text as they just download it to read it later. No, a magazine on the web and the printed article are two distinctly different beasts and I still believe the former is much better for reading pleasure. By it`s very nature a magazine demands a greater attention span and provides less of a tendancy to "skip read". You can take it anywhere and don`t have to worry if you loose it or abuse it, not like an iPad or such. There`s also something much more pleasurable about "owning" a magazine or book and keeping copies of particular interest which one can easily refer back to in later years. A magazine also allows one to constantly come back to it, pick it up, then continue where you left off at your own pleasure. Hand on heart I can say I would never go back to an on-line mag` time after time to complete it. If I look at them I feel like it`s, in-out, then onto something else.

A lot of people will probably disagree with me, but it`s just one person`s opinion and you were obviously after a broad spectrum of opinions so it will be interesting to see what other people`s reading habits are.

Unfortunately I will NOT be buying a *&%$$ Kindle. Where is the joy in that heartless piece of tech`? No, sorry I`m a devoted page turner, someone who likes to look through the pictures at leisure, admire the work that went into the cover and enjoy the experience of building a book collection.

But then again, I am a child of the Hunter generation so my "old school" thoughts are to be expected I guess.

Hope this is of interest,

John

[Lossie]

Hi all,

Having read the comments on this thread for those people looking for the same coverage as Aircraft Illustrated can I suggest they take a look at Aviation News. The members of this forum will know that Aircraft Illustrated and Aviation News both covered the same subject matter in terms of a mix of modern and historical military and civil subjects and I have not changed the latter magazine's coverage. Indeed, Aviation News received a make-over last year and we also introduced some new sections like Air Base Movements, Tales from the Logbook and Room with a View.

Cheers

Dino Carrara
Editor
Aviation News

[Vulcanone]

Just in case you didn't know.

Key have bought the entire Ian Allan magazine publishing arm.

2 March 2012

Key Publishing is delighted to announce the acquisition of the Ian Allan portfolio of magazines from Ian Allan Publishing Ltd. The purchase involves seven titles published by Ian Allan (Buses, Classic Aircraft, Combat Aircraft, Hornby, Modern Railways, Railways Illustrated, and Vintage Roadscene) together with a number of partworks and Annual publications and four Ian Allan owned franchise titles Bus and Coach Preservation, Classic Bus, Modern Locomotives Illustrated and Steam Days.

Commenting on the acquisition, Adrian Cox, Managing Director of Key Publishing said “We are very excited about the opportunities afforded by bringing Ian Allan’s portfolio of quality transport and modelling titles into the Key stable. Whilst some of the magazines are in sectors new to Key, there is a natural fit and synergy with our extensive range of specialist leisure titles. We are looking forward to building on the strong foundations that these magazines currently have by using the economies of scale that a larger organisation can bring to the party and are particularly pleased that all the staff working on the titles will continue with us.’’

David Allan, Chairman of Ian Allan Publishing said “We have been very happy with the development of our magazine portfolio over the years particularly recently but the time is right to sell. We are delighted that it has found a good home at Key Publishing where we are confident that the magazines and the people working on them will thrive.’’

The first issues to be produced by Key Publishing will be those cover dated April 2012 the first of which will be Combat Aircraft and Railways Illustrated on sale on 2 March 2012.

TS

[RJ79]

I've been an AFM man for 14 years now and have always been very happy with the content, Combat Aircraft is right up there with it but as has already been alluded to the cost is prohibitive these days so I solely stick with AFM.

[wokka]

I love that some publications on the net are succeeding, but to me if I want to read a magazine I go and buy one, rather than use a computer. Or at least I WOULD have done. The people at Key probably don't want to hear this and will roll their eyes and close the window, but the absolute truth is its all far too expensive! I haven't bought a magazine for a few months now. I miss it, I really do, but I just cant justify the outcome. I always used to buy Aircraft Illustrated but then I wanted to know more, so I bought AFM. I like heritage and vintage stuff too, but couldn't afford to buy a 3rd. Then it twigged, what was I doing spending nearly a tenner a month on magazines? I could find the info on the net.
Well, yes I could but it requires searching and scrolling. And that's why I love a magazine. I can take it anywhere. I haven't found a laptop compatible with the bath yet, so paper it must be. If I could choose, it would be the old Aircraft Illustrated. But at the moment I would go for AFM or Air International depending on which has the best articles for the month.
I will add that the new magazine Jets Monthly has been a great addition and I do pick up a copy sometimes, because it has content that no others duplicate.

[sjnovis]

I started with Air Display International, this merged with Aircraft Illustrated quite a few years ago. Like many others, I haven't found anything quite as good to replace it. Having said that I haven't looked at any for ages, so pearhaps will have a look at some.

[81TFW]

Two best are Classic Aircraft and Combat Aircraft. Used to buy FlyPast and Aeroplane every month but their contents have got worse, more or less the same every month, so only buy now if there's something I'm interested in. Have only ever bought the rest occasionally. Air & Space and Flight Journal are pretty good too!