Well our Northern Calif, local Woodcraft dealer has not been able to get the first issue of the new Woodcraft magazine for some time now. I kept asking and they keep saying it's on order.
Has anyone seen it? What's the take? Yes/No/Need more issues to decide?
Seems that when Rockler took over Woodworker's Journal the qualtity of projects went down - still not in the same league of Finewoodworking (but few are) nor even Popular Woodworking (which is my choice for second best woodworking magazine).
I stopped by the semi-local (Roanoke, VA) Woodcraft a few days ago after making a tool pick up run at Yellow Freight. I was searching for a couple exotic woods, osage orange and persimmon, but I bought the second issue of WC Magazine. IMO, its lacking cohesiveness at this point, as it doesn't seem quite gelled. What is in there is well done, which you'd expect with A.J. as editor, but the material doesn't hang together as a package. Too, in my opinion, again, using a product manager from Woodcraft to write tool reviews is not a superb idea, no matter how much money it saves. The particular product manager is a nice guy, one helluva woodworker, and an excellent product manager (which means he knows tools very, very well, among other things), but...it is extremely difficult not to slant material towards the guy signing your paycheck in such situations.
Too, there seems to me to be an extreme bias toward covering only tools that Woodcraft carries, which may largely be the result of the publisher, Shawn Draper, also being the VP of Marketing for Woodcraft. Don Guillard is product director, Ken Kupsche is catalog director and Bob Spencer is director of education.
And there goes any--right between slim and none anyway--chance I had of selling to the magazine.
John English is a former contributing editor to Woodworker's Journal, doing a lot of moderately difficult projects, many of which I've liked. His linen cabinet for Woodcraft is another one of those. Whether it meets your needs, in taste or level of difficulty, I can't say. I'm not going to comment on your comment about Woodworker's Journal article levels, because I do work for them at fairly consistent levels. I believe Rob's work, and that of his boss and the overall staff and freelancers, has risen considerably in the past few years. Again, whether it meets your stands is up to you. Popular Woodworking has improved tremendously in the decade since Steve Shanesy took over. He's abetted by an excellent crew, too.
It's pricey at $7.99, $29.97 for seven issues by subscription. They do send you a free Woodcraft T shirt when you pay.
IMO, the magazine will gell, the mission will be clarified, and A.J. will continue to turn out top quality material that makes greater sense for the woodworker...if Marketing stays off his back. I hope it all works, because whether I sell there or not, another market is a good thing for other writers in the field.
Charlie Self "They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." George W. Bush, St. Charles, Missouri, November 2,
Would much rather get a price break OR the T-shirt, choice to be mine in those situations - However, once upon a time I called up a big time magazine and asked if I could get the 1yr sub without the FREE goodies and pay less for the Subscription, and was royally put down for even considering something so crass, let alone calling and asking about it
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