The future of Rodale's Scuba Diving

Sorry if I blamed the wrong magazine for the 14year old - oops. Her column irritates me to no length!!!

But even with this month's edition, I stand by my statement that Canada (outside of BC and Great Lakes) is ignored. Come on, Rodales.....get on a plane and fly to Newfoundland or Halifax and see what there is!!!

Kim

Sorry if I blamed the wrong magazine for the 14year old - oops.  Her column irritates me to no length!!!

 

But even with this month's edition, I stand by my statement that Canada (outside of BC and Great Lakes) is ignored.  Come on, Rodales.....get on a plane and fly to Newfoundland or Halifax and see what there is!!!

 

Kim

I'll be the first to admit I don't have enough cold water experience. But, at least I'm trying to broaden my horizons with a trip to BC and Alaska this summer. http://waterhousetours.com/wht-tourstours.asp#alaska. Not a pitch for customers, because it is sold out. But an eagerly anticipated opportunity to shoot some new critters and explore a new environment.

P.S. UW photo in link above is not mine but is contributed by Nauitilus Explorer. I'll have to wait until after this trip to have some of my own.

I think Rodales could own the market all over if they did a nice glossy photo special and on top of that and most importantly they took over the Divemaster Ball here in Cayman ... it seemed empty last year without the skindiver dive master ball ... comon Rodales step up to the plate and do the right thing.

OK,

I've held back on commenting on this thread, as it may be perceived that I have a vested interest in supporting Rodale's as they have been kind enough to publish some of my articles and photos (of CANADIAN DIVING)...I have seen an improvement in the format of the magazine, in that more photography is included, and there are many 'new' photographers that are seeing their work published. It is certainly designed in a more contemporary fashion, which I appreciate. The one major change that I like is the inclusion of more macro photography, information about marine life and items of interest to the dive community at large. There is less of the formulaic photography. (No, Todd, I won't go there again! )

I like the suggestion of a Photo Annual. However, Skin Diver's was problematic for me as a lot of the photos were virtually antique and many had just been published in other magazines. Newer pro and semi-pro photographers were ignored, or shall I say, not invited to submit. There were some amazing photographers ignored, while some 30 year old photos of average quality were printed. I still think the concept is a good one. It is tremendously expensive to produce, as there are generally a lower ratio of ads: would you be willing to pay the price?

There's a lot of griping about dive magazines aiming at new divers; well, if they are the ones that are keen and feeling like they want more information, and want to spend their money on magazines, then the magazines are going to cater their information to them. We seem to forget what pays for magazines...your subscription doesn't cover it. Advertising pays for mass media. ( Gosh, have you looked at a photo magazine's ad section?) If you are willing to pay $20 or $30 an issue for an ad free magazine, then I'll start producing one. I don't like the "advertorials", either, but they are present in a lot of publications these days. Tell the publisher/editor if you don't like something, but also tell them what you do like. Many people like to vent, but rarely take the time to vent directly, where it may make a difference. Write a letter, send an email. Compliment when due...we so often forget to do that!

There were some comments that Canada is rarely mentioned, and cold water equipment not being reviewed. I have to disagree. The January/Feb issue have the lovely Wetpixelian Rand on Browning Wall. April has a Fleetham shot from the Sunshine Coast. There have been both articles and photos about Canada over the past few years that have even included some Eastern Canada diving: about a year ago. There have been reviews of drysuits and cold water regulators within the last year. As for them not consulting people that dive here...well the photographers and writers that I've seen work from about the north east Pacific do live and dive here. Ratings, however, come from those readers that take the time to fill in a questionaire on line. Did you? It tends to be those new divers and those just back from a dive holiday that do.

Let's face it, this is a US publication, and far superior to anything published in Canada, both in content and quality of photography. They are going to aim for those consumers that will buy products from their advertisers. They have been very supportive of BC diving, regardless of their miniscule Canadian advertiser list. They have increased dive tourism to BC because of their coverage which the industry has sorely needed. The majority of Scuba Diving's customers will never dive in cold water, so it's not surprising that the emphasis lies where it does.

The audience base and advertising base in Canada can't support high end printing and payment for contributors/photographers. I buy both the Canadian and American publications, as I enjoy seeing trends both in diving and publishing, and I like to support Canadian ventures. I'd love to see more international dive publications available here, but the demand just isn't high enough, unfortunately.

As photographers and divers, we need to encourage magazines to print both quality photographs and quality information. I'm looking forward to seeing how things develop at Scuba Diving magazine, and see what direction the new owners take with the publication.

Cheers,

Marli

Marli, I will only correct you on one point as your other points are valid and I agree with many of them.

Rand is not lovely...now if that shot on Browning wall was me or Rand in a Bikini now that would be lovely...LOL

Good points as I feel there has been justifiable coverage of Canadian diving in the magazine. Let's face it, if it was warm water with all the other Beautiful factors that exist we would never get to dive in BC because it would be book up 3 years in advance. It is my most favoUrite place to dive.

One last point, catering to new divers was not a complaint just a reason for it not being of interest to me. If it gave a focus to photography to a greater degree then maybe. I think the point some have made with regards to equipment bias may be valid though.

Good points none the less

Completely agree with Ryan on the Photo Annual issue. I used to really look forward to that one and if the new and improved "rodales" could do that it would be great. As I see it there were two major issues with both Skin Diver and Rodales... one being too much advertisement, too little interesting text and pictures, the other issue being that the same dive destinations and resorts were being reviwed over and over and over again... very boring. You can only read about the same destination so many times... You almost never saw an article on diving the USVI, which is probably the best diving in the US. And if you ever saw a small mention, it was seldom about the really good spots such as the north shore of St. Croix. I am sure there has got to be other great diving destinations as well that have been completely ignored.

Ok .. so everyone likes the photo annual .. i imagine I am on my own here on the Cayman Divemaster Ball thing .. free drinks for all the divemasters on the island .. with food and prizes .... we deserve some recognition for showing you all the god damn best time ever for the measily wages we work on ... GIVE US FREE ALCOHOL !!!!

I noticed if you type www.rodales.com it still forwards to www.scubadiving.com. I wonder when the site is going to be migrated over to F + H's servers.

but what about the divemaster ball !!!!!!