Are Warbird magazines profitable?

To somewhat add a sidebar to earlier photography questions. I have always wondered if today's warbird digests and magazine's turn a profit. I would assume so or we wouldn't see many at all, but since many here either work for, contribute or subscribe to warbird / airplane magazines, maybe someone has some interesting input.

And to even further stretch out there, wouldn't it be interesting to have a WIX magazine. With all the pilots, restorers, A&P's, photographers, warbird enthusiasts and students (me) here on this site, I'm sure there would be an ample supply of stories and valuable information to tap into. And just think how nice it would be to have a monthly WIX member profile with a photo so you could pin that member up and throw darts at it (me again) ..

Seriously, most should know that newspapers and magazines are still valued worldwide yet many are falling to hard times because of higher costs and the advent of the internet, but there still are many that thrive in this internet age. Wondering what is keeping magazines like 'Air Classics', Warbirds International', 'Aeroplane', just to name a few, afloat?

The photo and mag questions are a hint .... thx WIXers for your input.



Mark

[old iron]

Hello,

WWI Aero and Skyways annually publish their $$ numbers, income and expenses. This is a nonprofit that covers its bills, barely. The two mags solicit and get a fair amount of donations from their readers; I think many such as I pay the subscription rate and throw in an extra $20. So, perhaps not your typical aviation mags.

Subscription numbers are less than 2000, and slowly declining. Here is the real issue, at least to me: Those of us interested in aviation history tend to be of the older crowd. We are leaving the scene and not being replaced by younger enthusiasts in the same numbers.

I remember that Air Enthusiast (or was it Air International?)closed it doors a couple of years ago; Wings and Airpower have been discontinued. These were of the relatively few higher quality aviation periodicals. By "higher quality" I mean original research and quality three-view and other illustrations. These mags have lower subscription rates than the more newsy Air Classics and FlyPast, and consequently have been the first to go. But others will follow. As sales go down, fewer stores will be stocking aviation mags on the racks. I think we are already seeing this process.

So, to redefine the question, how can we get younger people interested in aviation history? Obviously, museums and airshows stir interest, but I think younger people are going to both in lesser numbers. Certainly museum attendence of all stripes has been trending downward in recent years, and that is before the economic troubles. I do not have any statistics, but suspect that aviation model-building is in a steep decline.

Maybe this is an insoluable problem, as aviation history has tough competition in TiVo and text messaging. Times are changing / have changed.

Kevin,
.

[DenverWarbirdFan]

I'm 25 and regularly purchase Classic Wings and Warbirds International. Perhaps I'm an exception to the rule?

[Nathan]

I used to buy Warbirds International and Air Classics. But I really don't need them anymore since I found WIX. There is more info on here and you can actually chat with people in the field of warbirds, photography, flying, etc. So yes WIX saves me money.

Sadly with the internet its the killer for magazines pretty much. So much more info on the net and at a free cost.

cheers,
Nathan

[Fleet16b]

I consistantly read W/B International, Air Classics, Flypast , Aeroplane Monthly.
One of the problems for magazines today are the Super Book Stores.
Up here in Canada, you can walk into Chapters or Indigo Book Stores , pick up the magazine read it back to back and then put it back on the shelf. The stores actually encourage this to the point that there is a Starbucks inside the store where you can get a coffee while reading. Unless there is an article that I really want to keep or pics of my a/c in it, I don't buy the magazine.
How the magazine or the store make money with so many people doing this is beyond me.

[wacoykc]

From the rumor mill I have heard that SKYWAYS is done and will not be published again. Anyone else hear this?

DENVERWARBIRD FAN.......yes, you are in the minority. Most guys your age don't have an interest in "old" airplanes, although I can certainly see where Mustangs, Bearcats, Sea Furies, etc. would hold interest as they go fast, which seems to be the key (hence all the various RV's...although fuel burn is an issue as well). Very few people your age are interested in the antique airplanes unless they grew up in a family that owned one. I'm glad to see a younger guy who has the interest!

[Nathan]

From the rumor mill I have heard that SKYWAYS is done and will not be published again. Anyone else hear this?

DENVERWARBIRD FAN.......yes, you are in the minority. Most guys your age don't have an interest in "old" airplanes, although I can certainly see where Mustangs, Bearcats, Sea Furies, etc. would hold interest as they go fast, which seems to be the key (hence all the various RV's...although fuel burn is an issue as well). Very few people your age are interested in the antique airplanes unless they grew up in a family that owned one. I'm glad to see a younger guy who has the interest!

I'll be 23 at the end of this month.

-Nathan
WIX mod.

[P51Mstg]

I'd say they are not really profitable (you don't see Bill Gates dropping his MSFT stock to start warbird magazines)........

In a way one of their problems is a fairly low sales volume. They seem (to me on the outside) to have a tough time getting past a sort of breakeven point.

I can say there are some serious quaility improvements. Tim Savage has put a lot into WarBird Digest and it has has some really superb articles, as well as great photgraphy, far outclassing the competition. It (and others too) presents something more than you are going to find on this forum. Here you can find "news" but the indepth stuff comes from commercial publications (such as WarBird Digest).

I will say if you want to be able to keep getting these types of publications, you need to support them by subscribing to them. If you don't do that, don't be surprised if they are not there in the future.

Go for it Tim

Mark H

Last edited by P51Mstg on Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I completely agree with the above statement. I think 'warbird digest' is a wonderful subscription. I always look forward to it coming out. The photography is always outstanding.

BTW, from what I have been told by a few publishers here in LA is that it's not just one magazine that will make you any money, especially in aviation from what I'm reading here, it's several magazines of different composition. If you have two aviation related magazines and five women's magazines as examples, you would probably profit from the five which would keep the two others afloat. And BTW women still purchase their magazines by the wheel barrel loads. Vogue is going nowhere anytime soon. Advertisers up the *ss .... maybe that's the way to go with aviation advertising. .... Get more women involved in aviation. ..

Just a thought ....

Last edited by Hellcat on Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[JohnTerrell]

I've been subscribed to a number of aviation magazines for more than the last decade now, and for me it is a treat every time the mail comes and it contains one or any of the magazines. I have been subscribed to Warbirds International, Warbirds Digest, and Flight Journal (I even pick up Air Classics from time to time), long before I ever came across WIX, and even though a lot of the articles now come as no surprise, after reading about new restorations and warbird events first hand from the internet several months in advance, it is still rather difficult to find on the internet the air-to-air and insider photos, and detailed aircraft histories and pilot accounts that these and other magazines offer, so I continue to subscribe to them. I sure hope that these and other publications will continue for years to come.

Currently I'm working on completing college and getting a degree in graphic design/visual communications, and I think it would be a blast combining my interest in design and warbirds into something like working on/for a warbird magazine publication, but I can't imagine there being that much potentially available, but it is something I'd be interested in pursuing if the conditions were right.

Oh, and I'm 21 until the end of this year...

[Scott Rose]

I think there will always be a niche for certain magazines but it will be a matter of profitability. I've noticed that the car magazines I get are getting smaller rather than raise prices. I think like most things nowadays if you want to publish a magazine you need to have an online component. Newspapers are running into the same issue as magazines and they are slowly moving online. It is a tough situation to be in though. I would love to see Warbirds-Online become much bigger and expand its capabilities but there is a limited amount of time that I have to put into it and it makes zero money. Writers and photographers are rightly looking to get paid for thier work. It would be interesting to see what could be built if and investor could put money into it. As it is I roll all profit back into the site in an attempt to grow it, but that takes time.

Anywho, I think a magazine who combines physical and online attributes will have a better chance at progressing into the future.

[Django]

I really liked Ghost Wings. It was a small student magazine that focused on telling the stories of wartime aviation.

Looks like now they have changed to include all veterans.

http://www.valormagazine.com/order.htm

[Nathan]

I really liked Ghost Wings. It was a small student magazine that focused on telling the stories of wartime aviation.

Looks like now they have changed to include all veterans.

http://www.valormagazine.com/order.htm

They live not too far from me...outside Williamsport Pa. A classic mag for sure.