Whisky Magazine getting better

[Frodo]

I thought the interviews with "Mr.Highball" & Vijay Mallya (sp) in the last two issues were fantastic. Straight talk about the state of the industry/marketing and not a hint of being "dumbed down" for the readers. I noticed a crop of new(er) writers such as Ed Bates & Tim Forbes that are coming along really well with topics germaine to here and now. There seem to be less fluff pieces or pieces that could have doubled as advertising. In fact, I haven't seen those in the last 6 issues.

I get the reponses pairing the treatment on the forum with "why should I support this mag"? For me, they are two entirely seperate issues and staying away from the mag due to issues on the forum seems like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I won't finger-wag at folks who take this path - our purchases are our own buisiness. But for me, the mag has improved tremendously starting with the new contributors and a willingness to tackle current issues such as Japanese whisky, campaign for real whisky etc.. Liza P did a very interesting piece on why whisky isn't advertised to women and how this may not last much longer (piece was 2-3 issues ago). I noticed that at my last visit to Spirit of Toronto, about 1/4 to 1/3 of the customers were women - up from 10% 5 years ago. Another example of whiskymag running articles about current issues in the whisky world.

[C57]

My point is that apologies are all very well, but they don't bring back 5500 lost posts. That should have been achievable - it's just a restore from backup. The other losses were minimal, and the main conmtributing members all said they would be happy with that.

[Lawrence]

I'm with frodo on this one, the magazine is improving and this has nothing to do with the forum. Whether you buy the magazine based on what happened in the forum is another decision and those involved have made their choices. As for deleting the posts if was hardly the library of Alexandria, it was mostly just chat after all.

[C57]

I understand the magazine conmtent has nothing to do with the forum - if you read what I said I never claimed there was any connection.

Most of my posts were not in the Chat sections either, but were more serious.
It's my choice whether I subscribe or not and I merely commented on someone's decision to resubscribe, by saying I won't be.

[sorren]

after having my first year of mags, i was pretty happy to re subscribe untill i noticed i could get it soooooo much cheeper from other places, i do think they should at least try to compete price wise... o well another one bites the dust....

[Mr Tattie Heid]

You're right, of course, Frodo, and the reason I dropped my sub was because I was getting a magazine that I wasn't reading much of, sometimes none at all. It does seem to have improved, but I'm content to go issue-by-issue for now.

[Yello to Mello]

I buy issues sometimes off the newsstand. Its a lot tougher to run a forum when its attached to a business.

I was straight urinated off when my posts were deleted last year. On the other hand there have been a few forums I have been on in the last 10 years where 1000's of my posts no longer exist...its a difficult situation when something you posted only on a message board can be referred to years later when the discussion is no longer active and the discussion is more like an archive.

Magazine articles can be archived. I think most internet forum discussions/articles are best when they are read and participated in on the fly. Of course there are revival situations and many people read old forum posts but thats a little different.

[Lawrence]

I'd love to see an article on Loch Lomond distillery, they are very quirky and are bascially the Area 51 of the whisky world as far as I can determine...

You had best be looking out for WM 95......that's all am going to say.....

My issue 95 just arrived (we've had a postal strike and it just ended) and I really enjoyed the article on Loch Lomond distillery.

Pouring through the rest of the issue and there's lots to read.

Thanks Rob.

[Frodo]

There's a fantastic article in the last WM by Chuck Cowdery on Diagio's prospects for buying a bourbon distillery and why they might want one. Absolutely made my day! This is the kind of article that made me glad I subscribed again. It's also the kind of article that (for me) is worth the price of the mag on its own.

Well-done Mr. Cowdery...

[Malt-Teaser]

I'd love to see an article on Loch Lomond distillery, they are very quirky and are bascially the Area 51 of the whisky world as far as I can determine...

You had best be looking out for WM 95......that's all am going to say.....

My issue 95 just arrived (we've had a postal strike and it just ended) and I really enjoyed the article on Loch Lomond distillery.

Pouring through the rest of the issue and there's lots to read.

Thanks Rob.

Obviously much better than the whisky itself then

[The Third Dram]

A 'once-upon-a-time' subscriber here, as well.

I certainly do enjoy many of the articles offered in Whisky Magazine, not to mention the whisky tasting assessments (especially back when Michael Jackson and Jim Murray used to 'square off'... nothing like such dramatically contrasting takes to give one a much better idea of how a whisky might actually taste).

Of particular interest have been the distillery profiles. That said, I still maintain that the series of distillery profiles offered by Decanter Magazine around the 1980s (particularly those penned by Philip Morrice during the mid to late 1980s) remain reference points for such articles. I also feel that Decanter Magazine's panel assessments of whiskies and spirits tended to provide broader perspectives than the 2-taster format normally employed by Whisky Magazine.

...I'm content to go issue-by-issue for now.

Likewise.