On May 3, 5:55�am, Larry Weiss wrote:
end.user wrote:
Powerboat Reports, a boating equipment 'consumer reports' like publication,
has printed its last issue (May 07).

Too bad. It was an important publication - the only boating publication
that I am aware of that told the truth.

After being a subscriber for many years I decided not to renew my
subscription last year.

I don't know the actual reason they've decided to close, but if it is
due to declining circulation then I would speculate that they hurt
themselves very badly with their ridiculously over zealous subscriber
renewal campaigns (probably managed not by them but by a subscription
company they hired). *From the moment one renewed their subscription,
subscribers would immediately be deluged with obnoxious and endless
reminders to renew yet again. *Although it was probably less frequent
than I imagine, the renewal notices were so annoying that it seemed to
me like they came weekly or even every few days. *My complaints to
Powerboat Reports about this fell on deaf ears. *I found the renewal
notices so obnoxious and annoying that I decided not to renew. *So, I
believe, did a significant portion of their subscriber base. *Funny, but
once my subscription ran out, so did the renewal notices - at the time
when they probably would have actually done some good.

Good reporting - bad marketing. *Too bad.

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"

ps: This coming from me - famous for creating one of the most
notoriously obnoxious yet immensely successful advertising campaigns in
the history of radio and television. *That's how bad the Powerboat
Reports renewal campaign was.

Publishing a magazine is a pretty expensive proposition, and when you
don't accept advertising you have no choice except to "mine" the
subscriber base very agressively. Consumer Reports gets away with the
model because they cover such a wide range of products and hundreds of
thousands of people ( I assume) subscribe. There aren't enough boaters
out there to support a consumer magazine 100% by subscriptions, and
while the magazine had its fans (I subscribed for a couple of years)
it looks like the marketplace has spoken and Powerboat Reports was
simply unable to attract and/or renew
a sufficient number of readers.

My only complaint about the editorial content in Powerboat Reports is
that there was an obvious preference for products from the NE portion
of the country. Not that they weren't objectively tested and reviewed-
just that a disproportionate number of items either manufactured in or
especially suited for the NE seemed to be featured. Nothing
fundamentally wrong with that, but it points out another challenge in
trying to publish a "national" boating magazine.