Re: [Paddlewise] What's Wrong with Kayaking

At 12:00 PM 12/21/2004 -0500, Steve Cramer wrote:
>John Fereira wrote:
>
>>At 05:38 PM 12/20/2004 -0800, Dave Kruger wrote:
>>
>>>Flash and dash over substance and content.
>>Except for that article on Bracing Drills. Whoever wrote that is really good.
>
>Well...that's perhaps debatable ;), but it certainly wasn't an article 
>designed to appeal to neophytes. If SK really were trying to move towards 
>less hard-core articles, they'd scarely have printed that one.
>
>>BTW, I hope that Chris chimes in soon to respond to the criticism.  I 
>>know that he subscribes to the list.
>
>Several people have accused SK of going where the money is and essentially 
>abandoning us fanatics. This may be a case of the perfect being the enemy 
>of the good. I think SK is the best magazine for sea kayaking out there. 
>Would you rather they focus on articles that appeal only to a small few, 
>lose money, and cut back or fold? In publishing, survival means 
>circulation and advertising. I don't really want to go back to photocopied 
>newsletters.

It's not just publications.  I know of three retail/rental shops for which 
survival is a real issue.  Not only are they not profit mongers getting 
rich off a mass market of consumers, they're reevaluating whether or not 
they can stay in business when competing with mall outdoor stores staffed 
by people that may not have ever paddled a kayak.