Anorexic magazine
greg@rocket.net.au -- Thu, 10/29/2009 - 16:53
Anybody notice how HiFi+ is becoming HiFi-? A bigger page size and new layout are fine and dandy, but I noticed a 30% cut in the number of equipment reviews and about the same cut in music reviews. And that trend seems to be continuing. The latest Awards issue has a pathetic 9 music reviews and none of the feature articles the old mag used to have. It looks like the format change has been used to disguise some radical dieting. HiFi+, your ribs are showing.
It's a fair analysis of some of the latest issues. And yes, I've put the magazine on a bit of a diet, in part to build up a stronger magazine in 2010. If we simply keep rolling out the same old features, the magazine stagnates. My opinion is that we have to strip the magazine back to its essentials to see what's good and what's not.
Alan Sircom
Editor, Hi-Fi Plus Magazine
London, England
editor [at] hifiplus [dot] com
I was a very happy subscriber before this diet, and I am very disappointed at the direction HIFI+ seems to be heading. I find it difficult to believe that i will be ever coming back to the thinned out articles in the latest issues. Doesn't HIFI+ have any other writers than A.S. nowadays?
I have to agreee fully with Greg's concerns and would like to see more meat going back into the magazine, especially as it relates to the music reviews. Hi-Fi Plus has become my main sources of information as it relates to new music purchases and I have been quite disappointed lately. TAS used to have great music reviews but over the last 6 months they have gone to reviewing mostly Indie artists that I have never heard of or do not have broad appeal, so I am counting on you guys to keep introducing me to new/old artists and their latest work.
Cheers
Jerry
I was at Barnes and noble to check out a copy of your magazine. While it was $11 for one issue, and surely a little less information then other magazines, but the paper material quality and photographs in perticular were spectacular in your magazine. I bought one just for that. When I went back home and picked up the stereophile I started laughing. I guess what matters is the contents but still the amazing photographs of the components really exposes you to the product even better. Great Job!
I have subscribed to Hi FI + for several years at a premium here in NA. I feel the magazine has taken a significant turn for the worse over the last several issues culminating with the terrible new layout. This was the finest Audio publication on the market. The writing, the photography, the equipments and recording reviews were superior. With the last couple issues we are now dealing with the resizing the pages to match the other UK publications, equipment photos that show on portions of the product, uneven column widths, and about 12 of 50 pages where the right hand page isn't advertising. In addition to the concerns I have noted above, there seem to be fewer reviews and those reviews are not as comprehensive at before.
I have all HIFI+ issues from number 10 onwards and have always felt that it was the last of the "real" magazines available, sort of reminding me of a newer version of Absolute Sound and Stereophile in the eighties, although not quite as esoteric as Absolute Sound was then. What we are seeing, i hope not, is a thinning and dumming down, similar to what these two have gone through over the past 15 or so years. Unless quality and quantity of writing improves, I have bought my last issue.
I've always like Hifi+ very original, I liked the format, the quality of the writing, the music reviews, etc..
Now I thinking about cancelling my subscription, the changes are pretty much a disaster, I almost thought about counting the number of pages of ad vs real articles, I don't mind on a magazine like Tone Audio which electronic and free, I do on one that I buy!
Another EXTREMELY annoying fact was the review of JM Lab Grande Utopia III EM, published also in TAS, that was too much, being under the same umbrella doesn't mean publishing the same thing! if it happens again, I will cancel Hifi+ because I'm a subscriber to TAS and Stereophile.
AS please get back to previous ways, it was great. Don't put ad money before content otherwise soon there will be no ads because there won't be any readers....
I usually read from the french press: PAV, Haute Fidelite, NRDS, Image et Sons.
From Italy: Audio Review and Fedelta Del Suono
From the US: TAS and Stereophile.
For me Hifi+ was a reference in Europe (head and shoulders above most of the others cited above) it is such a shame really.
FB
I have to disagree about the JM Lab review appearing in both TAS and HiFi+. As a U.S. subscriber to HiFi+, I understand that I'm getting a British publication. TAS is a U.S. publication. The audiences are intended to be different. So, I can understand the publishers sharing material. In this case, TAS subscribers wouldn't have seen the JM Lab Grande Utopia review if this hadn't happened. I can live with that, and I can see that TAS readers would have wanted to read that review.
I would add that in difficult economic times, many magazines get thinner (most of the ones I get have gone through this). In very difficult economic times, some magazines go under (there are many recent examples). In these circumstances I'd like to voice my support for audio magazines. I appreciate what they do. If they are struggling with the same issues I see at work, more power to them for finding a way to continue.
Thanks, and your appraisal of the state of audio magazine industry is wholly accurate. We've had to do some assessing and some storm-proofing, and that reflects in the look and the size of the magazine. Hopefully 2010 will be better all round.
Alan Sircom
Editor, Hi-Fi Plus Magazine
London, England
editor [at] hifiplus [dot] com
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