Our friends at The Woodworking Channel are running a poll on their website. It asks what woodworking magazine you read the most. The choices are listed as follows:
American Router
American Woodturner
American Woodworker
Fine Woodworking
Furniture & Cabinetmaking
Popular Woodworking
Wood Magazine
Woodcarving
Woodcraft Magazine
Woodturning
Woodwork
Woodworker’s Journal
and Other
Several of the ones that are listed are specialty magazines (American Router and American Woodturner), focusing on a single aspect of our hobby, such as turning or routing. Three of the magazines — Furniture and Cabinetmaking, Woodturning, and Woodcarving — are published in the UK and may be hard (or expensive) to get here in the US. I didn’t even know they existed until just recently. (And I’ve been subscribing to anywhere from 4 to 10 woodworking magazines since about 1995.)
Woodwork is good magazine that appeals to woodworkers who have an artistic bent, and Woodcraft Magazine, even though it’s only been around for a couple of years, is starting to gain some readers.
The rest of them (American Woodworker, Fine Woodworking, Popular Woodworking, Wood Magazine, and Woodworker’s Journal) are all fine magazines, and I subscribe to all except one.
A few magazines not on the list include Woodshop News, Woodworking and Popular Mechanics. Woodshop News, from Sounding Publications, is a great source of information for consumers, as well as the professional trade. I don’t subscribe, but I always look at it when I’m at the Woodsmith Store in Des Moines. Woodworking, a no-ads limited circulation publication from Popular Woodworking, has started to gain a real foothold with woodworkers interested in hand tools and learning about craftsmanship. Finally, Popular Mechanics has included at least one woodworking article in every issue for many, many years. And every November, they dedicate the entire issue to woodworking. Some of my favorite plans for Arts & Crafts furniture come from PM.
But most odd of all is the absence of any of the woodworking magazines from August Home Publishing. That’s because two of the top four woodworking magazines are Woodsmith and Workbench. According to the last published figures from ABC (Audit Bureau Circulation, 2006)* that I know of, Workbench is number two and Woodsmith is number four. Then there’s ShopNotes. Although its subscription base is smaller than its sister publications, ShopNotes is a one-of-a-kind magazine for woodworkers who are looking at solutions for building shop jigs and storage projects for the shop.
I don’t have the capability to do a poll here, but I’m interested in your comments or feelings. What is your favorite woodworking magazine?
(* According to ABC, Wood Magazine is first in paid subscribers and American Woodworker is #3.)