BoxRec

I enjoy boxing news think they doing a good job.

tonyevs wrote:

all my years in the industry I've never seen a shred of evidence that a high ratio of ads results in damaging declines in copy sales. Readers will bitch and moan (as will editors!) on occasion, but it's never resulted in a substantial drop in copy sales revenue

An eye opener then that those in the industry ignore their readers ... that can`t be good :(

What mag have/do you work for .. I`ll give it a wide berth.

They don't ignore their readers - All the best editors craft their magazines out of passion and an intuitive understanding of their readers (Glyn being a perfect example). However, it amazes me that people constantly forget that just like anything else, magazines are a business, so you have to be focused on the bottom line. And the reality is that even the minority of readers who are vocal about ad volume still purchase the product to get their 'fix', as the positives far outweigh the negatives. When you ever get the opportunity to liaise with them one-on-one (such as through focus groups), they also tend to drop their complaints when they realise that drops in advertising revenue would result in corresponding cuts in editorial budgets and thus weaker content for them to consume.
Any business that based its decisions on the basis of a vocal minority who generally have no understanding of the business model or the P&L would soon find itself floundering. It's not ignoring readers, it's recognising where the line is drawn between listening to them and acting sensibly.

I still enjoy it. I always look forward to picking up Boxing News each week, and Boxing Monthly each month.They both remain a treat for me.

I miss Claude Abrahams editorials, and I don't mean that instead of Tris Dixon's -it was great to have them both writing for the Magazine.

I hope Claude Abrahams is doing well and enjoying life.Will he ever write/present on boxing again? I hope so as I always found him to be really insightful and very often, bang on.

Ta for nice words Deserter - I think any editor who loves his mag/subject matter finds themselves in conflict with the advertising dept, who very rarely share that interest and work on commission. Luckily, it's not like that for BM anymore but it was in the early days, to the degree that physical fights broke out on a couple of occasions - might be more accurate to say I hit them, actually lol.

big lennox wrote:I hope Claude Abrahams is doing well and enjoying life.Will he ever write/present on boxing again? I hope so as I always found him to be really insightful and very often, bang on.

I find it really hard to believe that we've heard the last of Claude, he was an absolute obsessive and a great bloke

Glyn Leach wrote:Ta for nice words Deserter - I think any editor who loves his mag/subject matter finds themselves in conflict with the advertising dept, who very rarely share that interest and work on commission.

Very true, but ironically it's that 'clash' that frequently results in the perfect product from a business perspective! It's also why the publisher model works well in that there's a governing influence who strike the balance between the two.
Having said that, I've been fortunate enough to work on some publications where the ad guys have been enthusiasts and that can work wonders on occasion.

Still love BN,but i do seem to get thru it quicker than i used to,keep the amateur pages as they are or bring back amateur boxing scene which was a top mag

The reports on some of the small hall shows seem to have got shorter which I don't like.......However they have had some good features recently.

anyone think Lennox Lewis sounded a bit arrogant in his piece this week?

NorthEastBoxingFan wrote:anyone think Lennox Lewis sounded a bit arrogant in his piece this week?

Actually thought it was his best article.
It did show a little of his arrogance - but I think it fitted in well with what he was saying.

And when you compare Lennox to the other big players of his era .. Tyson, Bowe, Holyfield ... its hard to argue with what he is saying.

The magazine will only be as interesting as the fights that are happening at that moment generally.

It's not helped by the lack of personalities of late in the game. Folk like Billy Graham and so forth always were worth a quote.

Im a subscriber of both and enjoy the as-it-happens BW stuff, just as much as the detailed in-depth stuff of BM.

BW do have their hands full producing so much content on a weekly basis, especially with the web breaking everything so quickly nowadays.

That said, the web is full of chaff - with sites ripping articles from other sources constantly it becomes regurgitated far too much. I have seen entire interviews lifted from one website to another and wrapped up as their own. They should do their own interviews instead of that.

I only buy BN after a good fight weekend these days just to relive what I've already seen through the eyes of others in many cases...

I only get BN on the odd occasion as I get Boxing Monthly every month along with The Ring, so another £2 odd a week is stretching it a bit.

BN gives all the up to date news and results across the spectrum of boxing, the big shows and the small hall shows, and that is surely a good thing for the sport to have every week.
I my opinion I would say that BN is aimed at the very hardcore of boxing including the fighters, promoters and trainers and does a different job to that of Boxing Monthly, which I think is an excellent mag (sucking up to Glyn here )

Agree with what others have said about the interviews...'cash or card', 'Facebook or Twitter' is like something you'd get in one of those trashy 'celeb' mags like Heat.

I am hardcore....... that's the problem.!!

i dont understand why this week's BN letter of the week has a headline saying ''anti-climax''???? the letter is positive so doesnt seem to make sense.

Wake up call wrote:Personally I think (and I'm not being biased because I contribute to it now and then) that the mag is 1000 x better than the large Berliner version they had out circa 2000 to 2005.

Also, IMO Matt Christie is quite possibly the best writer in British boxing at the minute. His pieces on Jim Evans and Jason Rushton were superb.

i find matt christie fight reports hard to decipher. he is the stuart hall of boxing journalism...not my bag hombre.

BN has got owrse lately..who gives a shjt about "facebook or twitter" fer fcks sake..its not fckin FHM. That kind of tripe devalues the mag. also the fake debate about who was the best, who would have won etc where you have one for and the other against a particular argument...doesnt do it for me...this week's was particularly weak..preferred it under claude.

I have bought it every week for the last 25 or more years and always will.
Have to agree with the Matt Christie criticism though,I also find his reports really hard to read-Trying far too hard to be over-dramatic and analytical.I have to read his reports 2 or 3 times to fully understand them.

saad muhammad wrote:What do you guys think, the new look boxing news
seems to be lacking in quality reports on fights and preview's.
Recently we had a preview of danny mcintosh's euro defence
in Germany, but no preview of the Geale/ sylvester ""World title fight".
This week a tiny report on the ouma/ golovkin, fight, and a great scrap,and
while were on ouma a disgusting headline... BRAIN BLEED, this is not the
Daily star guys, have respect for this great warrior and get your facts right
a blood shot eye that's all it was.
I' ve been getting boxing news for 30 years, i still love the game passionately
but i am getting pissed off with showy articles with no depth.!!

Me too canclled mine it's crap now

Abrams passion shone thru the mag. These new guys seem to think they k ow better then everyone else and are pompous. Not my cup of tea

I cancelled mine a couple of months ago as I was reading less and less of it. The only thing that I liked about it in the end was the McRae features, I havent missed it at all since I kicked it into touch. Boxing Monthly pisses all over Boxing News.

It's nowhere near as good as it used to be - infact it's sh1t but it's a captive audience and ofcoarse I will be buying it this week, what really p1ssed me off about last weeks issue was that I went to the wembley show and got there at 6.45 and didn't get to see Phil Gill fight, I got mine and my mates tickets off him and he fought at 6.20 so missed it. Boxing news had about 3 lines on the fight! Thanks for filling me in. The Phil Fury-Peter Vaughan fight was a classic, it didn't sound nowhere near as good when I read it on thursday. It's hard to folllow boxing now, and Boxing news arn't helping.

the truth wrote:Abrams passion shone thru the mag. These new guys seem to think they k ow better then everyone else and are pompous. Not my cup of tea

How are they 'new guys'?

the truth wrote:

saad muhammad wrote:What do you guys think, the new look boxing news
seems to be lacking in quality reports on fights and preview's.
Recently we had a preview of danny mcintosh's euro defence
in Germany, but no preview of the Geale/ sylvester ""World title fight".
This week a tiny report on the ouma/ golovkin, fight, and a great scrap,and
while were on ouma a disgusting headline... BRAIN BLEED, this is not the
Daily star guys, have respect for this great warrior and get your facts right
a blood shot eye that's all it was.
I' ve been getting boxing news for 30 years, i still love the game passionately
but i am getting pissed off with showy articles with no depth.!!

Me too canclled mine it's crap now

Ive stopped buying it also. The general variety and quality has gone. For me Boxing Monthly is a much better read for a true follower of the sport and the writers are just better.

I never fail to read it, always find time for 20 minutes in WH Smith to have a browse

i say this with a heavy heart, but it does seem to be slipping somewhat. the previews and reports have been trimmed, especially the overseas stuff which is the stuff we dont get to see on the tv so i want to read about it. all that twitter and facebook nonsense is painful. i want analysis and the inside track, not tittle tattle.

i like the extra features but they are hit and miss. BM is a much better read these days. I have a BN sub but will consider seriously whether i want to renew it when the time comes.