dalcumly wrote:I will continue to buy the magazine and hope it continues.
But I buy it now out of loyalty. The problem for me, and it is only me, is that it doesn't seem to follow any sort of medium term planning. Who is the target audience? Is it a British magazine, or a worldwide magazine? Does it preview fights or report on fights.
It's difficult for Graham Houston because he's not based in the UK. I'm not sure Graham has the contacts anymore in the British boxing scene. All the diverse articles might provide a wide spread of interest, but the don't do anything for me in fact I just skip them.
The Boxing News previews fight and reports on them, the Boxing Monthly cannot and should not follow this approach, they should concentrate on in-depth articles which have not appeared elsewhere, on issues which are of current relevance to potential buyers.
In the last 3 months to be brutally frank, the content has been utter garbage, again only my opinion. The boxing figures who have featured recently would not be compulsive reading in their own living room, never mind the average British buyer if the magazine.
I spent an hour talking to Willie Warburton on Friday night about his life as a journeyman and there was enough interest there to hold the attention of any casual fan. French amateur boxing - give me a break, and if I see the names Bernard Hopkins again I'm going to a blow a gasket.
I'm going to be as straightforward here as I can. I am not into this "target audience" thing. That's just me.
I try to keep things simple.
The objective is to produce a publication each month that boxing aficionados will find interesting and informative. Glyn would say to me: "We're not exclusively a British magazine — we're a
world magazine." Those were more or less Glyn's exact words. I've followed on from that.
I no longer live in the UK, true, but in the internet age, with a much smaller world, I don't think that is such a big deal any more. I feel I can delegate. We have a number of team members I feel are reliable and well-connected.
I was on the front line for a huge number of years (God help me). I was ringside at venues you wouldn't believe, from Cluses in the French Alpine region to Nanaimo, British Columbia, to Pompano Beach, Florida, to Monterrey, Mexico.
In my "other life" in Britain I went everywhere, from Dublin (OK, that's Ireland), to Leeds, to the old Liverpool Stadium, to Usk in Wales, to Glasgow, to — Paris, Monte Carlo, Hamburg, Milan, you name it. I'm not bigging myself up: whatever else you may think of me, that honestly, from the heart, is
not me, I'm just saying.
Now, however, I see myself more in an administrative role.
Do you get where I'm coming from? I'm just trying, in a reasoned manner, to give you an outline of my way of thinking.
I feel if I phoned Eddie H. or FW they would pick up the phone. (Or maybe not, but I think they would.)
I am pretty sure in saying that when the celebrated columnist Dick Young was writing for the
New York Post, in his latter years with the newspaper he was submitting his columns from Colorado. When I was covering the North American scene for Glyn, for quite long stretches of time I was living in South East Asia. As Michael Caine might say: "Not a lot of people know that." Glyn knew.
The point is, in this internet age and shrinking world you are able to submit features/edit from "remote locations". It's actually not all that unusual any more — or so it seems to me.
In many ways I wished I
was living back in the UK, but life dealt me certain cards that I felt I had to play.
I don't wish to mention other boxing publications currently in existence but, of course, I go back a long way, and I will say that when the old
Boxing & Wrestling magazine was still going I used to
love that magazine. I still remember getting on the bus to Kingston Market in Surrey (wonder if that is still there?) and asking the guy at the magazine stall: "Has
Boxing & Wrestling come in yet?" And if it hadn't I'd feel, well, deflated.
I'd like people to feel that way about
Boxing Monthly.
It really is as simple and as elemental as that.
I'm being as open and, as we now say, "transparent", as I can possibly be here.
I wish Glyn hadn't passed away. I miss my long phone conversations with Glyn. Some things in life money can't buy. Glyn's passing was sudden and I was asked if I would take over the editorship and of course I agreed.
If you don't enjoy the magazine any more, or dislike me personally (wonder if we've ever met?), that is unfortunate. However, at the end of the day, all I can do is to give it my best effort, each and every month.
And, yes, I am glad to hear that you still buy the magazine even if you no longer enjoy it. Reader-loyalty can never be over valued.
