Earlywood: On Woodworking Magazines

Publisher’s note: Welcome to Earlywood, a free excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. A version of this blog post originally appeared online in 2018. Each Earlywood entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. We hope you enjoy it.

About 5-1/2 years ago, I left the world of woodworking magazines after 22 years as an editor, writer and builder. At the time, I didn’t think of myself as rat fleeing a sinking ship. I still thought (and still think) printed magazines have a place in our digital age. But to survive, a magazine requires an editor with a set of brass ones.

First, let me say that almost everything I’ve read about woodworking magazines on forums and in comments does not resemble my experience in media. Most of the commenters have never worked in the field, but they have a cousin who worked for a weekly newspaper in Monkey’s Eyebrow, Ky. So ergo – media genius.

The following might be crap as well. But it is crap that h…