I was wandering the other day how many people, like me, actually read Trout Fisherman. So i looked up the figures on the ABC readership website and the result was quite shocking. The readership has decline 50% in the last 10 years!

2000: 40,153
2001: 38,861
2002: 37,526
2003: 34,553
2004: 30,108
2005: 27,734
2006: 26,783
2007: 25,673
2008: 22,146
2009: 20,355

Trout & Salmon only declined 25% in the same period.

Is this because less people are entering the sport (mentioned in every issue), or less people reading magazines these days prefering websites, or competition from other trout magazines?

Interested to know peoples thoughts on this.

You can only re-invent the wheel so many times, the magazine was repetitive 15-20 years ago, I doubt little has changed......and there's the web!

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Duncan

Good point Duncan, I feel the daily rags are going the same way, you can read most online for free now.
S.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

Knowing what the month is you can predict what at least 80% of the content is going to be and sadly, as there is not very much that is new, you tend to find the same stuff perpetually recycled.

TF is particularly prone to doing this and I stopped buying it years ago. The interesting thing about the numbers is that there is no year in which sales were not less than the previous year. Of all the mags I prefer FF&FT but still take T&S most months mainly because of the nice photos in the "travelogues" although I'd like to see a greater variety of writers and not the same old names month after month. It's a long time since I expected to learn much from reading the mags. The forum(s) is a much better place for learning new things with some exceptional contributors particularly in the fly tying section and some of the photography is right up there with the best.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary

It's got to be the evolution of the Internet! 10 years ago I was only using the Internet to check emails! Now i can find the answer to anything I want to know from something I carry in me pocket! The amount of information we have access to for free now, it isn't suprising at all that people don't pay for magazines when u can get the same information for free online and u don't have to make a trip to that one newsagents on the other side of the county that stocks trout fisherman!

Saying that I do enjoy getting Trout Fisherman!

I am a partner in a web design company so the Internet is a big part of my life and forums more than anything have been a big help with learning new things - better than any mag in my opinion but I have to admit I still spend a decent amount of money on mags every month including Trout Fisherman as I love to lie in bed and spend an hour reading about my favourite past time. OK I can lay in bed with the laptop browsing forums but somehow it's just not the same - might be just me though!

OK I can lay in bed with the laptop, but somehow it's just not the same.

i feel your pain brother.

Interesting post.I noted the site you got these figures from are members only and is all media related.I also note it goes back 8 years on it?

Are you in the media at all ?

The forum here says it has 27000 members, but how many actually read the posts or comment on them or even visit regular?

........

If magazines go, there would be less threads on forums debating the subject and also Forums get repetitive all year round.

The members who have seen the posts time and time again,tend to not comment after a while,so do we stop passing on the knowledge?

I feel one compliments the other and its no good speaking and writing about summer in the depths of winter.

As far as ads go which is also a common complaint,forums are going the same way.Im not niave to think the internet hasnt had an effect,it probably has ,like it has lost jobs for many other industries.

How many would be members here if you had to pay for it?That was a good topic last year I think,caused uproar,but it could happen.Sooner or later.

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Kevin

yup, it would come true.

I think it's down to, how many times you want to read the same thing every season. As Russell Hill says, " We go for the big hit", meaning they only focus on beginners and improvers. By doing this, they leave the more experienced fly fishers, at the way side.

Iv'e just stopped my Subscription and am now thinking of moving onto FF & FT. A much better kind of magazine, with more to interest me.

Regards

Stuart