I am so cotton pickin tired of the adds that Amato is approving in this magazine. My stepdad and i counted over 400 ads in one issue. Not to mention that this months issue wasnt even pertinent to the upcoming fishery. i have been reading STS since about as long as i have learned to read ( not long, maybe a year ) and every year the issue gets more filled with usueless adds then good info. i realize that things get repeated, thats fine but repeat fishing info and good stories and NOT adds.

Yeah yeah i know you have to make your money somehow. but not when you have a complaining customers. Its getting really ridiculous. My stepdad is cancelling his subscription and i dont think i will be reading it anymore. My stepdads cousin J.D. Love has been subscribing since day one of that magazine and has many really old back issues from some of the first issues. THE WHOLE ISSUE COVER TO END IS FULL of good info and cool stories. and as you look at the next couple of years issues you see some adds but its tolerable. About the mid 90's on it just got more and more ridiculous. there was only 3 thats 3!!!!!!!!! times that there was a page that had the next page without an add on it. so a grand total of 6 pages without an add. thats just ridiculous.

I haven't bought a mag or rag in over two years now.They all suck,Not to say I haven't seen one or two laying around and have not read it or glanced @ it.I refuse to buy ad's as mentioned above.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

P.S. I got tired of seeing and reading the same $hit over and over.

Merg: You have every right to like or not like any given magazine, but to complain about too many ads is simply not rational.

ALL magazines have an add to editorial ratio. The ads pay for the words. It's that simple. When a magazine has more adds they can increase content. When add sales drop content must as well.

Subscriptions do not pay the bill at STS or any other magazine I know of.

I once had a crusty old editor chop off the last three paragraphs of a story. When I asked why he said, "I sold a bigger add."

Take a look at a big national magazine like Ophra - tons of adds, because the readers like the content. It seems to me the more ads a magazine has the better it is doing. Why do they do well? Because readers like what they read.

Please tell me of any other fishing magazine that has more articles per issue. I do not know of any. I just checked a recent STS. It had 16 articles and features. A comparable Salmon Steelhead Journal – which is a fine magazine, had eight.

As dave said, it is the nature of the industry. Try picking up a any womens magazine, maxim or GQ, ya gotta go to page 20 for the table of contents to find the article you want to read. These mags can be very large with very little content. If the content is not what you desire then don't buy the magazine, but if you find the content helpful you will probably just have to wade through the ads and you may even find something in an ad that you find useful, just be sure to ask your doctor if it is right for you...

Merg, If they were ads for Axe body spray and hair gel, would you complain as much?



Kidding man...

Unfortunately I would respectfully disagree. In theory more ads would fund more content but it doesn't seem to work like that because as ads increase the content decreases. The mags would be as thick as the bible otherwise. Many of us have made these observations after years of reading the mags. But ads are certainly a vital part of the equation.

RVW

The adds are just like bulletin boards...if you don't want to read the add, flip to the next page...

Fish on...

Todd

Speaking of magazines verses bulletin boards. Seems to me reading a magazine these days is like doing it with a blow-up doll. It gets the job done, but. The bulletin boards on the other hand are living breathing creatures that you can interact with.

I have no empirical knowledge to back up that analogy, BTW.

Merg,

The Amatos don't publish the mag for your pleasure. They do it to earn money. They earn money by selling the maximum combination of subscriptions and ads. Without that, there is no content. Like Dave said, there is a threshold ad to content ratio. If the mag doesn't meet or exceed it, it folds. The reason the early issues had few ads is because they could only sell a few, and the content was on newsprint with fewer photos and only B&W. Now it's a slick paper mag with lots of color photos because they have done a good job marketing it.

Like most such things, don't like it; don't read it.

hahahah TOUCHE'. theres a saiying i use when it comes to guys who think they are players that i run into.

" phone numbers up....Quality down"
"quality up....phone numbers down"

Its that simple. Ive read the magazines ( back issues i am young )from just about 1970 to present time. My stepdad has a couple hundred just at his house. then i read J.D.'s in the cabin when i drop a duece. its the quality i am complaining about. the articles sucked. Werent pertinent to the upcoming SPRINGER season and ON TOP OF THAT i leafed through more adds then in the little nickel. your right. less issues was why they used to be so good. well...maybe theres something in that. RAISE THE PRICE OF THE MAGAZINE. I dont care if i have to pay a couple hundred dollars a year for the dang thing. Make it worth the money. good articles, good info, good stories. and then put a few adds in. I never even notcied the adds until about mid last year. i kinda looked down and went " man this is a lot of adds....huh.....never noticed that before."

Point in fact. i used to leaf through an issue of STS then go back and read it cover to cover. the steelhead issue 2 years ago took me the longest time to read at 35 minutes. Last months issue. 13 minutes. 16 one page articles with half of them half page photos isnt realyl worth much is it.

Your right, he doesnt make for me....he makes it for......wait...oh he makes it to satisfy the people that put adds in reachs the most people...ok i get it. So back in an issue awhile ago ( 1980 something) he said all about how the magazine was all about the fisherman in Pacific Northwest. well that dog wont hunt anymore


in any case you are right. But its like i said before is the reason i dont VOTE. My voice on an issue, my one voice doesnt make a darn bit a difference to Amato or to Bush. So i piss about it for an hour or so then smile and move on with my life. Just voice'n some fishing realted topics guys And throwing some hyperactive flamerness around

Merg

hahahah TOUCHE'. theres a saiying i use when it comes to guys who think they are players that i run into.

" phone numbers up....Quality down"
"quality up....phone numbers down"

Its that simple. Ive read the magazines ( back issues i am young )from just about 1970 to present time. My stepdad has a couple hundred just at his house. then i read J.D.'s in the cabin when i drop a duece. its the quality i am complaining about. the articles sucked. Werent pertinent to the upcoming SPRINGER season and ON TOP OF THAT i leafed through more adds then in the little nickel. your right. less issues was why they used to be so good. well...maybe theres something in that. RAISE THE PRICE OF THE MAGAZINE. I dont care if i have to pay a couple hundred dollars a year for the dang thing. Make it worth the money. good articles, good info, good stories. and then put a few adds in. I never even notcied the adds until about mid last year. i kinda looked down and went " man this is a lot of adds....huh.....never noticed that before."

Point in fact. i used to leaf through an issue of STS then go back and read it cover to cover. the steelhead issue 2 years ago took me the longest time to read at 35 minutes. Last months issue. 13 minutes. 16 one page articles with half of them half page photos isnt realyl worth much is it.

Your right, he doesnt make for me....he makes it for......wait...oh he makes it to satisfy the people that put adds in reachs the most people...ok i get it. So back in an issue awhile ago ( 1980 something) he said all about how the magazine was all about the fisherman in Pacific Northwest. well that dog wont hunt anymore


in any case you are right. But its like i said before is the reason i dont VOTE. My voice on an issue, my one voice doesnt make a darn bit a difference to Amato or to Bush. So i piss about it for an hour or so then smile and move on with my life. Just voice'n some fishing realted topics guys And throwing some hyperactive flamerness around

Merg

Tell that to our Governor. She won her seat by a handful of votes, if not by only ONE.

All votes matter. Even yours, Merg.

Ob Fish Mags: - I go back and forth on the mags. I'll subscribe, not subscribe, subscribe, etc.

I'm currently in the "I'll subscribe" phase now. Of the mags i get, I really like SSJ. I know it's the underdog of the fish mag world, but I sure hope it sticks around.

Merg,

Maybe he publishes the magazine for hyperactive kids like you with short attention spans. Half page articles should be perfect.

Sorry, but you set yourself up for that one.

(I began my subscription in 1969, about a year after it started up. At 6 issues a year then, I should have photocopied the back issues. But then I stopped subscribing in the mid 80s, after I'd read about every river in WA and OR and going into reruns.)

Sg

Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I like the ads. Fishing ad's are like advertisments for sex, they both make the blood rush to my head.

LMAO...

I don't mind the ads so much-but I think the recent glowing spin n glow cover was LAME.

And to answer your other question yes....i am high....on jesus

Merg,

Stick to what your readers want...post more pics of girls.

Otherwise Greg's prediction is going to come true, and someone will recognize you out on the river and shout out "Hey Merg...you aaaahole". And I will roll around on the bank, my tears of laughter caking the sand to my face.

Be careful of flamerness, or you'll become the Piscatorial Ann Coulter. And Sol will try and wipe his weiner in your hair. Nobody wants to see that. Well, almost nobody.

Tell Greg thanks for the offer to fish, but I have a WDFW Enforcement meeting on Saturday, and a party this Sunday. I also went out and picked up a decent side drifting rod. Lami Cert Pro XJ 9'6. You guys and Superfly have given this bankmaggot a great crash course in side drifting. Maybe I'll be able to keep up next time out