I agree it's a lifestyle magazine. That's one of the reasons I'm a subscriber. I would like to see some lifestyle that most of us can afford. It often looks like the Robb report with some cigar news in the back.
B.A.S.E. Secretary and #0013 <(0)> R.O.C.A #14 Foreign Affairs Minister - BS
I must confess that I do like the magazine. I've been a subscriber from the time that Jack Nicholson was on the cover. And I have kept every issue since. I agree that there should be more coverage of cigars than anything else...but CA did state at one time that they were going to go "more lifestyle" to the point where on the cover page the word "cigar" would be in smaller letters. Yeah, sometimes I get bored with it because there is stuff in there that I will never do, people I could give less than a f**k about, but, so be it...the old cliche' comes to mind, "you can't please everyone" . If you don't like it anymore, don't buy it. But I don't think that I will ever let my subsciption go. I look forward to it. Sitting down, lighting up & reading the next Arnold interview....
In a time when cigar friendly places are becoming more and more scarce, I feel that the cigar community should be bolstering it's own, not abandoning them to pursue the Robb report crowd.
I'd like to see more cigar content, more info. on cigar legislation and more righteous indignation at unjust classification of cigars with cigarettes. If not CA to carry our banner than who?
wow i was real shocked to read all the post on this. to tell you the truth i just thought that i was a poor man reading a rich mans magazine. i didnt think that the average person read the magazine. especially since i never see anyone my age reading it (30 but been reading it for 8 years).to tell you the truth i never even see anyone read it. i usually read it for the interviews,ratings, and i like seeing the piks of people that smoke cigars.especially when i see women. just good to hear that im not in the boat by myself.
Posts: 11 | Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA | Registered: April 20, 2003
I have some of the early issues and man what a difference. Besides the CIGAR title on the front is the content.
First some of the early ones numbered in the several hundred pages, half of which were cigar ads. Also much less toys. Heck why include content if everybody and their brother is willing to pay your rates for ad space?
This is a great thread, guys (and ladies!) - keep forwarding on your concerns and suggestions and hopefully the editors will listen. I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but let me go into detail about what this magazine really should look like, IMHO.
I'm a 22-year old college student, so I don't need to say anything else about my financial status. Other than the cigars, everything else listed in CA is outside of my purchasing power for now and the foreseeable future. Right now, my dad and I share a subscription, and I would agree with most of you that CA is worth the price they charge now. For 20 bucks, there is enough cigar information inside to keep most of us from a reader's revolt.
What seems to have been lost to Marvin and the rest of the CA gang is the true profile of their readership. Sure, there are some who can go out today and buy a Bentley or a $20K watch, but for 95% of readers and almost all of us in this forum, that's not reality. CA suffers from a lack of competition, although that may be changing.
For starters, unlike some who have posted before me, I'll try to be a realist. This magazine will never be all about cigars, nor should it be. It would be very tough to publish a 200-page mag 6 times a year focused solely on cigars, not to mention that CI generates its own revenue stream for the true cigar aficionado. Taking into account the advertising opportunities CA gains by making the publication a lifestyle magazine, it's hard to blame the gang for making a business decision. Also, realize that people on these message boards are cigar-driven, but we don't necessarily represent the broad readership. My guess is that plenty of people read pgs. 1-150 and skip the cigar portion simply because CA is a well-written publication on the good life.
So, we have an impasse - and it's impossible to make everyone happy. With that in mind, what can/should CA do to make every reader feel like they got most of what they wanted?
Here are my ideas:
Cover story - The obsession with Hollywood has gone way too far. Instead of famous cigar smokers, the new focus is stars who occassionally light up. We need more balance - sports figures like Jack McKeon or even covers that are not one-person biographies (such as the Cuban models) would be a good start. Other good feature stories include politicians like Arnold and Tommy Franks, which are regarded as some of your best in recent memory.
The "Good" Life - There is a difference between the good life and the lavish life. The majority of readers probably make a solid, above-average income and have some disposable cash, given that cigars aren't the cheapest of pleasures. However, few of us care about the most expensive and overpriced in every possible category. Why not focus more on products that a majority of your readers could potentially save up and purchase, but would still be considered somewhat upper-class? A good example was the hammocks in December's good life guide - they cost between 200 and 400 bucks, but it's a high-quality product that few of us readers would know about. Nice golf courses, good bottles of spirits, and technological gadgets are good choices here, but spare me the $2,000 smoking jackets, please.
Topics - I love poker, golf, sports, and business. Most readers probably like the same things as well. Still, the formula is getting stale, as every issue reads much like the one before it. Talk about lifestyle improvement, new music, literature, and especially nice places to travel (on a reasonable budget!) along with the standard fare and more of your readers will look forward to the ENTIRE magazine, not just particular sections. Devote a small section in each issue to the really exclusive products, so that all of us can enjoy dreaming in limited doses.
The cigar section - Without stepping on the toes of CI, keep up the good work. This portion is why most of us subscribe, and it sells the magazine on the stands at cigar shops. Don't get too far away from your reason to exist, which is cigars. The interviews with company heads are great, but focus on a broad variety of companies, not just Padron, Fuente, or CAO. As for your ratings, it's the first thing I flip to, and I would love to see each cigar given multiple tastings/ratings to hear what a variety of cigar experts think.
Thanks for hearing me out, whoever is out there, and please work to improve the quality of the magazine that has the potential to be not just good, but great.
Posts: 162 | Location: Flagstaff, AZ | Registered: February 05, 2003
quote:Originally posted by naudebo: Thanks for hearing me out, whoever is out there, and please work to improve the quality of the magazine that has the potential to be not just good, but great.
We're out here, and we're listening. I think it's great that you and other posters here care enough about our magazine to offer your comments, ideas and criticism. Lately we've tried to boost the cigar section of the book. The Q&As have been brought back--I just finished one for the March/April issue of a man with more than four decades experience in the business who has never been interviewed by CA, so it's pretty special--we brought back Cigar Adviser and the cover story coming out next week is about--cigars. And it's not to be missed.
Take a look at the next issue. All of you who want more cigars in Cigar Aficionado should be happy.
Posts: 2244 | Location: New York, NY | Registered: April 23, 2002
quote:Originally posted by David Savona: We're out here, and we're listening. I think it's great that you and other posters here care enough about our magazine to offer your comments, ideas and criticism. Lately we've tried to boost the cigar section of the book. The Q&As have been brought back--I just finished one for the March/April issue of a man with more than four decades experience in the business who has never been interviewed by CA, so it's pretty special--we brought back Cigar Adviser and the cover story coming out next week is about--cigars. And it's not to be missed.
Take a look at the next issue. All of you who want more cigars in Cigar Aficionado should be happy.
Woo hoo! I'd like to think this post and all of the intelligent frank contributions were an influence on the editorial direction CA is taking.
I personally enjoy some of the articles on items other than cigars or cigar related items. However, they should be significantly lessened. In the end I would much rather read about a cigar related topic (be it on smokes, people, rolling, accesories, etc.) than about the development of a private island for the CEO of Pocket Your Money, Inc., I can read about that stuff in a dozen other places.
"Don't like it too much, they're more expensive than drugs."
Posts: 520 | Location: Chicago, IL | Registered: September 19, 2004
There seems to be an assumption that your target audience are only interested in golf, poker, cars etc... why is this? Do you have no interests in music, film, literature, travel writing etc?
Originally posted by algernon: There seems to be an assumption that your target audience are only interested in golf, poker, cars etc... why is this? Do you have no interests in music, film, literature, travel writing etc?
CA, politically correct or not, is a men's lifestyle mag with an emphasis on cigars. Golf, cars and poker would carry an appeal with that target audience, whereas music, film and literature appeal to a broader audience. There are entertainment mags for that.
To dumb it not a notch; guys read CA. poker, golf and cars are "guy things." It's the same reason that Ladies Home Journal doesn't have cigars.
Being in the Army I don't make a great deal of money and spend most of my income on my house and land, horses, gun and knife collecting, white water canoes, and cigars. So I have never taken up golf and don't play poker, and I drive a Nissan Xterra SUV. So alot of what if shown in the CA magazine I either don't care about and/or can never afford. I subscribe to CA for the small section on Cigars and wish CA would have more cigar related stuff and less playboy jetset stuff.
*********************** "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Anonymous
I'm interested in knowing if the subscriptions of CA have been hurt by Cigar magazine. While most people realize that there is some bias to the reviews in Cigar, overall they do a much better job of presenting cigar info.
I know there are ways to get magazine subscriber info. I just don't know how. Anyone that knows about this stuff or knows how to find it, I'd appreciate if you posted it or emailed me.
Originally posted by BinDerSmokDat: I'm interested in knowing if the subscriptions of CA have been hurt by Cigar magazine. While most people realize that there is some bias to the reviews in Cigar, overall they do a much better job of presenting cigar info.
I know there are ways to get magazine subscriber info. I just don't know how. Anyone that knows about this stuff or knows how to find it, I'd appreciate if you posted it or emailed me.
cA is an established lifestyle magazine with a circ of almost 300,000. Cigar magazine has a circ of 50,000 and is moslty about cigars. it won't have any impact on cA's circ or ad sales.
wow i was real shocked to read all the post on this. to tell you the truth i just thought that i was a poor man reading a rich mans magazine. i didnt think that the average person read the magazine. especially since i never see anyone my age reading it (30 but been reading it for 8 years).to tell you the truth i never even see anyone read it. i usually read it for the interviews,ratings, and i like seeing the piks of people that smoke cigars.especially when i see women. just good to hear that im not in the boat by myself.
