In America, consolidation of publishers has ruined a lot of magazines - the Miller Freeman group comes to mind. Long story short, what happened was that these guys used dot-com lingo to take a lot of shareholder money and go on a shopping spree - at one point they owned 141 (!) magazines. Then, one by one, they gutted the editorial staff, stopped paying as much for writers, and tried to transition the magazines to the Internet - and failed miserably. At this point in history, almost all the solid English language magazines and publications are, in fact, from England. Unless, of course, you like Cosmo, Vouge, Esquire, tabloids, and Playboy. Hell, even Time magazine is thinner than it used to be.
Another thing to bear in mind, as far as the American situation is concerned, is the consolidation of retail and distribution of all kinds. It's not only bass magazines, but towels, appliances, movies, you name it - fewer and fewer people are making more and more decisions about more and more stuff. Selection has suffered drastically at all US retailers as a result.
Solution ? Internet. I am thinking of buying a Kindle for no other reason than to take the stuff I find online, put it in a PDF, and read it away from the computer. Seems like a step backwards, considering what the Internet is, but I know of no other solution off-hand.
Recently, I also found
www.bassgearmag.com - an upstart bass magazine that published its first issue. They have online and offline subscription options. I hope they keep going...
