It seems to me that BP has become super soft on their reviews. When you handle that much gear, you can tell when a POS rolls into your office. However, if said POS belongs to a advertiser of yours, it gets a standing ovation. (sigh)
Having worked as an art director for a magazine in the hunting market recently (just switched jobs), I can tell you that this is true. And generally speaking, you cover the people who cover your bills. Grampa called it "dancing with the one what brung ya"
That being said, what you don't see, is when a POS enters the office, and asks for a review. We always tried to give the real whiz-bangers some play if we were sent a product that just blew us away, advertising or not, but for the ones that sent us a POS, we returned them with a list of constructive suggestions for improvement.
The other thing to consider is that magazines have been the focus of a broadening of technology, and a narrowing of demographic numbers. A niche pub like BP doesn't have a 3 million circ like "Car & Driver" or "Cycle World" might. They have a few people actually on staff, and share production coordination folks with the other magazines in the publishing group.
The two main books I art directed, Gun Dog and Wildfowl, had different editors, but shared associate editors and art directors. We had a staff photog who was insanely busy day in and day out, usually kept busy by our sister publications Guns & Ammo and Petersen's Hunting. Regular departments were written by writers that worked remotely. So when you see a lot of names on the masthead, know that about a 10th of them actually work for the publishing group, and actually go to the office.
Plus, we produced (when I left) a couple of SIPs a year, an annual gear guide, calendars, promotional and media-guide materials, etc. And we were beginning to provide online content outside of the iPad versions of the magazine. All out of one office. By essentially 3 people.
I art directed 19 publications per year averaging about 128+ pages each, 3 media guides, 3 calendars, all of their associated promotional materials. That's a lot of work that used to be shared by 4-5 different people. An art director, a senior designer and a couple of junior designers.
And with the advent of iPad publications, and the availability of incorporated rich content, that workload is only getting bigger.
All in all, considering what I know of the magazine industry (and I know it pretty well), I'd say they're providing a pretty good product.
And FWIW, I think the artist (and musical style) coverage is fairly diverse and unique. A flip through the covers on my music desk show Adam Blackstone, Wolfgang Van Halen, Bryan Beller, Steve Harris, Steve Bailey, Darryl Jenifer, Mike Dirnt, the Acoustic 360, Geddy Lee, Phil Lynott, Alex Webster, Esperanza Spalding, Hutch Hutchison and Gary Willis.
Yes, I have a stack there at all times, next to my charts, lyric books, chord and theory books, etc. Makes it pretty handy.
Hard to compete with the immediate reviews and info on Talkbass. I view my subscription cost as kind of 'charity' at this point as part of the bass community helping keep this classic mag afloat, even though it is pretty much irrelevant at this point. IMO.
