Also welcome to the forum from me Peter.
As to you questions, in my opinion numbers will continue to fall, as the number of new potential customers is dwindling. This is a result I believe, in the decision of the powers that be, to reducing "Woodwork" and "Metalwork" and "Technical Drawing" classes into "Craft Design Technology", then into "lets drill a hole in some MDF, paint it, put a clock mechanism in it and call it "woodwork". I came through my GCSE and A-levels in '90-92 & '92-94 respectively, and during this time, much of the workshop space was reallocated to other subjects, and machines, benchs etc also removed. Nonetheless, I ended up with three teachers, a "woodworker, a metalworker and an electronics bod". Now I had an interest above all other pupils (bar one or two), who, in the main, were being given a piece of plastic to make a "key-fob", painting clock faces etc. Through perserverance, and after school "club", I managed to get access to the lathe, to be taught to cut M&T joints on a bandsaw, to see a P/T in action (not allowed to use those!) to see chisels being sharpened, etc etc - but in a school of 1500, I reckon only 5-10 of us had that level of interest. By "luck" I had a metalwork teacher from the dark ages, whom we still called "sir" and didn't believe in new rules and regulations and "syllabus" - I disliked him at first, but came to have a deep respect for him. He taught me to gas-weld, to braze, to use metal working lathes, to cut threads, to use mililng machines, manually and under-semi-automatic control, to file something correctly etc the list goes on - but how many kids these days get that chance? Thomas Kennedy (one of our younger members) says they don't even have a router at school?
Without access to initial teaching at school, how easy is it to take up Woodworking in later life? Difficult enough I'd say, by the time you have a job, mortgage, kids etc finding time to go through the basics is hard enough, especially when you don't produce anything visible for your "effort". I "learnt to cut a M&T" doesn't go down with SWMBO's as well as "Look, here's a beutiful new dining room table", so it's hard to justify workshop time. Coupled with this, is people having no idea how well/badly the difference between a good/mediocre/rubbish tool is, means they may give up through frustration. The one thing most schools did used have was a wide range of good, old hand tools, that performed "OK". Everyone here already has a passion, or interest in Woodworking, - I'm trying to think on behalf of "noobies"!
I'd love to indulge myself with a weeks tutorial from someone like Bruce Luckhurst, - but it's hard to justify teh time, and cost to the missus - she'd rather have a holiday together, and frankly, with limited annual leave, probably so would I (difficult choice that!).
Edit! So my point is, with no young people you have an aging reader profile, and until such point as you can re-engage a younger market into buying your magazines surely numbers will continue to fall?
That being the case, perhaps magazines should look to alternative routes to advertise to new customers, how about "sponsering" woodworking evening classes, or sending excess copies of back issues to the people who teach them, or offering "beginner" classes (for a half day in big towns/cities) along the lines of the "discovery workshops" that Homewood have been running?
<phew, rant over!>
Adam
What is going on with flipping Discovery?
