You have to say that Fine Woodworking is beautifully produced. There are lots of pin-sharp, big glossy photos and professionally-drawn sketches and diagrams. However, once you get past those, I'm not sure that the information is any deeper than in any of the other woodworking magazines. Many of the authors are very experienced and highly competent craftspeople, but some of the articles do seem a bit 'abbreviated' at times, though no more so that in the other mags.
Another significant downside of taking the American mags is that the advertising content isn't always of much relevance. At least with the local mags, the advertisers are local, too; since the ads are about a third to a half of the mag, you might as well see ads for stuff you might actually buy.
I have bought a few copies of FWW over the years, but don't any more. That's not because I regard it as rubbish - it isn't - but for the reasons above, mainly the adverts one. That, and because the same sort of articles start coming round again after a few years. There's only so many bench plane comparative trials you want to read - once you discover that expensive planes work better than cheap ones, you've got the jist, really.
