To discuss anything which relates to the FLYER Airportal or the magazine
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799529
As a different idea - Is there a role for a Flyer Annual?
A lot (most?) of the content isn't particularly time sensitive - and often I'd find I'd be reading features 6 months after they came through the letterbox.... a Flyer Annual would fill my need to have something physical to read with nice glossy pictures in digital-downtime, and then use the online version to fill in on the topical content. Ideal Christmas present territory....
Morten, november romeo, T67M and 4 others liked this
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By seanxair
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799534
I've always paid whatever it was on the news stands at as I travel regularly and didn't need to subscribe. In fact I looked forward to finding it at the airport as I would be pushed to remember to take it if delivered. Now I'm picking up another magazine and slowly drifting away from Flyer as a brand, much as I enjoy the content and ethos, especially the very well balanced stuff re CAA. And I find myself not logging on here as much as I used to.

I detest reading on a tablet or computer and even a downloaded copy has lines of text at different apparent sizes so yes I too miss the print version...
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799544
What percentage of (paper) Flyer's annual sales were from subscription and what percentage were bought singly from W H Smith et al?

Or is that commercially sensitive info?

Peter :wink:
Last edited by PeteSpencer on Wed Sep 30, 2020 7:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799555
Oh, a can of worms...!

I hate reading mags online. It is probable that the tech is better now but I could never abide the page turning antics involved with digital, the need to fire up the tablet, the extra work if I just wanted to dip into the mag for one article while dinner's cooking.

I subscribed fairly recently because I enjoy the forum (even when I make a fool of myself), have had help with my queries from numerous forumites, and been shown kindness as a newbie. The magazine undoubtedly has very interesting articles, I very much enjoy the Thursday YouTubes, but a print copy gets my vote every time.

Fully appreciate that we are asking a lot, Ian, but can we make it work? Thinking aloud but a glossy digital for fancy ads and a less glossy print edition for economic printing?? Not sure how the advertisers would view that, or the economics of it of course.

IN ANY CASE, THANK YOU!
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By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799557
I am around half way through reading it on an iPad mini. Slightly fiddly but it’s getting better month by month, it carries forward the character of the old print version and I no longer lose it to the recycling bag;-)
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By TheKentishFledgling
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799559
Just for balance... I enjoy the digital version more, and I didn’t think I would. I now find it read nearly all of it in dribs and drabs over the month, whereas in print I’d rarely read it all.

Perhaps it’s more accessible now I can read it anywhere? I think I even had access to the digital version before Covid for a few years but just...never remembered I did :oops:
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By EddieHeli
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799567
Being in IT and on a computer screen all day, I don't relish having to read my leisure literature on a screen of any kind.
I have resorted to printing out the pdf (all 84 pages of the October edition) on my colour laser printer, but not having a duplex machine at home, it does seem a waste and also is a massive tome to handle when carrying and reading.
I realise I can print ranges of pages, to avoid printing the full page ads, but its a faff rather than just pressing print and waiting half an hour.
In the absence of a printed version, It would be useful to have a pdf version without ads available to subscribers so it would print on half as much paper.
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By AndyR
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799580
Another one who much preferred the printed version. I’ve not even clicked on the link for the last two editions. To me that kinda says my subs are out of loyalty to GBLEW more than for the magazine. Like others, happy to pay the subs for the likes of the forum too.
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By G-BLEW
Boss Man  Boss Man
#1799587
AndyR wrote:Another one who much preferred the printed version. I’ve not even clicked on the link for the last two editions. To me that kinda says my subs are out of loyalty to GBLEW more than for the magazine. Like others, happy to pay the subs for the likes of the forum too.


While I truly appreciate that, it is not something that a business should rely on. It is our aim to make membership of The FLYER Club something that genuinely enhances members' flying lives, and everyone at FLYER is continually working towards that.

I've been involved in print and print production for the last thirty years and love it dearly, but without the changes we made, I'm pretty certain there would now be no FLYER and no forum.

Happily, we now have more readers than ever before (digital comes with mountains of data compared to print), and are the best/most read GA magazine in the UK by a significant margin. To see the catastrophe that is the traditional UK magazine market this year, take a look at UK Press Gazette

I'll certainly take another look at the possibility of producing some paper copies, but it's tough to make the numbers add up so something that's not big red and bold.

Thanks

Ian
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By G-BLEW
Boss Man  Boss Man
#1799589
Iceman wrote:I note that Pilot magazine continues to print.

Iceman 8)


Indeed, and good luck to them. I doubt their bottom line is very pretty, and their parent company has just had a significant cash injection following a CVA.

I don't have a parent company.

Ultimately it is very simple. If readers and advertisers support what we are doing with the digital magazine, the forum, the website, the newsletters, the YouTube videos etc., then we'll remain in business. If advertisers don't get a return, or readers don't think that's worth £2.50 a month we won't.

Ian
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