John, IMO, a rag becomes great when makes me want to read every page or
at least look closely at it. Weekend Woodcraft never did that for me,
although I liked some of their stuff. The magazine was very project
oriented, so if you didn't like the end result, it wasn't worth reading
the article. There wasn't anything in there about particular problems
or techniques, just cut piece A & glue it to B. Cut on the dotted
line... Not my cup of tea. I've been doing this long enough that I
like general ideas or specific solutions to tough issues. A discussion
on 6 ways to mount a piece of glass into a box lid is interesting to
me. How to build a box isn't.

As for you hiring great writers, I think you've got a task Diogenes
wouldn't envy. Great writers are few & far between - so are competent
woodworkers that can clearly explain their techniques. Putting the two
together leaves you pretty slim pickings. Further reduce the number to
those who can make it interesting & are interested in doing so... well,
it's a wonder, but there actually are a couple. Roy Underhill comes to
mind. Steve Blenk who writes the lathe column for Wood magazine seems
to be another.

Personally, I found that one article I wrote to be way more work than
it was worth. It's my hobby, so I'd rather 'do' than fiddle with
taking pictures & trying to get the words perfect so they can fit into
a small space & are understood. I write a fair amount in my job,
mostly documenting & specifying applications & devices for computer
network systems. My subject matter is dry, audience is small & I
interact with them often, so I can correct misunderstandings quickly.
I find that difficult enough. I don't even try to make it interesting
- I don't have to, thank god. I can see it now, "The fun & interesting
method for configuring the Symantec 4420 SSL VPN device for the
company!" LOL

Jim