When I met my first copy of FWW on a shelf at the local porn
purveyor's venue, I was astounded.

I was in there to by the most recent copy of Mechanics Lucubrated, no,
really.

Its black and white art house look and the articles contained within,
done by craftsmen already accepted as masters in their field, grabbed
hold of me because - these people were speaking my language.

Paul Roman had been downsized from General Electric and decided to
take a modest investment of personal capital, along with an immoderate
amount of personal chutzpah - and turn this into the best magazine for
woodworkers that had ever existed.

I was transfixed.

It ran great for a number of years.

If you look at the staff and consulting listings for the first ten
years - it described many of the names that have become famous in our
area of interest.

It was not a pure "How To" magazine, it explored theories and ideas
that related to woodworking.

My understanding is that, unlike most new magazines, FWW was
profitable upon its initial release.

And so it should have been. It filled a niche market of woodworkers
desperate for communication.

Sadly, FWW lost its way.

Over time it succumbed to the seduction of a market beyond that of its
initiation.

Its ad ratio became less favorable than before, it included more "How
To" articles at a simplistic level. It went to color.

I think that the move to color ****ed me off the most.

Eventually Roman moved on, as his area of interest changed. He was
more interested in creating and maintaining the Taunton brand, and the
flagship of the company was left to lesser hands to man the tiller.

The magazine really hasn't interested me much for the last ten years.

I buy it reflexively, as I have done from the first issue.

But they have lost their way.

They have lost their initial animus to deliver articles produced by
masters of their craft and spent their time on dumbed down product,
which has too much picture weight vs. text, and skews itself to entry
level woodworkers at the expense of meaty material for mid level and
more accomplished artisans.

It is no longer the magazine for which that I marked my time, waiting
for the next issue.

Mr. Roman has gone on to create "Fine Homebuilding", "Threads", "Fine
Gardening", "Fine Cooking" and, his most recent concoction - "Inspired
Home".

Excepting FHB - Yawn...

Frankly, he has lost my interest, in direct proportion to his apparent
loss of interest in his initial progeny, "Fine Woodworking" - which,
also frankly, is open to parody, although I have not yet seen it done,
but which I may undertake myself - along with some help from my fellow
Wreckers.

"The Ultimate Blurfl", anyone?





Tom Watson - WoodDorker
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/ (website)