Posted by Ken Kurtis on October 09, 2002 at 15:27:32:
I just got off the phone with Daryl Carson, Editor of Skin Diver Magazine, who told me that the compnay that owns them (British, I think) pulled the plug this morning and has closed down Skin Diver. The November issue (already out) will be the last one. Declining ad revenues and projections that didn't seem to forecast any sort of a revenue change seemed to motivate the decision.
It's really too bad. Though there will be the obvious voices who will say, "Good riddance," the fact of the matter is that there were good people who worked there and did the best job they could under the circumstances. Though some decry that SDM was never objective (losing sight of the fact that "jouralism" was never what they claimed to be), if you could accept them like an infomercial, you could glean good information from them and come to your own conclusions.
I can tell you that of all the articles I wrote for them about both equipment and training, I was never told what to write or how to write it, and was only edited for space, not content or editorial slant.
I'll be curious to see what happanes with Rodale's now. I personally thought that the arrival of Rodale's on the scene helped make SDM into a better magazine because suddenly there was some competition. Hopefully Sport Diver (where former SDM Editor Ty Swayer now presides) can give Rodale's a run for their money.
We shall see.
Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instr. #5936
Co-owner Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, CA