By Nick Friese
I have a persistent curiosity about the guitar magazine business these days. There are many reasons for it. For one, I ponder the future of these tiles and the changes that lie ahead due to the shifts in media consumption today. And I don't think there's a magazine publisher today who isn't concerned about the disruption the web brings to their dead tree media platform. The Guitar Press is no different as they too are trying to figure out a way to use the web to enhance their connection with their readers and as a business. But it is surprising to me how the three publications have hitched their wagons firmly to the printing press and aren't making any major changes regarding web publishing.
Currently Guitar Player, Guitar One, and Guitar World only use the web only as a digital flier to promote and repurpose their content currently in print. Just about all of the web content is on the same cycle as the issue itself so web users are left waiting a month until they have new stories to chew on.
It's my bet that old school print cycles won't fit into our "lean forward, give it to me now, and let me control the media I consume" world we live in.
All of this had me thinking about how the top three U.S. Guitar magazines - Guitar Player, Guitar World and Guitar One rank among guitar enthusiasts today.
(click to enlarge)
In this trend report, Guitar World magazine takes the win over Guitar Player and Guitar One over the three year period. Guitar Player and Guitar One seem to be intertwined over the three year report - something I'm SURE Guitar Player will not be thrilled with. However, GP can hold their editorial chin up high as they edge out Guitar World in the esteemed "News Reference" category.
So what does all this mean for the quality of their websites? I'm not sure. It's much more likely that the interest is tied into what they are all doing in print. What can be said from this index is simply Guitar World has the stronger brand name due to their broad editorial charter and appeal among a wider audience of guitar players as they throw everything at you. Guitar One is the "Magazine that You Play" and Guitar Player is written for the guitar cognocenti, thus both have a smaller fan base.
In the end, we may have to wait another three years before we can plug in guitarplayer.com, guitarworld.com and guitarone.com into the Google meter.