BKW what the........

[Waxbillman]

just a little rant while i'm in the mood

i have just noticed the massive price increase that has been inflicted on the bird keeping world magazine, now this doesn't effect me at all because i signed up when it was a mere £2.50, i was very dissappointed with finding this huge increase thats only 10p cheaper than bird keeper and is a good deal thinner???
without mangling my words the content in this months edition is PAP, almost as bad as C&A. it probabily would have been better me posting it when i'm in a better mood, but what the hell.
it was good that it was twice monthly, a decent price, but what i think is that that price was introduced to brake through the market and get customers buying or subcribed, i must say this was a strong tactic indeed C&A are more subtle about there price hikes, they increase it by 5p so no one will really notice, untill one day they look at the price and think what the hell. £1.30 for for an anorexic paper that is run by an idiot, supports AR prats and the RSPCA adverts and theres the articles on animals, what next i wonder, next they be printing article from the pigging cat society!!!! over my dead body!!
whilst i am on the war path,

the one consellation i suppose is the fact that BKW is run by good bird keeping people, so thumbs up to them, and i will be glad in when i can throw the ashes of the last edition of C&A - if they don't improve that is.
i have spoken to many people, some in the trade about this, and they don't think that the BKW will last. hopefully they are wrong though

the articles that do interest me a very dated to me, the one done in bird keeper especailly who still claims asian bird are freely available at trader, my eye they are........
if thats the case i should also be covered in gold dust and have my rose garden full with rocking horse manure!!!

:evil: :evil:

thats just bird keeping life i suppose, i could start attacking the other side of life but that stinks even more, and there not enough space here to put down all the problems.

Matthew:evil:

[jimmy]

Got me copy of C & A today, as good as ever and it will out stay Bird Keeping World.

Forget the bit about being run by "good bird keeping people", they are in business, its your money what makes them smile not ya birds. ;-)

[Waxbillman]

i don't know Jimmy its my birds do make me very and if i had the money it would mostly go towards my hobby.
i perfectly understand you being happy paying for C&A, every week as they seem to have all the articles canaries british and, dare i say it 'mules', there not enough articles that interest me enough to pay £1.30
theres just not enough foriegn finch breeders out there who write articles.

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
to be honest when i got the address off you it had already gone up and i thought fook that,but also i only buy c&a when i have had a browse through it at the newsagent and seen something that might interest me.i dont buy it everyweek as some weeks it is ,as you say full of pap

ken

[jimmy]

I didn't know it had gone up, didn't take them long.

Always a bad sign in business, the end is nigh

[kenny]

hi jimmy
well at first you try and improve the content of the mag,so you can try and sell more you dont put the price up before you have a good subscription list

ken

[laurab]

I must say that whilst I am not particularly interested in budgies or canaries I think C&A has vastly improved, there is usually something for everyone in the paper.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to please us all at the same time. :-?

[chris]

Hi Matthew,

was the weaver article &/or the greensinger article published in the new BKW issue? just wondering as they've has both articles for months and i've heard bugger all from steve. if not then i'll just stick to sending in the odd article to C&A as the time it's taking/taken BKW is taking the P:neutral:

Chris

[jimmy]

Have you got the latest copy yet Matt, seems years since i last had one through the post.

[Waxbillman]

Jimmy

i have the Jan's edition of BKW

Chris

nope there no sign of your article.

Matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello all,

I must say I'm very dissapointed that this thread exists at all,:mad: if we have been short changed in our hobby by any publication then it is by Cage and Aviary Birds!
And why the hell any of you here buy Birdkeeper simply baffles me (it is complete s*** as far as I'm concerned).:???:

The whole purpose of creating Bird Keeping World was to fill the huge gap left by CAB who have taken all of us for mugs for far too long, CAB has weakened in content over far too many years to the point that it has lost a huge number of once loyal readers due to price increases for a sub standard publication compared to the quality paper it used to be.

It was only with the introduction of BKW that CAB stepped up it's act, IPC the huge company responsible for CAB were more than happy to see the end of the National Exhibition of Birds at the NEC, but when BKW stepped in to fund the 'New National Exhibition of Birds' it was hit by an unfortunate threat Bird Flu!

BKW started off quite well and did prove to be a threat towards CAB who then went on to improve content due to competition (something they didn't have before now).

Without the recent over the top exposure of the not so serious Bird Flu, BKW could have made a huge difference to the loss of the National at the NEC.

As far as I'm concerned the start of BKW has been hampered by a hell of a lot of recent outside problems, many of which cannot be helped.

But I will promise all of you who have submited articles to BKW, they will be published a lot sooner than if you submited them to CAB!

Paul.

[Waxbillman]

apart from the news section in BKW this week edition was no better read than BK

i think there is a number of mistakes with bKW

one is the fact thats its not that easily available, whilst i like the idea of it only be available at good aviculturist stores, this for one is going to limit the audience greatly. because yes there is many breeders out there that may buy it but there a hell of allot of people out there how might not go to these stores very often, good one place just about everyone goes to is the newsagent, thats were allot of the custom is to be had, BKW would have a much larger audience, and thus more money, and also more articles.
Because like what has been said a million times a magazine or paper is as only as good as what we make it, so thats their exact problem. not enough people at the moment support BKW, certainly the people i have spoken to they are loyle to C&A, even though is has massive problems with who its run by and what they print, that will always have the lion share of the market, because its a weekly paper with weekly sales in, as well as weekly news, so its going to keep everyone bang up to date with everything, when they decide to print it of course. thats why so my people will always support it, its allot easier to get hold of too.
when bird keeping world first started, it was every other week, and i think they could have just about managed to do the same as C&A and obviously better because of who it is run by. i know they said they could cope with it twice a month due to not enough staff, and thats fair enough, but thats where the sereous mistake happen which without a doult damaged there reputation. the first few issues were the most important, this is when the major grow occurs is businesses, no business should cut their growth but this is what has happened here, rather than get more editorial staff they decided to cut the amount of magazine produced. mistake 2 as i have said is the massive price increase by 50p that was a massive mistake, it is far better to raise the price gradually than massively, and at a stage where the magazine had yet established itself on the market, this will only help scare away customers.
perhaps i am being over critical but these points i have made are truthful ones, it may sound harsh but they need to bounce back some how.
i will continue to support it, though Paul, the after what i have written that may sound hard. i will send my article on red avadavats to them and see if they print it.
i didn't mention the bird uk, because i feel so sorry for them, bird flu could well have but a dampener on that before it got started, absolute flop wasn't the word for it i have been told, which is a shame, this came from 3 traders i know so whether they will support it in the future, who knows.
if the show is on next years, and is able to offer everything it was going to offer then i for one will definately be going.

Matthew

[chris]

But I will promise all of you who have submited articles to BKW, they will be published a lot sooner than if you submited them to CAB!

Paul.

Hi Paul,

i have to dissagree there, i've sent in 2 articles to BKW now, both well before C&A. the one was sent early november and i heard nothing back so i decided to send out the same article to C&A. C&A did send a reply that the article had been recieved. over a month later it finally gets printed in C&A and not BKW.

then there's the greensinger article i've sent out to BKW on the 22nd november, this was recieved and i did recieve a reply this time so i know they've got it. not heard anything at all since and it hasn't been printed, so i decided to send the article to C&A on Jan 14th nearly 2 whole months later! not only have they recieved it but i know it'll be printed in early february which is a damn site faster than BKW who have had far far longer.

i will continue to send aticles to both, but if this continues i might as well just send to C&A as BKW don't seem bothered.

Matthew does have a very good ppoint on how BKW is hard to get hold of, no where near me sells it or has even heard of it! if you can't buy it from a newsagents then it won't have many customers at all, yes breeders do go to such outlets that do sell the magazine, but not everyone has lots of birds and not everyone goes to such places, rather the local pet shop to get seed and that's about it.

Chris:roll:

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello all,

I agree that the restricted marketing of BKW was and is proving to be a very bad move from the start,:roll: but if I'm putting my own neck on the block by supporting a struggling new publication then so be it.

I still have high hopes for BKW who are a very small time publication who deserve all of the support of the Birdkeepers in the UK.

CAB are a publication who have the safety net of IPC Media to back them up, what do BKW have? Answer, sweet FA but passion!!

It wasn't that long ago that you were slating CAB for letting things slide where we were concerned, and when BKW came onto the scene CAB stepped up their act and BKW were hailed as Heros for making this happen.

But now that BKW are experiencing problems with biting off more than they can chew, understaffed, letting publications go and increasing the price too you are happy to slate them.:x

CAB have taken us for mugs for far too long, but when the competition stumbles, CAB is suddenly the best thing since sliced bread.:shock:

If you allow BKW to fail, then you are only allowing CAB to continue as a substandard publication in the future.

Paul.:-|

[Savant]

Hi All

Has anybody had the latest issue of Bird Keeping World No6 February either they havent sent them out yet or have missed me off.

Thanks Alan

[Waxbillman]

hello Alan

yes, i got my copy, some time ago now

Matthew

[vixen]

hi all had a letter from ipc media today.They are changing subscription from Bird Keeper to cage and aviary.For every issue of Bird Keeper outstanding we will receive 3 issues of Cage and Aviary delivered to you door ( that with be OK for you ken,you will not have to wait),
Trudy

[Waxbillman]

that is kind of good news then

i have subscibed to C&A a while back now

Matthew