His first time…

My son subscribed to a magazine last week.

That first subscription is always a proud moment for any parent, and the fact that I had paid for it, by the bye.

But what was really exciting about this rite of passage moment was hearing him enthuse about it.

The magazine in question is Fine Woodworking (he’s a twenty year old aspiring furniture maker) from American publishers Taunton Press. He’d picked up a copy at Gatwick this time last year, and was clearly so impressed with it that the magazine had made it all the way to Mexico and back, and, unlike our other magazine purchases, was not left for the hotel cleaner when we left; clearly something special.

But the six issues of the magazine, inspiring and well put together as it was, was not enough on its own to justify the $34.95 subscription, in his eyes. What prompted him (me) to hand over the much larger amount of $99 was an incredible list of extra members-only benefits that included a valuable video archive full of how-to tutorials, project plans, workshops and the like. When I asked him how valuable that resource was, he said, it compared favourably with a full time college course, and obviously at a fraction of the price.

He is not alone. I saw another appreciative subscriber comment under one of the videos: “Now THIS is why I subscribe to FW! An amazing woodworker showing us her craft in her own words.”

Now their YouTube channel has over 200k subscribers and they put up lots of free stuff to draw people in, but if you’re a serious woodworker and want to watch a video on ‘Pattern routing jigs for perfect curves’ or ‘How to cut half-blind mitered dovetails’, then a paid membership at $99 per year is the only way you can do it.

A reminder, if one were needed, that evergreen specialist content, not available anywhere else, is hugely valuable and people will pay to access it.