Inside Kung Fu Mag.

[Ninebird8]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have been reading IKF for years, and was heartened when Gene Ching came out with his mag several years ago. What has gone unmentioned, and I only recently noticed, is I believe Curtis Wong, the previous publisher, recently sold the mag as his by line is no longer there? As a result, I believe the new publisher may or may not be a kung fu practitioner. Dave Cater, the editor for many years, was never a martial artist and his only primatur during his years was to start controversy within styles i.e. Leung Ting and William Cheung, Leung Shum v. Lau sisters, etc. That was my main objection to IKF, that it was propagating what I perceive as the major weakness in kung fu after 32 years of practicing it, and that is the innate desire to argue among styles, arts, etc within the CMA family. This use to be propagated ad nauseum by IKF until recently. Like some here, I do not like other arts in IKF as its premise originally was totally kung fu. In my mind, using Black Belt mag as a comparison is a red herring since it has always has diverse articles on many arts within its pages. The advent of MMA and UFC has caused many to question the shortcutting (?) of study to get quick fame and reward. Currently, to me IKF is not worth the $4.99 cover because its articles are not as well written, the quality of the print has declined, and frankly the educational value has declined because with the great masters dying off, who among the new generation is really worth writing about...LOL! I am more excited that Nick Scrima, a good friend and Ying jow brother, has built a 2 year CMA competition circuit all over the world to promote the art in places like Pisa, Italy, Tokyo, Japan, Bahamas, Costa Rica, etc. This is what needs to be covered. A deeper study of the hard ability to teach traditional kung fu in the modern age, etc and train in old 18 weapons when a gun will do. These are things not being covered. In all, my brothers and sisters, like always we get what we demand!! I love the CMA, always will, but just like organized religion is not needed to have a relationship with the Higher Up, there are other sources of good kung fu informtion. Oh, and by the way, IKF also publishes Inside Karate and Inside TKD so they can already have other outlets. Given the fact I have not yet received my stimulus package, I think this is not a earth ending conundrum. Hsieh-hsieh, and good night Gracie (George Burn's wife, not the style, being a kung fu stylist did not want to be seen as a betrayer, that is another thread today on study of multiple martial arts). Have a great weekend everyone, at the end of the day, practicing your art and smiling at how your teacher (s) still makes you look like an infant will smooth all of this, I promise!

 

[Sukerkin]

Would you mind editing your post into paragraphs, Ninebird? I'm sure you're making valid points but not many people will delve into a solid block of text like that.

 

[Sukerkin]

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[exile]

I have the impression—and that's all it is right now—that the UK martial arts magazines are somewhat higher quality overall than the North American ones. I wonder if some of the British board members can shed some light on this... :asian:

 

[Sukerkin]

Sadly, I cannot. I have precisely two MA magazines. I have more copies of "Handgunner" and I was a rifleman {double }.

These issues are "Fighters Monthly" vol 1 No's 5 & 8 . They're from 1978 as best as I can tell and altho' not bulky by todays magazine standards, they do seem full of MA articles and have only three or four pages of adverts.

 

[Sukerkin]

Just to elaborate a little, issue 5 contains:

Kanazawa's karate (shotokan)
Commando (Green Beret training)
Soul of the Samurai (documentary review)
Weaponry of the Ryu-Kyu Islands (kobudo)
The London School of Martial Arts (Yan Kwai Leung)
The Origins of Okinawan Kempo
Jay T. Will (Chinese Kempo)
Nippon Si-Budo (Japanese school age martial arts)
Detailed Book Review of "Ninja, the Invisbile Assassins"
Healing Hands of the Eastern World (Shiatsu therapy)
Heike No Makemono (Japanese art)

Issue 8 is just as good and tellingly has articles about women in martial arts and street fighting techniques ... how little things change it would seem .

 

[Ninebird8]

Sukerkin, per your point, I will try to break my sentences into paragraphs, though it appears at least 4 people got what I was saying by their thank yous...LOL! Sorry, my Masters in Finance and undergrad in International Economics should preclude long statements, but then that comment was merely a stream of consciousness. Other than content or sniping, I did not know the overseers here were also grammar cops. I will attempt to do better, my bad, with a bow....LOL!

 

[dnovice]

I stopped buying or reading IKF since high school more because I didn't have money. Then i forgot about it. Honestly, though all the grappling skills i know are from that magazine. I would learn arm locks from the magazine with a friend who did BJJ during PE class. Hmm. Before I even knew any wing chun.

I learned the basics and underlying concepts of grappling from this magazine. For that i'm thankful.

my two cents.

 

[dnovice]

Question: Are people willing to pay more for the magazine if there are less advertisements????

 

[exile]

Question: Are people willing to pay more for the magazine if there are less advertisements????

That is the question. My guess is, they would be... if they get high quality content. Increasingly, there's enough good stuff out there that you don't have to pay for (the Internet, again) that dilution of quality combined with ramped-up advertising revenue isn't likely to be a successful formula down the road.

The trick for the publisher is to ensure that the mag gets high quality content. This is the thing: there are only so many people around who have really important information that you haven't heard before and are willing to pay to know about. I don't know who counts that way in the CMA world, but for Karate and TKD... well, Harry Cook's Shotokan: a Precise History sold for $100 a copy when it first came out, and now sells for around $400 if you can actually find someone willing to part with their copy. Stuff by Stan Henning, Dakin Burdick, Iain Abernethy and our own members StuartA and Simon O'Neil (SJON) give you terrific value per dollar. The people who contribute to Classical Fighting Arts and Journal of Asian Martial Arts have their stuff seriously vetted. If you can get contributions from folks like that, you're going to command the attention of the hard-core CMAists.

The previous strategy (at least once KF became a mainstream kind of pursuit), probably, was to try to get anyone who was vaguely interested in KF to buy the mag on maybe an occasional basis, rather than going for that hard-core corps. Volume instead of focus. But again, I don't know how well that will play out. Especially in hard economic times, a lot of people are probably willing to give up what they think of as a frill. It's the information fanatics in the CMA ranks who won't regard your mag as a frill if it's high enough quality. They're the reliable base for your market. If I were a magazine publisher, I'd be trying to bring those people into to my readership—people who would rather spend the $$ on something (good) about KF instead of that pint of beer at Bob's Bar...

 

[LuckyKBoxer]

Question: Are people willing to pay more for the magazine if there are less advertisements????

I kind of doubt it.
IKF is what 6 Bucks in the store.
You can buy an instructional, informational, historical, or biographical kung fu book used at amazon starting from the same range as that. Fairly in depth and decent ones for about 15-20 dollar range brand new. I guess I never really saw the magazines as anything more then a brief introduction to different things, small snippets to get you interested enough to seek out more information.. /shrug

 

[arnisador]

IKF is what 6 Bucks in the store.
You can buy an instructional, informational, historical, or biographical kung fu book used at amazon starting from the same range as that.

I hadn't thought of it this way before, but that's a good point.

Still, I would enjoy something with up-to-date news on martial arts in movies, tournaments, deaths, etc., with interesting feature stories. It exposes me to things I wouldn't go looking for at Amazon.