Lizard's Rant

Is Sports Collectors Digest, the “hobby’s oldest and largest publication” about to shut it’s doors? Anytime you have to ask the question, you know something is wrong (it’s like asking your girlfriend if you’re still a couple…if you have to ask, you’re in big trouble). That’s the subject of an article on NWI.com entitled Is SCD still A-OK? Publisher says ‘yes’.

Like other magazines and newspapers, though, SCD has taken its lumps from the Internet. The number of pages has dropped off dramatically, from one-time highs of 270-plus to the current average size of between 60 and 70.

The amount of classified ads is a fraction of what it once was and readership is down. Needless to say, the good old days are long gone.

But SCD publisher Jeff Pozorski isn’t spending any time pining for a bygone era. In fact, he pretty much carries a not-to-worry attitude.

“In its heyday, SCD had more subscribers,” Pozorski said, “but there were a lot more people (reading it) who were what you would call ‘casual’ collectors. Now, we have hard-core collectors, which is a pretty stable base.

Pozorski didn’t reveal exact circulation numbers, but he insists SCD still is a “profitable magazine,” even in the face of the Internet. However, he doesn’t try to mitigate the negative impact the technological superhighway has had on both SCD and print media as a whole.

“The Internet changed the way everybody does business,” Pozorski said. “(SCD) was the biggest way to reach the market fast; now it’s eBay. Not only do you get it quicker, you have exposure to the whole world instead of just subscribers.”

Is this a surprise to anyone? SCD, which is owned by F+W Publications (the same company that owns Tuff Stuff) has failed to embrace technology as much as Tuff Stuff…and it’s a shame. Both publications have similarly mediocre websites that fail to engage users - they still are using the web to try to sell more magazines instead of realizing that the new form of communication IS the web. If you think you’re in the magazine business, you’re wrong. You’re in the information business, and the web (and soon to come the mobile web) are the ways that information is conveyed these days. Beckett has adapted, and you haven’t.

The sad thing is, I LOVE the content in both F+W magazines, and I personally think that the feature articles are much more well written than Beckett. Unfortunately it’s becoming increasingly apparent that they are both going to fade into oblivion and die a slow death. One needs to look no further than the newspaper industry to see what’s in store for magazines like SCD.