[mike777]

Curious to know how many forum members read BW magazine?

Do you pay for any other bridge magazines from around the world, pay extra than your membership dues?

I exclude ACBL magazine paid by our dues.

[wodahs]

The internet is killing BW, sadly. I took a look at their subscription numbers (they publish them late in the year) a few months back, and circulation has been in a nosedive for the past few years.

[mike777]

thanks for comment.

I note only 12 voted yes in the forums to reading BW and we all love reading about bridge.

[marcD]

I used to for many years . However I felt the quality dropped around year 2000 (or may be it was just me losing interest) + I had a lot of problems with missing issues because of international mail .

[helene_t]

I stopped subscribing some four years ago. I think I got fed up with the hassle of address changes but I don't remember for sure.

I subscribe to IMP (a Dutch magazine for advanced bridge players).

[Trinidad]

I had a subscription to BW for one year about 10 years ago, but it didn't match my expectations. I've had a subscription to IMP for about 15 years, I guess. It's much better, but you need to be able to read Dutch.

Rik

[Free]

I have a subscription of BW and IMP, I like them both.

[rhm]

I have a lifetime subscription of BW and by now have quite a collection of them.
I never had a problem with them and missing arrivals is a non issue for me even though I live in Europe.
I have never regretted this investment and I have never seen a Bridge journal, which is better overall for expert players, or players who want to be.
No, I can not read Dutch and I have seen only a few IMP articles translated.
Of course people like Kaplan (and many others) are sadly missed.

Rainer Herrmann

[jallerton]

Trinidad, on 2013-October-14, 03:56, said:

I had a subscription to BW for one year about 10 years ago, but it didn't match my expectations. I've had a subscription to IMP for about 15 years, I guess. It's much better, but you need to be able to read Dutch.

Rik

Aside from the language issue, in what respects is IMP better?

[jdeegan]

Hard copy magazines of all kinds are being supplanted by electronic media. The people who publish the hard copy bridge magazines are splendid, imo, but they represent no exception.

[Trinidad]

jallerton, on 2013-October-15, 21:09, said:

Aside from the language issue, in what respects is IMP better?

I looked up the old BW magazines that I still had. I had a subscription from May 2000 to April 2001. At the time I was living in Sweden and had a subscription to IMP as well.

Both magazines are essentially similar when it comes to content. Obviously, IMP is written from a Dutch perspective whereas BW is written from an American perspective. At the time, this was an advantage for BW since, though I am Dutch, I had learnt to play bridge while I was studying in the USA. I didn't know much about bridge in the Netherlands when I was living in Sweden.

So, let's focus on the differences:

Disclaimer: the following is my subjective opinion. While I am willing to share it, since jallerton asked, but I won't discuss it since it is subjective.
A comparison between IMP and the BW:
- IMP has a much fresher layout, making it easier and more fun to read.
- IMP is written much better. Texts that should be concise are concise. When a text is longer, it is written vividly. In the BW there are lots of long pieces of text that should have been edited. They say very little, are boring and hard to read.

In short, though both magazines aim at the same level of bridge player (perhaps IMP even slightly higher), IMP reads like a magazine (think Country Living) whereas the BW reads like a scientific journal (think Journal of Physics).

- IMP is giving arguments. At the time, the BW held a pole on the BW standard system. This was filling pages of the magazine, asking the reader's opinion. The end of the story was that convention A was chosen over convention B. Few comments, no arguments. IMP choses to discuss conventions, write about arguments for and against their use and may or may not give their own opinion.

Other than that, there were some more trivial things that made IMP better:
- Shipping to Sweden was much better for IMP. The BW came at irregular times. I could have the May issue at home, but still wait for the April issue.
- IMP was less expensive than the bridge world. This is odd, since -due to the language- the BW has a market potential that is much bigger than that of IMP. In other fields, books, magazines, TV shows, etc. in Dutch are more expensive than the equivalent in English: the same cost is shared by fewer subscribers to the Dutch magazines.

Tough I "felt" pretty strong that as a serious bridge player it was a must to have a BW subscription, after a year it wasn't really hard to decide to cancel.

Rik

[GreenMan]

I'm no expert, but some years ago when I had more time and money to devote to the game I subscribed to BW because I enjoyed the analysis and the challenging problems. (I loved the Swiss Match articles especially.) Were I in a similar situation today I would probably re-subscribe.

[jogs]

I have a lifetime subscription from 1977. Cost $150. Think TBW spent more in postage than $150. How does TBW know when I have passed?

[MrAce]

jogs, on 2013-October-17, 13:15, said:

I have a lifetime subscription from 1977. Cost $150. Think TBW spent more in postage than $150. How does TBW know when I have passed?

Maybe they make more money in commercials and showing you alive and reading while you are not is in their interest ? I am just guessing.

[awm]

Well if they invested the $150 in 1977 on the S&P 500 they would have over $4200 by 2012, for about $10/issue?

This is not exactly the right calculation, but getting paid up-front in 1977 dollars must be worth something.

[kenberg]

I subscribe to BW. I was not aware of the lifetime subscription option but unless there is a sliding scale as we get older it probably would not be a good deal for me.

Note that I said that I subscribe. I also get various mathematics journals. Reading them is another matter. I used to play a good deal more than I do now, and when I played more I read more. This applies to both bridge and mathematics, and no doubt to a lot of other things. I once subscribed to both Hot Rod and Motor Trend, for example, but I was much more involved with cars then.

I will be keeping my BW subscription for the foreseeable future, sort of a loyalty thing, but I am hoping no one comes around to quiz me on the contents. I have occasionally played BWS, but not often. As with many things, the idea sounds good, somehow it never seems to work out well.

[Lovera]

Perhaps i don't understand what is the problem but if you want i can put it(=IMP) online as i did for Bridge d'italia Online (magazine on italian forum) it being that on Chrome you can choise to translate in your language.

[Kaitlyn S]

I have a lifetime subscription. Last year, they sent me a notice and said that they were in trouble and were hoping that lifetime subscribers would considering paying the annual rate anyway or gift a subscription to someone else in order to keep the magazine going.

[Phil]

Kaitlyn S, on 2017-February-20, 10:39, said:

I have a lifetime subscription. Last year, they sent me a notice and said that they were in trouble and were hoping that lifetime subscribers would considering paying the annual rate anyway or gift a subscription to someone else in order to keep the magazine going.

So did you?

[Phil]

I subscribe. While I've let it lapsed a few times over the past 20 years when things were lean, I greatly enjoy reading the mag and look forward to it when it comes around the 12th of each month.

Trying to take MSC a little more seriously. I won in September, but I'd like to become more consistent.

I probably have about 150 issues around the house. I bought a few of the binders but found that I was taking them out to read and to take on trips.

If you consider yourself a top-tier player, I think having a subscription is mandatory, assuming you aren't destitute. It's a small way of 'giving back', because BW is a feeder for new ideas and innovation. Without the mag, I don't think that we would have as many new ideas.