Originally Posted by Matt Trulio

I could babble on this subject endlessly as it is obviously near and dear to my heart. I have had my feet in both the print and online worlds for a lot of years. (Before I started speedonthewater.com three years ago, I had already been working for boats.com since 2000.) And I was with Powerboat for 17 years. Now I'm the editor of Sportboat.

The decline in everything printed on paper is undeniable, as evidenced by only two magazines (Performance Boats and Sportboat) being left in the go-fast boat niche. Hard times for sure, but not necessarily a negative if you take a bigger picture perspective. Challenging times are, in the words of my friend Chuck Sprague (C_Spray) who ran Penske's Indy Car racing program for years, "a harsh filter." But that type of merciless filtration leaves you with better end products.

Print is not on its way out, just as radio was not on its way out—as many predicted it would be—when television burst on the scene. But the magazines that make it have to adapt, and part of that adaptation is making online, tablet friendly versions of their content a top priority. And those magazines that make it, like all businesses now, have to pay strict attention to their bottom lines.

So what we have left is Sportboat, a year-old quarterly publications with hopes of going bi-monthly and Performance Boats, which has been around for some time and publishes more frequently. Both are strong products, yet very different from one another—and that's a good thing.

A quick tip of the hat to the publisher of Performance Boats: While other high-performance boating magazines were treating their websites as afterthoughts, or not investing enough for them to be anything more than online space holders, he was building his magazine's online presence with original video content and message boards. That was very forward thinking for the time, and I believe it helped Performance Boats gain its strong position in the marketplace.

Above all else, a consumer magazine's markeplace determines its sustainability. At present, the high-performance powerboat market has two magazines serving it. Nothing would make me happier than having four or five magazines covering the go-fast world because that would indicate a boom market, but for now what the market has is what the market will support.

Originally Posted by blefever

For me......print.

I have been a subscriber to Performance Boats since the beginning and actually took both Lake and Offshore versions until I figured out that the only difference was pretty much the cover and one story in back.

Anyway, I have never looked at a online version of Performance Boats, even though I paid for it.

As for Sport Boat, I have not yet subscribed because I feel like I'm paying for something I'll never use (the online part)

I like reading boat magazines on my boat!

Originally Posted by gotstreetracin

I wish i could find either one in print version around here, i'd buy them if i could find them..