purplecat

I realise it's completely impossible to do serious critique of the new stuff - it has been thus since 2003. Though I have been a little surprised at the lack of in depth interviews with the main cast. We had a nice interview with John Bishop a couple of months back, but I think the previous Fam never got anything more serious than the Tardis Tin. Though I get the impression Chibnall/Strevens/Whoever has also made it harder to do set reports and the like.

I do think there is a line to be found with the older stuff that is in more depth than the "This is what an Ice Warrior is" articles of DWW (though there is a certain charm to those), but less detailed than "here is everything there is to know about some obscure facet of fandom", which could both inform new fans and still engage older ones like me (as I say, I think the podcast eco-system shows this can be done). I recognise it isn't easy, and there is still stuff in DWM from time to time that really engages me - but there is a reason there are two unread issues on my bedside table at the moment.

Actually, I suspect I'd get more mileage from the themed bookazine things, which I think are much more the sort of articles I am looking for, but I am loathe to risk adding yet more unread magazines to that pile, and they are harder to get hold of.

And note, I'm not saying this is easy, or I even know how to do it. I do appreciate that it's very difficult for DWM to appeal to old fans, while drawing in new readers, and working with the production team (particular the current production team that are secretive to a fault), I'm just pointing out that at the moment, whatever it is they are doing isn't really working for me personally.