Isabel Goyer goodbye? Where did it go??

[John Spartan]

Didn’t get a chance to read it and it appears to have been pulled. Anyone know if there is an archive of the article somewhere?

 

[murphey]

I read it. To me, the implication was the new owners are cleaning house, possibly for P&P to go in a new direction.

I dunno.

 

[Mongoose Aviator]

Google has it cached.
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1687222?hl=en

 

[Mongoose Aviator]

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...rom-isabel-goyer/&hl=en&gl=us&strip=0&vwsrc=0

 

[Mongoose Aviator]

It looks as though my time at Plane & Pilot is coming to an end, and that’s not for any reason other than business decisions sometimes defy logic and great brands get acquired by companies that seem to have missed why they’re great. It’s the modern age, and I hate it as much as you do.

When I came to Plane & Pilot after 20 years at Flying, before it was owned by the current company, it was after a series of rancorous disagreements over control of the brand. I couldn’t in good conscience let a couple of stiff suits who knew nothing about aviation and apparently even less about audiences call the shots.

So, when the chance to rebuild the brand at Plane & Pilot came my way, I jumped at it. I had complete editorial control at the new place, and it needed a complete makeover, so I did what I do—I stopped listening to the guys who loved their spreadsheets way too much and created a brand from the ashes of the former magazine. My goal was to make the new Plane & Pilot everything that I wanted to read. There’d be no same old. Instead, I’d seek to address topics that no else dared to, I’d aspire to give voice to opposing opinions and to share stories that made you cringe or cry, or both.

I wanted the stuff to be fun and challenging, and to deal with big ideas and to stand in opposition to the orthodoxy that all too often controls aviation content, making the age-old and, in my view, cowardly mistake of catering to advertisers instead of readers. I’ve always written for readers, because what advertisers really want, anyway, is a great audience. And you are that. We’re not alone in having a great readers, but we are alone in the loyalty you show us. Our metrics are off the charts. You read what we print, both on paper and on the web. And it’s because offending people isn’t the threat. Boring people is.

And you sometimes have disagreed with me. I wouldn’t want it any other way. But you have always done so respectfully. And I’ve listened, mostly. You said you were sick of pandemic coverage. Got it. I was too. You loved our coverage of scary, emerging trends. For good reason, too. You got it.

And in the end, I’ll be honest, I was won over by your kindness, your thoughtfulness, your honesty and your faith in the fact that what we do, fly around in small airplanes going places groundbound mortals will never get to go, is the greatest personal journey of discovery any of us will ever take. May you continue with that journey as long as the tailwinds continue to propel us on our way. Which in my book, is forever. And, thank you.

Isabel Goyer

A commercial pilot, editor-in-Chief Isabel Goyer has been flying for more than 40 years, with hundreds of different aircraft in her logbook and thousands of hours. An award-winning aviation writer, photographer and editor, Ms. Goyer led teams at Sport Pilot, Air Progress and Flying before coming to Plane & Pilot in 2015.

 

[John Spartan]

Thanks, Mongoose. Have to admit I’m not a fan of hers but I was interested to see why she was leaving. The mags have become more advertisement than content and do we really need another article about the C172? Guess we will see what happens.

 

[Lowflynjack]

Isabel is a friend of mine and has done wonders for this magazine. We all know when there is an acquisition, the new owners like to change things.

Because of Isabel, I got several magazine covers. Hoping she lands at another magazine and we continue to work together in the future. I can't imagine she won't.

 

[WDD]

We are indeed in an odd business cycle in many industries. Best of luck to her.

 

[nauga]

Plane & Pilot is still around?

Nauga,
with apologies to @Lowflynjack

 

[Cluemeister]

She's right about the feedback from pilots about her pandemic coverage at Oshkosh. If I remember correctly, she did a lot of hand wringing about the lack of masks.

 

[lblandina]

Take a hike! Maybe I'll look at the magazine again

 

[Kent Wien]

I loved her take on issues. I might not have always agreed 100% but it was nice and refreshing to hear a strong opinion. Can anyone point to a similar aviation editorial like her “Going Direct?” Also, I loved that Plane and Pilot focused on GA, as in piston GA, where the old Flying featured airplanes I REALLY couldn’t afford (as opposed to those I can’t quite afford).

By the way, off topic, but the new ‘Flying’ is fantastic now.

Maybe Isabel will find a home there with the new owners.

 

[John Spartan]

She's right about the feedback from pilots about her pandemic coverage at Oshkosh. If I remember correctly, she did a lot of hand wringing about the lack of masks.

Many ate it up and regurgitated obediently.

I loved her take on issues. I might not have always agreed 100% but it was nice and refreshing to hear a strong opinion. Can anyone point to a similar aviation editorial like her “Going Direct?” Also, I loved that Plane and Pilot focused on GA, as in piston GA, where the old Flying featured airplanes I REALLY couldn’t afford (as opposed to those I can’t quite afford).

By the way, off topic, but the new ‘Flying’ is fantastic now.

Maybe Isabel will find a home there with the new owners.

Yeah. Her opinions were strong. If one must say something nice they would be it. I wish all the mags were a little thicker but these days the norm appears to be very few pages. Do we know who bought her mag??

 

[asicer]

By the way, off topic, but the new ‘Flying’ is fantastic now.

I quit following them when they switched to the quarterly release. What changed?

 

[Racerx]

Do we know who bought her mag??

By the way, off topic, but the new ‘Flying’ is fantastic now.

Maybe Isabel will find a home there with the new owners.

"FLYING Media Group (FMG), the owner of FLYING Magazine, has acquired Plane & Pilot "

I don't think Flying will be an option.

 

[Half Fast]

I quit following them when they switched to the quarterly release. What changed?

FLYING is back to monthly now. Coverage seems pretty broad and includes less expensive GA prop planes as well as the high end stuff. They could use some better authors. Photography is excellent. Ad content is a bit reduced, but the subscription price is up. You can find it on the newstand, so take a look for yourself.

I still have a subscription to P&P but I haven't been too impressed by it. Articles are fair at best and sometimes contain errors reflecting poor editing. Jack's cover photos have been good (no surprise), but inside photography is only average.

If FLYING owns P&P now, I suspect they'll either shut it down or change it to something different.

 

[John Spartan]

https://www.flyingmag.com/flying-ac...6Xg&utm_content=252610485&utm_source=hs_email

 

[John Spartan]

When I got to the bottom of that article I was shocked to se ByDanJohnson got snapped up too and will become Affordable Aviation.

 

[Tantalum]

Flying Mag sucks

I read it religiously and was the first magazine I subscribed to when I was something like 12 years old..

I dropped my subscription a few years ago.. it just feels sorta of.. how do I say politely.. 'd-bag' now. Reminds me of the person who wrecked their Bonanza on purpose for likes

I like Lunken and Garrison though!

 

[kyleb]

Flying, IMO fell into the trap the entire industry can't avoid. Other than new $1,000 headsets that are 5% better than previous $1,000 headsets, there's little new. Cessna is selling 172's and 182's, Piper is selling updated Cherokees, a host of LSA companies are selling remarkably similar airplanes powered by Rotax. And we've already demonstrated every way to crash an airplane, so there are no new stories there.

What's there to write about?

 

[2-Bit Speed]

What's there to write about?

Rotax just release a new engine. A crazy aussie/kiwi has revealed his plans for an EDF biplane (after crashing the first prototype). The [current] administration is trying to appoint a new FAA director.

 

[kyleb]

Rotax just release a new engine. A crazy aussie/kiwi has revealed his plans for an EDF biplane (after crashing the first prototype). The [current] administration is trying to appoint a new FAA director.

Rating those topics in order;

Modest interest
No interest
No interest

Even if someone fleshes out the stories, we’re talking 4 pages of tight writing or 7 pages with a bunch of fluff. That won’t carry a magazine.

So we get the long version of those stories and a bunch of fluff.

 

[2-Bit Speed]

Rating those topics in order;

Modest interest
No interest
No interest

Even if someone fleshes out the stories, we’re talking 4 pages of tight writing or 7 pages with a bunch of fluff. That won’t carry a magazine.

So we get the long version of those stories and a bunch of fluff.

From PoA:

Rotax thread: one page and 31 posts.
PM threads (combined): Ninety-seven pages and 3872 posts.
FAA admin: four pages and 143 posts.

 

[Racerx]

What's there to write about?

Berto seems to keep my attention...

 

[John Spartan]

Hate Lunken and Berto both. Guess I won’t be missing anything.

 

[Todd82]

Lunken is garbage. I just wish the FAA had perma banned her senile antics so I didn't need to share the local airspace with her (and driving Route 350 / I-71 Jeremiah Morrow Bridge with her antics)

 

[John Spartan]

Lunken is garbage. I just wish the FAA had perma banned her senile antics so I didn't need to share the local airspace with her (and driving Route 350 / I-71 Jeremiah Morrow Bridge with her antics)

THANK YOU! 100% agreed. Very clear to me that she regretted nothing and deemed herself above the rules.

 

[Clip4]

Isabel is a friend of mine and has done wonders for this magazine. We all know when there is an acquisition, the new owners like to change things.

Because of Isabel, I got several magazine covers. Hoping she lands at another magazine and we continue to work together in the future. I can't imagine she won't.

Legacy Twins, Cessna 182, PA28; those covers are why I quit reading aviation magazines 20 years ago. Same old content over and over again.

 

[Lowflynjack]

Legacy Twins, Cessna 182, PA28; those covers are why I quit reading aviation magazines 20 years ago. Same old content over and over again.

Most magazines are looking for writers. Come up with something new and write it. Most planes were built in the 70's, so it's hard to come up with new content. Then when you do, everyone whines that you're writing about airplanes the average guy can't afford!

 

[Clip4]

Most magazines are looking for writers. Come up with something new and write it. Most planes were built in the 70's, so it's hard to come up with new content. Then when you do, everyone whines that you're writing about airplanes the average guy can't afford!

The real average guy hasn’t been able to afford a plane since the 70s.

 

[Kent Wien]

Lunken is garbage. I just wish the FAA had perma banned her senile antics so I didn't need to share the local airspace with her (and driving Route 350 / I-71 Jeremiah Morrow Bridge with her antics)

Harsh.

 

[kyleb]

Most magazines are looking for writers. Come up with something new and write it. Most planes were built in the 70's, so it's hard to come up with new content. Then when you do, everyone whines that you're writing about airplanes the average guy can't afford!

I don’t think writers are the problem. The problem is we are in a sunset industry where there are few new “big” stories so writers are stuck re-writing the same stories again and again.

 

[Lowflynjack]

I don’t think writers are the problem. The problem is we are in a sunset industry where there are few new “big” stories so writers are stuck re-writing the same stories again and again.

Yeah, not much new out there. Most of the stories I work on end up being about a specific plane... someone restored an old plane and here's what they did and why.

Some of the things I'm working on:
I'm hoping to work on a story about the Katmai 182. The owner is retiring, so the last one will be built soon.
The Fat Tire Cowboys... guys doing something different than the average pilot.
Josh Flowers, Aviation 101

It was fun working with Kevin Lacy to show he's not all 'Airplane Repo', but a good guy who helps kids learn how to work on planes and get their licenses.

If it involves a Cessna or Piper, let me know any ideas you guys have. Hard to keep it interesting!

 

[Tantalum]

we are in a sunset industry

..maybe, but there's a passionate group (like us for example) that stick around and are clearly hungry for some kind of content

I mean.. Sun n Fun and Oshkosh continue to draw big, wait, huge crowds

Sailing, skiing, tennis, and golf aren't exactly industries that are growing either.. most people are tight on money and cash so these are all areas that could be considered "sunset" but they're still around..

Personally, I enjoy content that's relatable, sometimes funny, and has something I can learn from.. or that I can vicariously enjoy

COPA surprisingly has this kind of content. I'll never fly my own Cirrus (or any plane) down through south American from the US, so reading about it from the pilot's perspective of someone who's done that is pretty cool. Last year Sling flew a couple planes across the Atlantic from S Africa to OSH. Stuff like that. An inspiring Angel Flight or PnP story. Someone who writes articles about deliveries.. etc., There's plenty of content out there even from a "dying" industry.


Surprised at the hatred for Lunken, she seems to fit the mold of that "old school" aviator so many desire to harken back to. There's enough "FAA bad" "tail dragger good" rhetoric here that I'd think someone like her who flies for the joy of flying would be welcome. I guess not.

 

[Half Fast]

I don’t think writers are the problem. The problem is we are in a sunset industry where there are few new “big” stories so writers are stuck re-writing the same stories again and again.

I dunno; there always seems to be plenty to discuss on POA.

For example....

The recent struggles GAMI had with getting the G100UL STC were everywhere on the web, including videos and interviews with Braly, but the print mags only printed small side-bar articles. I thought they had some opportunities for good features and a little bit of expose' writing about the FAA and EAGLE, but they didn't do it. Paul Bertorelli did a good job with commentary on AvWeb, but the print magazines were almost MIA.

Similarly, what goes on today with FAA medicals is virtually a scandal, but no magazines are addressing it as such or digging into the details of the more egregious cases. There's no serious aviation journalism going on.

I attribute that not to lack of story opportunities, but to poor story assignments by publishers and editors-in-chief.

Many of the articles in the print publications are very brief and barely skim the surface of their topic. I have an old book titled The Best of FLYING that contains old articles from the 40s through the 70s. Those articles are considerably longer than today's magazine articles, and they offer good detailed discussions and interviews and are interesting to read. Today's writers seem unwilling to do the hard work required to create a good story.

 

[Half Fast]

Surprised at the hatred for Lunken, she seems to fit the mold of that "old school" aviator so many desire to harken back to. There's enough "FAA bad" "tail dragger good" rhetoric here that I'd think someone like her who flies for the joy of flying would be welcome. I guess not.

I have a monthly subscription to Martha Lunken's column that comes in a fancy wrapper with photos of airplanes and advertising. For a few months they tried to send me the wrapper without the column and if they'd continued I would have cancelled.

 

[Half Fast]

It was fun working with Kevin Lacy to show he's not all 'Airplane Repo', but a good guy who helps kids learn how to work on planes and get their licenses.

Good to hear! "Repo" was such utter TV crap it was painful. Just once I wanted to see Kevin, instead of some bizarre subterfuge or B&E method of gaining airport access, to try entering CTAF as the gate code. I'd bet that works at 75% of small airports.

 

[Lowflynjack]

Surprised at the hatred for Lunken, she seems to fit the mold of that "old school" aviator so many desire to harken back to. There's enough "FAA bad" "tail dragger good" rhetoric here that I'd think someone like her who flies for the joy of flying would be welcome. I guess not.

I have a monthly subscription to Martha Lunken's column that comes in a fancy wrapper with photos of airplanes and advertising. For a few months they tried to send me the wrapper without the column and if they'd continued I would have cancelled.

I love Martha. She's like most of the old pilots I grew up with. She broke a rule and paid a big price for it.

 

[Druvy]

Total noob on the site, but I've been a newspaper/magazine/online journalist for 33 years (although not in the aviation field, but hoping to change that soon). Things are very, very hard in the publishing industry. My company was bought out at the end of last year by a very large U.K. publishing company, and we're in flux, as are so many of my colleagues. Layoffs of writers and editors continues unabated, and shows no signs of slowing.

There are many causes of the downturn, but the bottom line is that making a profit on a print magazine is incredibly difficult these days. Things like SEO seriously impact what's written and published, which means writing lots of click-baity stuff. It hurts most of us to do this, but if you're not doing proper SEO, you're probably not even treading water -- you're going under.

Is something like Substack the answer? Maybe, but the jury is still very much out on that. I pay for a few newsletters, but that money adds up in a hurry.

And this doesn't even broach AI and things like ChatGPT, which will obsolete much of the writing industry within 10 years, IMO.

It's not all hopeless, and optimistic me thinks there will always be a place for great writing and interesting stories, especially about an industry as inherently fascinating and dramatic as aviation. But it's hard to get people to pay for the kind of long-form journalism that I think all of us want to see more of.

 

[Druvy]

what goes on today with FAA medicals is virtually a scandal

Can you elaborate? I'm trying to catch up on years of dormancy. Thanks for any info you can provide!