Interview with Kevin Green, Editor of Improve Your Coarse FishingAfter putting Gareth Purnell, the editor of new arrival Total Coarse Fishing (tcf) in the hot seat, we thought it was only fair to put our head around the door at established rival Improve Your Coarse Fishing (IYCF) and see what editor Kevin Green is up to at the market leading title.
FishingMagic: Kevin, the first thing which hits you about IYCF is the way it interacts with its readers. Mike Baker’s never caught a chub, so you pair him up with Bob Roberts in the August issue and job’s a good ‘un. Elsewhere the mag is full of questions and answers, with content strongly led by what your readers are asking. How many questions do you get each month – and can you tell us some of the commonest..? Kevin: In the year since I became Editor of IYCF I’ve learned to listen closely to our readers. Their problems, questions and interests shape the magazine. Early in my editorship we launched ‘The Coach’ feature where we take a genuine reader fishing for a day with an expert angler. We delve into the problems and questions the reader has and The Coach lays out a series of solutions. Personally I think it is the most important feature in the magazine. Not only is it pitched directly at an ‘average’ reader, who no doubt reflects the ability and issues facing many thousands of others, but it is also a great learning curve for me and the editorial team. We see what real anglers are thinking and struggling with and use this information to shape the magazine. In the August issue you refer to we took Mike to catch his chub and our Coach, the super-enthusiastic Bob Roberts, did us proud with his advice and encouragement. One look at the smile painted across Mike’s face, as he clutches his prize chub, tells you what fishing is all about. Magic. One of the largest sections in the magazine, called Essentials, was born out of our experiences with The Coach. Time and again we met readers who asked for clear directions on a host of rig/bait making skills, knot tying and tactics that would get them more bites. Month-by-month Essentials is growing into a reference library of knowledge that will help a huge slice of the coarse angling population. We do get an awful lot of questions sent in and we do read them carefully for feature ideas and suggestions for the Essentials section. Some of the questions are also used in our SUPERTEAM section where Mick Brown, Steve Ringer, William Raison, Frank Warwick and Martin Bowler provide the expert answers. I don’t think it is possible to say what the most common question is as the variety is enormous, hence the reason for employing Brown, Ringer, Raison, Warwick and Bowler. They are the best, end of story.
As well as readers asking questions, the current issue has every day anglers weighing in top tips too. Morgan Banks’ battered maggots and Nick Young’s 60lbs floating feeder both made nice how-to features. How many ideas do you get and how many make it into print..? We try to cater for a wide variety of fishing interests and like to bring new ideas to readers attention, such as Morgan’s battered maggot trick and the new MAP Rocket Feeder Nick Young demonstrated. I don’t keep a score of the ideas that are floated in our editorial meetings, needless to say that more get binned than ever reach the pages. I think that could, or perhaps should, be said for every magazine. FishingMagic: How much has the web influenced all of this. The W2F (Where to Fish) section seems to borrow some of its design from websites, elsewhere the mag is very visual and graphic-led. Kevin: The web is one source of information for us but I have to say that it is not my primary resource, face-to-face conversation with real anglers is. With all due respect, the Where To Fish section has been a long running part of the magazine that was due for a major relaunch when I took over. I spent several weeks with a very good freelance magazine designer reshaping the design and content until we got a section that we thought the readers would like. The deluge of e-mails praising the pages when we launched them provided evidence that we’d got it about right. Yes the magazine is very graphic and visual, we invest hugely in our illustrations and photography because I believe it gives us a clarity of information (and inspiration) that no other magazine can match. The readers like and learn from our graphics and photography so it is money well spent in my view. FishingMagic: How do you think websites like FishingMagic, whose content is largely reader-generated, have impacted on the established print media like IYCF..? Kevin: They have given everyone the chance to chat about their passion with like-minded souls from across the country. The instantaneous delivery offered by forums gives an opportunity for anglers to learn, compare and share knowledge. Personally I feel websites compliment rather than threaten print media, they help create an angling community. FishingMagic: How do you see things going in the future and are there any plans for your own website.? We have a very basic website already (www.improveyourcoarsefishing.com) which offers an exclusive 500 prize competition sponsored by Preston Innovations and Korum, plus it gives details on what’s in the magazine and how you can subscribe. The web is obviously something we will continue to look at but my main priority is the printed magazine and I’m determined to stay focused on that. FishingMagic: Matchmen and specimen anglers were once poles apart, if you’ll pardon the pun. They now seem to borrow more and more from each other’s approaches, as fishing becomes increasingly dominated by carp fishing. Many people now fish more or less the same methods whether they’re targeting tench, carp, bream or barbel. Are we in danger of losing our diversity and watercraft to the bolt rig and boilie approach..? Kevin: I often hear people bemoaning the changes that have taken place in fishing in recent years. Commercial waters, bolt rigs, boilies, bite alarms… they all come in for criticism. I genuinely think these changes have massively helped the sport. Not only have they brought angling into the lives of new people, who simply wouldn’t walk over fields to fish a distant piece of river, but they have also added to the diversity of the sport by giving us new types of venues to fish, a host of innovative methods and specimens that we simply couldn’t hope to catch 10 or 20 years ago. The rivers and canals are still there of course, and anyone who wishes to fish them will probably find they no longer have to get up at 4am to get a decent swim, as I used to when I learn to fish on the rivers Ribble and Dane. Watercraft still exists, no matter where you fish. The anglers who can think like a fish are still the most successful and they always will be. FishingMagic: It’s fair to say IYCF has become very carp-oriented, with perhaps 60 or 70 per cent of the how-tos and features dedicated to pursuing ther species in one form or another. Is this a conscious editorial decision, what kind of market research is it based on..? Kevin: In the sense that we cover ‘real’ fishing – the sort of angling the vast majority fishermen spend their time actually doing – you are right that there are plenty of carp in IYCF. It is what our readers consistently ask for. Consider this question: Would you rather read about fishing that’s related to what you do and which can help you become better and enjoy the sport more… or not? I believe that covering modern angling methods, venues, baits and species is essential to providing the readers with a first class service. However, I also recognise that variety is the spice of life and Improve certainly caters for a broad church of anglers. We produce river features in every issue and allocate plenty of pages to more traditional forms of angling. One thing IYCF will not become is a carp-only magazine. It simply will not happen. In the September issue, on sale on August 16th, we have a river barbel feature, an article where an angler catches 60lb of prime Cumbrian roach on tares and Matt Hayes lands a 3lb 2oz rudd for the camera. Carp only magazine? I don’t think so. FishingMagic: It’s no secret there’s a new kid on the block in the shape of Total Coarse Fishing, edited by your predecessor Gareth Purnell. Comparing the two mags shows tcf tends to cover things in more detail, where IYCF is far busier, with a much higher story count. What did you think of their first attempt and are you worried..? Kevin: Let me say first that I’m not about to get involved in a ‘who’s best’ slanging match. Life is far too short. I worked with Gareth for many years on Angling Times and enjoyed doing so, I wish him luck. It is up to Gareth and DHP to shape tcf as they see fit, I’m sure they don’t want any suggestions from me as to where I think they have got it right or wrong. All I will take issue with is the comment that we don’t cover things in detail. While we don’t always delve into tactics to reveal the most advanced twists on a subject, we do certainly ensure that we explain and illustrate our content very clearly with a close attention to detail. FishingMagic: Can the market support another magazine, after all there’s only limited advertising spend out there to be had. Time will tell, but frankly that is not my concern. All I really care about is Improve Your Coarse Fishing. It is far and away the biggest selling angling magazine in Britain and it is my job to ensure it stays that way for many years to come. FishingMagic: It’s often said that only a tiny minority of anglers actually buy the print media these days and comparing their combined ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) figures to rod licence sales would seem to bear this out. You have to say today’s angling media is probably as good as it’s ever been in terms of the quality of the content and design, so what’s going wrong on the news stands..? Kevin: I agree that the angling media is at the peak of its game at the moment. There are some superb publications on the market and I’m not just talking about EMAP titles either. I don’t think things are ‘going wrong’, we have far more angling magazines than ever before covering every aspect of the sport and this diverse choice is bound to split sales. I do suspect that many anglers, particularly those taking up the sport on commercial waters, or those returning after a lay-off from fishing of many decades, are not hugely aware of fishing publications and may not be great magazine buyers full stop. We still do sell an awful lot of magazines though and the size of the readership is huge when you consider how many people read a single copy of the magazine. FishingMagic: A six-page Live Test feature in the current issue is dedicated to beginner’s kits, with Lewis Murawski heading off to tackle shops with £ 60 burning a hole in his pocket to road test different combos. How hard is it to keep the balance between total newcomers, who may never have fished before, and more seasoned anglers..? It is a balance we work hard to achieve by allocating our pages to a broad sweep of angling skills and disciplines. There is a huge market out there of newcomers and what I term ‘returners’ – these are people who gave up fishing in their teens and twenties and who are return to the sport 20 or 30 years later. The test you refer to was aimed at those coming into fishing during the peak summer months, but the month before we tested power waggler float rods under £ 120 and next month carp poles are under Lewis’ microscope. We keep the features changing. FishingMagic: Talking of Lewis, it wasn’t so long ago he was a promising junior giving the grown-ups some lessons on the Great Ouse. Now he’s deputy editor of IYCF. How has he risen up the ranks so fast and if you had one piece of advice for a budding fishing writer, what would it be…? Kevin: Lewis is also now fishing for Essex County although his performance in the Angling Times Team Championship final on the River Nene a few weeks ago was less than impressive – he ended up going for a swim when a big eel snapped his pole. He lost the eel by the way! If I was to give one piece of advice for a budding angling writer it would be this – write for your audience not you and your mates. If you keep focused on that you won’t go far wrong as long as you are prepared to work at it, being an angling writer unfortunately does not mean you have the time to spend countless hours fishing! FishingMagic: Finally, what’s in next month’s and when is it out..? Kevin: The September issue of Improve Your Coarse Fishing goes on sale on August 16th. On the front of the magazine is a free 36 page booklet called the Bankside Bible. Split into three chapters (commercial waters, rivers, carp fishing) it is filled with masses of expert advice detailing how to catch fish on a variety of venues using a huge range of different techniques. In the main magazine we have got the country’s top Method feeder angler, Andy Findlay, acting as Coach to a reader. Jan Porter looks at barbel on the float, we’ve got a feature on how to catch roach on tares, the best way to land big fish from lily pads and Matt Hayes bags big rudd on the waggler. We also detail three of the World’s most dangerous fishing destinations – the Yukon, Nicaragua and Uganda. See, I told you there is a bit of everything in Improve, we’ve got carp and crocodiles! Tel: 01733 465777 |
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