The Community of Disc Golfers and About All Things Disc Golf

How happy are you with Flying Disc Magazine?

Well if you are like me, you thought to yourself (when faced with the choice to renew PDGA membership) I'm opting in......

Well now that I did, and I have got two issues of flying disc magazine, I'm not all that impressed with the outcome.

Many members that I am aware of have the following problems:

- Magazine was badly damaged when delivered
- Magazine was a month late
- Magazine was two months late
- Magazine never arrived
- Certain content of magazine is offensive to the sport and to the players of disc golf
- FDM does not reply to emails
- PDGA members don't feel totally comfortable with leaving the magazine at Park Depatments, Schools etc... to introduce the sport...

There are more than likely other issues as well.... So lets here what you have to say about the new face of the PDGA FDM......

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by My_Hero on January 9, 2009 at 12:34pm

I'm still waiting on my last 2 issues. Having rec'd 4 out of 6 issues, i guess i'm only 2/3 as happy as i should be.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Burns on January 9, 2009 at 12:51pm

The PDGA has had a well-made house organ before, and we can do so again. "DIsc Golfer" was produced from the late 1980s up until the time it was decided to use DGWN to carry the official PDGA news to the membership.

Because content will be under the control of the PDGA, there is no reason to have an opt-out for 2009, or any subsequent year that we have an in-house publication. If we ever go back to an outside publication, then it would be appropriate to institute the opt-out again.

Moving forward in 2009, I would be expecting FDM, as well as any other disc golf or disc publication, to place an ad in our publication, and perhaps a benefit of PDGA membeship could be receiving a discount on a FDM subscription.

Re: DGWN. There is no doubt that it was the finest DG publication to date, and I am sure it could have existed quite well without the guarantee of having all PDGA members be subscribers. I believe Rick when he says he needed a rest. I can't imagine what it would be like to have your vocation be under constant scrutinization by the public you are serving, for as many years as he did and for as few dollars he got for his work.

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Permalink Reply by Joe G 5740 on January 9, 2009 at 1:00pm

What I meant was "Rosthein did a great job with Disc Golf World News." I was sad to see it discontinued. And I`m happy we`ll be trying something different this year.

Mark Stephens said:

You have your publishers mixed up. Rothstein published the PDGA magazine PRIOR to FDM.

He is once again a Board Member of the PDGA. He is supposed to be working with the new PDGA magazine that is coming out. FDM is no longer the PDGA magazine and you cannot opt out in 2009.

Joe G 5740 said:
Personally, I thought Rick Rosthien did a fantastic job given what he had to work with. Obviously, no one on the planet Earth mothership is perfect. I think we should be more realistic in our expectations. We`re a relatively small sport. We`re lucky to have any publications, considering that most are downsizing or disappearing these days, due to the internet.
I also don`t agree with the effort to lump disc golf in with all other disc sports. Disc Golf is golf first, a disc sport second. Heck, we don`t even use the same equipment as all the other disc sports.
Let`s face it - disc golf is the most popular of all disc related activities and is the best one suited for the masses. It deserves its own focused attention. Ball Golf magazines don`t include info about all "ball" sports. 90% of disc golfers are mostly or exclusively interested in disc golf.

Also, if we want to be taken seriously and impress the uninitiated, we need a publication that isn`t so tongue-in-cheek about everything. Throwing Frisbees is a frivolous activity. Competing in Disc Golf is not!

Perhaps we need another "DISC GOLF" Magazine. One that`s not so ambitious. One that covers just our sport and is affordable for the readers and the advertisers. Would you rather have 3 advertisers pay $5000 a year to advertise or 10 advertisers pay $2000 a year to advertise.

P.S. - Every member should opt-in for the magazine. Come on now - we pay no greens fees to play all year. How is it too much to ask of players to support their sport by spending $20 a year on a magazine. IT IS THE VERY LEAST WE CAN DO!

If half of us opt-out and the magazine and content suck as a result of underfunding - then we have no one to blame but ourselves for selling our own sport short.

At least we can all share the blame.