The Best Pool Magazine?

The Best Pool Magazine

  • Billiards Digest

    Votes: 56 58.3%

  • Pool & Billiard

    Votes: 5 5.2%

  • Inside Pool

    Votes: 25 26.0%

  • Professor Q Ball

    Votes: 5 5.2%

  • National Billiard News

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • On The Break

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 3 3.1%
  • Total voters
    96
A

allprobilliards

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Any opinions on the best pool magazine?
Which one has the most readers?

We know of Billiards Digest, Pool & Billiard, Inside Pool and newspaper ones such as Professor Q Ball and National Billiard News.
We'd like to advertise in a magazine.
Any recommendations?
 
allprobilliards said:
Any opinions on the best pool magazine?
Which one has the most readers?

We know of Billiards Digest, Pool & Billiard, Inside Pool and newspaper ones such as Professor Q Ball and National Billiard News.
We'd like to advertise in a magazine.
Any recommendations?
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Rather than toot my magazine's horn, let me play the role of advertising man (which I was). What will you be advertising, and to whom? The first three magazines you mentioned all claim to have a high degree of cross-over readership; whether or not their audiences are highly similar from a demographic standpoint is something you'd have to look into. Of course I strongly believe that Billiards Digest is the best magazine editorially - but editorial excellence should only be one factor in your decision. As far as readership numbers go, the APA's publication claims to outpace us all; among the three of us, we all claim to have about the same numbers, but P & B has never submitted to an independed audit as far as I know, and we have. Good luck in placing your advertising. George Fels
 
I believe BD is the best pool mag out there. I used to get P&B for years and IMO it went downhill. Inside Pool has turned some people off due to their unreliable distribution. I get all the mags, but they're ALWAYS late.

Billiard Digest has never let me down. I wish they had the Inside the Case feature and the Cue Maker article Fred Agnir writes every month. Then I could get rid of my Inside Pool subscription and just get BD.

Good question though!

Jim
 
Hands down the winner is...

With out a doubt Billiards Digest. Period full stop. I have a special ritual I go through. When the new BD shows up at my home hall I go off and buy a sandwich and capuchino. Get all setup to eat and turn to the back cover to read George Fels article. It's the perfect length and I generally finish the article, sandwich and coffee simultaneously. It's like having fries.

I used to go to Chicago on business and would always drive 45minutes every night to go play at Chris's. There in the back corner would be George on his quest for 100. I always wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed his work but never did because he always looked so focused.

Varner, Schwartz, Wilson and Jewett do nice work as well. The others I don't find is geared for me and Trick Shots I find incredibly boring (no offense to Jopling the legend).

P&B I can take it or leave it. The balance are not of the same category and probably better as web-based mags.

Oh and Mr. Fels, once a month you improve my mood. Thank You. Next time I'm in Chicago I would like to buy you dinner.


Nick
 
allprobilliards said:
Any opinions on the best pool magazine?
Which one has the most readers?

We know of Billiards Digest, Pool & Billiard, Inside Pool and newspaper ones such as Professor Q Ball and National Billiard News.
We'd like to advertise in a magazine.
Any recommendations?
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Inside English is a very good mag, although it is only regional. It is distributed FREE to pool halls in MI, OH, IN and IL. Check it out.
http://www.insideenglish.net/


Steve
 
I agree with just about everything Nick said.

George Fels is worth the price of the subscription all by himself. As Nick said, the instructional columns by Varner, Schwartz, Wilson, Jewett are all good. I would like to add Dr. Dave to the "worth reading" list. If you bear with his sometimes offputting charts, you can actually learn some new stuff from Dr. Dave even if you've been playing a long time (at least I did).

But I guess I'm really posting this to give kudos and thanks to George Fels for his interesting columns, and often moving ones, over so many years.
 
As for national mags BD gets my vote...for regional mags you can't go wrong with Inside English esp. the tournaments section...
________
 
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I get Billiards Digest and Inside Pool, but both are old news by the time I get them. Better off just reading AZ Billiards and other web sites IMO. Johnnyt
 
Nick B said:
With out a doubt Billiards Digest. Period full stop. I have a special ritual I go through. When the new BD shows up at my home hall I go off and buy a sandwich and capuchino. Get all setup to eat and turn to the back cover to read George Fels article. It's the perfect length and I generally finish the article, sandwich and coffee simultaneously. It's like having fries.

I used to go to Chicago on business and would always drive 45minutes every night to go play at Chris's. There in the back corner would be George on his quest for 100. I always wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed his work but never did because he always looked so focused.

Varner, Schwartz, Wilson and Jewett do nice work as well. The others I don't find is geared for me and Trick Shots I find incredibly boring (no offense to Jopling the legend).


P&B I can take it or leave it. The balance are not of the same category and probably better as web-based mags.

Oh and Mr. Fels, once a month you improve my mood. Thank You. Next time I'm in Chicago I would like to buy you dinner.


Nick
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Not sure I've ever been compared to fries before, Nick, but the next time you're at Chris's and I'm there, please feel free to say hi. I'm not quite THAT focused. Would love to have dinner with you, and my deep thanks to everyone else who wrote those kind words for me and my magazine. George Fels
 
me too...........

Donovan said:
I love my AZ, but I gots to have my George Fels!
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I think one of the main reasons I read BD is because of the great articles written by George Fels. I always go straight to the back of each issue to get the good stuff first.
 
allprobilliards said:
Any opinions on the best pool magazine?
Which one has the most readers?

We know of Billiards Digest, Pool & Billiard, Inside Pool and newspaper ones such as Professor Q Ball and National Billiard News.
We'd like to advertise in a magazine.
Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

Try Thrifty Nickel. Gets a lot more views.
 
i am a long time fan of george fels' monthly column in billiard digest. george, happy to see you posting here!

i always got a kick out of your straight-forward opinions of willie mosconi.
 
definitely Billiards Digest without a doubt!
they are the ONLY journalistic magazine out there and anyone who really wants to know whats going on in the industry should read it.

Their Billiards Retailer magazine is also outstanding.

Plus they have writers with real credentials and skills such as Mike Geffner(accomplished baseball sports writer) , Mason King, and George Fels.
 
two to three tripper

I rate pool magazines by how many trips to the John, for number two, they last for. Billiards Digest takes me from 2 to 3 trips to the John to finally finish. All other pool mags are finished by me in a single sit. Sometimes, George's article uses up one whole squat all by itself.

the Beard

My new book, The GosPool has been rated as a "hundred tripper."
 
I would also go with Billiard's Digest as the best mag, and who knows if you advertise with them maybe Mr. Fels would give your product/products a review in its pages. Many years ago George Fels devoted his column to the then unheard of company Predator. After reading his experiences playing with the 314 I promptly called Predator and ordered one of their shafts. When the rep asked me how I'd heard of them I told them that I read George Fels' article on it and he laughed and said, "Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot with orders." From that comment and what people have said here it's obvious that his words carry a lot of weight.
 
My vote go to Paul Frankel's magazine "ProfessorQBall". As a new kid on the block, its gaining ground and will be the 2nd best, if not the 1st in matter of time. Its' one magazine that doing a complete job covering all billiard/pool.
 
I have quite a collection of pool mags, media, newspapers, et cetera. :p

I would compare them to music. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Bach, and others times I want to hear me some good ol' AMERICAN bluegrass. :D

I think each one offers a different slant on the pool scene. Depending on what interests you, I think something can be gained from all of them.

I like Phil Capelle's articles in P&B, and there are quite a few good products to check out in this mag.

The Snap is the absolute nuts when it comes to the "good old days" when the action was prevalent. Boy, do I have an interesting story about its publisher! :o

Billiards Digest covers many aspects of pool, i.e., player bios, products, instructional articles, and interesting articles.

InsidePOOL is an excellent source for the American pool-playing public who enjoy following the American tournament trail. The articles are interesting, covering a wide range of topics, and I happen to like the excellent pictures throughout the magazine.

The National Billiards News is a goldmine and may be the oldest pool media in the States. I have a whole decade's worth of 'em, and I thank the good Lord they were there covering pool. I would love to get my hands on the ones from the '60s era and early '70s.

I like the Professor Q-Ball and enjoy reading it in its entirety. Whenever I am at an event and I see them there, I grab 'em immediately.

There's another mag I used to see when I went to tournaments from Canada, but I can't remember its name. I like that one too!

JAM
 
Hi JAM
The Break published by Cheese Akerlow is published in a little old town in Montana so I want to give him a plug. He personally distributes it all around the nw - Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Northern CA. You might want to check it out - its published on line each month www.onthebreaknews.com. Good info on the pool world this side of the country plus articles on names like Mike Massey and Jeannette Lee.
Jack
www.johnmaddencues.com
 
Chalk and Cue?

Mike

JAM said:
There's another mag I used to see when I went to tournaments from Canada, but I can't remember its name. I like that one too!

JAM
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