Thread: What happened to Australian Woodsmith Magazine?

Just checked their website and they are not offering any new subscriptions. The parent company, Paragon Media, apparently discontinued a few other of their magazine titles mid 2023. Looks like it might be goneski.

my 2c worth
Twosheds

Some of my digging in this thread here resulted in confirmation from paragonmedia they're no longer printing physical magazines anymore only digital.

I couldnt even purchase back issue access to the website, eventually someone emailed me with credentials to login and didn't reply to anything else. Nothing on the cadence of their future issue release either unfortunately

Cheers,
Nathan

I rang the phone number on the Australian Woodsmith webpage this morning and didn't get an answer initially. I got a call back from the number and the lady I spoke to said paragon media had gone out of business. The lady advised they shared the office with paragon media and kept the phone number. She advised that Australian Woodsmith subscribers were sent an email advising that paragon media had gone out of business.

So I guess that's it. It is such a shame. Australian Woodworker was a great magazine.

Cheers, Barrie

Paragon is still in business. The day after posting here they emailed this reply: "Sorry, we are no longer publishing Australian Woodsmith." So it's just the magazine that's gone.

I have nearly every issue, was planning on scanning them myself, but then they came out with a DVD containing issues 1-125. Next they had a USB stick which also had issues 1-125. Then they told me in an email conversation a second USB would be coming out with issues 1-150. So I decided to wait. Life got in the way and by the time I returned to the subject the magazine had disappeared. ;-(

I know the USA version is available and I'll probably get that. But I liked having it in metric.

Update: They said no magazine back issues are available, digital back issues only, and there's no cheaper bulk option now like there was with the DVD/USB. It's $5 for each PDF or nothing. (

This collection of 132 woodsmith magazines might be of interest.

I have been in discussions with Paragon Media and they have stated that the company has ceased trading.

I was enquiring about a refund for the 7 issues remaining from my last subscription and was told "The company has ceased trading and has no money to pay refunds. Sorry."

But the ABR still lists Paragon Media as Active and last updated 15 December 2023, so I call on that.

They helpfully provided a link to electronic versions that could supposedly be downloaded, but you can only print them to PDF.

be interesting to see what ASICs response would be. If not bankrupt then you would think refunds would be avaiable

personally I cannot see the point of this magazine, everything you read about would be on internet somewhere

Originally Posted by ChrisWho

I was enquiring about a refund for the 7 issues remaining from my last subscription and was told "The company has ceased trading and has no money to pay refunds. Sorry."

So they're happy to still take our money for PDF back issues... but refuse to refund money they owe you. Typical.

Originally Posted by Tonyz

personally I cannot see the point of this magazine, everything you read about would be on internet somewhere

I find it easier/relaxing to read a book/magazine, but irritating on a computer screen. I have hundreds of free e-books added to my Amazon account but have not looked at a single one.

Pictures and plans are better viewed in print form (for me). Especially since the 4:3 aspect ratio of computer screens was mostly discarded in favour of watching letterboxed movies instead of still catering to the ~95% of other software computers are still used for, and when most people watch movies on large screen TVs, not their computer. Modern screens are short and wide which is 90 degrees out to most print (and e-book!) format, except books like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" for toddlers, lol. ;-D

That impracticability is amplified if you use a laptop. Then, unless you have a huge external screen so its height is taller than a book (because we hold books in our hands and closer to our face - but screens are more like 90cm+ away). So to view "pages" at a similar size you have to either physically rotate the screen on its side, or zoom way out using CTRL + mouse wheel (IF you have an external mouse. Otherwise you need both hands on a laptop to zoom out), or after zooming in to see or re-read something that was unclear the first time, you find yourself scrolling up and down for what seems a mile. (You can't just quickly flick your eyes from the top of a new column back to the bottom of the previous column like you can with a book. You have to scroll-wheel down, down, down, down... re-read the previous text to get clarity... then scroll back up, up, up, up to the top of the next column.

Obviously there's adjustments to make all this more comfortable like screen brightness/contrast so the "white" isn't glaring, and one flick of the mouse wheel scrolls half a page instead of a few lines, etc. But who thinks of changing that back and forth every time when they can just pull a magazine off the bookshelf and lean back on a comfy lounge.

And if I ever actually get around to making anything instead of just looking at the glossy pictures (lol)... I guess I could shut down the computer, wheel its table out to the garage, turn it on again, and back inside every evening... but taking a magazine from the shelf and having it right next to what I'm making is just easier.

That said... I really should get around to setting up that unused desktop computer and old flat screen TV in the garage. ;-)

A nice little chat with NSW Fair Trading assisted in obtaining a refund for my prematurely ceased subscription.

Originally Posted by TheFamilyMan

So they're happy to still take our money for PDF back issues... but refuse to refund money they owe you. Typical.

They gave out a free login to access all of the media when I reached out to them

For those OK with reading e-magazines try out your local council library e-catalogue. My council at least I can still access issue 159 through 177 online. Can also get access to Australian Wood Review, Popular Woodworking, Shopnotes, Woodsmith (US) among a host of other magazines. Figure I've in part paid for them.