H&H - What's Happening to a Quality Publication?

[HHO admin]

Thank you for your comments about recent H&H content. With regards our news stories, I thought it might be useful to explain that all our news stories are reviewed multiple times by H&H staff before they ever get printed, to check that they are balanced (ie that every party in a story has been given a right of reply), accurate, and that claims are substantiated and opinions credited (for which reason they have won journalistic awards the past two years).

We try very hard to avoid sensationalism; I am not sure I see why "Showing champion measures out” or “Are you in the zone?” are sensationalist headlines. Both stories stem from concrete facts – and the latter has extremely serious implications for equestrian businesses in the London area, as we have verified by talking to a cross section of them. We take trouble to ensure we do not use florid language in our news writing, but keep things tight and factual.

I completely understand that our Tell H&H page (which appears fortnightly) will not be to everyone’s taste, but clearly from your comments there are some readers who like it very much, besides some who dislike it. Every magazine, especially one that’s been going for over a century, must explore new editorial styles and article treatments, and while H&H remains a magazine for experienced and competitive riders, we also cater for riders who are less competitive but who wish to keep abreast of news and results, and to be inspired and informed by people's views and experiences. Our reports pages have actually increased over the past four years, not decreased, and we will never run such features at the expense of our core competition reports, which will of course increase substantially in the spring when the volume of weekly competitions starts to soar again.

With numerous dedicated hunt followers on the staff (self included) we heed comments about the hound's profile both in hunting and in H&H hunting pages. Our challenge is how best to write about houndwork under the constraints of a hunting ban. Besides our feature on the hound’s birthright in the hunting number, and a recent ‘Talk Yourself Horse’ from Roger Westmoreland on fell hound breeding, we will of course be reporting on the summer’s hound shows as usual, and continue to explore fresh ways to write about hounds and houndwork under the current legal restrictions.

I have alerted your comments on the classified pages to our colleagues in the classified team.

Yours sincerely

Lucy Higginson
EDITOR
Horse & Hound

 

[katherinef]

May I add in reply how much I have enjoyed the hunt reports of late - the quality of the writing has been astounding. I refer in particular to the recent report on the Goathland. Congratulations

 

[Weezy]

Thank you for taking the time to respond Lucy, it does mean a lot to us subscribers - As most others will, I am sure, agree, I do understand that ones publication must move with the times, but the main gripe is that some of the pages are getting, IMHO, a little too Pop culture with different fonts and layouts, but maybe I am just an old(ish) stiff! If a headmast is overly jazzy I am afraid I tend to discount the article

As for being inspired to aim higher, I can honestly say that the only thing H&H inspires me to do these days is to get out there and hunt round the country, which can only be a good thing! I am very guilty of sticking with the OBH when I hunt and am adament that this season I will do one meet with the VWH and Heythrop at least - maybe next season I will travel the country - so the hunt reports are certainly delivering for me in that capacity!

So long as H&H keeps its focus on the older market, to a certain degree the competitive market, those that are knowledgable horse owners/followers, and remembers that if those people want to read more real life experiences can buy HORSE (which incidentally I subscribe to too!) then I am certain it will enjoy another century of publication

 

[FREESTYLER]

Oh dear!! I am a prelim winner and hope I wont upset anyone if my picture is printed next week!! I actually think that there should be some more reports on grass root riders as it give them hope, as many people say, maybe at Affilliated level??? I think we should all write to horse and hound and tell them what we want! There is a section this week in H & H that says... what do you want in this magazine... lets tell them!!

 

[spaniel]

Of course grass roots riders should get recognition but the results printed are the ones supplied by the venues.

 

[kayleigh_and_rocky]

Like i said earlier - im actually very happy with the magazine, the real life stories doesnt take up much room, and i really enjoy a lot of the articles recently have been fantastic! And i think the first page of news is always spot on - its all relevent to what we as riders need to know thats going on that might endanger our sport or make things difficult.

 

[conniegirl]

Personaly i buy only about 6 copies a year now.
the 3 show diary ones and maybe 3 others if im told someone i know is in there!

I used to be a subscriber but have becomed disalusioned with the showing reports. M&M classes are often the biggest at the shows (with over 30 in the large breeds class at my local county show which has no qualifiers) yet they get the least coverage. In one week where there were major breed shows, major M&M championships etc there wasnt even a mention at all of an M&M. And i was very very disapointed in the coverage of the M&M final at olympia, the biggest M&M championship in the country.

 

[Maggie2]

I used to be really pleased when it was H and H day, and I am old enough to remember it on a Saturday. I would make myself late for work flicking through sitting in the car park, and try to sneakily read it when the office was empty.

But lately it is becoming more like ' Hello for Horses' and I do find huge banner headlines and equally huge pictures leave much less room for what matters - information. Now I don't even bother picking it up until later in the day, and I have many copies here almost unread, I flick through and then think I'll read it later, but I don't.

I hope that someone points the editorial team in the direction of these comments.

So, yes I agree, they are tending to glamourise it to keep readers buying, but that is leading to a general dumbing down and I would vastly prefer them to have more content over style.

 

[Dovorian]

When my sub runs out I'm not renewing - the combination of errors and writing/reporting style does noth for me. Like PG I used to make it last the weekend and read every scrap, just as entertaining to read the forum here and HHO I think.

 

[Faithkat]

Funny you should say that. I received a phone call from H & H a couple of weeks ago asking if I bought the magazine. I replied that I used to but not any more. Obviously the next question was "why not". I explained that I thought it was far too expensive at £2-odd per week (that kind of price OK for a monthly but certainly not weekly mag) and the b****y thing is two thirds adverts. They tried to offer me a cheaper subscription but I still said no. Curiously, a few days later I received an e-mail from IPC magazines offering me a free copy of "Horse" magazine to which I replied "Yes, please", they followed it up with a phone call offering me three months of "Horse" for £1 - to which I also said yes! I'll wait and see what else they come up with!!!!

 

[joy]

I agree with MFH 09. I have been dissillusioned with H&H for a long time. A while ago I bought 30 copies on EBAY from 1975 and they were just as I remember them pure reportage without any gimmicks.
Furthermore I think some of the commentariesare a little one sided, a few times my dressage horse has been out with his junior rider and she has won classes with high 60's and 70's but has been left out of the report because I suspect the writer only mentions the ones they know even if these riders came a poor third or fourth.

 

[SunSmile]

Well I used to look forward to thursdays "Horse and Hound day" and wait eagerly for the postman, now I try to get excited and flick through looking for interesting reports/articles and more often than not i end up putting it to the side disappointed. Although i do feel bad saying that as i think they do a good job with the hunting articles it can't be easy getting 2 reports out quite quickly, it seems, after the visit and i do always enjoy reading them.
I get very dispondent with the showing reports, i feel there is hardly any m+m coverage as previously mentioned, the rest of the showing seems to be full of "producers" results maybe as Tetrach says its because the reporter only reports on the people they know?
Another grudge i have is the length of time it takes to get a show report out, it seems that the show jumping report from a county show will be printed the next week, but the showing report can sometimes take 2/3 weeks.
As i said i do feel bad moaning about horse and hound as it is the only magazine which has reports and write ups and it would just not be right for it to plop through the front door every week.