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The rise and fall of FFWD

By Michael jones

October 2006

FFWD's web site announcement to subscribers (click for larger image)

August 2006 saw the demise of FFWD magazine, after less than four years of publication. While the immediate cause of FFWD’s demise was parent company IDG pulling out of New Zealand (the remaining IDG titles went to other publishing companies), the end of FFWD was not completely unexpected. This article traces – with emphasis on the hi-fi side – of the rise and fall of FFWD magazine.

The opportunity

“There was an opportunity to do a magazine about digital entertainment in the home,” said FFWD’s launch publisher and instigator Martin Bell. “Convergence [the coming together of audio, video, computing and gaming] seemed imminent.”

There was also an opportunity to knock Tone magazine out of the market. Tone, a “tech toys” magazine apparently aimed at young males, had been in operation for just over three years when FFWD published their first issue.

“There was a dissatisfaction with Tone among the [audio-video] industry,” said Martin Bell. That ties in with this writer’s perception. There was a lot of grumbling in the industry about the once-over-lightly quality of reviews, the perceived lack of knowledge of the industry among Tone writers and the “tits and bums” covers.

Initial excitement

FFWD was immediately well accepted by the industry. Carey Dixon, then with major distributor Sound Group Holdings enjoying that FFWD “was more AV focused than electronic toys and gadgets.” Carey also thought “the writing seemed to be above that of Tone.” He wasn’t alone. Another industry personality interviewed for this article, who preferred to remain anonymous, stated that the writing was more professional in FFWD and that it was obvious that the FFWD writers had a greater knowledge base about the industry and equipment.

So what happened?

So how did a new magazine, greeted with such enthusiasm and advertising revenue, not crush an unliked encumbant and eventually fail? As is often the case, the causes and reasons were numerous:

Perception of arrogance The people at FFWD “seemed to distance themselves from suppliers,” said Carey Dixon. This was quickly perceived in the industry as arrogance, as if the publication was above the industry it was reporting on. “They weren’t the most friendly to deal with,” said Dixon – a fatal flaw in an industry largely built on relations.

Loss of local reviewers FFWD started with many local writers, including the author of this article. After a couple of years – after I'd ceased writing for them – FFWD ditched local hi-fi writers (with the exception of pieces by Martin Bell), preferring to buy in articles from UK magazines, such as Hi-Fi +, What Hi-Fi and What Video. “Bypass the middleman – go straight to the source” this scribe was heard to say at the time. Industry comment was also negative. It seemed like an abdication to the New Zealand market.

Lack of direction “It comes down to personnel. The guy who started FFWD was a hi-fi enthusiast,” said Marantz and Jamo importer Michael Wildash. “When [FFWD founder] Martin Bell was involved FFWD was good. When Martin moved on there was nobody there with a healthy interest in the hi-fi industry.”

A couple of years into magazines life, founder Martin Bell left FFWD publisher IDG to do his own thing. Chris Keall, already the busy editor of IDG publication PC World, became editor of FFWD, but his time was quite logically mainly devoted to the successful computer magazine.

And so the rot began. The lack of anyone internal pushing the magazine forward began to show. There was no drive, no direction. FFWD “headed down the same road as Tone,” said Carey Dixon, becoming more superficial. “The last two years saw the differences between Tone and FFWD becoming negligible,” said Michael Wildash. Except that Tone had people actively driving the magazine. “It definitely got ignored by us towards the end” said Dixon, reflecting the gradual decline in both interest and advertising from the AV industry.

“FFWD had the wrong owner,” said Martin Bell. “When investment was required there was no money available.” No money, no focus and little effort. No wonder FFWD folded.