The only Martial Arts mag I buy, is Kung Fu Tai Chi (which I have a 2 year subscription to, you just had to throw in that shirt, didn’t you Gene?). It’s seemd to me, that as far as Kung Fu and Martial Arts in-general mags go, there’s next to no good material out there. These “Martial Arts” magazines, like Black Belt, which claim to cover the Martial Arts as a whole, seem to really only cover 95% karate, 4% Kung Fu, and 1% other. We’ll take this month’s mag of Classical Fighting Arts (see my other post). While it does have some good articles, all but 1 relate to Karate. Looking at their past covers, it seems that each one has a Karateka on it. I don’t get it. Is it too hard to find decent material on these other arts? I would be thrilled if I could find a MMA (i’m more-so reffering to the word here, not the “Mixed Martial Art” “style(s)” magazine that doesn’t fill it’s pages with 90% Karate. I don’t have anything against Karate, I really don’t. I prefer Kung Fu, but I’d still read something on Karate. It’s just annoying that so many magazines cater specifically to Karate and nothing else. Even if it were the other way around, I’d still find it odd that there is a majority in something that is supposed to be full of different arts. Does anyone else seem to have this problem/gripe? Or am I just crazy?
CFA/DT is mostly a karate magazine, it’s also my favorite. Try JAMA, it’s pricey and isn’t monthly but it articles are usually very good.
Black Belt is a marketing catalogue.
No, no, 95% Karate doesn’t fit it. More like 60% Karate/TKD, 35% MMA, and 5% other. On occasion a good article appears, then I just read it and toss it back on the shelf.
Originally posted by rogue
[B]CFA/DT is mostly a karate magazine, it’s also my favorite. Try JAMA, it’s pricey and isn’t monthly but it articles are usually very good.
Black Belt is a marketing catalogue. [/B]
haha, I like how you put that, about Black Belt! With all my griping, I dind’t mean anything bad about the mag (CFA), just the situation of things.. I’m starting to read another article in there too. They do seem to be well written. JAMA is great. How often is it published?
Originally posted by PHILBERT
No, no, 95% Karate doesn’t fit it. More like 60% Karate/TKD, 35% MMA, and 5% other. On occasion a good article appears, then I just read it and toss it back on the shelf.
Ya, you’re right. Majority of them, I just do that.
It’s a popularity contest. MMA, karate and TKD are quite popular - they are going to be filling most mags for now. Think back to the late 80’s and early 90’s… how often did you see articles on muay thai? it was rare. How often did you see bjj articles? They were practically nonexistant.
You have a good point there 7*, esp with the BJJ
Yeah, you have to look at the market. What percentage of martial artists do what. A huge % do jma and kma… then you have your mma and bjj etc. We get a skewed sense here because such a high % of people on this forum and a few others have either done, do, or have seen a bunch of cma.
Is JAMA still in publication? I have heard that it is no longer in existence. I tend to think that it is true, as I still see the issue with Yang-Jwing Ming on the cover on my newstand, and that came out probably at least two months ago.
I believe it’s a bi-monthly or quarterly journal. Sometimes newsstands take a while to get the new issue.
well aside from KFO magazine
which is awesome and GREAT!. Try the “Asian Journal of Martial arts”. thats a good Mag as well.
Peace,,,TWS
oops PS. IS JAMA what i just recommended? duhhhh:confused:
TWS: sure is 
This isn’t just a martial arts magazine problem. I used to subscribe to several gun magazines, and have dropped all of my subscriptions except two because of the boring articles. When I read Black Belt, I look at it like panning for gold. I throw out all the rocks, and keep the nuggets. For me that is usually two or three articles.
When I was heavy into firearms, I found myself enjoying the gun forums more than the magazines, because a lot of knowledgeable people contributed. I like this forum because off the interesting insights. I don’t get angry at the comments I consider “rocks”. I just move on to the stuff I consider gold. Heck, some of my comments are probably considered rocks by a lot of people. It’s fun to post and read.
I suppose someone could attempt to start a new martial arts publication and correct the faults that they perceive, but the amount of start up capital for such an endeaver must be tremendous.
The times, they are a’changing…
Print magazines are a dying breed nowadays. Mostly, it’s the internet, but also the consolidation of bookstores into superstores made it harder for specialty magazines to thrive. All the magazines are doing whatever they can to stay on the newsstands. Beleive me, it’s a lot harder than you might think. And many of the things that might be unsuccessful in your eyes, pay off in the newsstands.
As for BJJ and mixed martial arts, they are very young so there’s not as much to write about them. Pretty soon, you become a personality mag and tournament reporting mag because frankly, there’s not a lot of history. Mags like Fight Sport attempt to emulate the success of WWE, with marginal results. Why do you think WWE is more popular than MMA and BBJ NHB events? There is a question you have to answer before you get too overly critical of what’s happening on the newsstands.
FWIW, we once did a Korean-based mag Dojang - in just 8 issues, we started to run out of material. This is not to say that we exhausted it by any means, just that there weren’t enough people submitting articles to sustain it as a quarterly. We did not want to become a tournament report magazine like Tae Kwon Do times, so we eventually fused it with our Japanese mag, Dojo, into a mixed mag called World of Martial Arts. Now it’s just Kung Fu Tai Chi because that’s where our strength lies (and we’ll never exhaust Chinese history). I have a lot of respect for the mags that offer different styles because it’s so much to have to know about. Honestly, it’s hard enough for me to keep track of CMA - it’d be too much work to have to keep track of all MA.
Gene: Thank you for the insights you provided. Having actually had to deal with the problems of publishing, you have a perspective that one who hasn’t been in the industry doesn’t. Kung Fu Magazine definately provides it share of gold nuggents for me to read.
Re: The times, they are a’changing…
Originally posted by GeneChing
(and we’ll never exhaust Chinese history).
That is so true Gene. With thousands of styles and China being basically the oldest still-living civilization, you really can’t run out :-D. You have a good point when you talk about having to have a knowledge base with something like this. I guess to have a decent MMA mag you gotta have a lot of people from different backrounds huh? You guys do an amazing job with KFTC, I’ve loved it since I first saw it 4 years ago (or was it 5?). Keep it up man 
I second the thanks for your response, Mr. Ching. I really miss M.A. Training magazine. Always presented good ideas to help you with your training. To a somewhat lesser extent, I also miss Karate Illustrated and Inside karate magazine.
gosh thanks…
…that wasn’t the reaction I was expecting, but it’s sure appreciated. We’ll keep the nuggets coming. 
How about every tells Gene how great and wonderful he, and KFTC are? Lets see how many shades of bright red we can make Gene turn!
flattery will get you everywhere…
…but if you really want to be flattering - subscribe!