Dartmoor Magazines

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There is nothing better than to look forward to a magazine which is all about your favourite hobby, subject, or interest and Dartmoor is no exception. At present there are two such Dartmoor specific publications available; The Dartmoor News and The Dartmoor Magazine. Until recently there was a third, Dartmoor - The Country Magazine this first hit the shelves in 1998 and was published by Halsgrove. The autumn of 2006 saw the last issue of this magazine as it was absorbed into a general Devonshire magazine. This then leaves us with the two original publications, a comparison of which is shown below:

In September 2008 the ownership of the Dartmoor Magazine changed to the Edgemoor Publishing Group with Sue Viccars as the new editor. It is fair to say that the first issue under her and the new owners control has somewhat felt the effects of the 'new broom' and it will be interesting to see how it evolves from here.

Having collected virtually every issue of both magazines it is interesting to see their evolution from the early black and white days right up to the full colour of today. Over the years both magazines have published interesting articles about every aspect of Dartmoor all of which were written by learned Dartmoor enthusiasts. The original Dartmoor Magazine also ran an accompanying website but there was very little Dartmoor information on it apart from what the magazine was currently featuring. However, since September 2008 the new owners improved the Dartmoor Magazine's website and have now produced a flagship to accompany the magazine. The Dartmoor News also launched an excellent new website on the 1st of January 2008 to commemorate its 100th issue. The website contains a news section along with an events diary, dining recommendations and a nature section - well worth a visit. Both magazines carry their own strap lines, The Dartmoor News simply says, "The Dartmoor News gives you moor", which in comparison it certainly does. The Dartmoor Magazine used to claim on its website to be, "Dartmoor's largest selling colour magazine", which size-wise had to be true. The 'new' strap-line is now, 'People, places and pursuits', which reflects the magazine's new format and ethos.

So, two Dartmoor magazines, which one to chose? Today there is no question, Paul Rendell's 'Dartmoor News' every time. The new style Dartmoor Magazine has completely lost the plot with a good 50% of its content being totally boring, it is now a coffee table publication that's making a poor effort at imitating the famous Country Life magazine. The sad thing is that the new format is very similar to what the 'Dartmoor - The Country Magazine' used to be before it went out of publication. Even more alarming is that both magazines share the same editor, amongst certain Dartmoor circles there is a current wager as to how long the new Dartmoor Magazine will survive, the odds on favourite is 1 year. Will I continue to buy the Dartmoor News? Unfortunately yes, purely because I have every issue of the magazine since it was first published and from a collectors viewpoint I do not want to spoil the set.

Whilst on the topic of Dartmoor magazines I was astounded to read one called Margins which centres on short stories and poems inspired by Dartmoor. At first the magazine seemed well presented and interesting but then I came across an article written by the editor called, "Dartmoor Custard". This title sounded familiar and after reading the article so did the contents, much of it appeared to come from my web page on gorse. I emailed the editor from a second address and asked where she got her material from as I was writing a dissertation on the 'Vegetation and Folklore of Dartmoor'. I eventually got the following reply;

"I have to say that most of the information in that article came from the internet. Perhaps you would like to send me in a short article on something interesting about the autumn vegetation on Dartmoor the heather or small gorse or bracken to be considered for a possible future issue?? 250 to 500 words is enough for an article. A story is 1500 to 2000".

A reply went back saying there was no need to send in a short article as she (the editor) could just simply help herself from my website like before.