Undercurrent Magazine

[covediver]

I subscribed 30 years ago. Ben Davidson figured out a way to go diving using other people's money. He promised honest reviews based on his anonymity as a diver. Not a bad gig, he did provide honest reviews, just to no place I could ever dream of going as a poor graduate student. So I let my subscription lapse. Three decades on, I am now in the demographic but still don't subscribe as I travel with a group of half crazed professional and avocational photographers (who are nice enough not to roll their eyes at my sealife micro). But, people I have met on the trips outside the group swear by Undercurrents. They also really liked the Chapbook. I am not sure that in the age of online reviews if one can't get the same info. After all, we are now all the anonymous as Ben Davidson once was?

 

[John Bantin]

I was Technical Editor and Chief Correspondent to the UK's Diver Magazine when it was run by owner Bernard Eaton with old-fashioned British journalistic values. The advertising department hated me whenever I upset an advertiser (which I did often) but Bernard Eaton told me to keep doing what I was doing and we built the monthly circulation to an unprecedented 55,000 and we got a lot of things improved in the diving industry. Alas, Bernard died, times changed and I resigned after 26 years because it began to be advertising-driven like all the other diving magazines.

Ben Davison got to hear and offered me an editing job - but I am disqualified from going on any dive trips for Undercurrent because I am too recognizable in the industry. I can confirm that no resort, product or service pays for a favorable review or otherwise.

There might be a few banner ads here and there but Ben Davison jealously guards the integrity of the newsletter. Any resort that says resorts pay for a good review is likely to be one that got a pasting and say that out of bitterness or jealousy of rivals.
Readers can also post their own impressions and if you are going to somewhere, it's best to read a range of these to get a realistic idea of what a place is like. There are now thousands of these available to subscribers on the html site.
Undercurrent newsletter is by no means perfect but there is a team of people doing their best to make it so. We also try to present both sides of every story. It is a labor of love for those involved. (We sometimes get things wrong but are never too shy to admit it and put in a correction.)

People subscribe to get it but remember that old New York saying: If it's free it ain't worth nothin'.

I hope that settles things.

 

[Ben Davison]

I just saw Doc Adelman's post and he's full of crap. Undercurrent has never received a nickel from anyone in the industry, though some have paid us $39.95 to subscribe. In all my travels, I've never so much as let a dive guide by me a drink. We, of course, have a lot of freelance travel writers who are expected to live up to our standards, and I've never received any credible information that that haven't. I and all of my writers pay for their flights, accomodations, meals and diving. As I remember, many years ago Doc Adelman came up with some notion to challenge our and my credibility, but he's never cited evidence, never named names, only spread his fantasy to discredit us. For only personal reasons he knows, he's still at it.
Ben Davison, Undercurrent, since 1975

 

[BDSC]

I started subscribing to Undercurrent last year because of the help they were able to give to someone here on SB after a screwed up liveaboard booking. The person was being ignored by the parent company until UC stepped in. They are a powerful voice in the dive industry and the cost of the subscription is money well spent.

 

[John Bantin]

Bonnier's Scuba Diving Mag Sold to the Professional Association of Diving Instructors - Folio:

 

[Lorenzoid]

Straight from the horses' mouths.

Keep up the good work, gentlemen, and I'll keep subscribing.

 

[Protondecay123]

I was Technical Editor and Chief Correspondent to the UK's Diver Magazine when it was run by owner Bernard Eaton with old-fashioned British journalistic values. The advertising department hated me whenever I upset an advertiser (which I did often) but Bernard Eaton told me to keep doing what I was doing and we built the monthly circulation to an unprecedented 55,000 and we got a lot of things improved in the diving industry. Alas, Bernard died, times changed and I resigned after 26 years because it began to be advertising-driven like all the other diving magazines.

Ben Davison got to hear and offered me an editing job - but I am disqualified from going on any dive trips for Undercurrent because I am too recognizable in the industry. I can confirm that no resort, product or service pays for a favorable review or otherwise.

There might be a few banner ads here and there but Ben Davison jealously guards the integrity of the newsletter. Any resort that says resorts pay for a good review is likely to be one that got a pasting and say that out of bitterness or jealousy of rivals.
Readers can also post their own impressions and if you are going to somewhere, it's best to read a range of these to get a realistic idea of what a place is like. There are now thousands of these available to subscribers on the html site.
Undercurrent newsletter is by no means perfect but there is a team of people doing their best to make it so. We also try to present both sides of every story. It is a labor of love for those involved. (We sometimes get things wrong but are never too shy to admit it and put in a correction.)

People subscribe to get it but remember that old New York saying: If it's free it ain't worth nothin'.

I hope that settles things.

I've only be a subscriber for this year and appreciate you and @Ben Davison responses to this thread. I've submitted a couple of dive reports there from my trip to the Keys and certainly had ZERO push back on my observations of the vendors I used from UC. It's nice to have a site that doesn't depend on advertising dollars for advice. UC was very helpful for at least the initial vendors for my first trip to Bonaire coming this winter.