The young team of co-editors Dave Pitt and Andy Gascoigne have worked tirelessly to establish the new Marine Habitat Magazine. In a time of cutbacks and global recession, they’ve made the bold move to enter the market alongside strong competitors such as Ultra Marine, CORAL and Practical Fishkeeping. Marine Habitat aims to compete through a strong value proposition (being the least expensive option in the market). Additionally, Marine Habitat has been founded with a clear mandate to foster conservation, including a pledge to donate 5P from each magazine sold to a marine conservation organization.
In an uncommon turn of events, Marine Habitat might represent a role reversal of the marine aquarium knowledge flow across the Atlantic Ocean. For as long as I can remember, it seems that Europe has lead the marine aquarium hobby, with knowledge commonly disseminated from places like Germany to the US (it started long before the English version of Koralle hit the US as CORAL). Looking through the roster of initial Marine Habitat contributors, only two, Tristan Lougher and Tim Hayes, hail from the UK. Marine Habitat has imported the majority of content from US-based contributors (Scott Micheal, Bob Geomans, and myself). Nice to see the flow of info headed the other direction for a change!
It will be interesting to see how this entry into the market fairs in the coming year. The first issue hits shelves in less than 2 weeks – December 15th, 2010.
