The Missing Scuba Diving Industry Trade Publication

What Publications Do We Have in the Scuba Diving Industry?

We have quite a few good scuba diving publications. We just do not have a dive industry trade publication. Let’s have a look at what we have.

Publications for Scuba Divers (Consumers)

We have a few scuba diving publications dedicated to consumers, like The Scuba News.

These businesses live by selling advertising, mainly to dive gear manufacturers and dive resorts. Articles in those magazines are always “positive.” The publisher’s goal is to communicate the passion for scuba diving to consumers and please their advertisers. It’s fine. But they do not cover what a dive industry trade publication would.

Besides living from ads, some of these consumer magazines are a promotional arm for a dive training agency. For instance, Sport Diver was the official publication of the PADI Diving Society until the Society died. And Scuba Magazine is the official dive magazine of BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club).

With the 2019 acquisition of Bonnier’s dive media brands (Scuba Diving, Sport Diver, and Skin Diver magazines) by PADI, it seems we have even fewer impartial consumer dive magazines.

One magazine that all scuba divers and dive professionals should read is Alert Diver (USA) by Divers Alert Network (DAN) and Alert Diver (Europe) by DAN Europe.

The Case of InDEPTH Magazine

InDEPTH Magazine is a notable outlier for the depth of its articles. It goes beyond the fluff and passion of scuba diving to dive deep into various issues of interest to scuba divers and dive instructors.

Full disclosure: I collaborate with InDEPTH Magazine for a series of scuba-related surveys.

Although InDEPTH’s content is heavily tilted toward tech diving, as a dive professional you get information that is valuable in your career.

Training Agencies “Pro” Publications

Although they are not targeting the general public, they are very similar to consumer magazines. They “promote” whatever is suitable for the training agency that owns the magazine.

If you are a PADI client (they call you a “member”), you receive the “Undersea Journal.” It’s a beautiful magazine. Very well done. But what do you find in there? There’s nothing from the list of what a dive industry trade publication would include as discussed above. It’s mainly a pep talk, in written form. It’s a PADI medium to convince dive professionals to buy more PADI products and services — with some information about changes in teaching standards.

Dive Center Business & Scuba Diving Industry Magazine

Dive Center Business was a very special and unique magazine. It was sent to dive shop owners and managers in North America. The Dive Center Business magazine contained a lot of great articles on how to better manage your local dive shop.

Dive Center Business was shut down at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few years later, Scuba Diving Industry Magazine was created by a different publisher but with a similar content. If you do not already read it, I strongly suggest you start.

But is it a dive industry trade publication? Although it is written for and distributed to dive industry insiders (local dive shops in the USA), it still doesn’t contain what we discussed above. It’s a management tool for dive center managers and instructors, not a comprehensive dive industry trade publication.

Dive News Wire

Dive News Wire markets itself as the “Industry’s News Source,” and it does, indeed, contain valuable information. If you are in the dive industry and you do not receive it, subscribe. It’s free.

But it’s free because it’s a press release distribution service. It’s not an independent trade publication. Dive industry companies pay for their press releases to be distributed on Dive News Wire.

Undercurrent

Undercurrent is another particular beast.

This online magazine covers some of the topics a dive industry trade publication would cover, sometimes. For instance, it wrote about a lawsuit against Suunto regarding their dive computers. The juicier the subject, the more likely Undercurrent will cover it.

However, their primary focus is on reviews of dive destinations for scuba divers.

The Case of Scubanomics

A few years back, I dreamed of helping the dive industry by publishing in Scubanomics the kind of articles you would expect in a scuba diving trade publication.

For instance, I covered how a private equity firm destroyed the largest dive gear brand (Aqua Lung). Earlier, I covered the mysterious, hidden billionaire owners behind PADI (that post is no longer online). In both cases, the volume of traffic clearly indicated a need for a publication sharing the pulse of our industry.

However, it’s a lot of work! And I don’t sell ads. So, I haven’t worked on even updating the Aqualung post, even though that post still gets a lot of traffic.

A true trade publication would be valuable to dive industry stakeholders. But it’s not a small undertaking. You need journalists digging for the information.