Rage
Right time for my two cents worth. I had typed a reply at roughly 1pm today and then my computer hung and I lost it. So I had double the rage. But I now kinda feel vindicated by what has been written by other people on here (2 of which are moderators).
Firstly I think I should point out to everyone reading this that I've had a clash with Send Clowns before, I started a thread and I had to rebuke Send Clowns in it for taking it off topic and advertising his own employer. So not really sure if he has an axe to grind.
As for the pages and pages of adverts mentioned by Send Clowns, I apologise I meant to mention the classifieds in my original post but I assumed it went without saying. I was relating to the main body of the magazine and the advertising policies of selling space round about them.
However the same rule permiates the classifieds, if someone is taking more space the sales teams then contact everyone else with the "you should see what he's doing, you can't afford to be left behind" pitch.
I am also critical of how you seem to assume that 95% of the readership are flying regularly. I certainly bought my first issue to compare the prices and get a list of all the schools offering courses. I'm pretty sure a fair number of each months sales are to people starting out and needing a reference tool a kinda flying yellow pages. That was the purpose of my post originally and to point out the pit falls.
I'd also bring to your attention a certian flying school held in a sticky thread at the top of this forum, I don't think anyone can disagree that there has been a lot written about them and not all of it good. Can anyone enlighten me to when they seen any of this mentioned in the flying press? Maybe something to do with the fact they take 2 full colour pages (I'm guessing rate card being £4k-5k per page depending on the circulation), however no ABC figures in the magazine I'm looking at, so conservative estimate £8k for both pages, discounts for ad campaign length, size of ads and regular entry brings it down to maybe £5k an issue at a guess? Which editor is going to question them when they are receiving this in revenue every month?
As to quesiton my suitablity for starting this post, I know the publishing industry very well, the rules relating to advertising and editorial transcend no matter the industry covered.
Finally Send Clowns you wrote this earlier "you point out that such discussions are published here on PPRuNe as you state, yet still many of the schools advertise with you." The difference being ANYONE on PPRuNe without vetting can write a post and have their say WITHOUT outside intervention. These advertisers know this and choose to advertise despite that fact. Magazines have an editor to determin if the copy written will cause problems further down the line.
I'll assume Send Clowns teaches pedantics 101 and there was a low cloud base over Bournemouth today hence his posts.