Agree with KZ8, but I also wonder if it's a case of 'times have changed'. I loved 'Pilot' in the Gilbert days, and subscribed from when I started flying in 1978 right up until the August 2005 issue. Contributed a few articles myself, as well.
However, James is one of aviation's characters and his personality shone through the magazine. He was not always PC which may not go down quite so well in this decade as it did in the last 2 of the 20th century, and my impression of many of the newer PPLs is that they may not be looking for the stuff that turned us older guys on back then. Bottom line is that flying is perhaps a tad less free and fun than it was back then, and this is reflected in the current readership and the mags they demand.
As for the US 'Flying', I don't read it often but that's because my impression is it caters for the 'turbcharged IFR' sector, which is big in the US. Many UK pilots (like me) are VFR fun flyers and the pilot base is tiny compared to US. The UK mags have therefore to ry to satisfy a wide range of tastes in one publictaion.
SSD