Not sure why the quality of US magazines has anything to do with the % of IFR pilots! I know a lot of US pilots, many airline pilots, but none who ever fly IFR on their days off!
Personally I dont really like Flying because it is always full of articles on avionics and flying IFR, which I do for a job but am not interested in for my private flying.
Sport Aviation used to be a good magazine in the US (its the EAA's inhouse magazine for those that dont know) but with a new editor a few years back it seemed to try to change to be a bit like Flying, with less articles about interesting people and aircraft and more columnists. I find that most of these columnists write a great column about once or twice a year, the rest of the time it is easy to see that they got to deadline day and couldnt think what to write, so any old drivel came out.
Stuart, did you actually submit your article, or just suggest that you might write it. Many of the mags do get many people saying they will do something, much of which never materialises.Most will not comitt to anything until they get the actual article and photos in their hands.
Seems to me that the three UK "pilot" magazines on the high street shelves are about equal these days. Pilot used to be by far the best, but seems to have gone down hill over the last few years. Whereas Flyer seems to be getting a lot better.