As I recall, Skin Diver magazine's last gasp was when it entered into a cooperative venture with DAN, in which Alert Diver was delivered as an insert with Skin Diver, that was sometime in the early 2000's. They went out of business shortly thereafter. By then, a lot of specialty magazines were going out of business. The magazine racks at the drug stores of my youth where I first saw Skindiver, are now a shadow of their former selves (but then, so are drugstores). Consolidation was the name of the game as publications bought publications in a desparate attempt to gain subscribers and circulation (upon which advertising rates are based). Remember Underwater USA with its tabloid format? I regretted that day Rodale's Scuba bought that publication. Within a few years, Rodales had morphed as the name was dropped from the title.
I read a lot of back issues and briefly subscribed to Skindiver in the early 1980s. It did seem that they blurred the line between journalism and advertiser advocacy, but everyone knew it, so let the buyer beware. Local dive shop owners hated the magazine because of their advertising from mail-order dive supply houses (a debate that seems quaint in today's brick and mortar versus on-line ordering). What Skin Diver had going for it was advertising rates for display ads. I recall getting their advertiser package when I was organizing a one-day workshop of California Shipwrecks and being shicked an amazed at the rates they would charge advertisers.
One could never figure out what the magazine's editorial policy was other than never say anything but good about an advertiser. As a sometime feature writer, it was important for me to do so. In the late 1980s, the magazine was very much influenced by certain groups. For examle, the California Wreck Divers was one and the magazine really came to the defense of the people that were plundering wrecks at Channel Islands and other locations. My impression was that the magazine did want define diving orthodoxy, and anyone or anything that is outside orthodoxy is heretical. They were not alone in this effort. I recall going to the LA Scuba Show in the early 90s where a group of technical divers had a small display. At the time, friends of mine in Santa Barbara were experimenting with "deep air" and mixed gases (homebrew), so I stood at the booth and listened as an officious instructor with all the specialty "merit badge" patches sewn to his jacket came up and started harranging the guys about how they were going to be demise of sport diving. Within a few years, his certification agency would be offering 'tech diving", however defined, as a specialty.
