Really think it depends on who's the editor of the respective Mag at the time as some have gone from brill to cack and back over the years.
i grew up with bike mag under the leadership of mark williams (excuse 1 fingered typing as wife is snuggled up under 1 arm after bbq)
bike mag in the early days was far more radical than say fast bikes under colin schiller.
bike is prob current fav follwed by pb.
bike mag articles inspired me to many escapades over the years, from the bol d'or to riding thru yugo, greece and onto africa. it was these articles that made me go 'wow' gotta do this.
i think bike mag peaked under willis and macdairmid in the 80's before declining b4 the resurgence to its curent peak.
as for journalism, i did a 8 page article on a trip to the bol on an st4s in northern biker and it promptly went bust so please don't take any notice of a 1 fingered drunk like moi
as 4 upsetting advertisers i know of a few funny stories where people have have pulled advertising, or peeps have got the boot 4 upsetting the status quo by calling a **** a ****.
overall as a good alround read with a bit of everything at present it's bike mag for me, sorry to follow the herd, but tim thompson u can send the cheque to the usual address at fawlty towers