I recently received an email from the now bi-weekly AutoWeek offering me a FREE YEAR! “Now, for a very limited time, you can take advantage of our lowest rate ever. For just $19.95, you can enjoy TWO YEARS (52 issues) of your favorite magazine! That’s 90% off the retail rate–just 38¢ per issue!” Despite “bi-weekly race results, news straight from the auto show floor and unbiased editorial reviews,” I’m holding out for the last 10 percent discount, and the removal of the two-year requirement. That’s not as strange as it sounds; we’re getting reports that Car and Driver subscribers are getting the buff book long after they’ve let their subs expire. Subscription income sacrificed on the Alterman of advertising? Perish the thought! Meanwhile this from Automobile: “An exclusive limited-time offer has been reserved for you from Automobile Magazine. Through October 9, you can get a full year of Automobile for only $10! That’s $49.88 off the cover price – an 83% savings!” Clearly, these guys are toast. The question is, what, if anything will replace them? Personally, I think it’s the ideal time to start a new car magazine; one that redefines the genre with coffee-table compatible paper stock, world-class photography and scintillating, insightful reviews and features (a la The Rodders Journal). Or is it time to stick a fork in the whole car mag thing?
Car and Driver, far superior to Automobile, offers annual subscriptions for $5 a year, in several venues. Compared to that, Automobile’s offer is twice as bad, and paltry anyway, nothing to write home about..
All these mags make their $ from ADVERTISING, and very little from the subscriptions.
I don’t even bother reading the reviews in Car & Driver and Motor Trend. I just amuse myself with the pretty pictures and the stats while I wait for my bowels to move.
Those magazines have zero credibility. The winner of their comparison tests is the simply the advertiser who paid the most money. Take the Prius vs Insight review. The Prius was superior in every tangible and intangible way but they named the Insight the winner. There are plenty of examples of this type of behavior.
Robert,
I was going to say that it’s already been done, but the The Automobile Quarterly is more of a book than a magazine.
The internet’s elimination of all barriers to publishing has meant that traditional print publishing faces becoming buggy whip mfgs. At the same time that it’s hard to make money selling words and pictures on the internet because everyone expects free content.
Maybe you’re right that there’s a market niche for something between the almost free car mags and AQ. I wonder what The Rodder Journal’s circulation figures are.
Actually, you might want to talk to the folks at Autozone Hobbies in Royal Oak, MI. It’s a car toy store, a lot of die cast and the like, but they also have a very nice literature and periodical section with imported magazines. That’s the nearest place that carries the Rodder Journal unless it’s at Border’s. They’d have a handle on what’s selling at the boutique level you’re talking about.
I have not subscribed to a magazine or newspaper in over five years. It’s old news before it even hits the presses. Why print it on paper? Don’t get me started on phone books — they go straight from my front door to the recycle bin.
Twotone
The mags have all been “done” for about 5, maybe 10 years now. Just like GM was unable to attract new customers and focused on their last best hope for success (trucks).. almost all of the car mags (even consumer reports) in a last ditch to survive have started to write articles not based on facts or information but based on what most of their readers either drive or would like to drive. Car and Driver has to be the worst of the bunch with a BS “fun to drive” fudge factor which lets them give the nod not to the best car, but the one that will PO the least number of subscribers…
My vote…
“General” car mags? ya stick a fork in them…
“Specific” car mags (ones on kit cars, Hot Rod, you know the marginal stuff) they have about 5 years before the free flow on information on the internet makes them irrelevant too.
This is post-worthy? Way to mail it in, Farago.
There will always be a market for magazines: Dentist/Doctor office and Tire store waiting rooms.
Other than that…..done.
The same exact thing started happening to Sport Compact Car a couple years ago as they started their long slow slide into C&D mediocrity. My friend recieved issues for 6 months after his subscription expired. One of my favorite tuner car mags was DRAG because it contained highly technical articles and builds…they didn’t get far. Maybe 4-6 issues.
I think a car mag with no advertising, akin to Motorcycle Consumer News, MIGHT be able to make a run at it. But the production values would have to be higher than MCN, as Robert suggests. That would probably mean pretty high subscription rates. And, with so much car related content available on the web (ahem, TTAC, anyone?), it might be pretty hard to find a sustainable niche in the dead tree world anymore.
I’ve been getting offers that low for years now, I don’t think it’s anything new. The only two I still care to receive are Car & Driver and Automobile, although I’m not sure really why I keep Automobile. C&D is the only magazine in the US that actually test drives manual transmissions and can intelligently discuss car dynamics and feel. No one else actually tests cars to a spec I would actually buy, and some mags clearly have staff that only review automatics (pathetic). I actually appreciate their ultimately subjective scoring (it came in for some stick around here recently, no idea why).
0-60 does exactly what you are proposing, although the content is a hybrid of EVO/Maxim so I’m not sure if that fits your sensibilities at all. They are very entertaining and I don’t think you need to be a car geek to appreciate their stuff.
If this is your plan post-TTAC I’ll subscribe, but make sure to hire enough young, adultery-age types in order to keep things interesting.
Car magazines are great while in your doctors waiting room. When given the choice between a swine flu covered copy of Good Housekeeping magazine or C/D, I generally choose the Motormag. But if I ever buy myself one of those iThing phones then I won’t have any more uses for car magazines.
I used to like reading MotorTrend and Car and Driver,,,,, for a little while. Then I realized how out of touch they are with the car buying public,,,, thinking everyone wants a BMW 3 series (and for those who want FWD a Honda Accord). Their comparison tests suck and always test packages that don’t match 90% of what the car buying public purchases. One example, how Car and Driver never ONCE tested the 99-04 pontiac grand am. Now don’t falme me, yes they were shitboxes (warping break disks, failing window regulators, and the infamous dex-cool coolant) and had in interior quality that made a power wheels look like a lexus,,, but given the fact gm was selling over 200k units annually (not counting fleet sales) don’t you think these sales deserves to be in at least 1 comparison test???
Off-topic I know, but speaking of non-American mags:
I’d still pay good cash for CAR if Setright and Bulgin were alive and writing (there).
Carl’s Cars is worth purchasing too, despite being pricey. But I buy magazines so seldomly I don’t even know whether they’re still being produced.
The perfect mag already exists…Car!
Call me an old fart, but I think something valuable will be lost when these mags die.
As for Automobile, I think they’ve actually upgraded their product the last year or so.
Sure hope Phillips and Ezra Dyer can find some “business model” that pays them a living wage for what they do. Is anyone else concerned about that particular downside of all this exciting modernity? Or is it uncool to mention it?
The traditional Car buff’s magazine has needed a major overhaul for a long,long time.When Automobile magazine was introduced it made lots of promises , but it missed the mark.IT’ll take more than quality paper and a few hi-profile has-been writers to turn things around.Frankly , Consumer Reports does a better job at this point.Cut out all the glowing reviews that seem tied to ad revenue more than facts.(go back and read the reviews for the Fiero)Be willing to call on GM,Ford,Toyota in interviews that go beyond press release fuff.In short get your credibility in line and go from there. There’s a market for truth even in the age of the internet, but the volume will be smaller than those glory days of the 1960’s.Giving away your magazine only postpones the death.Who wants to read an ad filled fluff magazine with no real original,truthful content? Bill C.
I stopped buying American car mags 20+ years ago. Actually virtually all American vehicle mags (including motorcycle mags), but I pay $65 a year for a subscription to Bike – the English motorcycle magazine. It is bigger, better, and more fun than any American mag. Actually, I may add Motorrader (the German bike mag) since it may very well be the absolute best. The problems with the American mags is that they are boring, on flimsy paper, crappy pictures, um, should I go on? Maybe an American “Bike” wouldn’t make it, but since no one even tries, who knows. I might mention that Martha Stewart’s mag, the closest American production to a quality English mag seems to be doing fairly well. In other words, if you aren’t doing something completely different and better than anyone else you are going to have problems. Oh, is this a GM post? Sorry.
ol : Those magazines have zero credibility. The winner of their comparison tests is the simply the advertiser who paid the most money.
Payola? Don’t seem to recall the last Ferrari ad. And even BMW have lost a few C/D comparos, lately.
With this economy, what do you expect? Besides, who is really interested in cars anymore, anyway? The libs think cars are worse than cigarettes, and given the god-awful designs coming out of everywhere, what’s the point?
Besides, it’s really nothing new, and it’s all happened before: remember stereo magazines? Today, no one even owns a stereo; it’s all home theater, or mp3. Maybe most people just consider cars an appliance, not unlike a toaster. And who wants to read the latest toaster comparo? As others have mentioned, in the Internet era, unless you’re waiting for a tooth extraction, why bother?
Did I mention the Internet? This amazingly begs the question, why are the slick’s Web sites so lame? Talk about missing in action…
All this said, PJ O’rourke’s take on the latest and greatest Rolls was actually worth the not-very-much price of a C/D sub (I mean that as a compliment although it comes off as an ironic put down–Oh well, Rolls just yanked their C/D advertising budget, I guess).
Nope, they’re not done. Yet. The fact that CAR and EVO sell, at a higher price is proof enough.
However, they need a DEEP change.
I guess how C&D or Automobile would look with you behind the wheel.
I bought some of them. I really liked Automobile, and still read some articles online. Used to check C&D, but somehow I didn’t like it anymore.
Motortrend… ummm online version only, and some blogs and reviews.
And I used to buy HotRod, CarCraft and occasionally SCC (I have the last one, in which they published a pic I sent). Of the first 2, I have a healthy 3-4 years collection. Now it’s too effin expensive here.
Going online…
I don’t usually check autoblog. Jalopnik, lately and mostly for entertainment.
I go straight to TTAC and SSL.
Stick a fork in the magazine business. The net has free news, free opinions, and free pics.
The only possibility for magazines is to give them away free – a lifetime subscription for no money, cancel anytime- and hope to make money on advertising.
I just amuse myself with the pretty pictures and the stats while I wait for my bowels to move.
Now with the advent of the iPhone you can use TTAC for that purpose.
CAR, the UK based buff book, seems like the print version of TopGear. I’d be more than happy to pay $60 or even $100 a year for something like that.
I already receive autoweek and C/D for free – got them through freebizmag. C/D is not bad. but Autoweek really doesn’t have anything interesting in it – the news is at least a few weeks old so the blogs beat it, and it doesn’t have any in-depth reporting or reviews that would make it competitive with the monthly mags.
Definitely best for holding down my toilet lid.
Except for a few specialty niches, print magazines and newspapers of all sorts are dead meat. The upcoming generation holds no sentimental value for reading them, and is quite happy to read stuff on a screen. Most people of all ages are now unwilling to pay much, if anything, for content. These things are heading rapidly toward becoming the 21st century equivalent of papyrus scrolls and 78 rpm records.
The large car mags would be smart if they merged, and pushed a web presence as they plan for the orderly phase out of their print business. At this point, they should be competing with iPods, iPhones, You Tube and web media properties, not each other, and expand their brands into other areas. Most of the magazines left in print will be some specialty niche publications, most of which will be produced in low volume and probably as a labor of love by people who don’t care that they can’t earn a cent from running them.
I hardly read the complimentary waiting room C&D/R&T copies when I see them. Too slow, too predictable, pretense of objectivity, etc.
Perhaps there’s room for a e-subscription model if done right. Say, RF – have you been following this?
Disagree with most everybody’s commentary on the death of the print media. I believe that the reason that most mags and newspapers are on life support is largely due to what MasterOfTheJawan astutely points out, ie, relevancy, substance, timeliness, and reality. The media incorrectly stereotypes its readers based on misinterpreted demographic data.
I just skimmed the latest issues of Automobile and Motor Trend. Reviewed were the 2011 Bentley Mulsanne, Audi R8 Spyder, KV Mini 1, Caddy CTS, Ford F-150 Raptor, BMW 760Li, Chevy Corvette Grand Sport,McLaren MP4-12C, Mazdaspeed 3, Electric Tesla, Bertone Mantide, Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M, Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, Lamborghini Miura SV, and the Nissan Leaf. This is what the mags’ best and brightest choose to give us??
With the exception of the truck, Caddy, and Mazda, how many of these other vehicles pass the relevancy, timeliness, reality, and substance standard?? And this goes on month after month, year after year. Hell, someone mentioned C&D earlier. They tested a garbage truck, a motorcycle and a tank. How relevant is that?? Where is the reality, subtance and timeliness?
Granted that the former BIG 3 didn’t give us any truly outstanding automobiles over the last 10 years, albeit, with a couple of exceptions, you could argue that the mags did truly review autos that people wanted even though they were foreign brands. But when that readership niche became “old”, they turned to the fanciful idea of the “dream” car and to be honest, that’s when they lost me. Yes these cars are truly something special, but their price tags are beyond the means of blue collar America. You can only sell dreams when there is money in everybody’s pockets.
Much the same can be said of the newspaper industry. They are so focused on gaining ad dollars that they too, lost their focus and their demographic. To make matters worse, they became political. In the polarized America of today, you are going to offend everyone. Compounding the problem is that the “middle” is unrepresented. Much like Afghanistan, cap and trade, the Health Care debate, Iran, etc, no one speaks for the majority and decisions are made ignoring the wishes of the “people”. Our Representatives don’t represent, they bow to the will of the “Party”.
*phweet*
Time out; perspective check, please!
Mags aren’t dead, although the newsstand motoring publications seem to be making a good effort at it. If you weren’t a reader before, the internet won’t make you one. The ‘Net may be good for the quick-take stuff, but few want to read a 4000 word feature by scrolling and scrolling.
Some mags–notably the ones that treat their readers like adults–are growing. Hemming’s “Sports and Exotics” comes to mind. Others mags in all fields are maintaining page count and advertising in these trying times as well.
Discount subscriptions are very common, and have been around quite a while. To wit: Smithsonian ‘Air and Space’ has offered a 2 for 1 renewal plan (the 2nd is a free gift sub you give to someone else…)for years and the sister ‘Smithsonian’ magazine is currently running the same offer as a 3-for-1 deal.
The hook of course is that they hope the recipient will renew the subscription and the plan will then expand geometrically.
There is definitely a market for timely and well-written publications and they will continue to be appreciated by their readers.
My personal view: being first (or loudest) on the InterTwitterGoogleWeb doesn’t necessarily make you right and it rarely makes you valuable.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the biggest benefit of print mags vs Internet – you can easily and safely read the print mags on the john.
I’m a fan of Automobile, the reviews are not only fair but well written, and the columns are usually pretty good as well. When you thrown in the auction reports and a little bit of racing coverage, you have a nice blend, and I’d say well worth $10 for a year of toilet reading material.
Collector car magazines are pretty cool, and I personally enjoy them.
Collectible Automobile. In the better book/magazine stores. Or call them at 1 800 777 5582 (I happen to have my latest issue with me)
Hagerty’s magazine. http://www.hagerty.com (quarterly)
Hemmings Classic Car. 800 227 4373 ext 79550.
Ive been subscribing to Autoweek since it was in newspaper format and called Competition Press. Im done, and so are they. It lost even the old demographic. Once AW went to bi-weekly publication, I decided not to renew. The renewal notices have stopped, but they still send the magazine.
Someone likened print versus internet to medieval manuscripturalists(?) versus Herr Gutenberg. In fact, today’s Project Gutenberg has 30000 free e-books on-line.
How the hell does anyone make any money here? Figure it out and you could get rich.
Way off-topic. I love the internet, but not for books. The digital experience isn’t as nice as the analog experience. Nicholas Negroponte (MIT Media Lab) points out that books have a low power draw, excellent contrast, are unaffected by electrical events and have a reasonable random access presentation. I’d add that until you can get better displays, high quality print images are going to be superior and easier on the eyes. OTOH, an airport-read grade whodunit – why not on a kindle?
The domestic car monthlies have lost much of what made them interesting in the past, and one could even make the case that this is content-related and not just a result of the internet: In the late 1970s the domestic market consisted largely of extremely boring cars (a magazine story might concern, for example, a sporty trim package on a Ford Fairmont). Since then, it’s been several decades of improvement in every kind of auto technology, and we might now reasonably be considered to have reached a plateau of sorts, at least with respect to combustion-engine cars. This was accompanied by the rise of the SUV market, which enabled the magazines to do stories about a wider variety of vehicles that would interest readers, especially in the days of cheaper gas (about 1986-2000) but not so much today. Also, today’s cars need replacement less frequently (on average) versus 20 or 30 years ago, which itself could reduce interest in car magazines.
I prefer print media and use online as the supplement. Having a job and family, most of my really good reading times occur either during lunch or on the toilet. Print Media fits the bill nicely. Same people praying for the death of print media must also think having their entire music collection on an IPOD at craptastic bitrates or watching movies on 6 inch LCD screens is a great audio and visual experience. I suppose an Aveo is as much fun as driving an Evo as well.
So if magazines make most of their money from advertising and are willing to almost give the magazine away, even though they have to cover printing and freight costs, why can’t online periodicals make money? Shouldn’t we all be able to get free content paid for by advertising?
Or is the problem not that the numbers don’t work, but that once advertising becomes the income source it also becomes that which controls content?
Ah, now that’s an interesting topic – the periodicals’ dependence on “percent paid” pages in an issue and to what extent that affects content. Consumer Reports has figured out a way to support itself without income from ads (while offering subscribers, at nominal additional cost, an optional online component). Although CR’s car advice was only one small component in our new-car research (6 and 10 years ago), it has been reputable for many decades and that helps it survive as a nonprofit. I myself am an employee of another magazine published by a nonprofit, a membership organization of very long standing that collects annual dues rather than subscription fees (the magazine also sells ads in print and online).
But I honestly think all ad-supported media (including broadcast TV and radio, not just print) possibly may never reverse their decline. New forms of media are on the horizon and we don’t yet know what they will look or sound like, or how they will support themselves, but the vacuum will be filled somehow. People may even adapt to the absence of magazines to read on the toilet or in waiting rooms.
They’ll still be around for a simple reason: they actually test cars. As much as I love websites like this one, that’s a service that’s not offered here.
Having said that, Automobile has to go…they’re a blatant sell out, with their editor taking money to pimp cars in advertisements (thanks to RF for turning me on that one). I don’t get that sense off Car and Driver; I don’t read MT or R/T, so I can’t speak to them.
MasterOfTheJawan :
October 2nd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I used to like reading MotorTrend and Car and Driver,,,,, for a little while. Then I realized how out of touch they are with the car buying public,,,, thinking everyone wants a BMW 3 series (and for those who want FWD a Honda Accord).
OK, fair enough, but have you ever DRIVEN a BMW 335, or really stacked an Accord up against its competitors (aside from styling)? I have.
Those cars get lionized because, frankly, they’re no-shit great cars.
Having said that, I agree with the C/D critics here – the magazine really did become boring under Csaba Csere. But I see some of the old irreverence coming back under Alterman. Not that they’ll start doing comparos in Baja anymore (if you haven’t read that article, find it RIGHT NOW), but Robinson and Phillips never fail to crack me up.
That’s not as strange as it sounds; we’re getting reports that Car and Driver subscribers are getting the buff book long after they’ve let their subs expire.
Don’t blame it on Alterman. My sub to Aviation Week lapsed and I was still getting issues for the next two months –this is a weekly pub. The magazine business is wholly dependent on advertising and I believe ad rates are charged based on number of issues published, so they were cooking the books, so to speak.
Hmmmm. Sit at my desk and read about cars (or current events or stereos or porn) on a computer screen that I can quickly minimize or switch to an open Word document with the click of a mouse if anybody important wanders by my cubicle;
or
Sit at my desk and physically thumb through a car (or current events or stereos or porn) magazine that I have to try to close and shuffle under something bigger if anybody important wanders by my cubicle.
What to do? What to do?
All kidding aside, I’m going to let my subscription to C&D lapse when it runs out next year. I really started getting my car information off of the net when I started following the gestation of the new Camaro. I got in the habit of hitting multiple sites during the day to pick up every new piece of information and every spy shot that hit the web hours or minutes after it ws leaked. It really opened my eyes to how old information is once it finally gets put into a book/ magazine.
Sure, there was a lot of misinformation and silly wild- ass guessing about what the Camaro would eventually become, but the print magazines do that as well when it comes to concept cars and new- model introductions. The difference is that when something crazy and wrong about the Camaro came out on the internet, it was debunked within hours or days. If MT, C&D, or one of the other mags prints bad information, they can’t correct it for another month.
I get CD and have for about 20 years. I read it over the other magazines available because of the quality of the writing. The writing has gone downhill as most of their good writers have left, but until about 5 years ago, their writing was among the best of any magazine on ANY topic.
I read to understand and to be entertained, to have my mind tickled. I don’t see an article on any media and think, “I want the information in here and need to plow through a pile of words to get it.” I see an article and think, “I want the information in here and am going to derive pleasure from reading this, while learning something new.” CD used to make me chuckle out loud, and I have years of clippings from back issues about things that are interesting and another pile of clippings of phenomenal writing.
My sister in law and her husband are both writers and both write for national top notch publications. I’m sure everyone here has read their work. People would skip their articles if they were badly written. The paper vs. internet is secondary in my opinion to the facts gathered and quality of writing. The questions I ask ref. car journalism is whether any good writers will find a way to have their labor paid for to write about cars. I sincerely hope so, for plowing through word salads by amateurs is a boring chore. Facts can be gathered by many people, but only a handful can write well. I hope we see new delivery models that keep the good writers writing about our favorite topic!
I subscribe to one national newspaper – though I could get the content for free online – simply to ensure that the reporters get paid. Someone has to pay them to get the facts, and I live with the freeriders who read their work for free.
Dukeboy01 :
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Hmmmm. Sit at my desk and read about cars (or current events or stereos or porn) on a computer screen that I can quickly minimize or switch to an open Word document with the click of a mouse if anybody important wanders by my cubicle;
Careful with that, Slick…just because the boss man can’t see your monitor doesn’t mean he’s not monitoring your usage. And somehow, I think that you’ll find it hard to make a business case for visiting “Vag-tastic Voyage” six times a day.
A prime example of the fact that Car and Driver staff is all a bunch BMW/Honda fanboys.
http://jalopnik.com/5373164/caranddriver-photoshops-fake-drag-race-blames-suicidal-fan+boy-writer
That pic they ran of a BMW x6m beating a souped up chevy II,,, photoshopped.
Average time spent reading C/D (which my wife renewed for 3 years, thinking she was doing me a favor) or MT (which has been free for a couple of years now) = 10 minutes per day in “the library.”
Average time reading TTAC, AutoWeek, etc. online = 30 minutes per day.
They still have some good writers, and the pictures are nice, but you can get those online, too.
Print media is dying on the vine. Once we have a good larger-screen wi-fi enabled reading tablet at a reasonable price (the iPhone is just a wee bit too small), goodbye newspapers and magazines forever. Laptops just don’t work as well in the smallest room of the house.
I got free one year subscriptions for both Motor Trend and Automobile and it has to be at least a year for one of them, if not both. Yet both keep coming to my mailbox every month. Autoweek gave me two years, and actually did stop when I refused to renew. They even called me, this was about three months after they became a bi-weekly.
A prime example of the fact that Car and Driver staff is all a bunch BMW/Honda fanboys.
That pic they ran of a BMW x6m beating a souped up chevy II,,, photoshopped
I subscribed to C&D about for about 15 years and cancelled my subscription about 10 years ago when Cheba Cheba made the magazine so boring that it was dangerous to read while siting on the John…
I is interesting that even 10 years later C&D is still either apologizing as to why BMW won again or why BMW didn’t win (again)… Good to see that somethings never change…
And yes I have driven several “3” series cars over the years… I have yet to see one that is more then three years old that hasn’t been to the dealer at least once for some sort of mysterious electrical problem.
The usual suspects (C&D, Automobile, R&T) now are simply too skimpy – I can get through each of them in 5 minutes, yoostabee they could occupy me for a while. The only continuing sub I have now is Hemmings Muscle Machines, the content is usually very interesting.
And C&D – which I still get and I don’t know why – has a BMW in a comparo every month! Do they really make that many different models? I would second an earlier point – at least test some of the mass market stuff that most people are driving, never mind the super cars.
> I’m surprised no one has mentioned the biggest benefit of print mags vs Internet – you can easily and safely read the print mags on the john.<
Thanks to the iPhone, et al, TTAC is just as easy to read on the porceline throne as C&d!
Here’s a fact that’s kind of scary – at least to me. I’m 52 years old and I have been subscribing to Car and Driver for 39 years. And I was picking it up on the newstand with allowance money on and off for a few years in the late 1960s.
Is the magazine as good as it used to be – particularly compared to the irreverent 1970s? Of course not. Things did get kind of boring under Csaba Csere. But the magazine wasn’t totally worthless. After Brock Yates was dismissed, John Phillips provided a decent amount of zaniness.
People bitch about C/D’s tests – mostly people upset that their favorite car didn’t win. Say what you will but technically their tests are still the best in the business. And I think things otherwise are beginning to turn around under Eddie Alterman. I just hope they can hang in there until the economy and ad market come back.
I have also subscribed the Road & Track for almost as long as C/D (it was the only place to get good Formula 1 reports for decades), to Motor Trend for about 10 years in the 1970’s and early 80’s, and to Automobile from the start.
I gave up on Motor Trend first. They went from being an excellent periodical to a total sell-out in the course of one calendar year. They may be better now but I really am not interested in adding more magazines to my list (don’t even bring up the motorcycle mags I also read every month).
Automobile has become progressively less important to me over the past few years and I plan on allowing my subscription to expire. Jamie Kitman and Ezra Dyer have been the only things holding my attention there for a while. Other than those two, the writers at Automobile have been a bit too chummy with the industry and people they write about.
Road & Track? I love the history behind it. The photography is still fantastic. And Peter Egan is worth the price of the magazine all by himself.
Frankly, I don’t buy that the print era is over for car magazines. The Internet is fine for many things – breaking news and interactive discussion among them. I like holding a physical magazine in my hands, reading in it bed, the bathroom, the doctor’s office – anywhere. But there will probably be a substantial thinning of the ranks before the economy and ad market recover.
My idea of a perfect car magazine? How about Car and Driver’s tests, Road & Track’s photography and monthly columns (and other feature pieces) from Peter Egan, John Phillips, Ezra Dyer and Jamie Kitman? Also, while I’m not looking for an enthusiast magazine to be Consumer Reports, I would like some emphasis put on a vehicle’s reliability and/or projected reliability. For many years, Road & Track used to include projected reliability in its spec sheet with every road test.
In my den, sits every issue of Car & Driver from the late 1960’s to the current (increasingly lame) one. As a decades long reader of the magazine I have some pretty strong opinions on this subject.
Some great points have been brought up here that I agree with. In particular, how obviously advertising driven the big mags have become over the last 15 or so years. The give away subscription prices are a by-product of this. It a vicious circle actually…allow yourself to become beholden to your advertisers, loose your credibility, and then basically need to give the thing away. Once you fall down this slippery slope as a magazine, I think its almost impossible to extricate yourself.
The other good point brought up here by a few others, but strangely never occurring to me is the preponderance of ridiculous, thoroughly out of reach vehicles that are basically irrelevant to 99% of us getting SO much coverage in the mags. But that’s what sells magazines. Or at least that’s what they always tell us.
It has been truly depressing to watch Car & Driver’s trajectory over the past decade. Several of the remaining “old guard” leaving the magazine over the past year or so truly gives the impression of souls feeling the ship going down and getting off while they can.
This was a magazine that came to dominate its field in the “glory days” (I’d say 1970 to 1990) because of two things they did. First, they hired and cultivated WRITERS. True journalists, who made reading the magazine entertaining. It was as much about JOURNALISM as it was about the CARS. Second, they told it as it was…advertisers, the public, heck everyone, be damned.
This quality of the written word, and the irreverent telling of the TRUTH made them what they were. Car & Driver as it exists now, is a mere shadow of its former self. Just sad.
I had high hopes when the newest Editor in Chief, Eddie Alterman came on board earlier this year but in my opinion he’s been a MAJOR disappointment. Maybe even a disaster. Don’t believe me? Read his column in the current (Nov 09) issue. An uninformed, inaccurate, naive mess.
I am left wondering two things. Could a magazine that followed the ORIGINAL formula (really quality writing + tell the truth) succeed in a printed format in today’s world? I think it could, but I think I’m in the minority. I think there will always be a place for quality print media. At least until the digital universe comes up with a way of delivering the visual impact, portability (ie: on the can), at the almost free price that print media does. I’m not denying the massive contraction that ALL print media has been experiencing for the past decade, I simply feel that automobiles are enough of a niche to support a modern day “1981 Car & Driver”.
I think the idea of the Internet killing the automotive print media is overplayed. The Internet has certainly evolved to be king for news, but news was never the ONLY thing people were reading the print magazines for. At least for me it wasn’t.
Oh, the second thing I’m wondering is this:
RF….if You’d been offered the EinC position @ C&D, would you have accepted it?
sellfone
Yes, of course. Provided I’d get complete editorial freedom from advertisers’ influence. [Insert Mandark laugh here.]
I just need something to read while I’m sitting in the bathroom. Geez, today I was at Bed Bath and Beyond, and actually checked out the “As Seen On TV Table Mate II” table, considering it for a little bathroom notebook computing….
I don’t think magazines, car or otherwise will die, just be less pages of the same old monthly stuff they’ve had, narrower focus or niche, or produce quarterly or annual issues. I had a subscription to C&D and Popular Photography in the 90’s and after a few years seemed like same old reviews and diatribe ever year just new models and subjects. Considering C&D and others gave good reviews to the Vega, Citation, J2000, Explorer, etc. I think the content wasn’t as teriffic as we remember and the content/viewpoint just seems quaint to those who have been reading a car mag for many years. Seems they review stuff in a vacuum even if doing a comparison. I’ve never read where they suggest to look at next car uplevel if you order every option on one of their comparo cars. They just stick to what they’re comparing, period. Example = fully loaded Civic or Corolla vs base Accord or Camry articles – I’ve never seen.
The news stand price on some mags is $7+! Definitely keeps people from buying them unless a specific article/review to read.
I bought a Consumer Reports 2009 Car Guide to read on the flight home. In addition to reviews it had articles on Hybrids, Ethanol, CNG, Fuel Cells, Electrics, etc. Not a lot I already knew but informative for a non-enthusiast. I brought it to work and everyone looked at it. Of 8 people – 2 were looking for cars and the others wanted to know what CR said about the car they have or want.
Two words for the paper car mag cash flow problem-“government bailout”…
File under:
21st century solutions for 20th century institutions
http://www.mystarcollectorcar.com/
Used to like them; haven’t had a subscription for over 20 years.
They’re not very useful for someone who buys cars as infrequently as possible. And they’re not as good as online info from real drivers, not those bought by the manufacturers.
As it has been mentioned somewhere else here, there are only two “kinds” of car magazines that are still relevant: CAR and Autobild. CAR for the incredible layout (copied all around the business) and photography (days or weeks of planning for one lead photo) and sheer visual impact.
The German Autobild for the insanely detailed and organised test drives/reviews. Perhaps the only european magazine anyone can trust for an educated decision. But, only the German edition.
As for niche, Intersection magazine proved succesful although not ideal for petrolheads, “Carl’s Cars” was (is?) a very interesting concept, and the German “Ramp” is the best coffee-table effort yet.
I doubt it is the end of the car mag era although most of them have lost most of their credibility. For all the reasons mentioned here. I agree that this could be the ideal time to start something really new. The end on the other hand, is very near for photography magazines: They simply cannot follow the pace of the online sources and the manufacturers are abandoning them.
Where C/D excels over…um…er…most Internet site reviews are in the technical aspects, and their ability to do intersting comparos. The Internet reviews are mostly pretty “lame-and-lacking” in the technical department, pretty heavy in subjective opinions (everyone’s got one), and often marginal in the writing department (“the bin in the center console vomited open”). Not to say that C/D has the best writers, but when they can pay a guy like O’rourke to write something funny, it’s always a plus.
Is the internet killing the automobile magazines?
Certainly the fact that events can be covered on the net in almost real time as opposed to a two month lead time is a factor, but in the case of Car & Driver, I think it’s simply a case of poor journalism. I started reading C&D back in the sixties and at that time it was a great read that did some wonderful journalism, it was frequently cheeky and irreverant but that was part of its appeal.
Brock Yates wrote a wonderful article titled “The Grosse Pointe Myopians” which blasted the automakers short term thinking and predicted the decline and fall of the domestic automakers by almost 40 years. From about ’65 to ’90 the mag had a great collection of writers: In addition to Yates, Warren Weith Leon Mandel, Larry Griffin, Don Sherman to name a few.
What happened? They retired, died or moved on and were replaced by a bunch of hack writers. If C&D get writers of the caliber of that period I think they would be very successful again.
MasterOfTheJawan :
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:58 pm
A prime example of the fact that Car and Driver staff is all a bunch BMW/Honda fanboys.
http://jalopnik.com/5373164/caranddriver-photoshops-fake-drag-race-blames-suicidal-fan+boy-writer
That pic they ran of a BMW x6m beating a souped up chevy II,,, photoshopped.
And did you read the article? Here it is:
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/09q3/2010_bmw_x6_m_-road_test
Am I the only one here who gets the satirical tone of this article?
And if you think C/D’s being too supportive of BMW and Honda products, OK – go through their tests and tell me where they got it wrong, and why.
I don’t buy them. Ever.
I don’t read them. Ever.
I don’t open them. Ever.
I don’t even compost them. The glossy paper isn’t good for the garden crops.
But I must admit that I look at the covers of the lowrider and hotrodder mags when they have those long legged beauties in bikinis.
I guess I’m being a lecherous freeloader!
Their subscription pitch assumes you will buy every issue per year, which isn’t realistic. I can skip through each monthly mag while sipping my espresso at Barnes & Noble. If it deserves purchase, I buy it.
I got a free sub to MT while at the Auto Show, and I vowed never to buy that mag again, since the sedan comparo in which the VW Passat beat the AltCamCordSon6 and the FusiBu. This despite the fact it trailed in all the qualities expected in one who buys that type of car. The reason it won? It was best at the slalom!
(I’m not referring to Abraham Lincoln’s 300 lb law partner)
Glad to see a few others who don’t think the print auto media is totally over. It’s in awful shape (the USA based stuff), but not a totally lost cause.
Oh…I tried the UK based mags for a while when the quality of the big USA ones seemed to begin slipping. It didn’t work for me. I think it was partly reading about vehicles unavailable here (a tease), and I know it sounds silly, but it drove me crazy seeing prices for stuff in units that meant nothing in my mind. 18,000 Pounds? Does that work out to $2000 or $200,000? I just couldn’t continually do the conversions in my head.
And I tried Consumer Reports for a while but ended my subscription specifically because of their auto coverage. Their evaluation factors for which vehicles would get reccomended seemed to have no basis in what really mattered to most people. And their reviews would often read as if they were directed at people who not only did not know what the specific model was, they did not know what a CAR was.
Another thought about the Internet killing the print media. When television came out, it was commonly thought that it would totally kill radio. That has not happened, in my view because radio offers a really low cost (basically free), ultra convenient means of disseminating information (not unlike magazines). Even with richer, more advanced technology, there’s still a place for it (radio). As I said previously, for NEWS, the Internet will prevail (newspapers are done), but for non-time sensitive, niche interests, magazines will exist along with the Internet.
And, newfdawg…thanks for mentioning Warren Weith. Probably my all time favorite auto journalist.
jnik : I got a free sub to MT while at the Auto Show, and I vowed never to buy that mag again, since the sedan comparo in which the VW Passat beat the AltCamCordSon6 and the FusiBu. This despite the fact it trailed in all the qualities expected in one who buys that type of car. The reason it won? It was best at the slalom!
I was not familiar with the comparo you mention, so I tracked it down on the Web. I’ll be charitable and just say that you are fudging the truth. Engine response, handling, interior room, build quality, cabin design, and overall feel were cited. Now, these might not be YOUR priorities, but the article ran down the highs and the lows of each brand making reasonable arguments. My guess is that they rated your car in the low end of the survey?
mpresley:
I’m referring to the fact the Passat cost more to buy,and had the lowest mileage on PREMIUM gas, among other deficiencies.
Not good qualities to someone who buys a 4 cyl family hauler with automatic.
jnik : I’m referring to the fact the Passat cost more to buy,and had the lowest mileage on PREMIUM gas, among other deficiencies. Not good qualities to someone who buys a 4 cyl family hauler with automatic.
I’ll agree to agree with you. Really, the Passat is not positioned by VW as your standard intro level, need to economize family hauler in the same way as most 4 cyl family sedans are. The Passat is more like an Audi w/o all the electrical stuff, polished wood, and wall to wall leather. That is why it is good value, even at it’s price when compared against more expensive cars. But an inexpensive entry level family hauler it’s not.
mpresley:
Passat is like an Audi? LOL.
The car mags are dying because the car culture is dying. When most people are stuck for hours everyday in traffic, glowing reviews of a yet-another roadster on a “twisty mountain road” seem less and less relevant. The world is quickly turning to frugality, and watching out for the bottom line. The economic crisis reminded everyone of limits to artificial credit-fueled growth, and things like cost of ownership, practicality, and fuel economy are coming to the foreground. The era of cheap oil is gone, and with it – the decadence that was the car culture.
Back in the early years, the slogan was that the car is not a luxury, but a means of transportation. The world is going back to the roots.
Ironically, I received the latest issues of Automobile and Motor Trend in today’s mail, and only because I get them free as part of a frequent flyer program.
Like others, I scan them and shake my head at how old the news inside of them is. In the days before wifi all around us, I would carry a couple of magazines in my carry-on to stave off boredom when I was flying.
When these subscriptions expire, I’ll likely subscribe to something hobby- or home-related. The news in these is less perishable, and there are still a few occasions when I can’t connect to the internet.
Rada :Passat is like an Audi? LOL.
Other than the fact that they are both owned by the same company, use the same engines, offer similar 4 wheel drive systems (at least in Germany), shared a platform and about 40% of the components (B5 edition), and so forth. So, yes, they are “like” each other. I did not say they were identical. Hell, my Audi 90 had VW/Audi parts identified under the hood.
Rada :
“October 3rd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
The car mags are dying because the car culture is dying. When most people are stuck for hours everyday in traffic, glowing reviews of a yet-another roadster on a “twisty mountain road” seem less and less relevant. The world is quickly turning to frugality, and watching out for the bottom line. The economic crisis reminded everyone of limits to artificial credit-fueled growth, and things like cost of ownership, practicality, and fuel economy are coming to the foreground. The era of cheap oil is gone, and with it – the decadence that was the car culture.”
Ah yes, Rada… but conditions were similar (not exact, but similar) in the mid 1970’s. We had the first of two Arab oil embargoes, the price of gasoline tripled within months – and fuel was even RATIONED. This resulted in a 55 mph federal speed limit. The economy was on the ropes – a deadly combination of high unemployment, low growth and staggering inflation (on the order of 14 percent a year).
As if that wasn’t enough, federal auto emissions and safety standards brought automakers (both foreign and domestic) to their knees in terms of product. It was a very bad time to be an auto enthusiast. But it was in this environment that Car and Driver solidified its reputation and became the dominant U.S. auto magazine.
Why? Great writing and absolutely no fear when it came to taking on the government and automakers. And a great sense of humor in dealing with reality head-on. It was in the middle of this scenario that C/D brought us the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. Things like this could be done then and can be done now – with the right people and enough readers to appreciate it.
Car mags are dying because most print media is dying. I can learn more in less time online. I stopped reading Motor Trend because it was such deadly dull reading. I dumped Car and Driver because every issue was the same. I don’t have to read Hot Rod Magazine or any of its dopplegangers because I can see just as good cars at a local cruise night.
But there are some bright spots. Hemming’s Classic Cars/Muscle Cars/Sports and Exotic Cars, are very good pubs aimed at a niche market.
I have just cut off my last American car mag.. R & T..
Ive had it for the past 15yrs.. and I enjoyed it cause I thought it was honest.
Then again.. I also used to spend 100bux at Borders & B/N monthly. I also used to buy the largest amounts of car mags during September / October.. during autoshow / car show concept show season. Now.. its either all online.. or virtually everything new I have some SERIOUS beef with (SUVS / CUVS crossovers of some kind).
R T used to never test SUVS / CUVS.. they do now.
C n D lost it.. by having the Accord rule their midsized testing routines.
Automobile and Motor trend are now one in the same (I believe)
And on top of all that…
Thumbing through my last issue of R T had more fluff for Tire Rack or the cargo mat companies.. I could have used IT as my wipe of pleasure…