Popular magazines and their websites

[david borla]

Hi, this is David Borla from Borla Exhaust in Oxnard, California (www.borla.com) .

I was wondering if you guys could give me some insight and help me with a question I have been struggling with recently? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I am wondering whether historically popular print titles like "Car and Driver", "Road and Track", "Motor Trend", "Super Street", "Import Tuner" etc. have been able to transfer their success to online venues.

What do you guys think of these websites (if anything)? For example, do you go to Car and Driver's dot com site regularly just as you would have read the magazine regularly ten years ago? Autoweek? Or, have other non-magazine related websites (like this one) taken over?

Does "Super Street" hold any weight online?

Do these titles maintain the same credibility in the online world that they did in the print world?

Thanks again,

db

[evildky]

I only subscribe to 3 magazines;Grassroots MotorsportsClassic MotorsportsNissan Sport

of course GRM and CM are sister mags, I frequest the GRM site, it's one of my favorite non brand based websites, the CM site I'll occasionally check out, and the NS site at last check was pretty dead

[audtatious]

I have freebies to Automobile and MotorTrend at the moment but only flip through them while communing with nature. Otherwise I pull all my information from online sources.

[spitalul2bad]

In Europe, with Quattroute, Auto Bild, Top Gear and so forth... actually. I've given up on buying them.

I do visit the topgear.com site very often. It's absolutely PERFECT. Car stuff, plus reviews, plus the show, ... and great design and use.

[Watermelonwarrior]

I have 2 subscriptions.Motor Trend and Road and Track. Out of the two I like Road and Track more and I have every magazine since 94 since my brother gave me all his collection. I wanted to get a subscription to Top Gear but it was to expensive.

[david borla]

This is great feedback. Thanks guys!

[LeroyBrown]

Na i never check out those mags online. i only flip through C and D at my sisters. she has like a whole stack of them.

Other than that if i want info on a car i look online at the specs or just read project car mag....

[LeroyBrown]

so since i helped you out, can i get a complimentary exhaust manifold for my car lol your headers rock.

[david borla]

so since i helped you out, can i get a complimentary exhaust manifold for my car lol your headers rock.

Thanks for the kind words Leroy. Unfortunately, we wouldn't survive long in this economic climate if we started giving away product.

[LeroyBrown]

I know, im just playing. why are you doing this survey thing? Is it to see how many people are reading the mags and are looking at the borla advertisement in it? to see if its really paying off paying those mags for advertisement.

[david borla]

I know, im just playing. why are you doing this survey thing? Is it to see how many people are reading the mags and are looking at the borla advertisement in it? to see if its really paying off paying those mags for advertisement.

Well, those are important elements for us to understand but we feel as though we have a pretty good idea of what the value of these magazines are for us. What we are wondering is if this value will continue relative to their online efforts?

In other words, if there are car mags you like do you visit their websites also? Or is there a difference between who you go to for print and who you go to online?

Thanks again,

[LeroyBrown]

If its helps any, all my friends that have heavily modified cars dont even care for any of those mags or go on their site. they only glanse at them at groceries stores ETC.... i have a lot of friends and family and the only place i see those mags are at doctors offices and the dentist.

[spitalul2bad]

Leroy, they're just curious whether you'll see their ads in print or online. I.E. they're just doing market research into putting their ad dollars into the best possible medium.

At least, that's what I think. And it's alright with me.

I say: go with online. Although nothing beats a two-page spread in a glossy mag.

[mec011]

I visit the car mag sites almost exclusively through RSS feeds. So I tend to go directly to the particular article that interests me, and skip the front page and others entirely. I visit a news article on the AutoWeek and EVO (UK) sites daily, but couldn't tell you how long it's been since I was at either ones homepage. Also I tend to go to the news articles on Winding Road online magazines site (Nextautos.com?), but it's been over a year since I've read an "issue" of their online magazine. I tend to spend a few minutes a week at the Hemming's site from links in their weekly newsletter. I've not been to any of the big 4 (C&D, R&T, Motor Trend, and Automobile) car mags sites in ages. Really, they don't offer much of interest, they have buying guides, but they are junk, reviews don't go back more than a few years, so good luck finding anything about a particular car unless it was a big deal in the last 5 years. Edmunds is far better for getting info about new cars, pricing, etc. Plus most of the car mag sites, are terrible, clunky things. I'd go so far as to say I cant think of a single car magazine website that is not clunky and an unholy mess. Grassroots is about the best in my mind, Autoweek is okay, but I will say this about Autoweek - I barley read my print copy of Autoweek anymore, most of the articles show up online, I spend maybe 5 minutes flipping through the print copy each week. Beyond all of this, I dont tend to read the print magazines for news anymore, I read them for the in depth reviews, the group tests, things like that. EVO is the best at that - good info, good 'story', good writing, good photos, draws you into what the car is like, every.single.time. Other magazines get it right now and again. And that sort of article is more fun in print, but then again I'm old (28).

As far specifically as credibility online, most car mag sites seem even less credible in terms of journalistic weight. All 4 of the big 4 come off as Edmunds with the magazine's cover put on top of it. Grassroots is a huge exception in this regard, same with autoweek and EVO. Most of the tuner mags are even worse, look at Modified mags home page today, it's a Castrol ad, not a home page, and I kinda like Modified, but I'm not going to trust an oil recommendation from them. But then it's all Interlink media, Mod, IT, SSC, SS, MT, Automobile, so do I really trust any of them?

I do spend a ton of time on the make/model specific forums, more so than on the car magazines sites for sure. If you want to spend money online that will reach me, hook up with a moderator(s) at a make specific site, buy your competitors products, and with the assistance of a Mod or trusted member of the community, Dyno the stuff, transparently, and prove you have the best numbers, best quality, etc. Science is awesome, use that to sell me something with people I trust online. Either in a forum, or in a magazine that gets posted online. And try to avoid the giant borla ad next to it!

[finalforce]

I subscribe to Super Street, and to tell you the truth, if you go to most of the tuner magazine websites, they are out of date. This to me is very poor, especially for a magazine. I go to the the news and events section and some of them haven't been updated in years. Magazines in this situation are much more effective. Forums are the #1 way to market your product online, you just need to determine what car/s is your main product going to cater to and focus on the single largest community that attracts these folks.

For example for:

350z owners= my350z.com240 owners= zilvia.netCivic/Integra= honda-tech

.....so on and so forth.

[coleycole]

I have subscripitions to pretty much all of the magazines you listed. I may have been on their websites a handful of times tops and I am in front of a computer all day. I find the internet is great when I am looking for specific information. But when it comes to reading a good article I enjoy reading a magazine much more.