What is happening at EVO magazine?
Discussion
Dr Gitlin said:
Magazine sales in general are cratering, there's this thing called the Internet that most people prefer
print is dying for sure, but I wonder about professionally produced content? we're in the middle of a hiatus right now with professional losing out to user generated, but the show ain't over yet.
Other publishers have moved online quite well and tailored their layout specifically for tablets. Interest magazines really haven't done that yet. I know Evo has an iPad edition but the last time I saw it (admittedly a while ago) it didn't fully embrace the platform.
Professionally produced content has a role, few have worked exactly how yet. I'll pay to avoid the likes of schmee on my screen.
Dr Gitlin said:
Magazine sales in general are cratering, there's this thing called the Internet that most people prefer to get their content on now, and and it's not because magazines are stale, hate to say it. You can read plenty of the same tendentious rewritten PR online as you can in a printed glossy, that is not the issue. The fact is also that cars just aren't as important to many younger people today than they were in, say, the 1990s. And that trend probably isn't changing. That's not going to be fixed by a handful of cottage publishers; there are these massive things called car companies with billions and billions o of dollars at stake and even they can't reverse that trend.
The job of a magazine is to deliver readers to advertisers. I was that kid who had the CAR magazine white Countach and red 288 GTO pictures on the wall, but I didn't spend a penny with the advertisers. Well not until I bought my Lancia Delta 1500 from Portman because they let me sit in the Countach they had in the showroom.What matters is how much advertisers make from putting an ad in a magazine. The problem is media buyers don't particularly get this and buy on ego.
So the magazine has to cater to both.
What it needs is the media buyers to believe that the people who read magazines are the ones who influence the people who buy cars.
My relative whose just ordered an ordinary Octavia asked me for my opinion: that's what makes it worthwhile.
In the mid 1990s I bought a Subaru and was invited to a focus group for customers at the agency Carat. I kept quite about being a publisher and went along. I'd been a Performance Car reader, had met John Barker a few times, and subscribed to EVO.
So I went with an agenda.
I spent the whole time saying "I bought an Imprezza because of the EVO reviews". In questions I would say "car magazines" a lot, but always mentioned EVO by name.
A few months later Subaru ran a glossy multi-page insert in EVO. I very much doubt I was the sole reason for this, but just getting a magazine on the radar of the buyers makes a huge difference.
But budgets are spread, not just because of The Internet. Look at the huge number of car programmes there are looking for spend - from Goblin Works Garage to Salvage Hunters, to A Car is Born and Supercar Megabuild. Top Gear and The Grand Tour aren't the only car programmes. And all these need budget,
Talking of online content, Readly have the eCOTY edition of EVO and the "February" 2018 issue that followed it. I've seen people mention the Lotus Carlton edition - is that in anticipation of "March" 2018, as it is advertised as "next month", or is "March" out now but simply not added to Readly yet?
For years I have subscribed to Evo and Octane, and my newsagent has saved Autocar for me for 20 years.
However, I have recently subscribed to Readly for £7.99 a month. Not only can I read all the above titles, but every other magazine too.
So I have effectively cancelled 3 subscriptions, and the publications cannot possibly receive as much in royalties from Readly. Not sure how the model works for them.
However, I have recently subscribed to Readly for £7.99 a month. Not only can I read all the above titles, but every other magazine too.
So I have effectively cancelled 3 subscriptions, and the publications cannot possibly receive as much in royalties from Readly. Not sure how the model works for them.
simonrockman said:
The job of a magazine is to deliver readers to advertisers. I was that kid who had the CAR magazine white Countach and red 288 GTO pictures on the wall, but I didn't spend a penny with the advertisers. Well not until I bought my Lancia Delta 1500 from Portman because they let me sit in the Countach they had in the showroom.
What matters is how much advertisers make from putting an ad in a magazine. The problem is media buyers don't particularly get this and buy on ego.
So the magazine has to cater to both.
What it needs is the media buyers to believe that the people who read magazines are the ones who influence the people who buy cars.
My relative whose just ordered an ordinary Octavia asked me for my opinion: that's what makes it worthwhile.
In the mid 1990s I bought a Subaru and was invited to a focus group for customers at the agency Carat. I kept quite about being a publisher and went along. I'd been a Performance Car reader, had met John Barker a few times, and subscribed to EVO.
So I went with an agenda.
I spent the whole time saying "I bought an Imprezza because of the EVO reviews". In questions I would say "car magazines" a lot, but always mentioned EVO by name.
A few months later Subaru ran a glossy multi-page insert in EVO. I very much doubt I was the sole reason for this, but just getting a magazine on the radar of the buyers makes a huge difference.
But budgets are spread, not just because of The Internet. Look at the huge number of car programmes there are looking for spend - from Goblin Works Garage to Salvage Hunters, to A Car is Born and Supercar Megabuild. Top Gear and The Grand Tour aren't the only car programmes. And all these need budget,
Yes, I don't disagree with any of this. After all, those ad buys pay my salary! Perhaps the UK is different, but here in the US print advertising revenue is down a lot and that trend shows no sign of changing. Like I said, recently Discovery/TEN shuttered some publications and fired a lot of journalists, and there's more bloodletting coming.What matters is how much advertisers make from putting an ad in a magazine. The problem is media buyers don't particularly get this and buy on ego.
So the magazine has to cater to both.
What it needs is the media buyers to believe that the people who read magazines are the ones who influence the people who buy cars.
My relative whose just ordered an ordinary Octavia asked me for my opinion: that's what makes it worthwhile.
In the mid 1990s I bought a Subaru and was invited to a focus group for customers at the agency Carat. I kept quite about being a publisher and went along. I'd been a Performance Car reader, had met John Barker a few times, and subscribed to EVO.
So I went with an agenda.
I spent the whole time saying "I bought an Imprezza because of the EVO reviews". In questions I would say "car magazines" a lot, but always mentioned EVO by name.
A few months later Subaru ran a glossy multi-page insert in EVO. I very much doubt I was the sole reason for this, but just getting a magazine on the radar of the buyers makes a huge difference.
But budgets are spread, not just because of The Internet. Look at the huge number of car programmes there are looking for spend - from Goblin Works Garage to Salvage Hunters, to A Car is Born and Supercar Megabuild. Top Gear and The Grand Tour aren't the only car programmes. And all these need budget,
I am very grateful for the fact that, although I work for a massive legacy publishing company (Conde Nast), we're its only purely digital publication so never had print revenue to lose.
urquattroGus said:
Trott and his Porsche 911 SC or GT2 articles used to annoy me, he seemed pretty clueless and had the air of the dilettante, perhaps in a similar way to Chris Evans, whom I have always though was that way inclined.
Dilettante because they don't know the n'th degree of detail about their cars?Or dilettante because they want the image rather than the experience?
Not sure about NT, but get the impression CE is a genuine guy who just happened to get very rich and be able to indulge his schoolboy petrolhead fantasies. He may not be the full shilling, but I don't think he's a dilettante, certainly not just because he has a bunch of other interests too...
Moley RUFC said:
treeroy said:
I remember as a child, masturbating to the porn adverts in the classifieds section at the back of the Evo magazine my mum once bought me to keep me occupied on a long journey driving to Devon. The days before I had internet access and a mobile phone.
Devon Custard?SydneyBridge said:
Is Secret Supercar Owner still in Evo ever?
First page i used to go to
No, I "retired" from EVO last year after most of the people I knew had left. I recently set up a website/blog where I am posting articles when I have the time. Recently did ones on the McLaren Senna and our new McLaren 720S. Any comments/feedback on it would be appreciated.First page i used to go to
Clockwork Cupcake said:
trackdemon said:
Lotus Carlton feature is in this months subs edition which landed last week, it's on shelves today so I guess it'll be on Readly any time now
You were bang on, btw - it appeared on my Readly later on that day. 
ECOTY 2017 car crash aside, perhaps its us readers who have changed more than the mag over the years? As someone said a few pages back, social media allows us to vocalise our frustrations in a way we couldn't in the late 90s, early 2000s and with so much information so readily available online, perhaps we just have shorter attention spans!
greenarrow said:
Funny isn't it. We've had pages from people like me going on about how rubbish EVO is now and how much better it used to be, but they still have the capacity to do an article about a favourite old car which makes you think "I might pick up a copy of that".
ECOTY 2017 car crash aside, perhaps its us readers who have changed more than the mag over the years? As someone said a few pages back, social media allows us to vocalise our frustrations in a way we couldn't in the late 90s, early 2000s and with so much information so readily available online, perhaps we just have shorter attention spans!
The information online is too shortened for me, which is why I like a magazine or a book, that you can keep a place of where you are upto. A website will readily spit you back to the beginning or to where it thinks you are upto and you end up giving up as you try to look for a visual cue as to where you are up to.ECOTY 2017 car crash aside, perhaps its us readers who have changed more than the mag over the years? As someone said a few pages back, social media allows us to vocalise our frustrations in a way we couldn't in the late 90s, early 2000s and with so much information so readily available online, perhaps we just have shorter attention spans!
BoxerF50 said:
SydneyBridge said:
Is Secret Supercar Owner still in Evo ever?
First page i used to go to
No, I "retired" from EVO last year after most of the people I knew had left. I recently set up a website/blog http://karenable.com where I am posting articles when I have the time. Recently did ones on the McLaren Senna and our new McLaren 720S. Any comments/feedback on it would be appreciated.First page i used to go to
Oh, and love the way the website got it's name.
greenarrow said:
...perhaps its us readers who have changed more than the mag over the years? As someone said a few pages back, social media allows us to vocalise our frustrations in a way we couldn't in the late 90s, early 2000s and with so much information so readily available online, perhaps we just have shorter attention spans!
I think I've got a longer attention span now, which is why PH's current complete absence of content really frustrates me.If it wasn't for the forum this website would be dying.
Truckosaurus said:
havoc said:
If it wasn't for the forum this website would be dying.
The forum is PH. Having said that, I'm sure the Classifieds (which started out as a free service to members to buy & sell stuff) make some income now that they are no longer free*.
I'm sure Haymarket think otherwise, but the news sections have always felt like a half-hearted addition, nothing more.
(* - unless you are an oldie and have grandfathered privileges)
suffolk009 said:
BoxerF50 said:
SydneyBridge said:
Is Secret Supercar Owner still in Evo ever?
First page i used to go to
No, I "retired" from EVO last year after most of the people I knew had left. I recently set up a website/blog http://karenable.com where I am posting articles when I have the time. Recently did ones on the McLaren Senna and our new McLaren 720S. Any comments/feedback on it would be appreciated.First page i used to go to
Oh, and love the way the website got it's name.
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