What is happening at EVO magazine?
Discussion
I've noticed a bit of a trend with music publications recently to produce thick, quarterly magazines, on high quality paper and filled with longform, in-depth content.
They tend to be priced highly (in excess of £10 an issue) but I'm surprised there isn't a motoring publication like this - focus less on the latest, most up-to-date Porsche 911.2.3a or whatever it's latest revision is, but a few articles on long journeys, a nice restoration project, a thorough review of a recent sports/supercar, a look back over a classic model and maybe a profile on an engineer/designer/racing driver.
That's something I'd buy. Crowdfunding could cover the lack of appeal to advertisers.
They tend to be priced highly (in excess of £10 an issue) but I'm surprised there isn't a motoring publication like this - focus less on the latest, most up-to-date Porsche 911.2.3a or whatever it's latest revision is, but a few articles on long journeys, a nice restoration project, a thorough review of a recent sports/supercar, a look back over a classic model and maybe a profile on an engineer/designer/racing driver.
That's something I'd buy. Crowdfunding could cover the lack of appeal to advertisers.
vacant-100 said:
... thick, quarterly magazines, on high quality paper and filled with longform, in-depth content.
They tend to be priced highly (in excess of £10 an issue) but I'm surprised there isn't a motoring publication like this -...
There are some already:They tend to be priced highly (in excess of £10 an issue) but I'm surprised there isn't a motoring publication like this -...
https://www.000magazine.com/
http://fueltank.cc/fuel/
I'm sure there are others.
A similar tactic is one that 'Singletrack' the mountain biking magazine has done, go for higher quality print, up the price slightly and go subscription only.
It's all about the writing for me , but I am in a minority I suspect . Nearly every magazine I read has a ratio of 70% pictures , often very good ones admittedly , to 30% words. I'd happily subscribe to something upmarket if I got writers (proper ones, not the hacks who just string cliches together) being given full reign and doing 3-5000 word pieces . That'd stretch the vocabularies of some contributors I could mention.
df76 said:
Had a quick flick through this month's mag, the only part that vaguely interested me was the back 25% of it...
I thought there was more affordable ( or sub 60k new stuff that might be affordable in a few years ) stuff in this month than for a long while....maybe just me.EVO with the cars in Modern Classics woudl be fine for me. Performance Car should have done good tests on a lot of that stuff but they nearly went Max Power in the last 5 years - nothing like the late 80s/early 90 reviews they did
I'm not really interested in supercar stuff I'll never drive but there's a lot of interest for supercars ( evidenced on here ) and the mag will never be all things to all people
s m said:
I'm not really interested in supercar stuff I'll never drive but there's a lot of interest for supercars ( evidenced on here ) and the mag will never be all things to all people
I think that's a very germane point. Like you, I don't really have a lot of interest in cars that cost as much as my house and which I will probably never even sit in let alone drive. But I do acknowledge that some people love reading about them and that such articles are escapism / aspirational / a vicarious experience. It just leaves me cold these days though - maybe I'm getting old. Or perhaps modern hypercars are so good now as to be essentially pointless - what can you say in a car magazine about them? "Well, it's jolly fast, it's very hard to get the back out on the public road, it's 0.3s faster around the 'Ring than the previous model, plus it has a redesigned cup holder".
hondansx said:
You make a valid point.
I'd be curious on the market for mags like EVO. For instance, how does the amount of committed, hardcore subscribers compare to the amount of people who buy a copy on a whim in Heathrow WH Smith on there way to Greece? In the latter case, I imagine attention grabbing cars win.
It is the same online. All the popular car 'Youtubers' get all the hits from 'LOOK AT THIS SUPERCAR RAH!', not 'I bought a Nissan Micra so I could start a pension'.
Would love to know the split of how the magazine sells.
Some details here https://www.abc.org.uk/Certificates/48363206.pdfI'd be curious on the market for mags like EVO. For instance, how does the amount of committed, hardcore subscribers compare to the amount of people who buy a copy on a whim in Heathrow WH Smith on there way to Greece? In the latter case, I imagine attention grabbing cars win.
It is the same online. All the popular car 'Youtubers' get all the hits from 'LOOK AT THIS SUPERCAR RAH!', not 'I bought a Nissan Micra so I could start a pension'.
Would love to know the split of how the magazine sells.
I don't think it's just EVO, or car magazines. I've cancelled my subscription I've had for over a decade of Rugby World this morning. Marked reduction in quality of paper, journalism, story to advert ratio.
I gave up on Evo years ago when they went down the "Porsche wins again" route but, two months ago, I finally gave up on Car magazine as well after buying every issue for 30 years! It had become habit, in part, but it dawned on me that if you removed all the German and JLR content, you'd have nothing left!
I've been buying since issue 7. It took a bit of a downturn under nick trott but i think it's getting better - and this months issue is great. Nice to see barker and meaden back as contributors. Miss catchpole and Bovingdon, both excellent journos and, to be fair, the standard of photograph has always been top-notch.
No plans to cancel any time soon.
No plans to cancel any time soon.
will be interesting to follow coverage of the new Alpine. After the car itself, it raises some good debate about the future of sports cars, weight and the car industry. Along with Geely investing in Lotus we live in interesting times. Good though Porsche are, there's no getting over the weight if you really enjoy driving.
I haven't had this month's subscription copy arrive yet.
I did cancel the Direct Debit earlier in the year, just after it had renewed, and I think it is billed 6-monthly, so it could be that last month's might have been my last issue.
I rather expected a letter or email saying that they had been unable to take my Direct Debit and asking for new payment details, so that I might change my mind.
I did cancel the Direct Debit earlier in the year, just after it had renewed, and I think it is billed 6-monthly, so it could be that last month's might have been my last issue.
I rather expected a letter or email saying that they had been unable to take my Direct Debit and asking for new payment details, so that I might change my mind.
R6VED said:
I used to subscribe to EVO and cancelled it 2-3 years ago now. I used to hungrily await its arrival each month and then read it pretty much cover to cover in a day. I would then re-read it over the next week or so.
I was very disappointed to cancel it in the end, but didn't feel it was worth it and the quality of writing etc definitely declined over time.
I suspect that Facebook, PH and various other online media have sounded the death knell for printed media. I can find all I could want and possibly more, without incurring any charge for it.
It isn't really about the money as I was happy to pay for EVO when it was good.
Exactly this, although I only just let my digital subscription expire. Even though I have been fairly interested in the cars that they have supertested recently, I found the format very dull. Evo was always pretty good at conveying the subjective and I couldn't care less which of the M3, RS5 or C63 AMG is fastest in a straight line or around the track. They always seem to go to Wales too, whereas I would find it more interesting if they actually had a destination in mind, preferably a more exotic one. The videos used to add a nice dimension to the digital copy but they seemed to have stopped a while ago and I don't find the writing very insightful.I was very disappointed to cancel it in the end, but didn't feel it was worth it and the quality of writing etc definitely declined over time.
I suspect that Facebook, PH and various other online media have sounded the death knell for printed media. I can find all I could want and possibly more, without incurring any charge for it.
It isn't really about the money as I was happy to pay for EVO when it was good.
I was lucky enough to be able to drive the latest V8 versions of the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger this year. Which was my favourite? Not the fastest, lightest or best handling (that would be the Camaro) or the one with the best ride and nicest interior (Mustang). Surprisingly, it was the Challenger R/T with the 8-speed ZF auto. The slowest, biggest, least nimble and oldest of the three designs but for me it had the most character and the most old-school muscle car-like feel, whereas the other two are American interpretations of European sports cars. Old Evo would get that verdict but I don't think that new Evo would.
Many years ago, I used to be an avid reader of What Car? and Top Gear too but sadly they went the same way long ago. I'm not even sure if the target audience for Top Gear have driving licences yet but even when I was 10, I used to lap the driving impressions up. The piece where someone drove the Spectre Aston Martin in Top Gear was particularly poor and I bought that issue on the strength of it. Chris Evans was a very poor writer. I remember reading a review of his on the new Mazda CX-3. 500 words on how he didn't like the glovebox in it!
The last straw for me though was probably the apparent lack of ECOTY this year. What happened? Even though it has been shortened and dumbed-down slightly over the years, it was still a must read for me.
Edited by white_goodman on Tuesday 5th December 19:15
thrashermax said:
white_goodman said:
The last straw for me though was probably the apparent lack of ECOTY this year. What happened? Even though it has been shortened and dumbed-down slightly over the years, it was still a must read for me.
ECOTY is coming in the March 2018 issue.
To be fair to Evo, most car magazines have gone the same way, into an abyss of mediocrity. Why? Because of the rise of authors/writers and the car as a topic being incidental. Mags would lifestyle writers - Harris, Sutcliffe etc. Yes you had writers in the form of Bulgin, Setright, Llewellin, Bishop, Clarkson et al but they were never given more than a page to air their egos. Even Auto Express did it - one prat Editor of Auto Express would use the weekly long term test to showcase his partner and daughter on some loose premise of selecting a car seat.
The downfall of mags can also be down to their sycophantism - Autocar having another LS400 on a long term test. Reviews being unreasonably positive on a £50k car that had £30k of extras and claiming that this had no influence, failing to understand the real world pricing where a £30k German car is a £28k car, yet a £28k non-prestige equivalent is a £18k car, and real world depreciation.
The downfall of mags can also be down to their sycophantism - Autocar having another LS400 on a long term test. Reviews being unreasonably positive on a £50k car that had £30k of extras and claiming that this had no influence, failing to understand the real world pricing where a £30k German car is a £28k car, yet a £28k non-prestige equivalent is a £18k car, and real world depreciation.
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