Practical Classics

partviking said:
Unfortunately the diminishing buying public are contributing to the demise of all magazines and the knock on effect of reduced income is the resulting perceived (or real) lack of quality depending on your point of view.
Sadly most magazines and newspapers will probably go the way of the Dodo in time.
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Sad but true... although not quite in the way you'd think. I work for a large multi-regional newspaper corporation, and we are in the third year of what has been dubbed the 'Digital Transition'. For a time this meant the development of new digital products, but in a marketplace which has grown organically from the dot.com boom to the present, the established household brands are unbreakable. The strength and penetration of their brands can never be successfully challenged by a newcomer: Autotrader, Rightmove, Yellow Pages, etc, will never be broken by likes of Motors.co.uk, Fish4Homes or Local Mole, regardless of how good they may be in comparison. A financially unsustainable product won't last if there isn't immediate profitability.

But thank the lord for the tablet computer. The recent rise in e-editions of magazines and newspapers has meant that traditional printed media firms are able to retain their existing advertising models and customers, offering them exactly the same market penetration and exposure as before, and in the same format, but with significantly lower overheads. Printing costs are eliminated, making e-editions cheaper to produce (infinite impressions at no extra cost, no distributor network, print costs, or lost revenue from unsold magazines.), and as such they are priced substantially cheaper for the consumer to buy (you can get the last 3 issues of PC on a tablet computer all for £3.99). Win-win. Long live the iPad....

We've probably got a good 10 years of that 'transition' model ahead of us. It will take a fundamental shift in the way the consumer wants to read magazines before the 'blog-roll' type format of websites like AROnline become the adopted format for ex-printed media. But the advertising model is already shifting to accommodate this. Targeted banners and page take-overs based on your cookies, Google Adwords, Mobile inventory and display ads targeting search criteria are all well established within journalistic/reference websites... I can see PC making the transition to the blog roll (or further still to a sort of interactive 'dolls house of articles' format) quite early on. It's progressive, and above all, the content of the magazine is not governed by its running order (unlike a newspaper where it's news at the front, sport at the back), but it is currently confined by pagination and layout. So that would be quite a creatively liberating and interesting step forward...

Michael
 
Maybe having read P C for over 20 years there's nothing new they can come up with to interest me ?
I'm only interested in the greasy hands stuff , not the tales of driving through foreign lands in some classic .
I like Car Mechanics magazine although it gets thinner each month .At least it reports on developing topics
 
But thank the lord for the tablet computer. The recent rise in e-editions of magazines and newspapers has meant that traditional printed media firms are able to retain their existing advertising models and customers, offering them exactly the same market penetration and exposure as before, and in the same format, but with significantly lower overheads. Printing costs are eliminated, making e-editions cheaper to produce (infinite impressions at no extra cost, no distributor network, print costs, or lost revenue from unsold magazines.), and as such they are priced substantially cheaper for the consumer to buy (you can get the last 3 issues of PC on a tablet computer all for £3.99). Win-win. Long live the iPad....
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Well it's good to see printed media fighting back but sadly as Dave says you still have to want to read an e mag in order to buy it, even at a reduced price. The Evening Standard and Metro are free in London because that's the only way people will bother to pick up a copy. For me it's not the just price of PC that stops me buying it but the content most of which is of little interest and even that which is (the P6 servicing guide in this months) tells me nothing I don't already know or cannot get elsewhere and hate to say it but more in depth. Specialised P6 knowledge, support, a shoulder to cry on and even, on occassion FREE bits are all available here free of charge, PC cannot possibly compete with that and it would have to do it for Jag, MG, Truimph and all the other marque enthusiasts as well...an impossible task. I'll own up and confess I was cold called and offered 3 issues of PC for £1 an issue ( but had to set a direct debit, there's always a catch) and went for it. 2 issues in I've cancelled the DD and confirmed what I always thought that its not for me. I bear it no malice and do hope it survives, 20 + years ago I waited with baited breath for each issue but not any longer. Like the coal fire of my childhood, black & white telly and the Light Programme history awaits many a publication and who knows with the growth of Kindles (which I confess I have no desire to own so there is some disparity in my psyche) maybe even the printed word. Perhaps even joined up writing may pass into history...and I've only just mastered that! :D :LOL: :D :LOL:
 
I started to buy Practical Classics years ago, and have tried most other magazines, including The Automobile, when I had pre war stuff. I stopped reading /buying PC when I realised I had no interest in MGB's, which they seem to serialise rebuilds on with regularity. I remember when they did things like a Standard 14 drophead rebuild which involved more than welding on replacement panels and buying pre made re trims. This might seem a negative review but they have nothing to interest me, the basics they regularly do are usually very good and well photographed if you have never seen a dynamo, but after so many years they become repetitive. The magazine is an important resource for new comers to the hobby.


John.
 
Isn't Danny Hopkins p6 up for sale ? I'm sure I read it in the last issue of practical classics mag that it is up for sale at £1500 :D

Many thanks
Racerp6 (ash)
 
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