GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: mcmaddy on 21 February 2019, 10:43
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Not sure if anyone else was aware of this but it appears that VW Driver magazine is no more (Audi Driver too). Phoned to ask where February magazine was to be told no longer trading. What I find most galling is that I phoned a fortnight ago to check my subscription and was told absolutely nothing by the editor who sometimes frequents this forum!!
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Printed magazines have been in decline for quite a while now. I used to subscribe, but got fed up with what was just the same old same old, month after month. There's no GTI International either this year, which must have been their main money maker and probably supported the dwindling magazine sales.
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Sad but true.
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Sad but true.
Indeed, just look at what's happening at EVO, cuts cuts and more cuts. Compare the ECOTY video from 2017 to the last one in December 2018, mindblowing production cuts.
The sad truth is that the information they put in mags can be had online weeks before it gets into print so by the time it gets to the end user it's not special enough.
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Its the advertising revenue fall off that is killing printed media.
In fact that's killing it faster than falling reader numbers.
Has been for quite some time.
Most of the newspapers only prop up their printed editions by having websites full of ads and click bait. Most of them have gone so far with it that the sites become unusable because of all of the ads taking time to load or failing to load.
The other thing you have to remember is that actually selling a magazine to a reader never paid for it in the first place. The cover price is just the printing costs, distribution costs and a margin for the reseller. You were always effectively paying to be advertised at.
Personally, I don't miss printed magazines much.
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Facebook page still up and running.Cannot find any mention of it closing anywhere.Shame if it is.It always gave me something to read whilst waiting in the VW garage.
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Everything is still up and running which means people can still buy subscriptions which isn't on really.
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Everything is still up and running which means people can still buy subscriptions which isn't on really.
That's just not on. :angry:
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Thanks for posting this up mcmaddy and the associated warning around the website still being live to take subscriptions.
Obviously we don’t know what’s gone on behind the scenes for that to be still happening therefore your warning is very useful.
For myself, I read the magazine from the first copy right through until late last year when my sub ran out. I was mid moving house so didn’t get round to renewing, although I very nearly did several times but got sidetracked each time I went to renew (as happens when I go on the Internet).
If I think about it, I’d never have allowed that lapse to happen years ago, but the internet and car forums gradually replaced reading magazines for many if not most of us over the years.
I’d read VWD mag and its direct predecessor VW Audi Car magazine (plus Neil Birkitt’s previous home VW Motoring) since the early ‘80’s.
Before the internet the dedicated enthusiasts would love to get their cars featured in these mags, the letter pages were well subscribed to and the mags were a direct line of advertising products to car enthusiasts. All those things have largely been replaced with forums and social media now.
People can easily and, more importantly, quickly upload their own media direct to all now.
I’ve met (the late) Paul Harris, the original owner of the mag, Neil B the editor and some of the regular contributors (Andrew Chapple, Paz, etc) at Autometrix shows over the years.
I did GTI International for many years since way back when, plus their track days at Castle Combe and Audi Driver International.
Alas, these mags are run on a shoestring by dyed in the wool enthusiasts and after Paul Harris died I think the writing was on the wall. Neil had two mags to run and different owners to deal with. VW shows have been on the wane for decades and cost a fortune to put on. Catch 22, lower magazine sales mean less awareness of the event which equates to lower turnout and so it descends in a spiral.
I’d always trusted the opinions of real enthusiasts like Harris and Birkitt for my own buying research rather than the glossy general purpose car mags. Hell, when I started reading those indie mags in the ‘80’s most of the pics inside were still in black and white to keep costs down!
I feel sorry for the staff, and I guess I’m (a tiny) part of the reason it went under. Admittedly, if they had notified me each year for renewal then I’d never have lapsed in the first place. But, there must be a sound enough reason I wasn’t breaking the door down to renew as I would have done many years ago.
RIP a great indie car mag :(
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Post on their Facebook page from someone saying they never got their mag this month.Wondered if it was a postal problem.
Reply was 'another reason,will PM you'. :sad:
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I don't think that declining mag sales led to less awareness of GTI International. Before forums, proper car builds would be debuted at Inters with most show goers been none the wiser about what had been created in someones garage over the past months. Now, people post every nut and bolt detail of their car build, even 500 pictures every time they wash their new car for Christ's sake, so the whole internet has seen these cars way before the day of the show. There's little point going anymore.
Those of us that looked forward to the proper old shows have grown out of that sort of thing, and the following generations don't feel the need to look at anything beyond their phone screens.
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I don't think that declining mag sales led to less awareness of GTI International. Before forums, proper car builds would be debuted at Inters with most show goers been none the wiser about what had been created in someones garage over the past months. Now, people post every nut and bolt detail of their car build, even 500 pictures every time they wash their new car for Christ's sake, so the whole internet has seen these cars way before the day of the show. There's little point going anymore.
Those of us that looked forward to the proper old shows have grown out of that sort of thing, and the following generations don't feel the need to look at anything beyond their phone screens.
Agreed, social media means you you've seen every super or hypercar before you ever actually see one. Almost becomes normal.
As for the magazine, it's the way the world is going. Print is in decline, there is only form of advertising media that's growing. Online.
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Same with telly it seems. BBC and ITV are getting together to form a UK based streaming service to rival Netflix etc