Haymarket Sell Autosport

[rdjones]

Motorsport Network the owners of motorsport.com have bought all of Haymarket motorsport output (Autosport, Motorsport News and F1 Racing).

More on this at http://www.autosport.com/news/report...ymarket-brands

I have read Autosport for a number of years, however I do pick it up now and again in the Supermarket and it does seem to have gone downhill in fact I think there is only about 3 pages of news and most of it is features and reports.

[Aysedasi]

For a number of years now I've only bought two issues, the Le Mans preview issue and the issue two weeks later.....

[FIRE]

Motorsport Network is expanding a lot recently.

[NaBUru38]

Autosport. Zak Brown. Internet broadcasting.

What a combination.

[chunder]

They have been poaching staff from all over for some time now, all part of the big global US F1 takeover.

I used to write stuff for motorsport.com many years ago, and then all that stopped when the current folk took over.

It will be the main free site, and AS will just be behind a paywall as it is now, if both go behind a wall they are just following the trend for less _ more money but less interest.

And no-one sane will subscribe!!

[NaBUru38]

Autosport will keep the authoritative image. Motorsport will publish rumors and speculation.

[old man]

Forgive my ignorance but is Motorsport.com owned by Zak Brown as a post above seems to indicate?

If so I feel it is step forward as he is a savvy guy who loves his racing and race cars as opposed to Haymarket who seem to be just soulless publishers.

[chunder]

Not sure who owns it, the thinking was it was something to do with Liberty Media, and we all know who they are!

You are right about Hayshed though, soulless only interested in profit, hence why all their magazines look awful, are full of adverts and suffer endless drops in readership.

[wolfhound]

Zak Brown is chairman of Motorsport Network that owns motorsport.com and now the former Haymarket motorsport businesses.

I am not sure of how much of the business he owns but I am sure after some digging we can find out.

[old man]

It will be interesting to see what happens now, I have been buying Autosport since the 1950s and it was a must read at one time. These days the internet and instant communication makes printed magazines of limited appeal and I am a subscriber to internet version. Time was when the magazine had an influence on many things but now the need is for getting a story first by minutes not days.

Zak Brown has his fingers in all sorts of things, we will see what he makes of what at one time was the guide to all things racing. The web version has some well written and considered pieces, hope that continues

[Rob29]

This has me worried-no sign of this weeks issue which normally arrives on Thursday.Subscription debited to my account this week.Have been buying mag since 1955.Motorsport/Motoring News about the same-now comes on line,but is almost unreadable.Maybe time to cancel both?

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by old man

Forgive my ignorance but is Motorsport.com owned by Zak Brown as a post above seems to indicate?

If so I feel it is step forward as he is a savvy guy who loves his racing and race cars as opposed to Haymarket who seem to be just soulless publishers.

Originally Posted by chunder

Not sure who owns it, the thinking was it was something to do with Liberty Media, and we all know who they are!

You are right about Hayshed though, soulless only interested in profit, hence why all their magazines look awful, are full of adverts and suffer endless drops in readership.

He's not the owner, just the chairman.
He was brought in to add a shimmer of credibility, and I'm sure he gets a reasonable salary.

But it's all owned by a man called Mike Zoi, a Russian-born American, who made his money in online credit card transactions, and isn't a bad racing driver himself (he's a former IMSA Ferrari Challenge champion).

[Moneyseeker]

The deal also covers the Autosport Show and Autosport Awards.

The show could do with some fresh eyes and investment has been stale for years IMO. I wonder with their global reach that motorsport.com might actually take the Autosport Show format and hold it in some other countries?

I read Autsoport since 1980 but stopped my mag subscription a year or so ago as ,most of the 'news' was old news by then and I found the endless features a bit long winded. I also used to read Motorsport News (back from the days when it was motorsport news) but also found that nearly always arived late, sometimes not at all and then when I cancelled my sub it seemed to be barely stocked anywhere. However, I did pick up a copy a few weeks ago and it was £3.50 and had little more than 40 pages.

This is proably an age thing, but I buy Classic Car Weekly and Motor Sport these days.

[VIVA GT]

I too am a long standing Autosport (and back in the day Motoring News, even Motorcycle News) reader. I still have my Autosport magazine subscription (which sometimes arrives on Thursday) but I really continue this out of habit rather than any other reason.
Obviously being subscribed to the print version also gives me full access to the website too, so because of that there is rarely any real news for me when the magazine arrives. I do keep telling myself to look into the costs of a website only subscription, but never seem to get around to doing so...

[chunder]

I don't buy any print magazines anymore, other than one offs if I am staying away somewhere and want something to read.

Price is the main reason, decent mags are now a fiver even 6 quid and that is far too much for me in all honesty when you consider how much other magazines that are popular cost, womens magazines are often far cheaper for example, men and cars are an easy cost target. Same as gaming and the like

Don't how MN stays afloat to be honest it is garbage now, at least MCN has some decent stuff in it still and massive classifieds to justify the cost, plus a more loyal audience, even if it is still a comic at times and their obsession with tabloid crap baffles me.

MN used to be awesome, I bought it every week for a decade until I worked there and stopped buying it soon after I left as from the inside I got a bad insight. They stopped doing decent in depth reporting and went to news which is fair enough but then you found out how hard news was to get hold of that was worth a damn. And it was very pro circuit racing when I stopped read, which was not their big fanbase when I started to read it, it was a rally paper and not so much focus on F1 and bigger stuff. They have tried to change, but it's just not a worthy thing surely now.

Autosport has stayed pretty much the same, they cover most things in some depth, but its just full of pictures, little depth (other than F1 which I couldn't care less about these days) and is also covered in their own F1 magazine. they just know it HAS to be in there or no-one will buy it.

So nothing caters for my palette. Some road cars mags do, CCC used to be awesome til went down the pan when they went chasing the track day crowd and ignored what made them massive as IPC sold them down the river to focus on manufacturer based mags like Land Rover and Mini, easy readership.

[S griffin]

Still read it on the website and in digital format as it still a very reputable source

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

I too am a long standing Autosport (and back in the day Motoring News, even Motorcycle News) reader. I still have my Autosport magazine subscription (which sometimes arrives on Thursday) but I really continue this out of habit rather than any other reason.
Obviously being subscribed to the print version also gives me full access to the website too, so because of that there is rarely any real news for me when the magazine arrives. I do keep telling myself to look into the costs of a website only subscription, but never seem to get around to doing so...

I moved to the the Autosport web subscription and I think it is a fiver per month.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

I moved to the the Autosport web subscription and I think it is a fiver per month.

Thanks for the info. That should save me a few bob and save me from the stupid frustration when it doesn't arrive on a Thursday, even though I may not pick it up to read until Monday, and then discover that there's nothing in there that I didn't already know about!

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by chunder

I don't buy any print magazines anymore, other than one offs if I am staying away somewhere and want something to read.

Price is the main reason, decent mags are now a fiver even 6 quid and that is far too much for me in all honesty when you consider how much other magazines that are popular cost, womens magazines are often far cheaper for example, men and cars are an easy cost target. Same as gaming and the like

Don't how MN stays afloat to be honest it is garbage now, at least MCN has some decent stuff in it still and massive classifieds to justify the cost, plus a more loyal audience, even if it is still a comic at times and their obsession with tabloid crap baffles me.

MN used to be awesome, I bought it every week for a decade until I worked there and stopped buying it soon after I left as from the inside I got a bad insight. They stopped doing decent in depth reporting and went to news which is fair enough but then you found out how hard news was to get hold of that was worth a damn. And it was very pro circuit racing when I stopped read, which was not their big fanbase when I started to read it, it was a rally paper and not so much focus on F1 and bigger stuff. They have tried to change, but it's just not a worthy thing surely now.

Autosport has stayed pretty much the same, they cover most things in some depth, but its just full of pictures, little depth (other than F1 which I couldn't care less about these days) and is also covered in their own F1 magazine. they just know it HAS to be in there or no-one will buy it.

So nothing caters for my palette. Some road cars mags do, CCC used to be awesome til went down the pan when they went chasing the track day crowd and ignored what made them massive as IPC sold them down the river to focus on manufacturer based mags like Land Rover and Mini, easy readership.

Agreed on MN, I wonder if the new owner will even keep it going in the long term an any pragmatic business would just see it as repeating cost and effort from what Autosport is doing, unless as you say they position it back to more grass roots/rally, etc but proably not enough readership for that.

Also important to remember that motorsport.com is a digital platform so that is where there focus lies. Perhaps an option they may consider is to make F1 Racing an annual ediition covering the season woth all the stats and imagery these mags like nowadays and maybe even make Autosport monthly not weekly.

I now subscribe ro calssic car weekly and classic car buyer - every edition is like a trip down memory lane for me!

[Rod Birley]

I have not received Autosport this week, and local shops have no copies.

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by Rod Birley

I have not received Autosport this week, and local shops have no copies.

Off to a good start then! One thing I noticed from my classic car buyer sub is that although it goes on sale in shops on Wednesday, subscribers get priority and receive it on Tuesday.

[ArnageWRC]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

Agreed on MN, I wonder if the new owner will even keep it going in the long term an any pragmatic business would just see it as repeating cost and effort from what Autosport is doing, unless as you say they position it back to more grass roots/rally, etc but proably not enough readership for that.

You have to fear that MN is possibly not needed. There simply isn't the readership for it. There isn't even a dedicated monthly rally magazine anymore (not counting Pacenotes) as there isn't the interest. Same as the rally annuals no longer produced; Rallycourse, and the Martin Holmes Pirelli Yearly.

[coppice]

Autosport certainly didn't stay 'pretty much the same ' during the time I read it - 1970 to 2005. From the early 90s it slid down the pan until it ended up as a picture heavy F1 fanzine with bite size factoid editorial content . Club racing coverage was pushed to the back pages and ever more marginalised - how Marcus Pye sticks it I really don't know.F1 dominates year round- when was there a cover without some banner headline publicising another non story?

But it isn't Autosport's fault - it's the public to blame . For nearly all of them motorsport is F1 and nothing else. And like most magazines- with the honourable exception of Motor Sport- they are designed for people with the attention span of an ant . As Simon Taylor said re his excellent 'lunch with ' series the only thing better than a 1000 word article for most editors is now a 750 word one ...

[chunder]

It truly is a shame

I can remember reading 2 page F300 resports in MN and 4 page WRC reports where almost every stage was covered in some detail.

I don't think it is simply readers, it is publishers and editors too, design has come into magazines far more than it should have done and that style is being led by colleges, teachers etc.

I would buy a magazine for 3 quid a week that had 2 page F3 reports full of text and 4 page WRC reports with 2 pics in.

Wouldn't you? So why has it changed? It cant just be the way people are, it is led by all sorts of things!!

[S griffin]

Never judge a book by it's cover. The F1 cover is to attract more punters and it usually has plenty of non-F1 features in there for the die hards