What Magazines/Websites/Writers Do You Read? (Merged x3)

[eduardo1]

Everywhere you hear about print newspapers/magazines dying, circulations down, but I always believed that niche publications - of sufficient quality - would survive and potentially thrive.

But it got me thinking - the only print motorsport magazines I buy these days are Motorsport News and F1 Racing mag.

I have digital subscriptions to GPWeek and GP+ and the Premium section of Autosport - plus check out Speedcafe daily.

There are however several motorsport and V8-oriented magazines out there. The old staples, Motorsport News and Auto Action (which now stands alone as a print news publication) plus V8X, V8 Action, the new Antares magazine.

Do people on this forum read any or all of these? Is print really dying and how many people actually pay for online motorsport content?

[DAVID PATERSON]

I have never subscribed to a paid motorsport online news service. (I'm too stingy to pay for what I can get free with some hunting and digging).

I used to buy AA and Motorsport News regularly at the newsagent, but that was many years ago, when I didn't have the internet.

I bought issue #1 of Australian Muscle Car on my way to the AGP and took out subscription as soon as I got home. I have never let that subscription lapse.

My only other subscription is to "the Oily Rag", a semi professional magazine devoted to Historic racing, published for the HSRCA.

I often look at new magazines on the shelves and rarely buy them.

[Reload]

Originally Posted by DAVID PATERSON

I have never subscribed to a paid motorsport online news service. (I'm too stingy to pay for what I can get free with some hunting and digging).

I used to buy AA and Motorsport News regularly at the newsagent, but that was many years ago, when I didn't have the internet.

I bought issue #1 of Australian Muscle Car on my way to the AGP and took out subscription as soon as I got home. I have never let that subscription lapse.

My only other subscription is to "the Oily Rag", a semi professional magazine devoted to Historic racing, published for the HSRCA.

I often look at new magazines on the shelves and rarely buy them.

AA and AMC for me.

[one five five]

"AMC" and "Motorsport Legends" does it for me

Occasionally AA but some of the 'editing' in last weeks edition has put me off them again for a while...

[NinnyMan]

AA - only because it's the only weekly printed even though it's not value for $$$
and some of their headline stories of late have been nothing more than fluff

V8X - Subscribe. Glossy pics etc and not a bad read

AMC - Like the heritage of Aussie motoring/racing

I haven't bought a hard copy of MNews for years. Outdated and over priced.
NextMedia's decision to "merge" MNews and MotorRacing Aust was the last straw.
These guys have no clue. Killing off the annual Bathurst 1000 book wasn't a
popular move either, so I am refusing to buy anything they produce.

[xrystl]

I don't buy any print magazines anymore because what you can get online for free and up to the minute has made print media obsolete .
I don't subscribe to any electronic media as just about everything is free if you bother to hunt for it.
Same goes for Newspapers - they are all available from around the world for free , I haven't bought a newspaper since 1999 .
The Internet has just made it all so much easier and all the information is as it happens .
Whole new world really .

[alfacors]

Auto Action - although I am biased
Antares Magazine - it's free, it's online, and ummm...again biased
RACE Magazine - it's aimed at the Club Racer/Engineer though, and er.... yeah, biased

Used to subscribe to Motorsport E-News, but gave it up. While it was substantially cheaper than AA, I spent all of 5 mins flicking through it, where AA I will read cover to cover, so reading time for money it's better with AA (for me).

Autosport gets a view now and then, Speedcafe sometimes (although not religiously). I used to get F1 Racing, but found I was less and less absorbed in reading it, so have stopped.

Almost forgot, also reading The Racing Magazine

[GTRMagic]

AA is usually good for a giggle.. back in the old days I had a subscription but it was slower to deliver to my front door than it was for me to go to the local newsagent.. Havent tried the iPad version (not having an iPad seems to be a disadvantage here... )

MeN was a great substitute to AA, trying to weld some of the RCN-style stories along with the weekly trials and tribulations of the local world. The hardcopy magazine is good for the feature articles, however needs more sizzle...

Speedcafe is on the list to look at each day

Autosport is also on the list to look at each day. I used to buy the magazines, but they got expensive, even when our dollar strengthened... might be interested in the Plus bit online some day, and also to get rid of the 50 views a month paywall thingumy...

Crash.net is sometimes interesting, stuff from F1 & MotoGP that are usually some of the sources for the scrapings in AA.

F1orbit.com isnt bad either, but of late has been reposting many of the stories contained on motorsport.com

Motorsport.com has an amazing picture library, of many categories around the world, and a half decent archive of many older series... the V8Supercar stuff can go back into the 1990's...

my105.com is good to see who is selling cars where

V8Sleuth classifies is interesting, but its hard to justify a $400 a year spend on the full site.

Mr Saward's views are a good read on his blog, Mr Allen probably less so..

There is a lot of stuff out there.. hard to find the time to read them all

[rich07]

I used to read AA but now its so bad I cant justify buying it anymore so I just read it in the newsagents like everyone does these days.

I buy Motorsport magazine because I find the stories and interviews with past drivers fascinating especially the stuff before the time I was involved regardless of what they were racing.

For news online its Speedcafe for local stuff and despite all the ads it is quite the informative site so it certainly worth a look everyday just to see whats happening in the local scene. While for overseas stuff it Autosport online until I hit the 50 views bs and then I just look around somewhere else.

Dailysportscar is a must have if your a sportscar racing fan, fantastic news, commentary on past and present matters and photography also.

Used to follow Murphy the Bear for ALMS happenings but the Bear stopped pooping a while back and has moved onto other things.

For European touring cars touringcartimes is hard to beat.

Joe Saward is also someone I follow everyday for his look at the F1 world especially the behind the scenes happenings that frequently involve money and the games that come with it.

[redesp]

AMC for me.

They cover a good range of classes and drivers.

I enjoyed the write up's on the FoMoCo / Holden and Ferodo test tracks.
I'd like to see some more track write ups on the tracks that have disapeard over time. ie gold coast (as per the thread in here somewhere)

BTW what ever happened to "Real Race Cars"?

[eduardo1]

Interesting responses. Especially about AA. It seems people will pay money for a hard copy of something they don't think is much good rather than pay online for something whether it's quality or not.

AA seems to be a 'purchase by default' because there's no opposition to it. The death of the MNews weekly printed mag seems to have left a market segment to AA. How big that market is - whether it could sustain a second publication - is a big question. Not one that's going to be answered here with 9 replies.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by eduardo1

Interesting responses. Especially about AA. It seems people will pay money for a hard copy of something they don't think is much good rather than pay online for something whether it's quality or not.

AA seems to be a 'purchase by default' because there's no opposition to it. The death of the MNews weekly printed mag seems to have left a market segment to AA. How big that market is - whether it could sustain a second publication - is a big question. Not one that's going to be answered here with 9 replies.

I have been reading/buying AA since the mid 1980's.

What is surprising is that the ladies & gents in the tower of power at BauerMedia still have an enthusiasm for AA. At 10,370 magazines sold per the AA Media Guide Here would surely struggle to be economically viable?

Other magazines with similarly niche audiences have been chopped in recent times by this publisher.

To some extent, AA represents a massive opportunity, with a different outlook on the world, focusing on some more of the detail of what's going on in the motorsport world, could be a LOT better than it currently manages.

Would a better owner suit this better? Maybe NextMedia could buy it and.. oh wait...

[eduardo1]

Not really GT-R - depends on the costs. AA doesn't pay very well - both staff and contributors - which is one of the reasons people don't stay very long. It's more of a stepping stone mag. It's also printed on rubbish paper stock so its cost to output is quite small.

But its ad rates would probably be ok because of its market position. Because it's a low cost publication, it would still make money.

The ones that get axed are those that are losing money and/or are expensive to produce. Glossy women's mags might make more money, but a lower percentage return and/or have a downward trend on sales & revenue. And if they are losing money - they're gone. Bauer is also clearing the decks for Elle magazine relaunch, so a) they need money from the 'female' budget and b) want to de-clutter the marketplace for it.

The other saving grace of AA is that, if it's making a profit, it also contributes to overheads. Everything from the finance & admin departments to the cost of lightbulbs. Plus, it can be used for group ad buying offers across Wheels, Motor etc.

[racer69]

Originally Posted by eduardo1

AA seems to be a 'purchase by default' because there's no opposition to it.

That is probably truer than at first thought

I've been buying AA since the late-90s when i would get off the bus from school every Thursday at the local shops so i could go in and buy it.

I've bought every edition since and while honestly i feel the quality of it has dropped over the years, you get a few good feature stories in there and some of Foges interviews are great reading...plus I live in the hope the next one might start getting back towards the work they used to do....

Other than that i religiously pick up "Australian Muscle Car", "Motorsport Legends" and the english "Motorsport" magazine.

[cptkablamo]

Only motorsport magazine I read is Motorsport - the UK production. I read a lot of general interest magazine that rely in feature articles for content. I don't mind paying for well written and interesting features, which usually Motorsport delivers. I guess I am not so into Australian motorsport so I can't comment but from what I see flicking through in a newsagent, the Australian offering doesn't really offer what I want. I basically won't buy a magazine unless it has multiple extended features in the one issue.

I tend to refuse to pay for 'news' these days as there is no art or skill in publishing or rewording media releases, though filtering the good ones and leaving out the bad is a skill.

I will visit websites for news over something like Facebook or Twitter - where I go for interaction. As such I tend to view Speedcafe, Autosport, Crash, SpeedTV USA (though will be sad when it goes, but biased) and Dailysportscar (Biased) and RacerViews - mega biased.

[Alan52]

Magazines-None except for an occasional Auto Action and 1 Muscle Car mag per year as the rest have either disappeared(RCN,Grand Prix International) or become rubbish quality (Motorsport News).
Books-Autocourse,Motocourse,Le Mans Yearbook(RIP The Great Race,Australian Motor Racing Yearbook,The Annual,V8 Supercar Yearbook)
Web Sites-crash.net,Joe Sewards blog,Speed Cafe,ten-tenths
I would love to spend money on a quality Australian motor racing magazine but there hasn't been one since Motorsport News moved away from its fortnightly format.Of all these departed friends the scrapping of The Great Race has been the saddest loss.The same people are complicit in the destruction of Motorsport News.

[Umai Naa]

Used to buy AA and MN religously for around 4 or 5 years. Gave that away, and started buying a lot of other monthlies like Fast Fours, Hot4s, Zoom, Street Commodores, Drift Battle and HPI. Did that for a good 7 years or so, lining the pockets of the EMG management nicely. Started buying AMC about 4 or 5 years ago. Stopped buying that last year. Just lost interest in it, and never had the spare change lying around anymore to feed the habit.

Pretty much only peruse various forums, Speedcafe, and the odd blog nowdays.

[Alan52]

Also should mention motor sport history books which is a market that is surviving.Recent purchases include Ray Bell and Tony Loxley's "F5000 Thunder",Chevrons 50 year Australian Touring Car Championship history,Jim Skaysbrook's "Castrol 6 Hour Production Race" and Quentin Spurring's "Official History Of The Le Mans 24 Hour" books.The latter with 1 volume for each decade of the race are easily the best motor racing history books ever published.

[Reload]

In this weeks AA, the heading for the F1 section is Canadian Crush in big bold letters and the sub heading tells of the Vettel victory and the marshall crushed to death by the track crane.
Very distasteful and poor form AA.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Reload

In this weeks AA, the heading for the F1 section is Canadian Crush in big bold letters and the sub heading tells of the Vettel victory and the marshall crushed to death by the track crane.
Very distasteful and poor form AA.

Bloody disgraceful!

Is there is something wrong with those people??

You could write a letter to the editor, but all those made up people and correspondences wouldnt get a run then

[eduardo1]

Originally Posted by Reload

In this weeks AA, the heading for the F1 section is Canadian Crush in big bold letters and the sub heading tells of the Vettel victory and the marshall crushed to death by the track crane.
Very distasteful and poor form AA.

Are you serious? That is bang out of order.

The only possible excuse for that is that sub-editors usually write headings & intros and, at a place like ACP/Bauer, subs are a pooled resource. So the sub that wrote that may not have known the full context.

However the editors should have stopped it happening, so forget it - there is no excuse whatsoever.

Disgraceful.

[Reload]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Bloody disgraceful!

Is there is something wrong with those people??

You could write a letter to the editor, but all those made up people and correspondences wouldnt get a run then

I have thrown an email at them and urge other to do so.

[greynomad]

I find the UK magazine Motor Sport is a good read and worth the money. From time to time I like to buy Auto Action, Motorcycle News and Speedway News just to keep up with what is going on and what is coming up.

Online Speedcafe is ok.

[GTRMagic]

Interesting that AA is apparently now released on a Thursday, instead of a Wednesday

I guess it gives them an extra day to get all the 'scoops' that are announced to the press on the day the magazine comes out

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Interesting that AA is apparently now released on a Thursday, instead of a Wednesday

After being a voracious buyer and reader of AA for the longest time, I've found the last 3 I have bought sat unread.