[Magazines] Motorsport News Price Increase

[mark_l]

This weeks issue of Motorsport News costs 1.99

Make sure it has the F1 guide in it, as the guide is only small in size and could easily fall out.

[Truckosaurus]

... especially if you shake it hard over your open pocket, eh Mark.

[BillyT]

Is that going to be 1.99 for all the other issues or is it because of the F1 guide?

If not then it only cements my reasons for buying Autosport instead of MN every week.

[Ian Sowman]

It is a permanent rise.

[Knowlesy]

Motorsport News is totally different to Autosport, luke.

[Adam43]

I would hazzard a guess that the percentage price difference has remained constant over the years. Not that I could tell you the cost of Autosport at the moment (I subsribe).
*reaches over*
Ah £2.80.

[Rob29]

Hum. 1955 Autosport 1s6d(7.5p) Motoring News 6d(2.5p)
You could hardy say they were totally different? Indeed many of the same stories were in both this week.
Not sure why I still buy either. ONE page in this weeks Autosport devoted to actual race reports-none in MN.

[Ian Sowman]

Originally Posted by Rob29

Hum. 1955 Autosport 1s6d(7.5p) Motoring News 6d(2.5p)
You could hardy say they were totally different? Indeed many of the same stories were in both this week.
Not sure why I still buy either. ONE page in this weeks Autosport devoted to actual race reports-none in MN.

Surely a reflection on how much there is going on more than anything else...

[BillyT]

Originally Posted by knowlesy

Motorsport News is totally different to Autosport, luke.

I assume you were talking to me?

Well I dont think MN and Autosport are totally different. They both are about motorsport and offer the latest news on most aspects of the sport.

As much as I like MN the amount of reading in it compared to Autosport is not reflective in the prices.

[chezza]

MN is much better than AS...Although I care about the international stuff, MN covers much more of the stuff that I care about and I would buy MN over AS anytime! I find I read MN whereas AS I just look at the pictures!

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Rob29

Hum. 1955 Autosport 1s6d(7.5p) Motoring News 6d(2.5p)

Thanks!

[Rob29]

Originally Posted by Ian Sowman

Surely a reflection on how much there is going on more than anything else...

That was my point-there is quite a lot going on in Australia,New Zealand,South Africa & the USA,but they(Autosport) can only manage a few lines,but page after page of the same non news on F1.

[Ian Sowman]

But I'm sure the research shows that coverage of overseas events does not sell magazines because a hell of a lot of people (myself included, come to that) aren't really very interested. If F1 non-news sells copies, then they will put it in. That's business. If you want to read about these events, I'm sure you can do on the internet these days...

[mark_l]

Originally Posted by Ian Sowman

...If you want to read about these events, I'm sure you can do on the internet these days...

Well said Ian, you have just convinced me not to buy MN or AS again. Thanks for saving me the money each week, I'll just read all my news online or on my PDA.

[sceptic]

It isn't working for either of them though, is it?

Although Motorsport News' circulation has been rising recently - the last figures I saw were at 27,000, Autosport is down to 42,000.

...and it will only get worse for Autosport as it has now fallen out of the Top 200 magazines, so a large number of newsagents will no longer automatically stock it.

[silver bullet]

For the last few years I subscribed to both MN & Autosport, but I just got a letter saying Autosport subs were going up and as for me MN is the better read I decided to cancel Autosport. Since then I have been bombarded with letters from haymarket offering great deals (up to 30% off) if I start subscibing again. But I think I'll just stick with MN.

[chunder]

AS will continue to fall as i really is too expensive at the moment, it is the price of a cheap monthl every week and that is just too much, most people would rather spend maybe a quid more and get F1 Racing or another F1 magazine coz lets face it that is all that is in it to be honest.
They ave bitten their nose off really at aarket by thinking that there would be enough F1 fans out there wating to buy a mag that is so utterl focussed as to devote half of its pages to F1, yes there is rally news and racing news but it is all the same regurgitated stuff as MN because the peoplethat work there all go the meetings together and buddy up together anyway, the main guys just swap offices so ou are not gonna et anthing new are you really!
MN have got a big advatage with karting as the kids love to see their name in print ad now they have a small MOTORSPORT audience with increased historic news and reports. I think their team is slightl more acive in searching out new possibilities whereas AS seem to be tied to a format and cant sem to get out of it whenther they want to or not!! Politics maybe...

[BillyT]

You say Autosport is expensive but with MN the value for money is very poor. For 2 quid you buy a newspaper that has at the most 50 pages of readable items. With Autosport you pay 2.80 and get a glossy magazine with lots more pages.

[chunder]

And three quarters of it is about one sport! Not my idea of a good read to be honest and a rubbish bargain.
If you wanna get all materialistic about it and go on about nice paaper and colour pictures then fine keep making them money but the news is opretty much the same as the people that work there all worked for MN before anyway so have the same conatcts!
And with MN you get everything a day early. But maybe I am biased, I loath circuitracing and cant really understand why it gets so much coverage in either publication, cant see why the mags are playing to such a small denominator of drivers and public.
But they have tried different approaches and they didnt work so maybe track fans tend to be more affluant and likely to buy it instead of reading the bits they want to read in ASDA or Tesco's while the missis is shopping.

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by chunder

I loath circuitracing and cant really understand why it gets so much coverage in either publication, cant see why the mags are playing to such a small denominator of drivers and public.

Surely most fans of motor sport are actually fans of racing rather than rallying for example?

The magazines are heavily researched and tend to deliver what sells.

[BillyT]

[QUOTE=chunder]And three quarters of it is about one sport! Not my idea of a good read to be honest and a rubbish bargain.
If you wanna get all materialistic about it and go on about nice paaper and colour pictures then fine keep making them money but the news is opretty much the same as the people that work there all worked for MN before anyway so have the same conatcts!
And with MN you get everything a day early. [QUOTE]

Regarding the nice paper colour pictures I was meerly stating you get more physically for your money in Autosport than MN. I get my Autosport on Wednesday, the same day that MN comes out, thats if I can ever find it anywhere in the North London vacinity.

[chunder]

I very much doubt that fans of motorposrt are fans of circuit racing. They ight be, but onl F1 and absolutel nothin else. Tey might take an interest loosel in ouring cars.
As for rallying well it pulls in a lot of people in places circuit racin doesnt like Wales and Scotland and Ireland for tat matter so will alwas pull in more readers.
Problem is I think that he racers themselve are likelyto buy MN whereas rall drivers or stockcars racers or g#drag racers et all are not.
As for value well i think you can include content in tat, and es mabe more pages but for me more pages on racing in non UK series wich is fine if that is wat you want, kind selling our soul tough for me.
And ou are right about MN availability, i think that is w te are putting a subscription form in the front pages, desperate for peoples money.
Dont get me wron i am not over keen on MN, I am old hat and would love to read 4000 word reports from rallies lke i used to, now it is all quotes,pictures and regurgitated press releases!!

[ss_collins]

think chunders had a few! good on ya!

Sceptic your figures are wrong - if you don't believe me check the ABC website. Now as a totally unbiased view (I work for a rival publishing house) MN is the better publication - though autosport is a better format. Autosport does tend to do great nascar features and reasonable sportscar bits, but then MN had the better Le Mans report last year. MN is the one I read first if I get them both on the same day - and its MN I'll go back to afterwards. It just more enjoyable. Thats my preference - I suggest each of you find you own from the two (and if your interest is just F1 - F1 racing is pretty mega)

All that said, at the end of the day both titles should be supported - without them we would have crap coverage of the sport in this country (F1 aside).

Deciding to stop reading them as an act of protest or through some warped indignation is a bit daft - if everyone did it they would die - and then you would have no motorsport media at all. Nice one chaps.

Subscribe to one or the other (or both) and then tell them with your subscriber number or similar what it is you want to see in there in a constructive manner. If you think the internet is the be all and end all, forget it. MN and AS employ skilled scribblers who do know their sport even if you think they don't, they know the right people and get quality stories and features to you every week. If that didn't happen what do you think would happen to the sport?

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by ss_collins

Sceptic your figures are wrong - if you don't believe me check the ABC website.

It seems to more or less agree with me...

Motorsport News: 29,525
Autosport: 43,478

And if you exclude overseas subscriptions, Autosport only sells 5,000 more copies than Motorsport News.

[ss_collins]

30,061 is the official MN circulation