Timely review, 4Runner Trail v. Jeep GC
- Thread starter 453030
- Start date
I got Maxim Magazine free for four years in a row. I simply signed up on their website and the magazine showed up for free in my mailbox for a year. Then I signed up again the next year...and the next...and the next.
My point? Simple-- Maxim was obviously hoping to bring in ad revenue by having a bigger subscriber base. In other words, they could charge more money for the ads if they had more subscribers. So they were losing money on printing/mailing the magazine and hoping to make it up with advertising dollars.
So where is Maxim today? Well, you can't buy the magazine anymore....they only have an "online" magazine. So explain that formula to me again, but this time explain to me how companies are willing to spend their advertising dollars on ads in magazines that nobody reads.
Bottom line: If nobody is reading the magazine, no company is going to advertise in it.
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Thai
Elite Member
Koz, again, you need to look at the details...look at when THAT article was published. March 2010. This was the exact time when EVERYONE threw Toyota under the bus. Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Edmunds, etc.. all defended Toyota during those times. Come on Koz, you gotta come up with better excuses than that!
When did C&D or any other car magazine beat up Toyota about the Camry fiasco or unintended acceleration?????? Prove me wrong.
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LongBallLarry
New member
LA Times didn't play nice. Ads pulled. ABC didn't play nice. Ads pulled. Car mags know better.
So you think car mags are equal to newpapers when it comes to automotive comparisons/articles? Seriously? What newspapers are you reading that have the type of in-depth auto articles of a Car and Driver or Motor Trend?
LongBallLarry
New member
Just letting you know how it is. Believe what you will.
Thai
Elite Member
Excuses...seriously, do you really believe in what you have written today? It's funny...your explanation works only with certain folks, but not with others. Seriously?! I don't think that your explanation makes any sense, but that's just me.
LongBallLarry
New member
LongBallLarry
New member
News outlets do not equal magazines. Sadly, news outlets have come under the same pressures more and more.
Again, cannot believe I have to explain the difference. Enjoy your mags carefree, the publishers love you for it.
LongBallLarry
New member
There is nothing more that I can add since everything I say and link to gets promptly discounted. I read articles from car sources, too, but I read them knowing what I know and make my own decisions. Good luck, ya'll!
sandcrawler
Senior Member
Thai
Elite Member
A higher ethical standard? I'm not sure what you're saying here....are car mags generally unethical in the information/stories they print? Is that what you're claiming?
Either way, I'm not talking about ethical standards anyway.... I'm saying that car mags exist to review cars. Newspapers do not. So when I'm looking for a print article that reviews or compares any automobile, newspapers are not where I'd look first. Car magazines like C&D and MT have comprehensive road test reviews that are much more than some guy named Larry who writes a 3-paragraph blurb on the all-new 2011 wondercar.
Okay, lets look at some basic facts:
1 - I don’t disagree that ad revenue is where magazines make their money. This is obvious….especially when you can get free subscriptions or low-cost subscriptions to many magazines. Hell, I paid $10 for 12 issues of Car and Driver recently. I’m quite sure they aren’t making any money off my subscription…they are probably losing money on it. So it makes perfect sense that magazines make money on advertising. Nobody here is debating that fact.
2 – The fact remains that magazines NEED readers in order to generate ad revenue. This is also pretty basic stuff and nothing more than common sense. So to anyone who says I have it all backwards, think about it this way—if you owned a company, how much would you pay to advertise in a magazine with a very small number of readers versus a magazine with a very large number of readers? All else equal, I think it is safe to say that companies tend to spend much of their advertising budgets in media outlets that reach a great number of people.
3 – If you add it all up, without readers, magazines won’t get much in the way of advertising dollars. And without advertising dollars, magazines will not survive.
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Yup. It reminds me of the arguments I'll have with other car guys when we are hanging out drinking, defending why we like X car versus Y car when they are cars that neither one of us have driven or can afford.
But, this is an interesting article by an actual automotive journalist about the whole process. Read it and then check out the next article.
How To Be An Auto Journalist Part I: The Press Drive | The Truth About Cars
First Ride: Autoblog gets hot in Dubai with 2011 Ford Explorer — Autoblog
If you associate the new Ford Explorer with the free trip to Dubai, you'll subconsciously associate that trip with the Explorer when you do a comparo in the future or discuss the Explorer with colleagues who might be doing a comparo.
A manufacturer doesn't have to literally hand someone money to change their perspective or opinion about a product.
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Feel free to point out in that TTAC article is completely off base. I'm speaking, specifically, about how these events pamper the journalists. You think that a free trip to Dubai doesn't alter one's perception of a vehicle? The Autoblog article clearly says how the Explorer is more capable than the Highlander and Traverse because of the multimode even though they didn't have those models to compare in those conditions.
"For example, if a Chevrolet Traverse or Toyota Highlander attempted to follow a 2011 Explorer out on to the UAE's sand dunes, their calibrated-for-the-street electronic stability control would likely cut engine torque when the driver needed it to power out of deep sand. Additionally, all of the power flowing to the rear axle would quickly overheat their PTOs, causing their drivetrains to operate in front-wheel drive only. Maybe they could get a tow back to civilization from a camel, as there are plenty around."
It is all speculation. They have no idea how the traction control is programs nor how the vehicle is going to react in sand with the TRAC turned off. But, when someone is looking at an Explorer v. Highlander v. Traverse, this paid trip to Dubai has influenced the writer.
That's just an assumption. How do you know the writer wouldn't have said the same thing if the press car was in his back yard?
Slow down there, fella. I've never said that auto mag or auto blog articles are not influenced by the manufacturers. They are. That is the whole point of the luxurious, liquor-soaked junkets.
All I'm trying to say is that TTAC has its own biases which are just as bad.
The TTAC "reviews" are typically based on a 20 minute test drive, and in the past involved little more than spleen-venting. I stopped reading TTAC after Farago's disgraceful performance on Autoline After Hours.
All I'm trying to say is that TTAC has its own biases which are just as bad.
The TTAC "reviews" are typically based on a 20 minute test drive, and in the past involved little more than spleen-venting. I stopped reading TTAC after Farago's disgraceful performance on Autoline After Hours.
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