Online Car Magazine

-Chris-

Holy crap!! I just got a phone call and a really hard sell from a guy about an online car magazine he's launching.

He thinks print magazines are over and consumers are moving online, and therefore advertising money should be too.

Seeing as we have a collection of internet-savvy, car-obsessed people right here, I thought I'd ask your opinions.

I'm thinking along the lines of:
1) What's more useful, print or online car magazines?
2) What's more useful, print or online used car listings/ads?
3) Do you still buy car magazines or do you get all your info online?
4) What do you think of this particular mag?

http://www.edrive.ie



BTW, I have no knowledge of, or connection to, the publishers of this magazine.

EPM

You cant beat a printed mag for just relaxing and reading. Just not the same online...plus what would you do with all your empty cupboard space if you didnt have a few hundred car mags to go in them

-Chris-

Wow, I thought I was getting deja vu for a minute there...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055338916


Looks like they're not the first, but they're the first in Ireland.
I wonder what kind of viewer numbers and advertising money iMotor is currently attracting.

schoolbag2

anyone read drivers republic, its an online only magazine run by a guy called Chris Harris. Gets all the good cars and the articles/photos are as good as any print magazine.

not the same as sitting down reading a magazine though

Zube

-Chris- wrote: »

1) What's more useful, print or online car magazines?
2) What's more useful, print or online used car listings/ads?
3) Do you still buy car magazines or do you get all your info online?
4) What do you think of this particular mag?

http://www.edrive.ie

1. Print.
2. Online.
3. Yes, I buy magazines.
4. Looks slick at first glance.

Stevie Dakota

Just had a quick look at that, online is not bad at all, if its free. If I have to pay it will be for a something I can hold, and work through over a few days.

Is that Swarovski Megane for real, is Bill Cullen on crack?

-Chris-

My €0.02, I don't know what to make of it - I was interested in that iMotor magazine when it came out, but as it turned out I never looked at it again.

I get nearly all my motoring news & info from blogs etc. I barely surf anymore, it's all done through Google Reader.

I'd search for used cars online, but not in online magazines.

mumblin deaf ro

-Chris- wrote: »

I'm thinking along the lines of:
1) What's more useful, print or online car magazines?
2) What's more useful, print or online used car listings/ads?
3) Do you still buy car magazines or do you get all your info online?
4) What do you think of this particular mag?

http://www.edrive.ie

1) Print - pics are way better
2) Online ads are better (you can look at them in work)
3) I have a sibscription for one mag (excellent xmas pressie) and buy the odd weekly too
4) don't like the magazine layout of the site.

R.O.R

Print for sure - no way I'm taking the laptop to the lav with me

Gregor Samsa

-Chris- wrote: »

4) What do you think of this particular mag?

http://www.edrive.ie

As a web designer, I know that design for print and design for web are two very different things. They've gone and basically designed a print magazine, and just stuck it on the web, which is completely pointless very unusable.

It's very difficult to read the magazine on the screen (I'm trying now on dual 24" monitors, and I still have to zoom in and pan around the pages), so you'd need to print out the mag to read it properly - which makes the online nature of it redundant.

Also, they're not taking advantage of even the most basic tools that online delivery has over print (hyperlinks, search, etc). EDIT: OK, they have some small icons that link on to external pages, but really, that's a very poor solution.

Finally, from an advertising perspective, with their magazine layout it's far too easy for people to skip over them, so who's going to want to pay for advertising? Magazines have the advantage that they can be left lying around and people (not just the purchaser) pick them up and flick through them. This doesn't happen on the web, where advertising has to be smaller and integrated better with the page, so they're advertising model is fundamentally flawed.

Launching a web magazine would be one thing, but designing it exactly the same as a print mag, so it loses the advantages of both media dooms it to failure.

pburns

Well one of my so-called professions involves website development/content creation etc.

Conventional wisdom is that people don't 'read' articles on the web the same way they do in print. They 'scan' the page and turn to the web to look for information rather than read long articles. I think this view is slightly overstated these days but still valid. Brevity still an important consideration online.

Just reading what phutyle said - spot on.

There is room for an online car mag but not like the one these messers are proposing (I can't actually load it as i'm at home today and have a slow connection). I think I've seen the principle before though - flip-pages to 'look' like a mag. Red Bull tried it with their F1 fanzine 'Red Bulletin'. Not very usable and as phutyle said it falls between 2 stools and loses the advantages of both media.

I was thinking of something along these lines (only more usable) last year (and thinking of getting Boardsies involved). Since then I've lost my mojo but I'd love to contribute to something. I think there is a wealth of knowledge on this forum that could be utilised (the long-lost E92 could have a trivia column for example:D)

pred racer

R.O.R wrote: »

Print for sure - no way I'm taking the laptop to the lav with me

+1

jimmycrackcorm

I always read the metro on the web now which is the same format.