CAR Magazine South Africa : End of an era (for me)?
For the first time in years I bought a copy of the latest CAR Magazine (May 2011) this morning to read mostly well written articles / road tests and of course about the anticipated arrival of the new Mercedes-Benz SLK and the upgraded Mercedes-Benz C-Class.
Over the last couple of years I became quite accustomed to all the latest car news online via the various manufacturers websites and Web 2.0 blogs. So, CAR magazine moved very low on my monthly shopping list, but for old-time sake paid for a copy of CAR (and not the usual in-store browsing courtesy of Exclusive Books).
Augmented Reality
But, I must note, this was quite a disappointment after viewing page after page of full-page advertising (which of course in some form or another is part and parcel of making a living from a magazine I suppose). I read about the editor punting Web 2.0's "Augmented Reality" with integrated online / social media for the magazine. So what? It’s been with us for some time now. I for one believe the end is nigh for traditional magazines (with traditional revenue / advertising models) in a fast-changing digital environment.
Advertising overweight
I took a nice and ‘fat’ copy of CAR home this morning, but after being 'interrupted' with a load of advertising I did a couple of calculations. Up to 50% of the May 2011 edition of CAR magazine consists of advertising (+- 110 pages of full-page ads across a 250 page magazine = 44% plus all other ads). This measured against otherwise quality content in my opinion is not serving up a sustainable / value consumer magazine offering.
Target market(s)
CAR may justify this whopping high ad-count for commercial purposes – for people buying the magazine in the market for a new vehicle or after-market accessories et al. What about the bloke who just fancies a good read? Or should they rather go online? Maybe I am missing the consumer and / or commercial value proposition here (in satisfying the consumer / advertiser / leveraged revenue model), but most certainly I will not buy a CAR – Magazines 2.0 hard copy soon. Too many ad-free options online...and more and more people will have access to more cost-effective bandwidth for accessing the plethora of online / global motoring content.
Conclusion
Although the magazine may probably justify the cover price of R29-95 (the actual copywriting is pretty good) I am much better off reading my favourite online blogs and articles without caring too much for any advertising. Syndicating selected RSS feeds provide for uninterrupted content straight off my desktop. Paid [or high quality] free content is definitely elsewhere...
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