European Car magazine - NLA, another one bites the dust Options

[horizontally-opposed]

EC—really VW&Porsche—made a huge impression on me. It was that and Excellence that probably really got me into Porsche after so many years of broader-interest car magazines. So, definitely sad to see it go.

[EdwardBlume]

The art and magic of print is fading like vinyl. Get out and drive your cars while we still can...

[sixnotfour]

Harry Beiker the yellow 914 conversion,,, they would hardly open the door in ca , but when he retired to oregon I delt with a bunch..

[Freezin 914]

All I can say is that for those of us that like to open our mailboxes and see the fresh new magazine..... we reach in your pockets and subscribe... hopefully making it that the mags we read still have a substantial amount of paper subscriptions. Maybe they won’t be so quick to go all online only. Just renewed my excellence for another 3 yr term.

[Maltese Falcon]

I just found out that European Car magazine is kaput.

Back in Nov. a friend gave me a subscription, and I had forgot about it. My wife was cleaning out a drawer and found the postcard from EC saying my friend gave me a years subscription, but I haven't seen a single issue.

I got on the publisher's website and went through the "contact us" link, and got a message that EC was no longer being published.

How sad.... I subscribed to it back in the 70's when it was Volkswagen greats and then it changed to VW & Porsche magazine. It started going down hill when it changed to European Car. A couple of years ago, I cancelled my subscription. I always liked the 914. The first VW & Porsche issue had an article called Type 4 power play. That article enticed me to build a 2.4 liter four banger. Then Marty from MSDS had an article a couple of years later in VW & Porsche in the early 80's called hidden power. That article enticed me to replace the big four with a six. I bought a cross bar motor mount, headers and a muffler from Marty back in the mid 80's, the rest is history.. Still have the car.

Good times Steve, I was introduced to VW Greats (Argus Publ.) magazine by a high school friend, to the editor Jay Amestoy. Jay took a liking to my 914 and the way I added go-fast tweaks to it. He sent me over to Irwindale Raceway (orig 1/4 mile track) for a day of drag racing my T4 turbo, Steve Reyes was the camera guy that day (www.Reyesontour.com)...the 914 turbo made it into the June 1976 issue. The magazine then became VW+Porsche, Gregg Brown editor/ Les Bidrawn photography, offices in West L.A. on Wilshire. All of my turbo creations 356, 914-4, 6, 911, 924, 928 were driven over to VW+Porsche offices for their critique. The straightaways of Sepulveda, Veteran and the 405 were a stones throw from Argus, and....Gregg once said "If Marty ever offers you a ride in his Porsche, he's a madman ". Old School "VW+Porsche" were Good times for sure , and thank you Steve for being an early customer of ours (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)
Marty

[thieuster]

Print is something of the past.

A uni friend of my wife a self-employed magazine writer, editor and publisher. Only 10% of her time is spent on print. 90% goes into online magazines and other social media. 4 yrs ago it was still 50/50.

The only way for magazines to survive is investing in software how to publish a magazine online.

Menno

[horizontally-opposed]

...for those of us that like to open our mailboxes and see the fresh new magazine..... reach in your pockets and subscribe... hopefully making it that the mags we read still have a substantial amount of paper subscriptions. Maybe they won’t be so quick to go all online only. Just renewed my excellence for another 3 yr term.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

And good on ya!

Good times Steve, I was introduced to VW Greats (Argus Publ.) magazine by a high school friend, to the editor Jay Amestoy. Jay took a liking to my 914 and the way I added go-fast tweaks to it. He sent me over to Irwindale Raceway (orig 1/4 mile track) for a day of drag racing my T4 turbo, Steve Reyes was the camera guy that day (www.Reyesontour.com)...the 914 turbo made it into the June 1976 issue. The magazine then became VW+Porsche, Gregg Brown editor/ Les Bidrawn photography, offices in West L.A. on Wilshire. All of my turbo creations 356, 914-4, 6, 911, 924, 928 were driven over to VW+Porsche offices for their critique. The straightaways of Sepulveda, Veteran and the 405 were a stones throw from Argus, and....Gregg once said "If Marty ever offers you a ride in his Porsche, he's a madman ". Old School "VW+Porsche" were Good times for sure , and thank you Steve for being an early customer of ours (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)
Marty

Man, I remember those cars and those stories—and spent a lot of time with Greg and Les in later years, in all sorts of crazy places.

Print is something of the past.

A uni friend of my wife a self-employed magazine writer, editor and publisher. Only 10% of her time is spent on print. 90% goes into online magazines and other social media. 4 yrs ago it was still 50/50.

The only way for magazines to survive is investing in software how to publish a magazine online.

Menno

I dunno. The above sounds very 2005. Or 2010. Or 2015. Print ain't dead, but it is changing. I wouldn't want to be on the newsstand anymore. The waste is huge, and the sell-through tanked after about 2007-2009. I can tell you—having watched the metrics on the digital version of Panorama when PCA launched that—that digital magazines have pitiful engagement. Some years ago, one of the very big publishers experimented with two digital versions of the same magazine: One a straight PDF replica of the magazine, the other all-singing, all-dancing with videos, multiple images (with captions), and other bonus content. The latter required more people...and saw no more engagement than the straight PDF replica. Guess which one I suggested PCA try? The engagement was quite small, but the cost was so low that it made sense to make it available for the small number of people who used it. My guess is they really liked it, though the minutes in use were also small. Perhaps that has improved, but I doubt it. Most magazine publishers will tell you the magazine in digital form was DOA.

If one can get paid well to write content online, awesome. I know very few who do. Most online car sites pay $25~ per item, if anything. Some pay more, but typically only when they are backed by corporate making money on…print. Or ads. Or a bigger picture of some kind. In the meantime, I still believe in print when it comes to magazines. Even I have converted to digital novels, but when it comes to a premium reading experience with photos and layouts, I still think print is unmatched. And if it's beautiful enough to keep? A tab in my browser just ain't the same.

[GregAmy]

Content is decisively moving electronic, but I think a lot of that is becoming self-inflicted. Wired magazine, for example, is one i've subscirbed to since nearly its inception. I really like the content, and enjoy having paper to handle in certain scenario.

However, they have inexorably increased their online presence, but in a lot of ways at the expense of the hardcopy. My Wired physical magazine is shrinking, seemingly each month, with references to additional content online. And I just got an email notification that I have a free subscription online, encouraging me to move there for content. It's inevitable that the hardcopy will go away, at which point I will cancel my subscription.

Grassroots Motorsports, on the other hand, is still going strong, with excellent hardcopy content and referrals to online links for more details. I think their magazine is actually growing, not shrinking. Each time I see a deal on subscriptions I'll bite; I think I'm somewhere in the range of 2023 for expiration.

European Car died not because of online competition, it died because its content was becoming dry, boring, redundant, and irrelevant. See Car & Driver , Motor Trend, and AutoWeek since most of the good guys got fired/left. Yawn.

Yeah, online content is the king, but there's really nothing like a well-run hardcopy magazine with top-notch content.

But that's just me. Apparently I'm an outlier.