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Old 10-20-2009, 10:48 PM
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WheelNut
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Derek, I gotta hand it to you man, you are dedicated to XRC! Anytime there is a magazine discussion your here, in the trenches, gunning down the haters with shots of reality. That's pretty cool. You guys do a good magazine too, and I love the fact you don't put boats or helis in it, because that is just ridiculous.
Having said that, I don't actually buy the mag anymore. After 9 years of reading magazines you eventually get pretty accustomed to the standard format. Not to mention the fact that we've become so spoiled by the internet now. Our hunger for instant gratification just can't be satisfied by magazines. News that is 2 weeks old now is, apparently, way to slow. That thought now, actually, that leads me off on a bit of tangent. Derek, what direction do you think print magazines are going in the future? With competition from the internet growing stronger I've heard that print sales are down, so what can the magazine industry do to bring people back? Or, maybe not so much "the industry", since that would involve suppliers and retailers too, but what kind of innovations can the editors bring to the table?

My take on the magazine situation: The thing is with magazines is that they can't offer the same kind of depth of content that online articles can because of space constraints and the fact that they are constrained by what a very broad and diverse readership demand. It's tough to sell magazines to every country in the world, but every website can be seen from any country in the world. Websites can cater to niche markets a lot easier than print media can. Take www.oople.com's car reviews for example. Amazing attention to detail. After reading one of his reviews you feel like you really know all the ins and outs of the car, but to put that review in a magazine it would take up probably 15+ pages, which is way to much space to devote to one car review.

Last edited by WheelNut; 10-20-2009 at 11:01 PM.
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