Is there a gap in the market for another mag

Isnt this why we have Retro Cars?

www.retrocarsmag.com/

Retro cars is getting worse imo, aiming for young audience and just copying the scene work of other mags. No real tech knowledge, just a load of nice picures of the cars the staff are into, VW,J as that was their background.

I think you are being a mite bit unfair to RC here.. The features do lack technical detail, however you have PPC for that if that is what you are after. Frankly though if I want technical detail I'll buy a book about the thing I want technical detail on, want to learn about turbos? Buy a book on turbos etc. etc. ... or ask on here or somewhere else like here that isn't here.

What RC supply is some interesting and diverse feature cars, the one on my coffee table at the moment has Ford, Vauxhaul, Renault, BMW, Opel, Mazda and Porsche feature cars. They are trapped between people like us that want more obscure, more detail, more modified, a publisher that wants more stock, more classic, easier to sell ad space and a section of the public that want something in between. If they get people interested in modified old cars and provide an outlet for the stuff we see around the internet and beyond (remember folks WWW isn't the be all and end all of car modifying), then I'm all for them. For the more greasy fingered types you have the pseudo-top-gear-lite that is PPC. Or you could buy a good book instead.

Web magazines don't really work (as we've discovered) but blogs do, however they are a bite sized chunk (like a lot of forum threads), perhaps magazines do need to take a deeper look, but paper costs, advertisers, publisher and the publishing cycle all serve to make that not an easy thing to turn into reality.

I've entertained two ideas in the publishing space, a) free magazine, super light, 30-40 or even 50 pages, half of which would be advertising (which pays for cost of production etc.), quarterly, covers shows, a couple of "feature" cars, some paid for features, maybe some sponsored tech advice etc. Distribute it through the people that advertise in the magazines and through a website (with a nominal charge for the mag + postage). Ran the numbers, not sure it is sustainable at a quality that would make it a living for even one person to do full time.

or!

b) Rodders Journal style, £10 or more an issue, super glossy, quarterly (or less, bi-annually). Properly thick, 200 pages, long form articles, quality photos, very very few adverts (if any). A kind of luxury retro magazine, limited print run. I also ran the numbers on this, it is feasible if you can get production costs right, but paper keeps going up in price and I suspect people would less inclined to spend that much on a "magazine" when it came to actually spending it (I'm sure a lot of people would like to have the magazine but money/mouth interface would be a different matter). To do the product justice you'd want the best photographers, maybe even going outside the usual classic car photographers and into an even more expensive area.

Maybe one day I'll have a spare 5 minutes and I'll action one of these ideas ...

Hotwire - i take your point. I'm being a little harsh if you take all of their audience into account, & the pics are fantastic.
I just feel there are a lot of people out there who can do better words for them, somthing between beginer (rc) and expert (ppc).

I don't see any need for any extra web coverage at all, the readers rides section here does the job well enough.

its been done and the guy lost a bundle on it.

People complained it was too expensive for a magazine and too floppy for a book.

You can't please people.

Especially people who build modified cars, thems the worst.

I've replied to the OP on Rods & Sods pretty much in same vein as Dez.

My complaint about RC mag is that the couple I picked up were all "Oh, what kind of old car can I buy to be cool?" and "crikey, cars that aren't VWs can be cool too!"

That and the "authenticity" of authorship is questionable when most of the staff pay other people to do simple jobs on their cars for them.

It may have changed since but I felt so robbed of my four quid on the couple I did buy I've not been back.

I've stopped buying any magazines now. I found I wasn't reading them.

I Joined this forum not that long ago and I have to say I was a regular buyer of rc but i havent even picked up the mag since joining I find theres more interesting topics and pics and subjects on this forum that a monthly mag wouldnt even scratch the surface of and i don't have to pay nearly a fiver to read it the only thing I might buy now is classic car weekly once in the blue moon.

Looking at the last 3 comments, they would sell twice as many RC mags if RR wasnt here.

I don't think there is much room for any more mags or fourms unless its somthing realy special.

Haha, id buy a mag if you and alistairk wrote it, you have it all in a nutshell!

I've been subscribing to both RC and PPC. I stopped my RC subscription when they first closed down and never bother renewing when they came back. PPC'S was good in the start, but I agree that it has gone down hill lately. They have had project cars that never gets finished (2xEscort), technical detail seems to be less and less important etc. But it still the best mag around imo.

I wish I could have a mag that was heavy on details and how too's and that took me more than an evening to get through.