Magazines Autosport Magazine - Your Opinions II - Page 2

Alan Raine · 13 Feb 2006, 21:54 (Ref:1522132)

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Turner

Snap, Alan! Of course, in terms of content, a magazine that's changed its style and coverage before could well do so again, this time to something that some of us might find more acceptable! Don't forget that, as has been mentioned here before, there have been fairly frequent changes in editorial staff at Haymarket and that has sometimes signalled a change in editorial policy, as well.

Hopefully you are right John. I still like Autosport, but sometimes I can't be bothered to read it all (It's possibly to do with all this F1 spin which is mostly PR rubbish). Motorsport Magazine, despite it's change seems to have kept most of it's editorial integrity. I just can't find it easily in the shops.

**John Turner** · 13 Feb 2006, 23:49 (Ref:1522217)

Why not subscribe; it's cheaper that way. Without wishing to sound like an advert, MotorSport currently offers the new subscriber a 23% discount on the shop price and a free Teng Tool Set, apparently worth £37. It is usually delivered a day or two earlier than the shops as well.

Right, now back to that other Haymarket publication, Autosport!

shambles · 13 Feb 2006, 23:55 (Ref:1522221)

Personally; i'm a casual reader of Autosport at best. I find that with places like this; I tend to pick up a lot of my knowledge on the Internet. Customarily, when I do read magazines, it's more in way of a study tool than for actual interest.

Saying that, when there is nothing better to do - what more apt than to read Autosport, cup of tea in hand - on a Sunday evening. That's what the magazine should be about.

safc_fan89 · 18 Feb 2006, 10:35 (Ref:1525543)

For a weekly magazine, it is quite expensive, and not really worth paying if you can find all the news on the internet anyway. From the few copies I have bought, it seems to be very F1-centred, which I didn't particularly like.

Suze · 18 Feb 2006, 21:17 (Ref:1525904)

for mn, ok it's once a week and is a "paper" (not mag like autosport)...but sometimes you do wonder why your £2 is going on that...autosport too.

anyway, most of the info's on the net anyway (for both) so scout around and you won't miss much.

safc_fan89 · 18 Feb 2006, 21:38 (Ref:1525924)

Half of Autosport seems to be advertising anyway, which I suppose is the same for most papers/magazines nowadays.

Suze · 19 Feb 2006, 22:29 (Ref:1526544)

half is a slight exaggeration

but yes, many mags and papers are full of adverts - tis the norm

**Craig** · 19 Feb 2006, 22:34 (Ref:1526548)

full is a slight exaggeration

Suze · 19 Feb 2006, 22:36 (Ref:1526551)

indeed

redshoes · 20 Feb 2006, 08:35 (Ref:1526740)

I'm sure they would be happy to drop the advertising, if you were happy to pay double the cover price.

sceptic · 20 Feb 2006, 09:58 (Ref:1526820)

Quote:

Originally Posted by redshoes

I'm sure they would be happy to drop the advertising, if you were happy to pay double the cover price.

I'm sure they wouldn't...

Pete Fenelon · 20 Feb 2006, 12:47 (Ref:1526968)

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimW

In spite of all my reservations, I still buy it (almost) every week so I guess that says it all.

Now if I could have a combination of AS with 80% less F1 and MN with decent reproduction of photographs, I'd even subscribe to that.

Regards

Jim

Another vote for 70s/80s Autosport, then

Suze · 20 Feb 2006, 13:26 (Ref:1527014)

Quote:

Originally Posted by redshoes

I'm sure they would be happy to drop the advertising, if you were happy to pay double the cover price.

i don't think so either....

Dutton · 23 Feb 2006, 19:50 (Ref:1530074)

Definitely not, IMHO.

I haven't got Autosport since moving to Canada, so I am not able to speak about the 14 months, but I was finding it frustrating in that there wasn't enough substance. By this I mean in too many, but not all, cases just as an article was starting to get somewhere it would stop. Another manifestation of this, and a worse one IMHO, was when an article would just waffle about not much and waste space (prevalent in much of the F1 stuff, but this is inevitable seeing as the pull of F1 is what will sell copies no doubt).

It was overly F1-centric, which was a bit annoying from my perspective because I was primarily interested in it for getting an idea of what was going in the many branches of motorsport I wouldn't get an opportunity to see.

plutoman99 · 10 Mar 2006, 23:36 (Ref:1543271)

I bought every copy from 1980 to 2004 (and a few earlier ones), but I've given up now. Ever since the editorship of Bruce Jones its been going downhill, for whatever reason. The 'Death at Imola' cover headline in May '94 was unforgivable and sensationalist, and its taken its inspiration from the tabloids increasingly over the last decade. Rubbish gimmicky layouts are no substitute for in-depth coverage, and only Roebuck's column remains that's worth reading (and you can read him in Motorsport anyway). It just seems to be run by a bunch of kids these days, with tedious repetition of 'fever' and the like. Nonsense. Maybe I'm just getting old!

rdjones · 7 Apr 2006, 07:10 (Ref:1572837)

I have a quick question about this weeks addition of Autosport - why did we have a 52 page guide to the DTM, which is a championship based in Germany and the British Touring Car Championship only got a 4 page preview, at the end of the day Autosport is a British Mag, not a German one......

redshoes · 7 Apr 2006, 07:39 (Ref:1572852)

The DTM preview is essentially a paid advert. I suspect most of the costs would have been met by DTM/Audi/Mecedes/MSV.

plutoman99 · 7 Apr 2006, 10:56 (Ref:1572980)

Whilst not wanting to denigrate the BTCC, which has a history of entertaining racing, comparing it to the DTM is like comparing British F3 to Grand Prix racing. Just look at the cars and drivers on show. Can you really compare Matt Neal and Jason Plato to the likes of Hakkinen, Alesi, Kristensen and Frentzen?

On the subject of nationality, surely Autosport is, and always has been, a publication dedicated to motorsport in all its forms. I dislike the nationalistic bias in all forms of the press; I would rather they told me Alonso won the race than the fact that Button didn't!

luke · 7 Apr 2006, 11:21 (Ref:1573006)

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdjones

I have a quick question about this weeks addition of Autosport - why did we have a 52 page guide to the DTM, which is a championship based in Germany and the British Touring Car Championship only got a 4 page preview, at the end of the day Autosport is a British Mag, not a German one......

The DTM is the F1 of touring cars. And as mentioned, the BTCC is the British F3 of touring cars.

luke · 7 Apr 2006, 11:33 (Ref:1573009)

You made some good points that I can't disagree with there Dutton...

And I used to think Autosport was cheap, well now its nearly £3 and secondly that's quite a lot for when a third of the mag is adverts.

Ian Sowman · 7 Apr 2006, 11:53 (Ref:1573029)

If a third of the magazine wasn't adverts, the cover price would be several times what it is now...

**John Turner** · 7 Apr 2006, 12:08 (Ref:1573039)

Just to put it in perspective, how much is a gallon of petrol or a pint of beer?

plutoman99 · 7 Apr 2006, 12:57 (Ref:1573091)

The cover price is not an issue for me - it compares favourably to other specialist magazines. My problem with Autosport nowadays is the quality of the reporting; for instance, the Japanese A1GP driver who had a recent spectacular accident had apparently "cheated death" - a term more commonly seen in the sports pages of The Sun or Daily Mail. Secondly, the race reports, which used to be a thorough and entertaining read, are now just a selection of side panels and summaries with pointless graphs to fill the space. Has no-one got more than a 5-minute attention span any more?

Knowlesy · 7 Apr 2006, 15:56 (Ref:1573245)

That "Cheated Death" banner was so funny, it hurt!

ss_collins · 14 Apr 2006, 11:23 (Ref:1581167)

If you are after serious motorsport coverage its seems that you either have to watch all the races which leads to sleep deprivation, or buy the serious engineering mags.

On the plus side Motorsport seems to be improving away from Haymarket

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