Magazines' lies RAMPANT to make money

[the_judge]

There has been much disccussion on this forum about magazines and thier dubious claims and stories. I am friends with an industry insider. This guy has WORKED in the industry for years and has even ran his own magazine at one stage.

Well, in case you didnt know, most magazines are merely tools to reel in advertising dollars. You cannot trust 90% of what they say. They are as bad as tabloids.

Most, i said, not all. There are a few out there who believe in truth, however such a magazine is set up to fail.

The level of lie-spinning magazines out there is at such a level that the average person cannot afford to trust a single one.

Now, please understand me perfectly well. I dont know a thing about **** and the way they do business and what i am about to sugest is in no way the truth or reality, it is just what I think, and it could be wrong. I dont want this statement to be defaming, because its not intended in that way. I believe ***** is a paid publication who rolls over for the highest bidder. The way that magazine jumped on the holden bandwagon with the VE is something to be ashamed about. Not that they did it, but that they lie about it and guilty of concealing the truth about a certain manufacuter's products in this country. Further, their commenting is leeching in nature. Leeching is a form whereby you continually "leech" at an aspect of something to make the readership "break" about it and come to believe it and then accept anything about it as truth.....rugby league was victim to this mentality in the past 10 years....people bagged the sport in the media all the time...the people were broken and beleived it eventually, and then readers became enslaved to the thinking and soon had to read every story that sounded remotely like a bag on league (making said stories acrtively sought out). Now said stories may be total blurs on the truth....but leeching is like brainwashing. Its truth that league gained much popularity from this, however, it must be noted its a sport, not a car, and that sports have many voices that stick up for them, cars dont.

If you doubt me about magazines being set up to make advertising dollars only and not give a hoot about their stories, please understand the following.


Typical magazine business plan in ideas form:

Magazines cost money to produce and writers cost money to employ. If you have a magazine and fill it only with stories you can only hope to make even from a reasonable selling price. It makes little sense to get into this business and not something else that makes more money if we cant make money from this.

Its relitively cheap and easy to put extra pages in a mag - pages that contain no stories from us. And its even easier to fill them with adverts. Adverts can be straight advertising, stories written by companies to be made to look like real stories but are in fact just adverts (who likes to pck up and flick through a mag thats page after page of adverts anyway). The strategies for this kind of thing are remarkably complex and sneaky.

What makes those adverts more valuable is if the magazine has a huge reader audience. To get this, give the readers what they want.....sensations, excitment, factions and groups and wars and ego contests, dramatise things.....if a month comes up where there is no news or its JUST PLAIN BORING!!! MAAAAKE SOMETHING UUUP!!!?

Its a no brainer. Then watch the readership go up and the advertising dollars hit the roof.....when the magazine becomes adictive almost to people, jack up the price!!!



The above is factual. Bodybuilding and fitness magazines are often writting by companies who have a stake in the industry and they market their products throught them.....one may wonder why a writer favours a particular product over another - chances are he is an employee of that company..


look at john laws and allan jones and their radio programmes, essentially its electrfied listening and "wow" factor just to make money from adverts - its never about the content.

Thats amazing!

Its never about the content!?

It doesnt matter if its a car mag, a fitness mag, a hobbies magazine, a bike mag, a pc mag....they all need to make money and there is one easiest and best way how.

Not all mags do it ofcourse, a few have a heart and soul and ethics....but most are in it to fool you out of your money.

Its true that many articles are written to sell things, and propaganda is often flung around in giant doses.

You may come across facts in magazines because enthusiasts are thought to write the articles and they are interested in what you are interested in, right?

Thats true....but you dont know who is paying them, and the majority of stories are carefully placed and selected to make you think something.

In the car wars in this country, most of the stories in magazines are written to make you think something in order for someone to be easier to make money from you.

In business you sell to the highest bidder or you compromise your business plan and you no longer may have a business.

Magazines are business. Dont believe too much of what they write.

Yes, body building and fitness mags are the worst, and where it became an artform to decieve and mislead....but most areas practice it, and yes its a ford site, and yes car mags do it to.

Fact: I dont know which ones.

[apolloxbgt]

Wouldn't be supprised at all if thats true.

[anakha]

I preface this by stating that I have no affiliation with anyone or company in the publishing or automotive business. I will also state that I am a magazine junkie. Between subscriptions and browsing newsagents I would buy between 15-20 magazines a month. Most of these cover cars, fishing and computers.

It's true that the editorial content of some magazines is less critical of companies that spend significant dollars advertising in the same publication. This is most often seen when a product is being discussed for the first time. If you read enough of a magazine to become familiar with the style of editorial used you can pick out language to read around some of what the say. Sometimes knowing what they have left out of some commentary is as or more important than what they write.

No one should ever rely on just magazines to help them make purchase/lifestyle decisions. Internet forums, newspapers, tv shows, friends, colleagues should always be listened to to get a more well rounded understanding.

That all said I am fine with how the magazine industry operates. If I feel Im not getting meaningful editorial from a magazine I'll stop buying it.

For the record the car mag I've bought with the best editorial (least fluff and advertising colouring) to page count is Car Craft.

It's hard to go wrong with the skin mags too. Penthouse Black Label for the win!

[DOC]

Originally Posted by the_judge

Well, in case you didnt know, most magazines are merely tools to reel in advertising dollars. .

Where you been hiding Wallace

[Sourbastard]

Originally Posted by DOC

Where you been hiding Wallace

Next hes going to tell us politicians are corrupt, the sky is blue, water is wet and that the giant fibreglass radardome on Ray Martins head, ISNT his real hair! Wake me up momma please! Tell me its a dream!

[XR8Master]

Corruption isnt confinded to the senate, you will find its just inbuilt in people generally

[XR8Master]

But on the thingy about magazines, its totally true, thats why you will find if you collect lots of the same magazine they always seem to have very similar or exact stories over and over and over...

[gtfpv]

some leeching successes ; road workers are bludgers, life on / or not on mars, wharfies are all poker playing bludgers, holdens are faster than fords, porsches are better then every other car ;always, factory fpv exhausts are shiyte, unions dont represent employees, the word "worker" is perceived as not a success, therefore nobody wants to be labelled as one. we're not in it for the oil, they can cure aids/no they cant / yes they can / no they cant. you can go on for ever and it's all based on the power of the $$$$$$$$$$

[Auslandau]

I have purchased 'Street Fords' & 'Ford Performance' for quite some time now! I thought they were a tad biased towards FORDS but this has now just confirmed it!



| [/url] |

[sleekism]

Very well said!

Read the editorial of the Wheels magazine with the 427 GTS-R it was pure sensationalism.

Pure crap about how the Falcon is getting it's *** handed to it and Ford fans don't know where to turn next and it's a pure ones sided fight.

Hmmmmmmm the "old platform" Typhoon is only one second slower down the quarter mile than the brand spanking new GTS.

Next year Ford gets a new platform and the boost wound up on the Typhoon to send the GTS running.

Series 2 orion is going to see the Falcon with a brand new V8 family that can be stretched all the way to 7 litres. Stand a Pushrod 7 litre V8 next to an OHC 7 litre V8 and tell me what is going to be on top. There is no substitute for cubes but if you can't have that than technology can make up for the deficiency. The new Hurricane is going to have both.

This a golden age for Ford performance and Wheels should get their facts straight.

[DOC]

Originally Posted by XR8Master

But on the thingy about magazines, its totally true, thats why you will find if you collect lots of the same magazine they always seem to have very similar or exact stories over and over and over...

Your related to Wallace arn't you ?

thats why you will find if you collect lots of the same magazine

they always seem to have very similar or exact stories over and over and over

[XR8Master]

Originally Posted by sleekism

stand a Pushrod 7 litre V8 next to an OHC 7 litre V8 and tell me what is going to be on top.
straight.

After ford throws the modular 5.4 in the bin they are going back to pushrod, so there wont be no 7 litre DOHC

[the_judge]

Some great comments.

Watch those ford mags man, I heard holden want to advertise in them.

The myriad of angles from which they can brainwash you will make you a General Moron before you know it.

[Falcon Coupe]

Originally Posted by XR8Master

After ford throws the modular 5.4 in the bin they are going back to pushrod, so there wont be no 7 litre DOHC

No, just a 6.2 L, DOHC, four-valves-per-cylinder, twin-turbo, GDI version of the Boss already under development.

[chevypower]

I can't believe you find that surprising. Of course Magazine's are businesses trying to make money. They are not charity organizations and they are their to support their own industry, not an aid to support the motoring industry. Although the automotive magazines rely and work with the automotive industry, their primary objective is to make their own money. Austomotive media assists car companies with their marketing, that's why they have press releases for them first. It does not make it "wrong," it just means take what you read with a grain of salt

[Silver Ghia]

Yes, magazines would be a bit dull if they only contained factual information. Thats why they need to stretch the imagination and exagerate whatever they think of a car or comparisons they are making, also making the stories very colourful. I think they call that "infotainment".

And thats why if I need information about a car I'm about to purchase, to believe the magazines comparisons, tests etc. like a grain of salt and get out there and look and drive the cars myself and see if it meets my expectations and requirements.

I'm older and wiser now, been there and believed them, but I know better now.

[colossus]

Originally Posted by the_judge

There has been much disccussion on this forum about magazines and thier dubious claims and stories. I am friends with an industry insider. This guy has WORKED in the industry for years and has even ran his own magazine at one stage.

Well, in case you didnt know, most magazines are merely tools to reel in advertising dollars. You cannot trust 90% of what they say. They are as bad as tabloids.

Most, i said, not all. There are a few out there who believe in truth, however such a magazine is set up to fail.

The level of lie-spinning magazines out there is at such a level that the average person cannot afford to trust a single one.

Now, please understand me perfectly well. I dont know a thing about **** and the way they do business and what i am about to sugest is in no way the truth or reality, it is just what I think, and it could be wrong. I dont want this statement to be defaming, because its not intended in that way. I believe ***** is a paid publication who rolls over for the highest bidder. The way that magazine jumped on the holden bandwagon with the VE is something to be ashamed about. Not that they did it, but that they lie about it and guilty of concealing the truth about a certain manufacuter's products in this country. Further, their commenting is leeching in nature. Leeching is a form whereby you continually "leech" at an aspect of something to make the readership "break" about it and come to believe it and then accept anything about it as truth.....rugby league was victim to this mentality in the past 10 years....people bagged the sport in the media all the time...the people were broken and beleived it eventually, and then readers became enslaved to the thinking and soon had to read every story that sounded remotely like a bag on league (making said stories acrtively sought out). Now said stories may be total blurs on the truth....but leeching is like brainwashing. Its truth that league gained much popularity from this, however, it must be noted its a sport, not a car, and that sports have many voices that stick up for them, cars dont.

If you doubt me about magazines being set up to make advertising dollars only and not give a hoot about their stories, please understand the following.


Typical magazine business plan in ideas form:

Magazines cost money to produce and writers cost money to employ. If you have a magazine and fill it only with stories you can only hope to make even from a reasonable selling price. It makes little sense to get into this business and not something else that makes more money if we cant make money from this.

Its relitively cheap and easy to put extra pages in a mag - pages that contain no stories from us. And its even easier to fill them with adverts. Adverts can be straight advertising, stories written by companies to be made to look like real stories but are in fact just adverts (who likes to pck up and flick through a mag thats page after page of adverts anyway). The strategies for this kind of thing are remarkably complex and sneaky.

What makes those adverts more valuable is if the magazine has a huge reader audience. To get this, give the readers what they want.....sensations, excitment, factions and groups and wars and ego contests, dramatise things.....if a month comes up where there is no news or its JUST PLAIN BORING!!! MAAAAKE SOMETHING UUUP!!!?

Its a no brainer. Then watch the readership go up and the advertising dollars hit the roof.....when the magazine becomes adictive almost to people, jack up the price!!!



The above is factual. Bodybuilding and fitness magazines are often writting by companies who have a stake in the industry and they market their products throught them.....one may wonder why a writer favours a particular product over another - chances are he is an employee of that company..


look at john laws and allan jones and their radio programmes, essentially its electrfied listening and "wow" factor just to make money from adverts - its never about the content.

Thats amazing!

Its never about the content!?

It doesnt matter if its a car mag, a fitness mag, a hobbies magazine, a bike mag, a pc mag....they all need to make money and there is one easiest and best way how.

Not all mags do it ofcourse, a few have a heart and soul and ethics....but most are in it to fool you out of your money.

Its true that many articles are written to sell things, and propaganda is often flung around in giant doses.

You may come across facts in magazines because enthusiasts are thought to write the articles and they are interested in what you are interested in, right?

Thats true....but you dont know who is paying them, and the majority of stories are carefully placed and selected to make you think something.

In the car wars in this country, most of the stories in magazines are written to make you think something in order for someone to be easier to make money from you.

In business you sell to the highest bidder or you compromise your business plan and you no longer may have a business.

Magazines are business. Dont believe too much of what they write.

Yes, body building and fitness mags are the worst, and where it became an artform to decieve and mislead....but most areas practice it, and yes its a ford site, and yes car mags do it to.

Fact: I dont know which ones.

ZOMG111! Someone get the President on the phone NOW!

[Cobra]

Originally Posted by sleekism

Very well said!

Read the editorial of the Wheels magazine with the 427 GTS-R it was pure sensationalism.

Pure crap about how the Falcon is getting it's *** handed to it and Ford fans don't know where to turn next and it's a pure ones sided fight.

Hmmmmmmm the "old platform" Typhoon is only one second slower down the quarter mile than the brand spanking new GTS.

Next year Ford gets a new platform and the boost wound up on the Typhoon to send the GTS running.

Series 2 orion is going to see the Falcon with a brand new V8 family that can be stretched all the way to 7 litres. Stand a Pushrod 7 litre V8 next to an OHC 7 litre V8 and tell me what is going to be on top. There is no substitute for cubes but if you can't have that than technology can make up for the deficiency. The new Hurricane is going to have both.

This a golden age for Ford performance and Wheels should get their facts straight.

You've never been drag racing before, have you? Because if you had, you would have a much greater appreciation of how big a gap a full second difference is racing on a quarter mile. Having said that, theres no way a GTS is a full second faster than a Typhoon! There might be a 10th in it at the most.

[jonk]

I really like the way some of you take the OP down... geez people ! Arm chair experts...

I know for a fact that car mags make up their letters to editor stuff, not all but a hell of a lot.

I use to buy about 12 mags every month but I now get multiple emailed magazines as .pdf's, cut down mag purchases down to just 2 a month. If you want decent quality mags, go for 'trade/industry magazines'. The stuff they don't sell in newsagents. And if you ask real nicely, they'll send you them for free - one mag I get costs over $800 a year to subscribe to. Another one I used to get cost $2000/year. Mags on Helicopters, Trucks, Building & Computers.

Like the way you described the leeching idea, somewhat similar in execution to the 'Hegelian dialectic' (Cause, Reaction, Solution - Conquer & Divide strategy).

[phoon]

Originally Posted by jonk

I really like the way some of you take the OP down... geez people ! Arm chair experts...

I know for a fact that car mags make up their letters to editor stuff, not all but a hell of a lot.

I use to buy about 12 mags every month but I now get multiple emailed magazines as .pdf's, cut down mag purchases down to just 2 a month. If you want decent quality mags, go for 'trade/industry magazines'. The stuff they don't sell in newsagents. And if you ask real nicely, they'll send you them for free - one mag I get costs over $800 a year to subscribe to. Another one I used to get cost $2000/year. Mags on Helicopters, Trucks, Building & Computers.

Like the way you described the leeching idea, somewhat similar in execution to the 'Hegelian dialectic' (Cause, Reaction, Solution - Conquer & Divide strategy).

Whata u mean the letters to editors are made up. Are u trying to shatter all of the boyhood joys I had reading Penthouse letters to editor. Theyre all true I tells ya, all of them.

[Auslandau]

Originally Posted by Falcon Coupe

No, just a 6.2 L, DOHC, four-valves-per-cylinder, twin-turbo, GDI version of the Boss already under development.

Oh now I am excited! Will this be std in the XT or do I have to op for the Ghia???



| [/url] |

[sleekism]

Originally Posted by Cobra

You've never been drag racing before, have you? Because if you had, you would have a much greater appreciation of how big a gap a full second difference is racing on a quarter mile. Having said that, theres no way a GTS is a full second faster than a Typhoon! There might be a 10th in it at the most.

Soz I meant 0.1 seconds.

My point is that 0.1 seconds is not a lot. Human error can count for a lot more than 0.1 seconds. I've seen powerful cars been humbled by less powerful cars simply down to driving technique.

If you go for a test drive in a Typhoon are you going to say "wow the HSV I drove earlier ****ed all over this car?"

The performance difference between HSV and FPV is marginal at best magazines simply skew the results to make it look like a huge difference.

There is a gaping difference between the top of the line Commodore and the top of the line Aurion but not the Falcon and Commodore.

These magazines seem to make it ot that HSV is walking all over FPV but personally I don't consider a brand new HSV only 0.1 second faster than a 10 year old FPV a walk over.

This isn't a XF vs VL battle if you saw a GTS lined up against a Typhhon at the traffic lights you wouldn't no which way it would go (another point is they are always talking about the long absence of a Ford performance king correct me if I'm wrong it was only in the XF and EA there was no V8 option and the contemporary Holden V8 wasn't that flash hot either I think it was more the lack of a HSV equivalent)

[El_Poochino]

Newpapers are for facts (well, most are... or just some) and the internet (provided you are on the right site).

Magazines are for entertainment, most do a good job too.

Top Gear is a great show with millions of viewers, but any normal person wouldn't take Clarkson's advice on buying a toothbrush let alone a car. Same with mags, your not going to sink $70G on a VE due to a blurb in wheels.

You look around and do your research, many sources. One of the most basic and valuable pieces of consumer advice ever given.

[blk_frmnt]

This is hardly news...

They pull the same crap on all the Today Tonight/A Current Affair type scourge, where they have 'tests' to see which washing powder is best, what tyres to use on your car etc...

[VSSII]

So if publications such as wheels are Holden promoters and Ford bashers, who are the Ford Promoters?

[SVR73]

Well I lost interest in all magazines except unique cars years ago. It's most likely true what you have posted.

[fairmont1998]

Originally Posted by El_Poochino

any normal person wouldn't take Clarkson's advice on buying a toothbrush let alone a car.

Never trust a man in Tweed?

[Resofour]

quite obvious really - they are just tryinig to make money - aren't we all...lol