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All change at CMV


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Well before there is too much back slapping, hand shaking and all round meriment, lets see how it goes.

In my eyes this mag has fallen a long way, far too many adds, lean and incorrect reports and all round VERY poor value for money.

To be honest, none of that should be a supprise,as it has to be run on a commercial basis. I think the NEW windscreen is a far better read and far better quality mag all round. I stopped my subscription to it when i worked out that the add content was (in the last issue i had) 41%........I already know about Dallas, Cherrished, Jeep parts....etc etc etc.....

I noticed a down turn when the mag accepted small adds with POA in the first instance the Jeep section, followed by most other sections.

I really hope that it turns a corner as like many others I used to look forward the mag dropping through the door, however Im sure with pressures of today hands will be tied...........

Agree, it's not a patch on what it was while windscreen has improved into a half decent mag - there is always hope I suppose

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Agree, it's not a patch on what it was while windscreen has improved into a half decent mag - there is always hope I suppose

 

Baz48 and Gas44, sorry if a few positive and optimistic comments have bothered you. I was quite flattered but your concerns deserve a reply too. I think there is hope and you should perhaps believe there is too for one reason in particular. You both comment that you like Windscreen, well it looks like it does now because I redesigned it with a good designer, changed its layout, proofread it and so on for the three years of my MVT contract. In that time it won two awards - Most Improved Club magazine in 2013 and Club Magazine of the year in 2015 - judged and presented by the Classic and Sports Car magazine editorial team at the NEC Classic Car Show. Windscreen is still essentially the same magazine now although it will no doubt continue evolve as its new editor gets to grips with it. So with CMV, give it a chance eh?

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Baz48 and Gas44, sorry if a few positive and optimistic comments have bothered you. I was quite flattered but your concerns deserve a reply too. I think there is hope and you should perhaps believe there is too for one reason in particular. You both comment that you like Windscreen, well it looks like it does now because I redesigned it with a good designer, changed its layout, proofread it and so on for the three years of my MVT contract. In that time it won two awards - Most Improved Club magazine in 2013 and Club Magazine of the year in 2015 - judged and presented by the Classic and Sports Car magazine editorial team at the NEC Classic Car Show. Windscreen is still essentially the same magazine now although it will no doubt continue evolve as its new editor gets to grips with it. So with CMV, give it a chance eh?

 

 

All of the above. And actually, the most important thing that us HMVF'ers should appreciate that we have the new editor as a member of HMVF , and is WILLING to come here and listen too feedback.......wish all editors were like that. We as a hobby should be over the moon with this.

 

The lack of engagement from magazine editors with 'their' readers may explain why some magazines have their backs to the wall.

 

There is a goldmine of knowledge amongst our membership - enough to keep a magazine full of top class content. We should do all we can to support the new editor.

 

- that said, if John is on his laptop in the bar of the HMVF Clubhouse, then best not disturb him..........:computerrage:

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I have not bought CMV for some time now, brief scans in Smiths have not inspired me to be honest, I used to love it.

i agree with Jack, it's great that JC is on here defending his corner and must surely say he is confident we will be happy with his changes.....I look forward to Jan 19.

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If John is in the HMVF clubhouse then the beers (and the buns) are on him to celebrate!! :):)

 

Now if only we could get those dancing girls back from Enigma!!

 

I deny everything but I did hear from a reliable source the girls will visit to the clubhouse soon. :-D

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Baz48 and Gas44, sorry if a few positive and optimistic comments have bothered you. I was quite flattered but your concerns deserve a reply too. I think there is hope and you should perhaps believe there is too for one reason in particular. You both comment that you like Windscreen, well it looks like it does now because I redesigned it with a good designer, changed its layout, proofread it and so on for the three years of my MVT contract. In that time it won two awards - Most Improved Club magazine in 2013 and Club Magazine of the year in 2015 - judged and presented by the Classic and Sports Car magazine editorial team at the NEC Classic Car Show. Windscreen is still essentially the same magazine now although it will no doubt continue evolve as its new editor gets to grips with it. So with CMV, give it a chance eh?

 

Ok, so the comments have not bothered me as such.

Im glad you reshaped windscreen it is a great mag now.I never said I would not give CMV a chance, BUT you must admit that CMV has fallen a long way from a few years ago ? Im not saying you cannot turn it around BUT I'm sure you will have a huge amount of pressure to "make it Pay" as such, which was for me one of the sticking points the shear amount of ads.

I wish you good luck, but as I have said before " you can polish a tu*d but you cant roll it in glitter.

But really good luck.

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Ok, so the comments have not bothered me as such.

Im glad you reshaped windscreen it is a great mag now.I never said I would not give CMV a chance, BUT you must admit that CMV has fallen a long way from a few years ago ? Im not saying you cannot turn it around BUT I'm sure you will have a huge amount of pressure to "make it Pay" as such, which was for me one of the sticking points the shear amount of ads.

I wish you good luck, but as I have said before " you can polish a tu*d but you cant roll it in glitter.

But really good luck.

Again I agree with Gaz44, I look forward to seeing the results of the new editor’s influence within CMV, as windscreen has improved under its new editor. One a commercial operation so required to be profitable the other a club magazine supported by membership fees

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Continuing the fecal analogy, you can also just flush it away and start again...

 

Ok so the fact that CMV are having some changes at this level, must indicate they understand just how poor the mag has become over the last few years.

Whilst I have every faith that YOU will do your upmost to improve what is a VERY poor value for money product, I am waiting to see if you are ALLOWED to. As stated Windscreen is a "club" publication as such I would have thought that some of the members subs go towards that. Of course I understand there will always some commercial pressure for adverts and I agree with that. My issue was the shear amount of ads in recent CMV. As for correct tech content......well another story as long as there are 2 people talking about 1 vehicle I'm sure there will always be.......well different views. Ive have found even the "bibles" of MV's to be incorrect on some aspects.

The last two mags I have that are similar dates CMV Nov 15 issue 174 and Windscreen Oct 15 issue 150 are as follows

CMV circa 84 pages contain 23 pages of ads WINDSCREEN circa 100 pages contain 12 pages of ads.

It MAY not be so boring IF the ads were from alternative suppliers, but on the whole same old same old......

I'm not trying to pee on any one's fireworks, I'm just saying before eveyone gets too excited lets what you are allowed to do.

As I have said before good luck.

Edited by gas 44
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Those of us on the other side of the pond are watching with great interest.

 

I wish John Carroll all the best with the magazine and look forward to his spin. I have read and enjoyed his pieces for many years from his times with the Land Rover magazine days.

 

Thanks Robin - I still like old Land Rovers and have enough leafers to drive a different one every day of the week but I like other stuff a lot - sold my Hotchkiss M201 at a tough time but wish I hadn't... - and here's a Jeep picture from our epic trip to Egypt and the LRDG's stomping groundJeeping_new.jpg

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Thanks Robin - I still like old Land Rovers and have enough leafers to drive a different one every day of the week but I like other stuff a lot - sold my Hotchkiss M201 at a tough time but wish I hadn't... - and here's a Jeep picture from our epic trip to Egypt and the LRDG's stomping ground

 

It's one thing to find wrecks in the desert, but it must be unusual to find one which still has the driver in it...

 

10 68

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In defence of MV magazine editors everywhere, I suggest that they have only a modest influence over the content of their magazines. The commercial magazines don't seem to employ a large staff of authors, and must therefore rely to a significant extent on contributors. Editors do not normally have the time to write articles themselves - though JC's account in his early issues of Windscreen of his Jeep trip to the north African desert was fascinating. I reckon that if recent issues of CMV have been full of Land Rover buying guides, it is because the supply of articles from contributors has dried up and the editor has nothing better to hand.

 

Note that Windscreen, being a club magazine, does not pay contributors at all; CMV pays a modest sum that barely covers a contributor's costs. Contributors to both have to do it for the love of the hobby, and must to a greater or lesser extent subsidise the production of the magazines.

 

My pet hate is museums that charge an enormous sum for publication of their photographs. I mention no names, but in the railway field a normal repro fee that I am asked to pay for use in a book is £75 per image. The same sort of sum pertains in the MV field. A noble exception here is the US Library of Congress; the images on their website are for the most part free to use, which is why you are currently seeing their images in issues of Windscreen. If British museums and archives had the same policy, or even charged only a fiver or so per image, then the quality of content in CMV would improve overnight as contributors would not have to pay more in repro fees than they get back in payment by the magazine. Museums and archives would benefit too, as at the moment hardly anybody can afford to use their images.

 

John.

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Interesting thread ...... I admit to very rarely buying any magazines these days but I can very much appreciate the difficulties there are these days with keeping a magazine 'successful' whilst juggling cover price / subscriptions / sales / advert revenue / content etc especially when the internet has really impacted ' real paper' sales as it has ...

I think some of the comments have been a little harsh as we need to appreciate this aspect of what goes into making a 'good' magazine...... and don't forget ......a magazine can't rely on the 'dedicated' always buying ....they need to attract new customers and even if they are only the 'glanced at it on the shelf in the newsagents and bought it once cos the cover caught my eye' kind of sales..........

Also there are new people coming to any hobby every week ...the kid that is into his hotted up Japanese hatchbacks at 18?.......... may well be into something totally different by the time he is 22 ......so I guess this is why the 'buying your first **** type articles are always popular .....even if the rest of us grumpy old men think

" oh fer christsakes! not another article about how to buy a Jeep / Landrover / Tiger tank (though I'd just slip that one in :) ) etc !!!! everyone knows all of this already !"

.....the truth is of course..... there are many people out there buying magazines every week, simply because they do NOT know all of 'that kind of stuff' already ........

 

The same can be said of course about 'clubs' and the kind of talk that goes around in them . Many years ago I was in the AWDC and a few years back had occasion to bump into some of my old mates that are still 'in' for a drink ...after a while I couldn't believe that the chat among them all , was exactly the same as it had been . getting on for 30 years before ..........Things had moved on but .....not by very much at all......

The same issues and arguments and opinions were STILL being debated and the magazine scene for 'enthusiasts' of any vehicles / hobbies etc is probably somewhat the same ........so I guess we shouldn't be that surprised to see / read 'the same old things' being 'gone over' periodically .........

Anyways ......! I wish John all the best .

I haven;t bought CMV for a good few years but may well pick it up next year once he takes over ....... as long as it doesn't have an article on the front on 'Buying your first Landrover !' :) :) :) :)

Edited by RattlesnakeBob
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Anyways ......! I wish John all the best .

I haven;t bought CMV for a good few years but may well pick it up next year once he takes over ....... as long as it doesn't have an article on the front on 'Buying your first Landrover !' :):):):)

 

Thanks Bob. There's no articles on buying Land Rovers or Jeeps (and no Mahindras) in CMV 189!

Beer-TRuck-Otterburn_new.jpg

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Well I am looking forward to the new issues, I will vote with my feet and buy the first few issues to support the new editor purely on his energy and commitment.... If it's a good read I will continue.....he deserves at least that for being open and passionate about his new role!!!!

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In defence of MV magazine editors everywhere, I suggest that they have only a modest influence over the content of their magazines. The commercial magazines don't seem to employ a large staff of authors, and must therefore rely to a significant extent on contributors. Editors do not normally have the time to write articles themselves - though JC's account in his early issues of Windscreen of his Jeep trip to the north African desert was fascinating. I reckon that if recent issues of CMV have been full of Land Rover buying guides, it is because the supply of articles from contributors has dried up and the editor has nothing better to hand.

 

Note that Windscreen, being a club magazine, does not pay contributors at all; CMV pays a modest sum that barely covers a contributor's costs. Contributors to both have to do it for the love of the hobby, and must to a greater or lesser extent subsidise the production of the magazines.

 

My pet hate is museums that charge an enormous sum for publication of their photographs. I mention no names, but in the railway field a normal repro fee that I am asked to pay for use in a book is £75 per image. The same sort of sum pertains in the MV field. A noble exception here is the US Library of Congress; the images on their website are for the most part free to use, which is why you are currently seeing their images in issues of Windscreen. If British museums and archives had the same policy, or even charged only a fiver or so per image, then the quality of content in CMV would improve overnight as contributors would not have to pay more in repro fees than they get back in payment by the magazine. Museums and archives would benefit too, as at the moment hardly anybody can afford to use their images.

 

John.

 

There's a lot of points here - perhaps too many to go into really so a few notes will have to suffice.

No one is looking over my shoulder closely as they weren't over my predecessor's so content and quality are down to the ed. Small circulation hobby mags are marginal so don't employ anyone.

Some editors work harder than others and some are interested in the scenes their magazines reflect.

There is no sign of contributions to CMV drying up - the contributors to CMV have all agreed to carry on working for the mag and are, I think it's fair to say, signed up to new standards and ideas because they too like the magazine and I am glad to have them on board.

There is a fundamental difference between club and commercial mags - I relied on what came in from members for Windscreen for three years (and put with naive accusations of a wartime and Jeep bias when all I did was use what people sent in topped up with a few things I wrote). Commercial mags offer more freedom to commission what is required to maintain a balance and steer away from endless - for example - show reports.

CMV and other specialist magazines' budgets are tiny so we have to do a lot with a little.

Museums and copyright of photos is a minefield - many museums try and charge copyright fees for pics they own copies of but not the copyright to and for copyright free images because they have a copy of the picture that needs to be scanned for an author such as old Ministry of Information pics. I am not going to write pages about this other than to say a bit of imagination goes a long way in getting B&W archive images free or cheaply for magazines.

I have been a magazine professional since 1989 and made a career in 'enthusiast' mags where we have to, as mentioned above, do a lot with a little - guerrilla publishing is how I describe it - and imagination is the key. CMV will be no exception in a line that includes 4x4 Driver, BSH, LRW, 4x4, CLR... People can join us for the ride or they can stay at home. Thanks for commenting. JC

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Well I am looking forward to the new issues, I will vote with my feet and buy the first few issues to support the new editor purely on his energy and commitment.... If it's a good read I will continue.....he deserves at least that for being open and passionate about his new role!!!!

 

Thank you. I am genuinely flattered by such comments.

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