The end of an era 

‘You don’t need an oracle to predict that the last fans of print editions will soon follow the masses into the digital domain.’ (Concept car credit).

As noted previously, consumption of typical auto print magazines have shown unprecedented decline. The most obvious justification for this is the ease and convenience that social media, the internet and streaming sites offer.

Why walk into a store and spend your hard-earned cash on magazines? Especially when most of the big-name publications have online mediums? Nowadays you can download (free) mobile apps that share the same content as their print counterparts. The convenience, the extra digital content on offer and the lack of – for the most part – a price tag on what used to be weekly investment make this a no brainer. Right?

Dissecting the arguments

On the one hand, this rings true. If you struggle with reading or don’t have the cash lying around for magazine subscriptions – you could watch a video review of the new AMG Mercedes, for instance. This ease of access is arguably one of the biggest reasons car fanatics are making the switch to digital auto-journalism. Not to mention, the content is much more entertaining. I’d rather watch a charismatic presenter drive a supercar through a racetrack – than read a review in size 6 serif font.

The numbers do support this. Carwow’s Youtube channel has over 4 million subscribers and counting. When you think of each subscriber as an equivalent magazine buyer, then compare that number with the 37,000 weekly readers for Auto Express – the picture is clear. No pun intended. As the print versions of publications fade, this coincides with the insurgence of modern digital mediums.

Furthermore, Auto Express’s Youtube channel has less than an 1/8 of Carwow’s subscriber count. It’s clear that one brand made the quality of its online content the prime focus and the other is playing catch-up.

Traffic, traffic and more traffic

All this convenience and improved content comes with a caveat. Auto publications are arguably exploiting data tracking, streaming site capabilities and other features to increase viewership and revenue. Notice what happens when you visit more than a couple of car videos or blog pages. Your entire social media feed/Youtube home page is now full of content from this category.

“Auto publications are exploiting data tracking, streaming site capabilities and other features to increase viewership and revenue.”

On its own, this isn’t too much of a bother. Most websites track algorithms. However, it becomes one when compounded with the fact that flagship car channels fill their review videos with links to other videos, or their website, or their other ventures. We will conduct a full analysis of this idea in the next post.

Are new cars driving this change?

Ever since the advent of the Internet, the pace of news has accelerated. Today, the relevance of a publication is measured in minutes and hours and no longer in weeks or months. (concept car credit)

This idea gives further context to the decline of traditional auto print journalism. Most auto-print publications are delivered weekly. Conversely, news on new or upcoming vehicles come   daily and in some cases hourly. Alongside this In recent times, innovation in the car industry is happening at unprecedented speeds. Cars have advanced more in the last decade than they have in the previous 30 years. And with so many updates and pioneering tech being introduced in a short space of time, web and mobile communications are simply better suited to keeping up with the changes. Traditional forms of journalism take time to print, distribute and while that is all happening, Top Gear probably posted 4 new videos of the new Tesla on all their social media.