Latest Issue of 'Complete Kit Car' June 2020

[Ozzie Dave]

I would love it if CKC was available as a PDF by the publisher, so it could be downloaded , read and stored. The publishers of 'small volume' magazines are often run on an oily rag and without our buying them can not survive. I do buy when they are available here (occasionally) but would far prefer to have a downloadable digital copy that I could purchase as a one off when I wanted and knew the money was actually going to the publisher (or when the boss was not watching to moan about what I spend money on). But I also understand that that may well not be economically viable for them to do.
having realised the worth of IP, and copyright I am in a minority as I know that I would be far from happy if someone copied my work and distributed it for free.

[Jukebag]

Those magazines are too bloody expensive (nearly 5 quid?), so it's no wonder people upload them to those sites for people to freely download. Lower the price and more people would buy the magazines. Even going on eBay for recent back issues the sellers are asking for about 8 quid plus about a tenner for postage. I've been on there a few times and I've even seen Jaguar Enthusiast magazine pdfs, how they've managed to obtain those magazines when they're not available to buy in the shops I don't know.

[CrutyRammers]

Just buy the bloody thing if you want to read it.

[Doofus]

CrutyRammers said:

Just buy the bloody thing if you want to read it.

Everyone needs to make a living. If you think the magazine is too expensive, vote with your feet. Or tell the publishers. Refusing to pay for it, and then just pinching it anyway isn't really fair.

Buy or buy not. There is no free.

Or something.

[downsman]

Great magazine, plenty to read and it is much cheaper if you subscribe
There are 13 issues a year and I paid £45 this year so thats £3.47 per issue.

If you want magazines and kit car shows to continue, you have to pay some of your money.

[AdamWilkins]

Thanks for the supportive comments, Crusty Rammers, Doofus and Downsman. The margins in publishing are tight enough as it is without having our work pirated and ripped off like this. As you say, it's less than £4 an issue on a subscription... which is cheaper than ever when inflation is taken into account.

[AdamWilkins]

Ozzie Dave said:

I would love it if CKC was available as a PDF by the publisher, so it could be downloaded , read and stored. The publishers of 'small volume' magazines are often run on an oily rag and without our buying them can not survive. I do buy when they are available here (occasionally) but would far prefer to have a downloadable digital copy that I could purchase as a one off when I wanted and knew the money was actually going to the publisher (or when the boss was not watching to moan about what I spend money on). But I also understand that that may well not be economically viable for them to do.
having realised the worth of IP, and copyright I am in a minority as I know that I would be far from happy if someone copied my work and distributed it for free.

Thanks Dave! Much appreciated. We do have a digital version of the mag via our app – drop me a DM and I'll point you towards it to avoid breaking the advertising rules here.

[AdamWilkins]

Jukebag said:

Even going on eBay for recent back issues the sellers are asking for about 8 quid plus about a tenner for postage.

There are people on eBay selling our current issue for more than the cover price plus postage. We sell it via our own website for the cover price with free p&p...

[gtmdriver]

As many of you know I've been writing for CKC almost since it's rebirth and I can assure you that the owners and publisher are not making a mint off the back of the magazine.

£5 a month is not expensive. Think about the prices you can pay for far more mundane products. In city centres you'll pay £2 and more for a cup of coffee and £4 plus for an alcoholic drink. Cocktails can be £8 or more if that's your fancy. In pubs and bars we generally pay £5 pus for two pints of diet coke.

If you want to read the magazine regularly and save money then subscribe. In the end though it's up to you but remember if you get a copy of the magazine without paying for it then you're effectively stealing money from the people who work so hard to produce it.

[AdamWilkins]

gtmdriver said:

if you get a copy of the magazine without paying for it then you're effectively stealing money from the people who work so hard to produce it.

Hits the nail on the head.

The ink and the paper is a relatively small part of the cost of producing a magazine. If you're not the sort of person who would walk out of a newsagent with a copy you haven't paid for, you shouldn't be stealing it online either.

[AdamWilkins]

Jukebag said:

Lower the price and more people would buy the magazines.

If only it were that simple.

The distributors and retailers take 50 percent of the cover price. If you reduce the cover price, their 50 percent goes down and they don't want to stock the title. Before they even take their 50 percent, we have to pay for the shelf space. That means we're left with less than half the cover price to cover the cost of writing it, travelling to the features, designing it, printing it, transporting it etc etc.

That's why we can offer it for less than £3.50 an issue for subscribers, and still afford to post it out for that.

As John said above, that's not much compared to the price of a coffee in Costa...

[Fastpedeller]

And it lasts longer than the coffee!

[RedAndy]

Adam, as you know better than any of us, the world is changing with regard to magazines... the onlie trend is all about rewards and i think that the trad mag could compete if you fill the mag with money off vouchers - sure kwikfit will give a "£10 off with this voucher" type thing. People dont mind paying for the mag occasionally, but like to at least FEEEL like they've got more than they've paid for. Maybe get incentivised to buy regularly if you got a collective freebie of £100 each month from halfords, car builder solutions, Staffs vehicle bits etc, shell, McD's... whoever ...it'd be ll the sweeter for the buyer -no addtional cost for the publisher - win win. It works in many industries. The best example being when you are considering a trip to Alton towers - the FIRST thing you do is buy some cornflakes!

just a thought