By Jeff Cantagallo | June 1, 2014

As the automotive / motorsports magazine industry continues to decline; the ‘hipters’ continue to saturate the ‘interwebz’ with their latest meme’s and trend setting photos with #zeroFsgiven.

[beginrant] Social media pages continue to pop-up left and right and the majority of them have no purpose other than to get “likes.” Stealing Borrowing photos/images off of the interwebz and not giving credit appears to be the norm these days. Some posters think they are slick by posting “tag the owner / photographer” or “owner / photographer ???”, but it is obvious they spend 30 seconds and grab images from Google Images and post to their page. [/endrant]

You see, back in the day a well-rounded car build was not unveiled until the next big show or the latest magazine feature. Today, we see behind the scene “coverage” which usually entails a snapshot from someones smart phone with every hash tag in the world describing the car and the build posted to social media. Yes, it is true, a well thought-out and well executed build needs to be seen in person to truly appreciate the craftsmanship, but for those who are second guessing themselves..if they should attend an event / car show or not, have already made up their mind not to attend. “I’ve already seen what I had to, why go?” is the mindset. And trust us, we have had multiple people in the industry tell us this.

Adjust With The Times.

So everyone including carshowz.com needs to shutdown their websites and bring back the magazines…ummmm no. The latest generation needs to take notes from the old heads and understand the importance of patience and be considerate to the industry, to those who are hustling and working hard to bring to us the latest technologies, parts, and innovation. If we continue to go down the path we are going down, we are going to be left with nothing but hashtags and memes.

With several headline magazines closing up shop, the aftermarket manufacturers will not have an avenue to promote their latest product. OK, true, they will be able to market their products digitally, but does that mean through their own personal website / social media or will they have to rely on other sites? More than likely through their own venue, which means less sponsor money to promote the high-end car shows.

The industry used to be built on trust, when you read an article you were assured that the information is accurate, the Author did their research and the product was accurately described. You slowly saw the decline when product feature articles were tailored and over exaggerated. I remember talking to fellow enthusiasts and seeing what products worked and what didn’t. And that still happens today, but the difference is we will no longer see the constant push over one product or another because a sponsor paid 50% to get featured and their product comes into the spot light.

What Needs to Happen.

The dynamics of marketing and promoting within a magazine need to change. Why do magazines have pages and pages of product info and not have exclusive content talking about the product? I can search on the internet for product specs, but what I don’t see on the internet, or at least you have to do some digging, is the product at work. In other words, feature more race teams and enthusiasts who are using the products and have them sign a clause saying DO NOT POST to the Internet until your feature is released.  Dig deep, get the behind the scenes coverage, the exclusive content people are looking for. There’s no need to have a car audio buying guide when we all go to websites like Crutchfield or even Amazon to compare reviews, look up specs, and bounce those off of the 12-volt forum to compare.

I believe in artistic freedom and promoting yourself on social media, but a lot of the content that is posted we can all live without. Building a network of social media pages and content to give enthusiasts information at their finger tips is key. And to allow the enthusiasts to be a part of the movement I think is important.

We are a proponent for originality, being able to contribute to the industry and hopefully publish something that others can utilize.