Where would you like to see the magazine?

[TGUKGLM]

To help prove my authenticity, here's a photo from last year's Awards ceremony :



Hope this works....

[TGUKGLM]

Damn - it didn't

Still haven't quite figured out how to post photos

[hanasand]

Here you go:

(nice plate btw)

[hokiethang]

Originally Posted by TGUKGLM

Damn - it didn't

Still haven't quite figured out how to post photos

heh don't worry about it. The IP address is enough authentication for us.

[No Boss]

what's with the "67" on the veyron?

[TechZ]

Being in the Middle East, I never get to read the TG mag, I have to subscribe to a few local ones, as I prefer the English version. I read in your first post TGUKGLM, about Saudi (arabic version), I can say this pretty confidently, an English edition would be quite succesful here in the Mid-East. We get pretty much ALL international mags and the TG mag would be VERY well received

[Ethan]

Originally Posted by TGUKGLM

Latin & South America are very interesting for us. We don't have any business there at all at the moment and we're keen to expand.

What is the market like in Venezuela / Guatemala? Do people buy magazines on the newsstand or via subscriptions?

In Venezuela, we do it both ways, via newsstand and subscription. But is more like to buy it in a newsstand. Here are Motortrend Spanish Version, Car & Driver Spanish version Some locals full with S#!t and some tuning ones...

And we get the fee of TG on BBC World

In Guatemala, i don't have a clue

[BigJ]

Ok, what you really need to do is focus in on expanding existing markets. Zimbabwe and Lichtenstein don't need the magazine. What the publishers need to do is cut the costs down in existing markets like the US in order to boost readership. The price for a subscription in the US is horrendous, which is why I dont buy them.

[TGUKGLM]

Well, I agree with that in part. But don't forget that we're talking about two different things here.

There's the exported version of the UK mag, which is what you currently get in places like the US, Latin America and France.

On the other hand, you've got local versions of the mag, available in those countries I listed up earlier. These are produced by a local publisher, under license from us.

I'm concerned with adding more local versions, not wth exporting more copies of the UK version. We make no money from those export copies but lots from local versions, so the more the better.

From the sound of it, a US local version could be a flyer.

[BigJ]

After reading the above posts, and having read a few previous copies of TopGear, I don't really feel that there would need to be much adjustment for a US edition of the magazine. As I'm not sure how reviews are written for the UK edition (having only read a few magazines that have been scanned and distributed over the net,) I can’t comment on your review process to any great extent. But if TG wants to catch a segment of the market, I don't think it would be that hard. All you would have to do is just use Clarkson's big articles (since supercars are supercars everywhere you go in the world,) then have some staff writer review some US cars to throw in to take up the space from the Vauxhall or Citroen articles you would have to take out since the US readers wont know anything about either company. Just those slight modifications would still blow Car&Driver out of the water with respect to the overall content since C&D has nothing on TopGear.

One great example of the vast differences in content is in regards to the review of the Veyron. The articles I read in the TG magazine were so much better thought out and prepared than the reviews seen in our american counterparts that it made me wonder how these magazines stay in business by putting out such uninteresting dribble. Not even in a thousand years would an american car mag be able to get the Father of the McLaren F1 to offer some thoughts towards the Veyron. I loathe not being able to get a TopGear magazine in the mail and having to settle for the meager offerings put forth by American auto mags.

I don't think that there would be much problem in regards to readership either since the highly sanitized version of the tv show did quite well here in such a short time. Anyways… I guess my point is, we REALLY would love a US version of your magazine.

[TGUKGLM]

Your comments on the make-up of the US mag are correct - that is essentially how all the overseas editions are prepared. As you say, everyone wants the big features but they need to 'wrap' it in local reviews and new.

The Gordon Murray thing was amazing - he even turned up at our Awards do (the same one as the picture above). We'd invited him but didn't hear anything back from him - he just showed up!

They Veyron stuff overall was very good and I think we did it much better than any of the other mags.

[TechZ]

Right now, I'd love the UK version, as the ones I saw in while in Europe were fantastic reads, but things seem to just double up in price once it comes here, its why I dont subscribe

[TGUKGLM]

I mentioned above the possibility of doing an electronic version for overseas subs - would this be of interest to anyone?

[Magnus]

I'm a subscriber to the mag, but got really disappointed when I didn't get the Top Gear DVD nor the £10 off. And no Top Gear calendar either

The worst part about this is that when I subcribed through a newsletter from www.topgear.com, it was never mentioned that the gifts were only available for UK subscribers. And I get the Jan mag at the start of February.

But a really great mag, love it!

[BlaRo]

Originally Posted by TGUKGLM

I mentioned above the possibility of doing an electronic version for overseas subs - would this be of interest to anyone?

Some people still enjoy buying magazines because it's in print. They like to feel the glossy pages between their fingers, as opposed to staring at a monitor reading pixels. It's why newspapers still exist. I don't know about everybody else, but I'm one of those who likes reading magazines, so I wouldn't like that idea.

Besides, with an electronic subscription, somebody will probably try to bypass it and make it avaliable free of charge. It always happens. You can't stop t3h interweb!!!1

[pdanev]

Originally Posted by HOKUM

BULGARIA! Аll we have here is an Auto Bild, but it can't even be compared to the Top Gear magazine. You have editions in Romania and we are so close And BTW there are so many Top Gear fans in Bulgaria

Originally Posted by TGUKGLM

Couple of things to catch up on there :

1. Bulgaria - definitely a priority for the next year. The Romanian edition is going very well and we think a Bulgarian edition is a real possibility.

Having many Top Gear fans in Bulgaria (which to be honest, I personally doubt) who watch the show, does not mean they are willing to spend money on a magazine. Especially not on a magazine, that is relatively expensive. And especially not in Bulgaria, because our country tends to be a very price sensitive market.

Furthermore, the hype is now about tuning and modifying cars, which Top Gear magazine, is not about. I think only a very small fraction, of an already small country, would be a, interested in this magazine b, be able to afford it.

The only reason why I see entering the Bulgarian market as beneficial, is the establishment of image/reputation. Since there are hardly any foreign magazines in this field, building up a strong brand would be easier now, than if it were to be done later on in competition, because sooner or later the Bulgarian market will be attractive to others as well. But as I said, the only way this will work is if the price is locally affordable, noone is going to spend 10+ euros in Bulgaria on a car magazine.

Hope this helps to have a better picture.

PS: My location is Netherlands, but I'm from Bulgaria.

One more thing. I wouldn't compare the Bulgarian to the Romania market, Romania is 4 times, if not 5 times, bigger than Bulgaria.

[TechZ]

An electronic version just doesnt have that same feel as the real thing. Sure its a viable option, but its not what most of us want

[mautzel]

I'd definitely prefer a printed version as well - making it electronic ties you to a PC whereas I can read the mag in printed form everywhere I like (e.g. living room, outside the house in summer ect.)

[TGUKGLM]

Thanks for all the above - I'll pass the relevant bits on to the marketing team.

One final thought on the electronic version is that the cost would be significantly cheaper than print, which may sway some people towards it.

Thanks also for the extensive comments on Bulgaria - the tuning market is growing massively in E Europe at the moment but I don't think it'll be around forever. In the UK it's already in massive decline.

Pricing would be local, i.e. we would be pricing it more like 3 Euros than 10.

[TechZ]

I tried subscribing to some free electronic mags, it ties you down alot, either to a particular application, or the limitation of needing a PC to read it. I'd gladly pay more to be able to hold the real thing