Question about magazine adds

AngryCorvair wrote: OK, who else drooled over the 13-lb, 15x8" wheel for $109?

The TRM wheel?

I was drooling until the E30 guys determined fitting a BIG set of brakes underneath means spacers and grinding on the calipers.

AngryCorvair wrote: OK, who else drooled over the 13-lb, 15x8" wheel for $109?

Available in 4x100mm or 5x120mm only.

Stoopid TR (mofo kicks at imaginary dirt under his desk)

Jensenman wrote: I can has boner pill ads?

I would have expected a nice 1/2 page one on page 25.
(Shameless Plug)

Yeah, you gotta have something to counteract the droop inducing photo on the top half of the page. Might need a female Viagra ad on the page as well.

best was me checking for spam in Gmail... and the ads were all about Spam recipies

bludroptop wrote: Back when I studied Journalism (when linotype was still 'state of the art'), we were taught that the target ratio was 60% advertising - 40% editorial. I think GRM does an excellent job of ad placement and balance. I also appreciate the fact that the overwhelming majority of ads are tasteful and related to the subject - for example, no boner pill ads.

Hahaha! The linotype was what put Mark Twain in the poorhouse. That makes you... er... one million years old!

Like most readers, I enjoy and "use" the ads for designing my next project or daily driver vehicle. I have no complaints about size, placement, or numbers.

I do have a sort of question, tho....is it an accident or just a "bonus" to your advertisers (usually the smaller ones) when you duplicate an ad? At least once an issue, I notice that your advertiser index (yeah, I even read that part of the mag) lists an ad for someone/something as being on page XX, and it is, but it's also on page WW. Is that a test for readers? A gimmee for advertisers? Or a way to fill space?

Didn't Margie or someone say that without the ads a prescription, I meant subscription, would cost over 400 a year?

I enjoy using AdBlock Pro so much on FireFox that I pay a small oriental man to whiteout all the ads in my GRMs.

Osterkraut wrote: I enjoy using AdBlock Pro so much on FireFox that I pay a small oriental man to whiteout all the ads in my GRMs.

Don't do that!!! You'll miss the good deals at harbor freight!

That same guy whited out all the Viagra add in my latest Hotrod. Now how am I gonna get a bone-woops!

Sometimes we have remnant space and we use that to take care of various issues---if someone had a wrong ad (it happens occasionally) or they've helped us with some editorial. We like to spread that love around.

poopshovel wrote: I'm sure that it's already been mentioned here, but: Ads., NOT subscriptions, pay the bills for any publication.

Actually the number of subscribers is one factor in determining the cost of space to the advertisers so they're a very important part of creating revenue. That's why most decent mags keep the subscription price low (at least when compared to buying each issue off the newsstand).

Building a big subscriber base means advertisers pay more for more views by a "pure" potential customer base (i.e, selling tools in a mag devoted to people who actually work on their own cars rather than a TV ad seen by more total folks, most of whom don't own anything more than a hammer and a couple of screwdrivers).

I actually don't really even notice the ads until I need to buy something.

Another factor is the demographic - that's why you'll get surveyed once in a while. Advertisers want to know if the median reader is a 40-year-old with a household income of $74,312 (Motor Trend) or a 48-year-old with a household income of $143,000 (Automobile). Media kits are really interesting reading

In reply to Keith:

I wonder what the numbers are for Sports Car Market.

They don't have an online media kit, but this is from their site:

SCM ad sales said: 54% of SCM readers have a net worth in excess of $2 million and 60% have an annual household income of $250,000 or more. Additionally, our subscribers are serious buyers. 41% of our subscribers own five or more collector cars and a staggering 73% say they will buy another collector car in the next year.

One thing I've been wondering - are the ads in GRM all very car specific because of some gatekeeping, or is it just a matter of who's buying? The only time I remember any non-automotive ads in GRM at all were the Windjammer Cruises.

Keith wrote: Another factor is the demographic - that's why you'll get surveyed once in a while. Advertisers want to know if the median reader is a 40-year-old with a household income of $74,312 (Motor Trend) or a 48-year-old with a household income of $143,000 (Automobile). Media kits are really interesting reading

I wonder how accurate some of them are. My model car clyb is mostly older gentlemen yet none of the modek car magazines are filled with viagra ads like motor trend

just be thankful that they are not like AutoOccasional (i.e. "AW", that magazine that used to be called Autoweek.) It is not just the ads for watches, golf stuff, shoes etc.....it's the fake articles about these things. I know that there are different forms of "automotive lifestyle", but I REALLY don't want to hear about the favorite clothing of ten car designers. (yes, they did THAT as an article.)

I actually tear out some GRM ads and file them because I might need to contact that vendor in the near future. (examples: RC engineering, Black Dragon automotive, etc.) I'm happy that the GRM ads are about car stuff I might use.

P71 wrote: I'd like Tire Rack a *LOT* more if they'd start carrying the tires I want to buy (Falken!!!) or the sizes for my car (14").

Edge Racing is your friend.

JoeyM wrote: just be thankful that they are not the fake articles

Yeah, if GRM starts running those ads by GM that are 8 pages long and have to have "special advertising section" printed in the paper I will seriously drop my sub. I HATE HATE HATE those!!

DrBoost wrote:

JoeyM wrote: just be thankful that they are not the fake articles

Yeah, if GRM starts running those ads by GM that are 8 pages long and have to have "special advertising section" printed in the paper I will seriously drop my sub. I HATE HATE HATE those!!

Yes, those "special advertising sections" are annoying, but I was actually talking about this sort of stuff: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20080821/FREE/258669040 It may be meaningful to others, but watches like that could pay for a track day

Yep, we have told a few advertisers to take their business elsewhere. Ads for wiener pills kind of tarnish the entire book.

Let me begin by saying that I like the ads and the layout. I frequently find myself go-earing pages to come back to advertisements for products I'm looking for. I like the back several back pages of smaller ads, that I can thumb through.

DrBoost wrote: When I flip through any mag today (I read at least 10 a month) I notice there aren't many pages where there is a full page dedicated to the article I'm reading. Maybe the bottom 1/4 or the right margine is an ad. I don't think the "major" players do this as much (i.e. road and track, car and driver, motor trend) but others are pretty bad. When I read GRM I would guess not much more than 1/2 the page space is actually an article (I'm not including the classifieds, or the TOC here). I don't think there is a single page devoted entirely to an article.

Maybe you should try looking at the magazine again. To see if you were right, I opened up my latest copy, and found you were very wrong.

Okay, when I think "full page" I consider that each numbered page, a page (so if it's open, I'm looking at two pages). Since I'm pretty sure that's the case, I'd say that the majority of major article pages don't have advertising on them. All the editorials and "Driving Diary" are full page, no ad. In the main articles, the first page always contains no ads, and there will typically be several other full pages. It usually seems like the pages with ads on them, the ads appear to be there to fill the rest of the layout space on the page.

When saying this, I don't count "Sources" for products as ads, or a box telling me about a social club for highlighted car either.