Stealthy price increase of mag !!

[Steve L]

As the cost of magazines are so high these days I take time to look at the cost and balance that with the content.

The January issue of PC had a catchy banner of tour smarter, save cash, save time & stay safe. Cost £3-80

Then came the rather bland February issue which was bought for me by her in doors.

Just got the March issue today with the stealth caravan &nec reviews, but also a stealthily 10.5% price increase.

Just remind me what the cost of living increase is these days and when was it workers got a 10.5% wage increase?

We are now paying 57.14 pence per day to read the mag. Thats twice the cost of the workers paper and they give you holidays for £9-50.

Good job my daughters staff discount card off set's the increase to soften the blow, or I would have to read the mag in the supermarket and then put it back. You see a lot of blokes doing thta with the car performance mags.

Perhaps dropping the price might encourage more purchases.

Steve L.

 

[Dustydog]

Good job I do an annual renewal!

Must be Lord Hezza's pension needs a cash injection.

Or is it to pay for a Forum IT upgrade? LOL!

Cheers

Dustydog

 

[RogerL]

Why isn't it free? Judging by the number of adverts, they must get enough advertising revenue to cover both their costs and a reasonable profit.

 

[GrahamDerby]

I know the feeling well. I like to read about the latest info and whats going on , but i just cant afford to buy a magazine every month. I usually go to the stall at our local indoor market that has back issues, they are only

 

[Steve L]

That's just cheating Graham.

I might just save my pennies in future. Two showers a wk for free.

Steve L.

 

[Stephen_374341239]

Yes we tend to buy the magazin every other month now because of its price.

Janet & Steve.

 

[LMH]

We're not getting a pay increase for the second year running.

I don't buy magazines anymore. I only look at the pictures anyway. LOL!

Lisa

 

[sarah647]

I don't buy the regularly anymore. Just flick through in the shop and if an article catches my eye I may then consider buying the mag, otherwise it goes back on the shelf. Its good for the tech stuff but I'm not paying nearly

 

[emmerson2]

Lisa, re your non-rise, this is in effect a pay cut, as all other costs have risen over the last two years.

 

[ChristineandAlan]

hi everyone regarding p/caravan i find it cheaper to subscribe monthly,every 3 months its taken out by direct debit.it works out cheaper because they reduce the cover price,the mag is sent out to me every month before it goes in the shops,which means you have better chance to bag a bargain.happy caravanning ALAN P/T

 

[GrahamDerby]

hi everyone regarding p/caravan i find it cheaper to subscribe monthly,every 3 months its taken out by direct debit.it works out cheaper because they reduce the cover price,the mag is sent out to me every month before it goes in the shops,which means you have better chance to bag a bargain.happy caravanning ALAN P/T

Hi

thats agood idea so long as you have enough money in the bank to cover it. We are on limited income so sometimes the bank is empty, if this happens the bank put charges on for not being able to honor it , so then its more expensive.

 

[Surfer]

When reviewing a product whether it is a caravan, car or caravan site, no matter how poor it is , they always give it a good review. In essence they are not being very factual and rather pandering to the whims of the advertiser.

The caravan reviews are a joke! They don't even "test" drive them like one would with a car. To "test drive" a caravan would require at least a week living in it all the time and using all the facilities in the caravan. That would give an honest review if they dared to print it.

I think that there should be more site reviews where the sites are actually visited and used for at least 2 days. These visits should also include CL, CS, pub sites and other commercial sites. A full listing of those offering EHU, water and waste connections i.e. fully servcies, should be listed also in a similar manner to the caravan profiles.

 

[ChristineandAlan]

Hi

thats agood idea so long as you have enough money in the bank to cover it. We are on limited income so sometimes the bank is empty, if this happens the bank put charges on for not being able to honor it , so then its more expensive.

HI GRAHAM.i see your point it does'nt suit everyone never mind all the best happy caravanning ALAN P/T

 

[Parksy]

The best thing about forums such as this one is that although we sometimes have to be careful what we write in connection with companies, complaints or disputes we can show our own caravan reviews by the owners of the caravans involved.We can highlight any aspects that we are not so keen on besides stating the things that we like about our caravans and we are not subject to the same financial and time constraints as the Practical Caravan magazine which might affect their caravan reviews.

Our sister website Caravan Sitefinder contains site reviews from people who have stayed on the sites and anybody can add a review of any site including CL's,CS's, pub sites and commercial sites.

The latest of these are printed in Practical Caravan magazine and they then join the growing database on the website.

Caravan Sitefinder

 

[RogerL]

Ian - this point has been made many times to Practical Caravan (and CC Magazine) but advertising revenue rules.

Car magazines manage to be reasonably objective with their road tests despite employing sufficient staff to actually test things as well as being dependent on manufacturers' advertising.

I don't EVER want a magazine to tell me what's good - the manufacturer's brochure will do that - I want a magazine to tell me what's bad in comparison to the product's competitors.

 

[Parksy]

'Advertising revenue rules' as Roger said but it would be a very brave magazine editor who alienated and upset the main income providers to his magazine so that the magazine ceased to exist and he put his staff and himself out of work.

Isn't that the sort of thing that Gerald Ratner did with a business that he was in charge of?

 

[Sproket]

Watch this Gerald Ratner Still No1

 

[RogerL]

Most other specialist magazines manage objective tests without losing revenue - manufacturers would soon respect any caravan magazine that prints objective tests, it would probably help to improve the quality we all complain about.

 

[Parksy]

I only know of two other caravan magazines besides Practical Caravan and one of them only appears now and then on an ad hoc basis.

In my opinion no existing caravan magazine prints the sort of tests that might appear in say, automobile based publications but I would never consider purchasing a caravan, car or anything else by using somebody else's opinion printed in a magazine anyway.

I've owned six caravans since starting out and the last two were bought from new.

I bought them based on what my own opinions were after comparing them on dealers forecourts and using a check list that we both compiled with our ideals printed on it.

Caravan magazines were useful in providing pointers and making us aware of trends, some construction methods, weights and sizes but to be honest online caravan forums contained the most useable (to me) information.

No doubt you are correct Roger, advertising revenue must count for a lot but who would be the first to introduce the kind of objective testing that you mentioned? They would be taking a huge risk I think in the present economic climate.

 

[RogerL]

Yes, this lack of objectivity does seem to be common across caravan magazines - but being as bad as competitors is nothing to crow about.

 

[Steve L]

A look in the mirror might be in order here Parksy.

Your now narrowing the thoughts down on competators magazine titles.

If you recall you not only deleted my post (understandably so, cos I over zelously named a cometator). But the content of the E-mail you sent to me was quite threatening which I had accepted and brushed off. But now it seems your throwing the stones in the greenhouse now.

As a further foot note, PC is judging by the shelves of my local Asda, likely to be left on the shelf so to speak.

Without quoting price or brand, just wonder down to your local news agent WH and have a look.

Steve L.

 

[LMH]

Lisa, re your non-rise, this is in effect a pay cut, as all other costs have risen over the last two years.

I know, arse init?

Lisa

 

[Parksy]

Steve in Leo

I don't work for Practical Caravan magazine and there is only one direct competitor.

I fail to see where I've either threatened you in any way or been 'throwing stones in the greenhouse now' as you put it.

I have no idea what that's supposed to mean other than only you are allowed an opinion.

I took your post off because not for the first time you directly promoted a rival product by name on Practical Caravan's website in what looked to me very much like a supreme display of bad manners and disrespect to the hosts of this forum.

In my email to you I took the time and trouble to explain why your post had been taken down and asked you to desist from promoting rival products on this forum in the future.

It now appears that you have chosen to make some sort of weird public issue of my email and interpret it as some kind of threat!

I suggest that you take a good look at yourself when holding up mirrors Steve.

As for your footnote, it makes no difference to me either way if the magazine is 'left on the shelf' or not. I was actually agreeing with Roger L about the reviews and caravan tests.

 

[Steve L]

Yes. Everyone has a right to free speech and perhaps I was wrong to name a cometator mag.

But that does not give you the right to send the "tone" of E-mail you did. Rather than making vieled threats, a simple you were out of order would suffice.

I welcome anyone's comments positive or negative, after all that is what a debate is. If we all had the same oppinion, then we might as well buy one brand of caravan and drive one brand of car etc etc.

So let's put a line under that issue and concentrate on what might well prove to be a badly timed decission to increase the financial hurt to the reader.

We are a very long way from the recovery that is now the news. Historically it takes industry 1 to 2 years to get back to good times and it takes longer before the public realy start to feel good about financial matters.

Cheers.

Steve L.

 

[Dustydog]

I watched the Caravan show on tv last night. He had nothing but praise for the the caravans he looked at.

Maybe manufacturers have got it right or are all the journalists just optimists. Their pint pot is half full rather than half empty.

Or after Jeremy Clarkson's savaging of the Vauxhall Vectra years ago are journalists and publishes alike now too scared to say anything bad for fear of being sued??

Cheers

Dustydog