Opinions on MINI magazines out there? Need something for those long winter night on the can... I have seen a couple of issues of MC2 and it seems like a decent mag. Any other opinions? Thanks!
Modern MINI from the UK is a decent read. They have a totally different mind set over there. Much more set on shows and not quite as fixated on "spirited" motoring as some of us are. Both MC2 and MM are great though.
Certainly not the factory's magazine, the sample I got appeared to be produced for the wine and cheese crowd. :sleep: Dave
MC2 was ok. I just couldn't stand the digs the writers continued taking at those of us who dared to buy an R56.
I subscribe to both Modern Mini and MC2. Unfortunately I must say the UK Modern Mini magazine runs circles around MC2, not to hurt anyones feelings just my opinion.
Agreed I used to get MC2, but Modern MINI blows it away, twice the pages at least and every other page is NOT an advertisement for something MC2 is selling. MC2 also seems to cater more to the left coast sceen. Just calling em as I see em
For Classic Minis it is Mini World out of the UK hands down. For our new MINIs I subscribed to MC2, but to be honest it is not much & for me not worth the cost of a subscription. I'll have to look into Modern Mini.
OK....... Everybody likes FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Here's a new one. Love-mini.co.uk You can even download the current issue as a pdf and read it for free. Has both classic and new MINI. love:mini - free digital magazine and resource for classic and new Mini enthusiasts
I enjoy MC2 but wish it came more often and had more real pages. I do not mind the ads because it gives me ideas.
Still like MC2 but for a six issue a year publication it is very thin when all the ads are removed....almost a newsletter.
+1 I've been a faithful subscriber to MC2 but have recently been finding it less engaging. One issue is the fact that their model still includes feature articles on emerging MINI news items when, in fact, most of it is rehash of news that has been thoroughly socialized already on sites like MA and MF many months before the issue is released. The result is that a lot of the information seems a bit stale by the time it's published. I think they'd be better off avoiding trying to be a source of "breaking news." The typical buyer of the mag is already getting it from other sources. Not nearly enough articles devoted to activities involving local MINI clubs. I think they just rely on the initiative of the bigger clubs to send them stuff ad hoc. Not sure why they can't establish liaisons for each club who could provide a few sentences, or more, for each issue -- kind of like the individual state updates you see in USA Today. Maybe some local pics too...people like to see themselves and their friends in the mag and they'd buy it just for that.
Interesting that you bring up the point about MC2 local club coverage. I provided an article with pictures on a small local club event. I provided the article the first week of November. I was initially told that MC2 was working on the Dec/Jan issue so it would have a chance to make that issue. I was later told they did not have room in the Dec/Jan issue so it would be the Feb/Jan issue before it might be published. So MC2 appears to not be allocating much room to local events even though it seems like it would be easy to include more local event coverage especially when articles plus photos are provided. Having events that occured in Oct in an issue we probably will not receive until March does not make much sense. MC2 has really been requesting support from local clubs, and I have been promoting MC2 to the club members but MC2 does not seem to have the space/time for the local clubs.
MC2 replies to your comments First off, I would like to thank Nathan, the owner of this forum for allowing me to respond to the negative, positive, factual and not-so-factual comments in this thread. Some would say that MC2 should simply read the comments, and get a fresh cuppa tea and biscuit and take our lumpsor thank our supporters. It's a gangplank that I as the publisher walk, but as I rarely address forum comments I hope you all will understyand I am not saying that my baby is perfect. The last time I tried walking on water, I had wet hair, but here goes anyway. It's a little personal, so excuse if you don't like everything I say here... Magazines are a tough career the last several years (just ask Nathan!) what with their costs, lack of advertisers, our lousy economy and declining readership. We've lost over 25 car magazines in N. America this last 2-plus years and now paper is rising due to paper mill closures this year. The cost of mailing is going up 2nd qtr of 2011, too. (I'm not snivelling, it's just facts I'm trying to show here). When we launched in Dececmber 2005 my vision was a 100 pages, perfect binding (the hard spine) cover and hi-grade paper. We'll, we had to drop to 68 pages two years ago and the spine is now staples. We dropped the 800# customer service 16 months ago and we field all calls at our home office. Late 2009 we lost 3-4 pages of advertisers as they needed that money in their pocket to survive. Some of them now advertise here at MA. Editor Peter duPre and I are happy, nor are we taking home six-figure incomes. That's a fact that neither of our wives are happy with! The positive facts are that MC2 uses grade #2 paper, not the cheap 3 or 4, and that it's still a hefty weight of 80lb cover w/ 60lb interior. Compare that to the stock of other US- and Modern MINI magazine- and we can stand proudly. Also, we're all 4-colour pages, no b&w pages. With less than 50 pages for editorial, we have a good mix of tech, how-to/DIY, features, Mini history, and regional and national events. However, without the support of clubs small and larege we cannot possibly now what most are up to as we're invloved in some MAJOR changes here at MC2. We're re-launching our aged GoMotoring.com as a daily news/info and multi-faceted site, about to debut our MINICooperVidoes.com site (not using You Tube), and we're in conversation with Munich about the start-up of a non-profit national Mini/MINI club we're close to launching. Amidst all this, we're about to launch a on-line Mini/MINI magazine early 2011. As with Nathan and his site, we want you all to be happy and love our product(s)/services, but that so rarely happens. There will always be unhappy customers, and those that state so on forums, yet rarely send their gripe to me (publisher@mc2magazine.com) or the editor (editor@mc2magazine.com) for our insight. Believe me, I don't hide from anything. I may even pick up the phone and call, as two readers in Canada and the UK found out this last month! (yes, our research in the UK against Modern MINI magazine shows we have better content than them say the British readers). Addressing the need for greater club and events coverage, please understanbd that we're very open to your submission, but in some cases we get too little or too much for an issue, so we have to put aside the most recent subsmission until the next issue- as with quickmini above, as we've spoken with him about this weeks ago. Many times the images and story sent us have problems of too low resolution or too few words. Peter and I are very pro-active on this, but we are quarterly and often it's old news by the next issue. Hence the reason that our GoMotoring site will have news and club sections for clubs & events, in addition to other features. We have an open door policy and will always have such. Drop me a line and I may just call you. Or ask me to call you. Send us your club contacts and what you're doing. Open a dialogue with us. If you don't like something we do, then tell us about it. Posting it here will not likely get a response unless someone informs us (thanks Mike!). The "typical buyer" of our magazine is 50+ and does get his/her info from us in many cases. Not that many of our readers are avid forum users. 20% or so are women 40-65. Many readers want simple DIY features. We have a growing classic Mini readership, as there are about 15,000 in N. America. We have some editorial changes coming soon. We believe we can add 8-16 pages for more editorial content during the 2011 year as we have new and more advertisers coming for 2011. However, we need and ask for your patronage to do this. No, we'll never be a large circulation magazine like R&T or Car and Driver- we don't want that. What we do want is to be like Nathan's site or any other business: Respected and Healthy. Those items and greater readership will allow us to get back to 100 pages of content. No matter what anyone says, we will soldier on as that's what editor Peter duPre and I have done in the auto magazine business for 40 and 33 years respectively. We'll listen. We'll make some changes. We'll make some mistakes. We hope you'll help us stay healthy. We wish you and yours a healthy 2011. Motor carefully. We thank you (and Nathan) for this time and space, Barry Brazier Publisher (publisher@mc2magazine.com)
Excellent info and thanks for being so straightforward. A lot of folks don't have any idea what it takes to make a paper mag and things such as paper mills going under affect the end product dramatically. I, for one, wish you guys the best!
Barry, Thanks for the viewpoint from the publisher side. I have always found MC2 to be very responsive to any comments/concerns that I have had. Peter (MC2 Editor) just called me to discuss my recent comments which was much appreciated. They take our comments seriously and want to produce a magazine that we will enjoy. Give the magazine a try. I have been a subscriber since MC2 started in 2005 and I always find articles of interest with great pictures. I think MC2 is well worth the price for a specialized magazine that is a quality production. If you look at other specialized magazines of good quality, such as Racecar Engineering, you will see how very expensive those magazines are (at least $10 an issue). I think MC2 does a good job keeping the cost down while providing a good product.
I'm not supposed to know it, but..... Got the big box special of the back issues and apparently a subscription. FedEx Came to my business when my wife was away from the shop. So I need to act surprised when I open the box on Christmas morn. So....... figure at least one new subscription from MC2.
I enjoy reading MC2. To me, it has a little of everything: history, new stuff, reviews, recaps of events, shiny pictures :arf:
