I have a question about GRM magazine...

I'm a new member, and when I received the December issue today the first thing I saw was an endorsement by Tim Suddard. I'm new, but I recognized the name as someone prominent in GRM.  A few pages later, there is "Starting Line", by Tim Suddard. Oh, yeah, now I make the connection. It seems weird that you endorse a product in the magazine. Am I  missing something? 

Tim owns it. 

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but what mndsm said.

In reply to Shadeux :

Confusion about the endorsement, or it openly being an endorsement as opposed to having a product comparison shoot out where the advertising company somehow wins, as it would be in a primemedia owned publication.

captdownshift said:

In reply to Shadeux :

Confusion about the endorsement, or it openly being an endorsement as opposed to having a product comparison shoot out where the advertising company somehow wins, as it would be in a primemedia owned publication.

Primedia... now there's a name I haven't head in a very long time...

It was quite an epic corporate journey and I was there for the tail end of it. At its height, they owned Automobile, Car Craft, Motor Trend, Soap Opera Digest, Pro Football Weekly, Seventeen, and God only know what else.

All of that was quickly sold off by prescient investor-executives who saw that media was going electronic. There was an abortive attempt at a publication called "Web Guide," which would have been a printed listing of paid ads for websites you might have wanted to visit- yeah, really.

At the end, all that was left in the portfolio was those free little "Apartment Guide" magazines that were once ubiquitous near the front doors of supermarkets and convenience stores. So the company renamed itself RentPath, bought Rent.com from (I think) eBay, and took that (still lucrative) business digital.

I have no idea who publishes Car Craft, Motor Trend, etc. post-2012, but that was Primedia. It still soldiers on out of some very nice offices in Salesforce Tower (a.k.a. Atlanta Plaza), mailing its dwindling profits to East Coast investors and floating junk bonds with eye-popping interest rates.

Weird? Probably. Tim uses a new cleaner (in the past it's been  anything from an ozone generator to tires, to Consuliers, lots of different stuff), thinks it's awesome, calls people who make it and says "your E36 M3 is awesome, I'm gonna tell people, buy an ad so I can continue in business and, yes, tell more people." They do. It's simple in a There Must Be A Deep State At Work kind of way. Yes, the publisher has opinions. And some berkeleyed up knuckles. Yay actual hands-on.

Margie 

In reply to b13990 :

I think motortrend is the name of the group that owns all those magazines now. There may or may not be another company that owns motortrend though.

In reply to Daylan C :

It was TEN "the enthusiasts network". Before that it was source interlink and Petersen owned hot rod and some others before that.  Pretty much all the major car mags ended up at source interlink and they killed off the low performers and  rebranded first to ten and now to motortrend group

A company sent us some stuff to try and Tim liked it and told them and they figured other people would like it to so they bought some ad space and used Tim's positive feedback and they sent us some money for the space and part of it went to pay my mortgage and probably for some duck food. 

Technically we endorse ALL the products that advertise in the magazine to some extent, or at least provide some tacit gatekeeping between our readers and known bad actors. Companies that don't pay their bills, or ones that have intentionally deceptive business practices tend not to stay on our ad roles for too long. That's not to say we've got hands-on experience with every single advertised product—the logistics of that are just not feasible. But if someone is a long-time regular advertiser, chances are they're a reputable organization. We just can't afford to deal with the ones that aren't, so we have fairly tight standards for that sort of thing.

EDIT: I see Margie already addressed this pretty much the same way. So, yeah, that.

I like that they do this. Would you rather have those weird ads in the back of most car magazines?

"Bolt on 50hp with this tornado device!"

"be the coolest guy around with this radiator!"

"nice Asian girls at this number!" Wait... I've divulged too much again.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

One of the things I've always noted is how directed the products are that are being advertised.  Naturally, you pair them with the appropriate articles- which makes sense.

But since you explain that you are "endorsing" all of the advertisers, it makes more sense that the ads are what they are.  Much better than reading the back of the other car magazines.  

(to be honest, when I was still racing, I did spend a lot of time reading hte ads...  )

I'm just here for the Duck Food Endorsement.

alfadriver said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

One of the things I've always noted is how directed the products are that are being advertised.  Naturally, you pair them with the appropriate articles- which makes sense.

But since you explain that you are "endorsing" all of the advertisers, it makes more sense that the ads are what they are.  Much better than reading the back of the other car magazines.  

(to be honest, when I was still racing, I did spend a lot of time reading hte ads...  )

Part of that is just the nature of our organization. We're a small company, without a large sales department, so we can't afford to have people on the phone all day calling every number in the phone book hoping a small percentage of them pan out. So we tend to deal with companies we can talk to intelligently, which tend to be people who are very much of our world. 

You'll probably also notice a lot of crossover with the companies that advertise in the magazine and the experts we rely on to help us produce editorial. That's because those companies have smart people working at them that know a lot. If I have a question about Miatas, or BMWs, I know that Keith Tanner or James Clay is going to have the correct answer. And because guys like Keith and James know that our readers are more well informed than the average enthusiast, they choose to advertise with us as well to reach those readers directly. 

What sort of ends up happening is that the readers, the advertisers and the magazine all kind of become this three-sided extended family. I'd bet we personally "know" more of our advertisers than pretty much any other media company out there. 

Cooter said:

I'm just here for the Duck Food Endorsement.

Man hook me up. I got 31 of them at the moment, 26 of which are eating exponentially more on a daily basis. I swear if you pick up a baby duck you can fel the thing growing in your hand. 

I'll hawk anyone's duck food that'll have me.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Well, if it eats like a duck, and grows like a duck..

My magazine/calendar came with a live spider in the bag

Patrick said:

My magazine/calendar came with a live spider in the bag

At least it wasn’t a duck. 

I want a pet duck now. And I think the ads in GRM are generally well-placed and well-chosen.

slowbird said:

I want a pet duck now. 

How soon can you be here?

Isn’t this the 2nd thread in as many weeks questioning the paid articles and ads? What’s the deal? It’s their show, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Questioning their integrity is a dick move, and I’m saying that knowing I’m known as the shiny happy person around here. 

JG Pasterjak said:

Cooter said:

I'm just here for the Duck Food Endorsement.

Man hook me up. I got 31 of them at the moment, 26 of which are eating exponentially more on a daily basis. I swear if you pick up a baby duck you can fel the thing growing in your hand. 

I'll hawk anyone's duck food that'll have me.

There's a Rural King in Gainesville for sure. I've found their fowl feed to be of decent quality and price. They might not know they need an advertiser for the duck food yet, but I bet they'd like the challenge. 

I'm sure there are others in florida, I only looked for Gainesville because challenge. 

In reply to _ :

I kinda anxiously await being contacted about extending the warranty on my 26 year old engine swapped sub $2000 E36 M3box. GRM is in fact my only hope for this. I'm bribing warranty companies with duck food in the efforts of making it happen at this point. 

I am interested in an extended warranty for my duck.

Patrick said:

My magazine/calendar came with a live spider in the bag

Now you'll be charged extra on the next subscription.

JG Pasterjak said:

I swear if you pick up a baby duck you can feel the thing growing in your hand. 

Can we nominate staff posts for Say What?