What's Next For Auto Action?

[GTRMagic]

I know that we often laugh at Auto Action (or its more widely used name "Auto Fiction") because of its challenges in content, in accuracy (or lack of!), in chasing the big news stories (or not bothering!).. but with the loss of Motorsport eNews for a multitude of reasons, the AA publication is the remaining weekly newspaper for the sport...

As part of PBL Media, and as such the Nine Entertainment Company (NEC), AA is part of a stable of magazine products that range from Womens Weekly to Zoo Weekly to Cleo..! And as part of NEC... the owners of that organisation has been in the news recently for having to plough more funds into the business to keep the lenders from the doors!

So not an ideal basis for an eclectic motorsport magazine perhaps. Especially with former motor noter ACP Magazines boss Phil Scott also out of the NEC bulding and into retirement...

To the facts...

From their own ACP homepage Here



I cant believe that AA has fallen to such a volume level. 10,214 weekly readers (on average) audited.. I can recall only a few years ago this was over 16,000...

Speedcafe.com by comparison, has 8,195 likes on its facebook page.. and more than likely many many more in its online readership...

While ACP's Rugby League Week manages to find 17,055 paying punters to buy their magazine each week, in what is likely to be a largely Eastern Seaboard distribution.

ACP also owns Australian Motorcycle News, which is a bi-weekly magazine, that manages to find 21,009 purchasers every fortnight, in what you might consider to be a less popular subject.

Back to mainstream for a minute for comparison, a product such as Take 5 magazine, also an ACP publication, manages to find 209,319 purchasers each week for its crossword puzzle wrapped in feel good stories... almost 21 times the readership for arguably a lot less time sensitivity & news...

So.. has the rot set in? Will NEC seek a new parent for the magazine? Who might buy it?

And perhaps on a more positive note... what could they do to improve the AA magazine?

Can AA generate the same kinds of stories and depth that was there in the 'good old days'? Will this improve the level of readership? And perhaps the magazine's survival?

Could Auto Action create an online presence to rival Speedcafe.com? Is there room for two of these professional players in the Australian market?

Whaddaya reckon?

[david5]

I gave it away after reading it for 28 years. It has become the Womens Day for V8SC fans. The research on anything else is terrible. Being on holidays & being wet in Qld I picked up the most recent issues & it just reenforced my opinion.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

but with the loss of Motorsport eNews for a multitude of reasons, the AA publication is the remaining weekly newspaper for the sport...

Tis a sad day indeed when thats the case.

If AF want to grow they need to work on the quality of the mag, until that happens I aint picking up AF again. Ditto if they want to be known as AA and not AF.

[Oldtony]

Originally Posted by david5

. It has become the Womens Day for V8SC fans. The research on anything else is terrible. .

Exactly!
And the problem is that the V8SC bulk demographic is not realy interested in the background team news stories, the technical stories or even the celebrity stuff around the "stars" of the series.
There is very rarely anything of a genuinely news nature leading to a round of beat-ups being standard fare.
It either doesn't cover, or doesn't research other forms of motorsport where they might get an alternate mag buying audience. Only looked at occaisional copies, but have they done anything that could be called analysis over the past couple of years?
And of course it has Nine links and the major TV player is Seven. No opportunity for cross promotion.

[coln72]

Haven't looked at AA for years either. Once they stopped covering state level events, I lost interest.

[St00ge]

Originally Posted by coln72

Haven't looked at AA for years either. Once they stopped covering state level events, I lost interest.

they do have a state racing section, it has been in there for quiet a while..

[Reload]

Originally Posted by St00ge

they do have a state racing section, it has been in there for quiet a while..

Which isn't too bad a read.

[GeoffR]

In the early days of AA (B&W fortnightly) I couldn't wait for each edition to come out. When it went to a glossy weekly everything seemed to change and I've rarely bought it since. As mentioned above, the coverage of State level events in the early days was quite comprehensive (ie. detailed reports of State rally championship events even), whereas the current State event section covers a couple of pages with a couple of paragraphs for each event, I still flick through it in the newsagents! Maybe AA should go 'back to the future'.

[Rob Bailey]

Originally Posted by david5

I gave it away after reading it for 28 years. It has become the Womens Day for V8SC fans. The research on anything else is terrible. Being on holidays & being wet in Qld I picked up the most recent issues & it just reenforced my opinion.

I'm in my early 50s,read it from about the age of 15 or so.Gave it away about 7 years ago.
I get all news news of Ten tenths or Natsoft.

[GreenMachine]

When I found that the part I was most interested in was the classifieds, that was the end for me - God knows how many years (decades?) ago!

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Rob Bailey

I'm in my early 50s,read it from about the age of 15 or so.Gave it away about 7 years ago.
I get all news news of Ten tenths or Natsoft.

Pretty much the same for me - although I probably gave it away for the most part earlier than that - fully giving it away was about 7 years ago though.

It was bad enough when it ran so many headlines with a question mark ("Larry in a Ford?" for example) but it just seemed to get further away from really understanding the game. It's one thing when journos get facts wrong (which they all do) but it's another thing entirely when they have the right facts but draw totally ridiculous conclusions due to them not really understanding the attitude and motivations of the people working in the sport.

AA has been particularly guilty of that for some time - Fogarty included. So reading any "in depth" article became an exercise in frustration.

Don't know how they turn it around nor do I know how they make it appealing to a wider audience but the declining circulation makes it a virtual irrelevance.

[St00ge]

tough crowd, aways grab a copy for something to read when "dropping the Cosby kids off at the pool"

[david5]

Originally Posted by St00ge

tough crowd, aways grab a copy for something to read when "dropping the Cosby kids off at the pool"

Well at least you can fold it into paper boats.

[krypto71]

I generally only buy AA now if there is an driver interview or article I'm interested in keeping.

In as far as news goes, you really can't beat the speed of the internet.

I usually find any significant news stores from AA and ENews retold here within a day or so of publication anyway.

[alfacors]

MNews tried to do the State Level coverage too with a mini-mag liftout but it soon died. In reality, while in a perfect world those of us who participate in state level competition would love to see reports and images plastered into a National publication, the reality is that the majority of people who buy MN or AA don't care what's happening in Combined Touring, or IPRA, or State FFord, etc etc. I seriously doubt whether there would be any significant increase in the circulation of a publication if it included State coverage, certainly not enough to offset the additional pages required each week, along with the people to submit reports and images from each and every state level round.