I liked WR when it was a PDF… I could read it how and where I wanted. Then they made it that slick web-thing and made it harder to read and less portable.

I also liked reading (and listening to) David E. Davis’ musings. Then he left.

Then they didn’t pay me for two photographs of mine they used – after negotiating and mutually agreeing to a fair price.

Then I seemed to vanish from their “subscription”… meaning I no longer received an email when a new issue came out. (coincidence?)

I haven’t looked at WR in months. I honestly thought they no longer existed.

–chuck

The reality is that most of these digital magazines seem to be using ever more complex graphics that use increasing amounts of memory and that take longer and longer to fully download.

I recently started receiving an English magazine called “iMotor” that is especially bad. (I don’t know why I started receiving it, it just shows up in my email.) The magazine is O.K. but takes forever to download, and on several occasions has caused my browser to close. Maybe they have better Internet service in the U.K.

*cue music*

Anyway, I really like the e-zine look; I guess it’s a matter of taste.

For a good read, go check out the Jalopnik review of the Subaru STI. Or Autoblog’s review of the Lamborghini Murcielago.

EDIT: TTAC writes good reviews, too. I’m talking about other sites… :)

originally it was focused on how the car drove – and all their reviews and articles were about that – it was fantastic, they would put into words just what it was like to drive the cars.

Then David E. Davis stepped in, their format changed, and now its basically no better than any of the “buff books” which I’ve cancelled my subscriptions to after becoming sick of their manufacturer kool-aid drinking reviews.

This month they review a bunch of cars on track. It seems to me that you have to try to make an event like this read so blandly.

Lieberman’s Lambo review on this site reminds me of the enthusiasm for cars that C&D had once. They used to be able to put you in the seat of a fast car and tell you what makes the car special. If C&D wrote the Lambo review, it would have been something like “the car we reviewed stickered at $xxx. We like the color. It ran the quarter mile in 12 seconds which is pretty fast.” See my point? No enthusiasm. Maybe their editor is burned out? I dunno. If I ever get permission to take the laptop into the bathroom, my car mag subscription ends.

Somebody needs a laptop and wi-fi.

Or an iPhone…

I just save it as a PDF and transfer it using Air Sharing (an iPhone app). I can read away in peace…

Until her attitude changes in this regard (and it won’t), I’ll keep my Car and Driver subscription and will have to restrict my TTAC reading to non-bathroom time.

Eventually, the two are going to converge. Unfortunately, they’re converging on exactly the wrong point.

Have a look at Edmunds.com, and compare it to Parkers.co.uk (which looks a lot like Edmunds used to look) and realize how much becoming like a paper mag has compromised Edmunds’ accessibility. I’m sure their stats are up, but a) I think that has more to do with inertia and general internet growth and b) I’d wager that a lot of people find the site quite frustrating.

New mediums imitate old mediums because A) they’re run by the same people B) no one likes to take risks and C) that’s doubly true for companies.

Obviously, a new medium must find its own strengths and weaknesses. Less obviously, the new medium liberates the old to reinvent itself. In that sense, it’s the buff books that must change, not the net. Meanwhile…

I didn’t think I’d like the mag on screen format. But the I’m coming ’round to the idea that the hybrid works.

Obviously, I don’t expect the mag thing for news. But for ye olde reviews and features, it speaks to me. Perhaps that’s because I prefer jumping around these days.

It might also have to do with the lack of quality writing found in car mags. I just can’t bring myself to sit down and commit to a car mag anymore. Flip, flip, flip, read, flip, read a but, flip. If I want some literary “down time,” I’ll read a book.

But the whole digital magazine thing baffles me. It’s not like when people started publishing on paper they attempted to make them stone tablets.

Digital is a totally new medium with new strengths and weaknesses. I can’t understand why people equipped with powerful modern computers and software persist in creating content limited by preconceived notions from previous eras.

I don’t mean to pick on WR, this kind of thinking exists all over, I just don’t get it.

Besides, if they post anything good, I’m sure Robert will tell us about it. :)

As far a a digital e-zine goes, it has its pros (it fells more like a magazine), but the con is waiting for a monthly mag, as opposed to just posting stuff when you have it like Edmunds IL does. TTAC already has an editorial, and as that was always a big part of a “traditional” mag, so would you have separate editorials for the mag?

On another note, I stopped reading Winding Road the day I realized I’d never once read a bad review in it. It occurs to me that this is an excellent metric to judge any publication which reviews products – if they’ve never been disappointed in anything, they’re probably lying.

Somebody needs a laptop and wi-fi.