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PLEASE this is not a religion, its a magazine! As long as you don't review BMW its OK. If anyone is offended by this, they should get a life!!
Reader Bard-Alan Finlan is wondering what readers of <I>Stereophile</I> think about the recent introduction of ads for BMW cars and <I>FHM</I> magazine.
I will be happy to pay a little more for good quality articles than seeing this type of trash ads. In addition, most stereophiles are not womanizer or car buff because they cost more than HIFI! You are doing the HI FI industry a disservice by steering away people's money from things other than HIFI. Do you know why the dinosaurs extinct? Look at the mirror!
I have read all the bubbub in the magazine and could not believe that any one would take the time to send a comment. You are running a business and that business is to turn a profit. If BMW, Ford, GM or whoever feel that the demographic profile of an audio magazine encompasses their potential clientel, then let them bring their money to the table. These people that have complained need to get a grip! I would be displeased if I saw advertisements from Fisher-Price, Weed B Gone, or Uncle Benny's Sausage Haven, due the irrelevance to the demographic profile of the audiophile. But as a self proclaimed audiophile I do drive a vehicle. I probably would not buy one based on an advertisement placed in any magazine. Face it the auto industry wastes billions o'bucks on advertisement anyway. Most auto buyers purchase based on previous brand loyalty and inspiration of what they have seen on the street. Audio equipment purchasers buy mainly on the impulse of newest techno releases and looks. We love to look at our equipment and listen to it. The reveiws just make us feel like we are being intelligent consumers. Most of the reviews in any magazine are positive toward the product with a few negative shots thrown in so the reviewer can appear to be an authority on the subject. Stereophile has been fortunate enough to maintain a staff of the same people, and the readers have come to feel comfortable and trusting of the opinions and observations made by this group of people. But we readers would only be fooling ourselves if we thought that there wasn't a little gratuitous gratitude expressed in these articles to keep the manufactures happy so they don't pull their advertisements from the magazine. So in light of that, BMW is the safest advertisers, since I have never seen a auto review in Stereophile. Face it, readers love to complain, this keeps this magazine in business and the price of the magazine affordable. Also one last morsel of food for thought, when you complain about something as petty as a BMW ad in a audio magazine, aren't you revealing the fact that you are just looking at the pictures anyway?
My only reservation about these ads is what if they cause the ad rates to increase. Some small start-up audio companies might be squeezed out of advertising in your magazine. I like the ads from the new, small audio companies. I think they need a place to advertise to the high end.
The purpose of Stereophile or any other magazine is to make money for the owners. Magazines make money by selling advertising. I don't hold it against the owners for being capitalists. The owners can make even more money if they have lots of subscriptions. As long as the articles are high quality and the ads are not obscene, I don't care what type of advertising they do.
Great idea. I am sure there is a good crossover of consumers for high end audio and luxury cars. And if it supports this publication, then all the better. I additionally suggest seeking ads from other products that your readers are likely to buy. Prominent examples would be fine spirits, vacations, cigars, investment funds, etc.
In general I don't care, but it would bother me if the percentage of non-audio related adds increases. When I read Stereophile I read the articles and the ads. Also the ads should be tasteful - BMW is OK, Men's Magazines is questionable.
My wife finally started to read Stereophile, because of Lisa Astor, with whom she relates and the fact that Stereophile didnt use women to sell us equipment. I was sad to see the FHM ad just as my wife is starting to see why I spend so much money on good-sounding equipment.
Ads are the primary source of income for a magazine. If Stereophile gets more ads from deep pocket companies like BMW then it shows how financially healty Stereophile is. There is no conection between BMW cars and magazine content, so who cares? Other niche magazines have ads for trips, cars, and food that they think the major demographics of the readers of that magazine will be interested in. I am much more concerned that there are not more audio ads in non-audio magazines than that Stereophile is ensuring itself a long future of audio reporting.
We want high end audio to become more 'main stream', that is to be known to a wider audience as an excellent way to spend recreational time and income. Well guess what, it works both ways! I am pleased that such a well known symbol of the good life recognizes Stereophile readers as consumers worth going after.
Stereophile is one of the last sources of ads from high-end audio manufacturers and dealers, so I would prefer to see ads promoting audio products. On the other hand, I would hate to see Stereophile's demise, so I guess I'll have to live with it.
The ads placed in a magazine should be on the same level as the material discussed in it. Ads for Lexus, BMW, or other "luxury" items, don't really bother me. Ads for magazines like FHM, or in the case of one A/V magazine, cigarettes, really don't belong. In the case of that magazine, when my subscription runs out, I'm out.
On the face of it, I don't care who buys advertising copy in Stereophile. But when combined with the increased prolifieration of mid-fi equipment (2 more this month), I begin to wonder where Stereophile is headed. The Stereo Review?
if you enjoy fine products(and bmw is certainly a fine product line), why would it offend to see an ad in the mag? a road test should be left to car and driver, but to see such beauty in a manufactured product, whether it be an automobile or finely crafted speakers, is an enjoyment to me. the ad revenue supports something else i enjoy - stereophile magazine. win-win situation. to those whiners who seem to find a dark lining in every silver cloud, grow up.