Classic Car Weekly

[skoda_fan]

I've been a subscriber to this august publication for some time, but every week I wonder why. I think it's because I like the fact that such a thing exists and I want to support it. However I generally find I can read it in 60 seconds flat. Some of their mistakes are pretty crass, but they have excelled themselves this week. In a write-up of a '73 Beetle for sale they state "the car's water(?) temperature gauge (??)  stays at 'normal'.....".  WTF!

[dollywobbler]

I'm not saying anything. I once spelt Citroën wrong on the front cover of Classic Car Weekly. (the ë got lost entirely between my sensible computer and the designer's Mac).

[Lacquer Peel]

It's no Classic Car Buyer.

[skoda_fan]

To be fair I assume something similar has happened this week and part of the copy of the review of another car has mistakenly crept in. I do look forward to CCW each week and can imagine the almighty effort that must be required to get something together for a deadline each Wednesday.

[Fat_Pirate]

I get it as part of Readly and quite like it, but it's the Daily Mail of the classic car press.  GOVERNMENT TO BAN LOVELY OLD CARS, etc.  Still better than Classic Cars though - I immediately stop reading any magazine that features an advert for a fucking WATCH on the first page.  

[skoda_fan]

Yep despite my opening criticism I quite like it and would miss it if I didn't subscribe. I agree it's a bit sensationalist. Also agree re Classic Cars and the like....generally feature cars that are way above my means and therefore meaningless to me. I also subscribe to Practical Classics which I still like, but don't read as avidly as I once did.

[Stanky]

I buy it every few months since one copy takes me about 3 months to read and digest - its fairly brief stuff, but at least tries to be informative. The 'sensationalist' stuff is inevitable I think in a weekly mag about what is still a fairly niche hobby, any vaguely related article will be padded out to fill as much space as possible just to keep shifting units.

 

CCB is OK as a second best, but I like the informative articles and staff cars stuff which from memory they don't have as much of in CCB as CCW.

[eddyramrod]

 

CCB is OK as a second best, but I like the informative articles and staff cars stuff which from memory they don't have as much of in CCB as CCW.

Oh you mean the updates on my fleet and Ian's, and Jon's?  I don't think anyone at CCW has a Cadillac...

[dollywobbler]

That's the biggest problem with CCB. Most of the writers are on here...

[Uncle Jimmy]

Niche hobby? Mainstream, hence the level of MGB love. I like it apart from the constant chat about bloody auctions and values, I'll subscribe to estate agent monthly if I want to read/care about money matters.

[59Impala]

I subscribe to both CCW and CCB and prefer CCB. Not even crawling to the CCB writers on here  Much better staff cars i.e. not MGBs and MX5s. Plus they don't have Andrew 'Jack Hawkins wearing a trilby smoking a pipe' Roberts writing for them. That's always a bonus in my book.

[alcyonecorporation]

Niche hobby? Mainstream, hence the level of MGB love. I like it apart from the constant chat about bloody auctions and values, I'll subscribe to estate agent monthly if I want to read/care about money matters.

Oh trust me, you're not the only person who finds that irritating. And yes, advertising sales determine editorial to an extent - just before any 'salt of the earth SAY IT LIKE IT IS' iconoclast type points that out.

 

It's no Classic Car Buyer.

Meow.

 

I'm not saying anything. I once spelt Citroën wrong on the front cover of Classic Car Weekly. (the ë got lost entirely between my sensible computer and the designer's Mac).

Doing a promo for GSF and referring to them as "Euro Car Parts" throughout.

 

Yes, that took a bit of sorting out.

[RichardK]

To be fair I assume something similar has happened this week and part of the copy of the review of another car has mistakenly crept in. I do look forward to CCW each week and can imagine the almighty effort that must be required to get something together for a deadline each Wednesday.

 

 

Can get a bit stressful. But so can any mag running to deadlines and trying to incorporate news.

[alcyonecorporation]

"Trying." 

[RichardK]

Very trying.

 

Actually getting information from sources, sometimes it's like interrogation techniques rather than PR staff are needed.

 

(And that's just the photo press).

[alcyonecorporation]

Amen, breddern. 

 

My favourite is when people submit local events.

 

"Yeah, can you list our event? It's just down from The Red Lion, everyone knows where that is." 

 

The other gem is: "You're so biased against [name of terrible car], you need to be positive instead."

 

CCB is OK as a second best, but I like the informative articles and staff cars stuff which from memory they don't have as much of in CCB as CCW.

Yes, but we have a quarter of their staff and a tenth of their budget. Ask me how I know.

 

CCW's features editor was CCB's editor, hhhhhh.

[Stanky]

Yes, but we have a quarter of their staff and a tenth of their budget. Ask me how I know.

 

CCW's features editor was CCB's editor, hhhhhh.

 

I wasn't aware of that, I assumed (wrongly) that it was a similar sized team with different target audiences, albeit with some overlap. While the articles in CCB are good, I am always left feeling that I'm not quite in the target socio-economic group after reading it.

 

Interesting to hear about the behind-the-scenes info on this though.

[alcyonecorporation]

I wasn't aware of that, I assumed (wrongly) that it was a similar sized team with different target audiences, albeit with some overlap. While the articles in CCB are good, I am always left feeling that I'm not quite in the target socio-economic group after reading it.

 

Interesting to hear about the behind-the-scenes info on this though.

 

Like us, we assume most of our readership is skint. There are exceptions to our "bloke in shed with Dolomite" rule if Jaguars are involved, for example. They'd get a lot of coverage, along with aspirational stuff like DB7s. 

But otherwise, we do brassic. None of my cars are "proper" according to several angry letters. One person said I'd made up having an Amazon, "because it never gets mentioned". 

 

I made a video of me smashing my face into the bonnet repeatedly but I decided against posting it up. 

 

Auctions is slowly getting tweaked, but I find the constant obsession with values "a needs which must" rather than something that fascinates me personally. 

[Uncle Jimmy]

Amen, breddern. My favourite is when people submit local events."Yeah, can you list our event? It's just down from The Red Lion, everyone knows where that is." The other gem is: "You're so biased against [name of terrible car], you need to be positive instead.

That also irritates me, I wish they'd just say it how it is, I want a realistic description of owning, maintaining and driving an old car, not some invester grade, rose tinted twaddle.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Like us, we assume most of our readership is skint. There are exceptions to our "bloke in shed with Dolomite" rule if Jaguars are involved, for example. They'd get a lot of coverage, along with aspirational stuff like DB7s. 

But otherwise, we do brassic. None of my cars are "proper" according to several angry letters. One person said I'd made up having an Amazon, "because it never gets mentioned". 

I made a video of me smashing my face into the bonnet repeatedly but I decided against posting it up. 

Auctions is slowly getting tweaked, but I find the constant obsession with values "a needs which must" rather than something that fascinates me personally.

 

Hummm, this does correlate with some experiences I've had with 'classic car' owners. How did you reply to those letters?

[chaseracer]

The tone of CCW changed when the new editor took over, as you'd expect.  I don't buy it half as often now.

[alcyonecorporation]

Hummm, this does correlate with some experiences I've had with 'classic car' owners. How did you reply to those letters?

With diplomacy. On the flip side, we get a fair few from folk with cars on the cusp, too. 

 

If no one wants to reply, we leave it. 

 

One bloke wrote in saying that seat belts devalued and detracted from the originality of APPROVED CLASSIC CARS. 

I replied explaining that had the belt in the Midget I was testing not performed as intended, the neck I was originally supplied with would have ended up broken, detracting from my OEM specification. 

 

I didn't receive a reply.

 

The tone of CCW changed when the new editor took over, as you'd expect.  I don't buy it half as often now.

I get mistaken for David Simister a lot at shows.

 

I'm sure he's thrilled.

[Bobthebeard]

IMHO CCW and other worthy journals need to express just how much Rover 75's are appreciating in value as desirable and vanishing British classics. The fact that I own three of them has nothing to do with that remark.

Just an opinion like.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I get it as part of Readly and quite like it, but it's the Daily Mail of the classic car press.  GOVERNMENT TO BAN LOVELY OLD CARS, etc.  Still better than Classic Cars though - I immediately stop reading any magazine that features an advert for a fucking WATCH on the first page.  

 

 

 

It's why I stopped buying Classic & SportsCar. I read Martin Buckley's column first and the rest followed, but there's too much wealth on display and poncing about - adverts for Swiss watches, yachts, private banks and shit like that. FUCK OFF!

[sierraman]

Does Peter Simpson still edit it?

[alcyonecorporation]

Does Peter Simpson still edit it?

Peter hasn't edited CCB for at least five years.

[SiC]

Never bought either. Got to go out to the supermarket tonight and tempted to buy one for a read? Which is generally accepted the better? suits and caters for which tastes?

[chaseracer]

Buy both and decide for yourself!

[Angrydicky]

I'm still very angry and very bitter at David Simister and his joke of a newspaper CCW. I really got pissed around over that job I went for there (that they eventually gave to CCB's editor) and got dragged up to Peterborough twice, given two interviews and the runaround for months while they ummed and ahhed before they decided to give the job to him. Promised freelance work never materialised, and an email sent when he advertised for a Staff Writer was given the response of 'Have you had any more experience of motoring writing since we last spoke?'. And the answer was no, obviously, because since the publisher of the Automobile decided I was no longer required and since Simister found it important to get one up on the competition by pinching their editor, I hadn't managed to get any work. Maybe if I bought an MX-5, I'd have more luck.

 

I'd love to get some work from Kelsey but their man never got back to me, despite me trying a few times. I gave up in the end.

 

Ah well, fuck 'em. I've got a job now that is much less stressful and bitchy and I don't have to work weekends. It would have been nice to get some freelance writing work, if only to make a bit of extra cash and to please my dear old grandad who keeps asking me if I've gained any more commissions.

[dollywobbler]

Amazing how many folk have left the profession due to that last paragraph. Yet still it gets seen as a dream job. I'm mostly working this weekend, missing a huge 2CV party and trying to remind myself that this is living the dream.

 

Mind you, I dragged myself out of bed at half nine this morning and have a Proton AND a Bluebird. So maybe things aren't so bad.