For most men who gear up every month to read the latest news on flashy and fast cars, CAR magazine, South Africa’s oldest motoring title, has been their publication of choice for decades.
Now in its 50th year, CAR remains the largest selling magazine of its kind with an average circulation of 112,627 (ABC Jan – March 2006). This despite competition from the likes of topcar and Cars in Action, with circulations of 27,889 and 17,906 respectively, claiming second and third place in the market.
According to AMPS 2005, CAR reaches an average of 703,000 men (80.9 percent) and 166,000 (19.1 percent) women every month.
However, this might not be the case for long.
The magazine battle between Media24 and Ramsay, Son & Parker (RS&P) first surfaced in the leisure travel market and has now spilled over into the car market.
Media24 recently announced its acquisition of Kemsley & Schoeman Publications, publishers of topcar, topdeals and topbike, for an undisclosed sum.
The company is also launching international title Max Power with an initial print run of 60,000.
Max Power, a UK title, is expected to take on the low profile but high performance Speed and Sound, which currently has a circulation of 56,864 and taps into the vast underground car-lovers’ market.
“Max Power is targeted at young guys (16 – 28) and it’s all about having fun with cars,” says Pierre Steyn, editorial director of Media24’s automotive titles.
“Our readers are passionate about cars, and love modifying them themselves. Max Power is their passport into a world of cool cars, sexy girls and a fun lifestyle.”
Assistant publisher of family magazines at Media24, Riaan Jordaan, says the publication will be able to use the best international content in Max Power, with the bulk of the content produced locally.
“It will have the look and feel of the British one,” says Jordaan.
Speed and Sound publisher Annie E’Silva says it is difficult to predict how Max Power will affect them.
“I wouldn’t know how Max Power will offer their product to the market,” says E’Silva, “but launching any type of publication is not an easy task. Good luck to them.”
She says her company will not be engaging in any intensive marketing campaigns in preparation of the international title’s arrival in the country.
“We already do intensive campaigning and sponsorships in our industry as it is,” says E’Silva.
“Being a purely South African magazine with local content, we didn’t need to buy a name or bear any naming rights to understand the market or exploit the fairer sex to get any sort of readership,” she adds, referring to the scantily clad women who adorn the cars on Max Power covers.
Meanwhile, RS&P is re-launching old kid on the block, Wiel, in September. The Afrikaans title was owned by the old Times Media (Johnnic Magazines) and then by Replay Media. It will now be printed and distributed by CTP/Caxton, which recently acquired a 30 percent stake in RS&P.
Last year’s July to December ABC shows Wiel‘s circulation decreased to 4,766 from 6,571 during the same period the year before. This is a huge drop from the days when it sold an average of more than 16,000 copies, about nine years ago.
Stuart Lowe, publisher of RS&P’s CAR and Wiel, says the magazine will not only be targeted at Afrikaans readers of CAR who account for 35 percent of the publication’s readership but Afrikaans readers in general. Nearly 38 percent of CAR readers are mother-tongue English speakers while about 11 percent are Zulu speakers. The rest are made up of Xhosa speakers at 7.3 percent and Sotho speakers at 6.4 percent.
Publisher of Cars in Action, Classic Cars and Bakkies & Truck Action, Michele Lupini attributes the downward spiral of Wiel to its failed “marriage” with Drive magazine, owned by Replay. He says the partnership led to a loss of identity with readers.
But Lowe says that is unlikely to happen this time. “The two are completely different products, editorially and otherwise.”
He says he hopes Wiel becomes CAR‘s biggest competitor especially since there are currently some 675,000 Afrikaans-speaking readers of English motoring magazines.
“More importantly the total number of vehicles in Afrikaans households (2,685 million units) is larger than in English homes,” he explains.
“We will offer Wiel as a unique news-driven magazine – the first choice for Afrikaans readers – many of whom will continue to read CAR, the automotive authority.”
Wheels24’s newly appointed deputy editor Janine-Lee Gordin says publishers should have taken advantage of the growing car lovers’ market a long time ago.
“The car magazine industry, especially the underground movement, has a lot of potential because here you are dealing with people who are passionate about their cars,” she says.
The growth of the black middle class is regarded as one of the factors spurring the market’s growth. According to research by stock-broking firm Merrill Lynch, a significant portion of the black middle class income is directed towards motor vehicles.
The company says black consumers account for 20 percent of all vehicle sales in South Africa, up from less than five percent in 1994.
The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) in June announced a rise of almost 17 percent in car sales in May alone, bringing the number of units bought to 35,071.
The South African motor industry is expected to break through the 700,000 unit barrier by the end of the year.
Cars in Action‘s Lupini says despite the boom in the market, he believes there is room for even more motoring magazines.
“As established independent magazine publishers this should not hit us too much,” he says.
“I don’t see there being a problem with the quantity of magazines because in France, they have about 50 motoring magazines.”
He says the dramatic and rapid current change in the local motor magazine market follows many years of gradual development.
“Over the years, we have been questioned about the niche focus and our separation of subject matter into classic and commercial titles,” he explains. “Now all of a sudden, our bigger rivals are being gobbled up or are amalgamating with new partners and it seems all the rage to split even the biggest of them into separate niche titles – albeit English and Afrikaans splits.”
Lupini questions the wisdom behind the launch of Wiel, predicting that it will split certain well accepted market-leading readerships into several smaller, less important ones.
South Africa is not the only country whose motoring magazine industry is revving up a storm.
In May this year, BBC’s Magazines announced a licensing deal with leading Czech Republic publisher Stratosfera to launch the thirteenth edition of Top Gear in that country. Stratosfera also publishes Autocar and F1 Racing among other publications.
In North America, E-map Automotive launched CAR magazine in April this year, under licence to publisher Editorial Premiere. The magazine was launched with a print run of 50,000.
Lowe says he believes there are two primary factors driving this renewed interest in motoring magazines – the large number of models available to car buyers and the big amounts spent on motoring ads.
“At R1,929-billion in 2005 (source: AC Nielsen), the automotive sector represents a big slice of the ad spend pie,” he points out.
“The potential for that slice to sustain and grow in size is a function of vehicle sales, which as you know have been breaking records for the last three years,” Lowe concludes.
So car magazine publishers are making hay while the sun shines on consumers. Long may there be the democratic right to choose.