CAR Middle East // Announces last issue
Monday, August 15th, 2011 // Phil McGovern // Lifestyle //
8 comments so far
It’s a sad day for car enthusiasts across the region, with news breaking that CAR Middle East Magazine will cease its monthly publication as well as its accompanying website/Facebook page.
The long-standing CAR Middle East title has been one of the more established Automotive magazines in the region. Enigmatic Editorial Director Shahzad Sheikh confirmed that their September issue will be their last >>>
Any news on why? That’s sad news.
Reading between the lines it is connected to a number of factors. From advertising revenue to license fees and a couple of extra bits in the middle.
Same thing happened to a lot of print publications in Greece and in Australia (where I lived before I moved to Dubai). The internet, social websites, etc have killed the print industry. No one buys magazines anymore, not when you can have everything on an iPad through websites or facebook etc. Automotive magazines now are going to PDF format, you download them, read them, delete them and no paper trail anywhere.
Thanks guys! I guess it’s only a matter of time for most types of publications.
I still purchase printed car magazines as I enjoy collecting them. For all other types of magazines (i.e. sports, lifestyle, etc.), I choose to read online.
Your right, it’s not just the reading it’s also the collection of some mags, ‘Autosport’ and ‘Motorsport’ being favorites.
Wish I hadn’t thrown out my collection of ‘Autosport’ from the 90′s now, would be great to flick back through them.
Shame really. Aside from Evo ME it seems there’ll be no genuine car mags coming out of the region with any locally relevant professional journalism in them anymore.
CAR ME had some rather good original articles now and then and probably the best production values around as well. When you look at the state of what’s left standing it seems clear that quality was never the issue though.
Oh well.
It is a sad state of affairs and one that we are trying to dig further into. Seemingly the desire to support Business and Lifestyle publications is greater than that of the Automotive.
Personally I blame Salik!