Aug. Post The seemy tech magazine underworld - real or not???

[David Vizard]

About 6 months ago I was reading a post from a poster whose name I know but alas I cannot remember what it is at my current brain surgery recovery status. However the part of content sticks with me like the ultimate slick on the ultimate track.

The subject this gentleman brought up concerned the technical integrity of magazine articles and how much politics and advertising revenue influenced what was published. Here our poster was expressing some doubts about the veracity of many published articles. His opinion was very interesting from several view points. In essence he was, like virtually every ST member, an outsider looking in. On the other hand, after writing some 4000 magazine articles published world wide I can confidently say I am a outsider with a great deal of insider experience.

I have now all but retired from writing mainstream magazine articles so I don't have to maintain any semblance of political correctness. In other words a tell all, good or bad, won't affect my business one way or another. However before I do that I would like the polite but otherwise unembellished thoughts of knowledgeable tech guys on the subject of magazine veracity.

As responses come in I will - if and where applicable, reveal my experiences in similar circumstances but from both sides of the fence.

Now is you chance to complain or compliment - make sure you do!!

David Vizard

[GARY C]

Being a connoisseur of fine literature I gather a few subscriptions between the 80's to the 2000's one thing I learned was to look at the average power numbers not the peaks and try to find trends between engine combos, with most of the mag builds being 10.1 350's with a 242/248 comp cam on a 110 you could kind of get an idea of what different head sizes, intakes and headers did by comparing tq curves to like builds as well as comparing other changes with in that venue of parts.

One thing I noticed was the articles in the later years lost length, depth and story telling, the earlier writers including yourself were good at crafting the moment were the reader felt like he was at the track on test day... I really "dislike" the online mag stuff these days... just not the same.

I recall a conversation you and I had about your frustration of not being able to write about QC because mast manufactured made sure you got a flawless part to write about as opposed to a part out of a mail order catalog like the best of us.

Most of my collection. :)

[ClassAct]

I learned at a very early age that ALL magazine content is, at best to be viewed with serious reservations. As we say, you don't poop in your own kitchen. So why would ANY magazine undercut its own bottom line? Magazines are in business for one purpose. That is to sell product. Period. To argue this is silly. Doesn't matter if it is for the general public or a trade rag. It's all the same. It's about advertising.

I was probably no more that 12 years old when it occurred to me. How can a magazine, let's say a motorcycle magazine for example, have 6-8 pages of color advertising from Honda, and in the very same issue have a test of a Honda and several other bikes and have the Honda not be the top dog? If you crapped on the Honda, you can bet the next month your advertising revenue would take a major hit. At that time, I was riding several bikes, and the least bike in the group was the Honda. Virtually everything they said about the bike was wrong. And it wasn't just my opinion either. At the races I would casually ask guys about their bike and sure enough, we almost all had the same issues. But the magazine never mentioned them. They would pick a few little details and complain and ignore the other issues. As the advertising revenue dropped by other manufacturers, the bikes faired less and less.

Move forward to about 2006 or so. I was invited to a ride where you could ride any bike the company had. So I went. At the end of the day, several guys asked the company rep why these bike had not been tested by the popular comic books of the day. The answer was "they want us to sign up for a minimum of 3 issues of ad space and a minimum of page space. If we do that, we know they will still rate the bikes low because even at that amount of advertising, we can't compete with the jap bike companies and their advertising across all the magazines in that publishers house. It's better we do days like this, than let a magazine rip the bike over advertising".

The sad thing that day was most of the guys there were actually stunned by this guys honesty. I wasn't.

The same thing goes on in ANY magazine. Take Comp for example. Why test any other cam than Comp? It's a no win situation. If the Comp is the best, you've wasted time. If it's not the best, then you just pooped in your own kitchen. Why kill an adverting partner who pays your bills?

That's just one example. I know of one article where a very small cam company did better on virtually every metric than the Comp cam, except for max power. And the smaller brand cam wasn't down much. In the end, the Comp was held up as the winner. Why? The other cam had better driveablity and in almost every other measure was better. It did all that with a bit less lift and duration. We all love that don't we? The car was much better to drive. Doesn't that count? That's all I hear. How can you drive that on the street. In this example, that metric was given less value and peak power was weighted far greater than it should have been. Power and torque were better under the curve (and we know the industry wets itself about area under the curve) with the lesser known cam company, yet it meant little in this case. Why???? MONEY. Advertising changes everything.


Don't even get me started in the firearms industry and the lies that guys publish.

So yes, it's a know FACT that money sways the work. It's impossible that it doesn't. To think it doesn't is naive at best.

And let's not forget what happens when you buy a flow bench. 99% of what is published about cylinder head porting is wrong. At best. If you don't flow your own heads, and then out them on the pump and the take that junk to the track, you have no idea how wrong some of that stuff is.

Just my 6 decades of experience.

[David Vizard]

What a great post!!!
You have touched on a ton of stuff and the captured the essence of magazine politics. However you are still on the outside looking in and what's more you have tared the entire industry with the same brush. I am somewhat bothered to say here that you are only about 90% right.

What I am going to do is look at your post a subject at a time and comment. You will be pleased to know you have made a pretty good assessment but it is still not something that has been researched quite as deeply as I would have liked to have seen. When I have a little more time I will go through your post a sentence/topic at a time and throw more light on what goes on in the industry. Some of it will shock even the most sceptical of you guys out there.
BTW you have been in the business as long as I have (did my first flow test 25th may 1958)
DV

[David Vizard]

Class Act,

What a great post!!!
You have touched on a ton of stuff and the captured the essence of magazine politics. However you are still on the outside looking in and what's more you have tared the entire industry with the same brush. I am somewhat bothered to say here that you are only about 90% right.

What I am going to do is look at your post a subject at a time and comment. You will be pleased to know you have made a pretty good assessment but it is still not something that has been researched quite as deeply as I would have liked to have seen. When I have a little more time I will go through your post a sentence/topic at a time and throw more light on what goes on in the industry. Some of it will shock even the most sceptical of you guys out there.
BTW you have been in the business as long as I have (did my first flow test 25th May 1958)
DV
[/quote]

[David Vizard]

Class Act,

What a great post!!!
You have touched on a ton of stuff and the captured the essence of magazine politics. However you are still on the outside looking in and what's more you have tared the entire industry with the same brush. I am somewhat bothered to say here that you are only about 90% right.

What I am going to do is look at your post a subject at a time and comment. You will be pleased to know you have made a pretty good assessment but it is still not something that has been researched quite as deeply as I would have liked to have seen. When I have a little more time I will go through your post a sentence/topic at a time and throw more light on what goes on in the industry. Some of it will shock even the most sceptical of you guys out there.
BTW you have been in the business as long as I have (did my first flow test on 25th may 19580

[David Vizard]

Class Act,

What a great post!!!
You have touched on a ton of stuff and the captured the essence of magazine politics. However you are still on the outside looking in and what's more you have tared the entire industry with the same brush. I am somewhat bothered to say here that you are only about 90% right.

What I am going to do is look at your post a subject at a time and comment. You will be pleased to know you have made a pretty good assessment but it is still not something that has been researched quite as deeply as I would have liked to have seen. When I have a little more time I will go through your post a sentence/topic at a time and throw more light on what goes on in the industry. Some of it will shock even the most sceptical of you guys out there.
BTW you have been in the business as long as I have (did my first flow test on 25th may 1958)

[David Vizard]

Guys, sorry for the repetitious posts. Just not functioning too well at the end of a stressful day.
DV

[hoodeng]

The magazines bent on products are one thing, and the description of ' much advertising dollar=great road test result's ' was no surprise for me back when motorcycle magazines flooded the stands. I have even bought leaky motorcycles after they had been bagged in a magazine!

But i would have to say, one area of motorsport writing that leaves me no better informed at the end of an article than the knowledge i already had at the start of the article is 'Formula 1', these guys can fill two full pages of non disclosure better than a 12th century monk translating a bible into Klingon.
The sneaky pit photos show even less, plenty of heat shield and a jungle of pipes, some that look like they may have even been hot!
Even though i love F1.

Maybe i just don't get it,maybe there was a lot to be learnt from the articles that went straight over my head, to date no one has pointed me in the right direction where i have experienced the big "AHAA" moment, and i don't see it coming soon.

Cheers.

[David Vizard]

Class Act,

Your first paragraph and my comments:-

I learned at a very early age that ALL ( if you really meant ALL that would have to include my articles as well - was this your intent? Almost ALL might have been more accurate) magazine content is, at best to be viewed with serious reservations.

As we say, you don't poop in your own kitchen. So why would ANY magazine undercut its own bottom line? (The answer to that is circulation numbers. There is a balancing act that goes on between the editorial dept. and the advertising department.All of my articles - that is all 4000 plus - told the story the way it was. I even bought a dyno, flow bench, mill, lath, Serdi etc just to show what actually took place. That was a huge outlay of better than a 1/3 of a million bucks back in the lat 70's. With all this investment so I could supply accurate tech. The guys who used just a pencil and made up or bent results really ticked me off. I ran into one of these 'make it up' guys at Westec in CA. Through his editorial dishonesty he cost me about $250,00 in lost income. Only with some restraint did I not go into the office and beat the tar out of him. Some of you might remember this guy - spelling may be off but it was Peter Sauracker the editor of circle Track) With the Magazines are in business for one purpose. That is to sell product. Period. To argue this is silly. Doesn't matter if it is for the general public or a trade rag. It's all the same.(not quite) It's about advertising.(still not quite - but I will go in to the complexities in my next post. Rest assured though from your prospective what you said would most likely seem so.)

DV

[David Vizard]

Class Act,
More on your post:-
I was probably no more that 12 years old when it occurred to me. How can a magazine, let's say a motorcycle magazine for example, have 6-8 pages of color advertising from Honda, and in the very same issue have a test of a Honda and several other bikes and have the Honda not be the top dog? If you crapped on the Honda, you can bet the next month your advertising revenue would take a major hit. You were obviously a smart 12 year old!

At that time, I was riding several bikes, and the least bike in the group was the Honda. Virtually everything they said about the bike was wrong. And it wasn't just my opinion either. At the races I would casually ask guys about their bike and sure enough, we almost all had the same issues. But the magazine never mentioned them. They would pick a few little details and complain and ignore the other issues. As the advertising revenue dropped by other manufacturers, the bikes fared less and less.

CA, I am sad to say I can find little fault with your comments on the situation regarding advertising and editorial.

Many years ago I tested an RHS 350 SBC engine for an article intended for PHR magazine. It was a low buck deal that was intended to replace a stock motor and give a little more umph in the process. This engine was rated by RHS at 288 hp.

After diligently setting up timing and carb adjustments, this RHS build, on my dyno, made 284 hp.

As part of the feature I stripped the engine to check the build quality. The inside of the engine was immaculately clean. I also noted there was very little debri in the oil filter after beak-in. This is usually a good sign of build quality.

What with dyno testing and tearing down the engine to check clearances etc. then writing the story I had quite a lot of time involved with a feature I expected to make about 1000 bucks on. Including photos and artwork in addition to writing the story I had about 50 hours of work on a feature which was about as close to 100% accurate as I could make it.

Well I sent off my very complete MS and artwork to PHR and a couple of days later it arrived back in my mail box. The article was returned with a rejection slip.

As you might expect, since PHR had commissioned the article in the first place, I was in an all fired rush to find out why a $1000 feature had just gone down the drain. Answer - RHS were claiming 288 hp as tested by a company known as Dyno-Wolf in Ca. against the 284 I saw on my dyno.

Anyway I re-assembled to engine and, with a more sporty cam, used it to test a couple of pairs of heads and intakes. Ultimately I ended up selling a nice package for truck use with 395 hp an hand and 442 lbs-ft of torque. All on pump gas and all with plenty of vacuum and a 600 rpm idle.

I got a decent price for this build but that's not the end of the story.

About 6 months later Comp bought their first dyno and knowing what I got for their engine on my dyno decided to test the same build spec on their new dyno. The dyno operator must have had limited dyno experience because the the output figures were falling 20 hp short of what I had seen. During a phone call I gave, to our dyno newby, the calibrations that I had found worked best. Next day got a call - 282 hp!

Here's the bottom line - it cost me $1000 to tell the truth!!!!!


DV

[ClassAct]

I love these stories. I do respect how many hours go into doing the articles and things. It's actually labor intensive. So I enjoy reading these kinds of things.

I'd love to hear more, and the continuation of your thoughts on the rest of what I posted.


Thanks DV

[David Vizard]

I love these stories. I do respect how many hours go into doing the articles and things. It's actually labor intensive. So I enjoy reading these kinds of things.

I'd love to hear more, and the continuation of your thoughts on the rest of what I posted.


Thanks DV

Mr. CA,

I'm spending the time because your original post was thoughtfully generated. It also gave me an opportunity to let off some politically incorrect steam.
I'll get back on this shortly.
thanks CA for the opportunity here.
DV

[MadBill]

Back from near-dead, here's an even easier way for a magazine to placate an advertiser: Use material written by the company! I find it not uncommon to come across words like "we" instead of "they" in such articles, clearly indicating the "writer" has ineptly cut 'n pasted the company's words into the magazine. Makes one wonder what percentage of what you read has been ghost-written by the manufacturer and published after more thoroughly re-working has erased such clues...

[David Vizard]

Back from near-dead, here's an even easier way for a magazine to placate an advertiser: Use material written by the company! I find it not uncommon to come across words like "we" instead of "they" in such articles, clearly indicating the "writer" has ineptly cut 'n pasted the company's words into the magazine. Makes one wonder what percentage of what you read has been ghost-written by the manufacturer and published after more thoroughly re-working has erased such clues...

Bill,
I have a confrontational story about the use of 'we' 'they' and 'I' in magazines which tends to support what you are saying here. I will try and get around to writing it.
DV