Occasionally we get asked why we are not a monthly print magazine and the answer is pretty simple:we may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, but we are not that stupid.
Paper is on life support in today’s world where information now moves along a lightning-fast information cyber-highway.
Readers have adapted to a new world where they can dive into the Internet and immerse themselves in any subject matter for as long as they want.
This is an era when the daily newspaper becomes yesterday’s news before yesterday has even arrived as story updates appear on a minute by minute basis in some cases.
The Internet was a game-changer for information and the old guard paper print industry has begun to morph into an electronic model simply to stay in the game instead of becoming dead in the water.
Many magazines have slimmed down to pamphlet size to stay financially afloat in the new world where electronic information is king.
The idea of starting a print magazine in the 21st century makes about as much sense as buying a rotary dial phone in the 21st century.
Both served us well for many decades and still function in 2013, but the choice to own either is not a great game plan in view of the competition.
We at MSCC grew up with print magazines and newspapers-and we loved every paper page of the experience along the way.
However, we have seen why the new age of e-communication works so well because we now get most of our daily information (including our daily newspapers from the Internet).
Things changed so quickly we barely saw the truck that hit us, the one loaded with every byte-sized of information found on the ‘Net about everything in the known universe. Now we spend most of our reading time basking in the warm glow of an electronic screen.
So the question about why we are not wrapped in paper print is largely based upon the basic notion that print is dead. We can provide our collector vehicle stories and photos better and faster on the ‘Net.
We can fix mistakes and we can enhance older stories with updates to the subject matter. We can replace photos on feature stories with better photos when the opportunity to take a better shot of the subject vehicle arises at another time with better light and scenery.
The possibilities are endless for us because we are travelers in a brand new world where people connect quicker and easier with the ‘Net. It is so easy to do that even we figured it out and we are not bright.
Then we ran with our newfound computer confidence and started our own collector car e-zine (mystarcollector.com) in April 2009. The idea for Mystar started back in 2006 but it took three years to find the right web designer and get our web magazine ready for the public.
The idea to produce a print magazine never crossed our minds and never will because paper is dead for all intents and purposes.
Like many others, we mourn the loss of a big part of our lives with paper-based information, but an entire generation will begin their lives in the very near future without paper print magazines.
We at MSCC will still be able to show them a golden past when cars had fins and people had road maps instead of GPS.
The world of information is changing in a hurry and we want to stay at the front of the biggest line currently found on the ‘Net and not on a magazine rack.
Jim Sutherland
