MAXIMUM ARTICULATION 5
It’s been a while since I’ve written an editorial opening for a magazine. Don’t worry I haven’t lost my touch I’m still as opinionated as always and have the ability to ramble with the best of them! I’ve always tried to keep this space light and with some humor when I can conjure it up. However what will not change is what I use this page for – except maybe this one time… I’ve always seen this space as a way to cover topics and ideas that rattle around in my head that don’t fit into a regular article – I won’t carry on about all the stuff in the magazine you’re about to read anyway – there is an index for that. I won’t go, hey don’t forget to enter our contest, or buy our advertisers stuff.
The other thing that I’m going to stick to my guns on in this project is no company supplied tech articles. The way I see it is you as a reader expect some amount of truth in what you read – at least I would hope you do. The lines between editorial and advertorial are a pretty fine one in projects like this be it print, or on-line. Also it’s a far greater benefit to the company to be able to promote a third party person like myself with 17 years in the automotive publishing field and over 25 years of wheeling experience giving an honest review of their parts/services/company to promote on their own web sites and media channels.
So this isn’t saying that those company supplied articles don’t promote good product, but it’s pretty tough to be non-biased when you’re trying to sell your own stuff. I also will refrain from writing articles on products I found inferior or not up to my standards for the price point and intended use. It could be I caught someone on a bad day, or they are still truly in R&D on something, but I’d rather use the space to cover products and builds and even events to attend I think you would like rather than not like – makes sense to me.
So no print this time around in my publishing life. Print has taken a beating the last few years, check your local magazine newsstand, they shrink every month. It’s a damn shame to be honest – I’m still a die-hard paperback reader and my wife has a subscription to Rogers Next issue so like this magazine consumers here magazines on her iPad – which I see as the new wave of publishing. It always felt that if it was on the Internet than it could be true or false and everyone was a tech expert but when in print, you had to stand behind what you said and to be factual as it was there for everyone to see. When I first started way back in 1998 I had a potential advertiser say to me at SEMA that they respected my presence more than all the web guys running around because they understood the cash investment and commitment it took to launch a print magazine (which was lots). Well 1998 is not 2015 – guess I’m a web guy now but a lot has changed in those 17 years. Web was in its infancy then for our sport, now we all walk around with tablets and phones that are more pocket computers than phones and expect our media to come flowing in at a tap of screen.
So here it is – tap away, please share with others as much as you like visit my Twitter feed (4by4tech), I take a lot of pictures and post up strange stuff when I’m on the road, Facebook (4by4tech) will be updated constantly with press releases and industry news and cool vids and on going project updates. I’ll get to tech installs in video form (the word video seems strange to use now in itself) both embedded in the magazine here and a YouTube channel (4by4tech). And don’t forget to hit the subscribe button – it will cost you nothing, won’t add you to some huge advertising list only the one for this magazine, but it will guarantee you get every issue the day it comes out free!!!
CJK8
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