Sad,sad,sad

[Tom H.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

I have two extra copies here at the office. If anybody would like one, drop me a PM, I will send out the two I have to ya for nuthin'

[Willard M.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

We may not like the direction that Keith Martin is going, and I certainly don"t, but he seems like a stand up guy to me. In my magazine there was an offer to cancel my subscription and to get all of my money back, not subtracting anything for issues already received. I don't know how he could do better than that. I"m not a business man but I suspect that he knows what he is doing. If indeed there is a viable market for a strictly Corvette auction magazine or newsletter I imagine that the void will soon be filled by some other individual. This opening may attract someone who understands our rather narrow focus and can address it like the old format did.

[George W.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

Willard,
I agree that Kieth is a stand up guy and I have received his new mag. and have read it...it is well done as we expect from Keith; my concern is we vette guys had or thought we had a mag for our corvette needs and now we have to share our passion with all car nuts. Could be that Kieth is correct and will make a ton of money 'caue some vette guys will stay with him and he will get a bunch of NEW readers; nevertheless, his mag is good, I am mad for our loss. I will try to get over it. Change comes slow to us old vette guys.

[Peter M.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

Willard,
I agree that Kieth is a stand up guy and I have received his new mag. and have read it...

A STAND UP GUY ???? Yeah he's a stand up guy alright. In September he sold me a 2 year subscription to Corvette Market promising me three Corvette posters. He knew when he sold me and others the 2 year subscription that he would NEVER honor that committment.

What's more he still is advertising the Corvette Market magazine in various publications including the current NCRS Drive Line as well as extensively on the Internet.

As far as his promise to return your money if you don't like it, thats the current law ! Prepaid subscriptions are unearned future income and are accounted for as such. If you cancel ANY paid subscription that you may have the publisher MUST return your prepaid funds. That is current US commercial law.

AND, by the way, I never did receive the three special Corvette posters that he promised me if I extended my subscription to Corvette Market for two years.

Yeah, he's a stand up guy alright.....

[Keith M.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

To Peter Milhaltian: Peter, I apologize that you have not gotten your posters, to make things right I will send you one of each of the FOUR posters we have, and extend your subscription to ACC by a year.

I know that we can't please everyone, but I will say that there was no way that Corvette Market was going to go to six, eight or twelve times a year. The market is just too small. That meant that the auction information was often stale by the time you received it, and in today's world of the Internet, printed material just can't afford to fall any further behind than it already is.

We are continuing to hold our Corvette Market seminar at Barrett-Jackson (our fifth), and I will be the emcee for my fifth time at Bloomington Gold.
As you probably know, I was the emcee with Mike Yager at FunFest this year.

Corvettes are America's premier sports car - in fact, they are America's Ferrari.

We will continue to have exclusive Corvette coverage in American Car Collector, and would simply ask that you give the magazine a chance to see if our editorial approach grows on you.

My 100% money-back guarantee still stands - I don't know if that is the "law" or not, as has been mentioned in this thread - but I ask you how many other publishers have put their offer to subscribers in writing, for you to take advantage of.

We believe deeply in American collector cars, and we promise that we will do our best not to let you down. - KM

[Peter M.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

To Keith Martin in reply: Let me begin by saying that heretofore I have always enjoyed your Corvette Market magazine as a solid and accurate compilation of current Corvette market trends. Your supplemental Corvette Market Pocket GuideAmerican Collector Car

You and I have many mutual friends including Tom Cotter and others all of whom hold you in high regard and always speak well of you. However, what I have a major problem with is the fact that you have marketed and continue to market the Corvette Market magazine knowing full well that your organization does not intend to deliver the Corvette Market publication to new subscribers. The fact that your organization continues to this day with print advertisements and Internet-based ads for Corvette Market magazine is, in my view, disingenuous at best and dishonest at its worst.

Corvette Market with other similar publications. I really have no problem at all with the hard cold facts of this matter. Again, what I DO have a major problem with is the fact that your organization marketed two year subscription extensions to Corvette Market magazine knowing full well that you intended to curtail the publication and roll the subscribers into a much broader publication.

To put the brakes on what appears to me to be a public relations nightmare for you and your publishing organization and hopefully redeem your good name and solid reputation, I strongly recommend that you cease and desist from any further marketing efforts to sell subscriptions to Corvette Market magazine. I suggest that you pull any future print advertisements for Corvette Market and immediately remove ALL Internet ads for the now defunct publication. Then maybe we can let this entire issue fade away as just an unfortunate misstep by our good friend, Keith Martin.

Finally, while I appreciate your offer to extend my current two year subscription by another year, that effort will not be necessary. Again, I do appreciate the offer and I will accept the Corvette posters which you agreed to send me when I extended my current subscription. Good luck with your new ACC publication.

R.I.P. Corvette Market Magazine

[Walter G.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

Peter, I totally agree with your comments. The latest issue of Driveline still had an ad for Corvette Market subscriptions and that obviously will not happen. I have not received any issues of the new American Collector Car so kind of assumed my subscription had run its' course. Looking in my checkbook last evening, however, I see a check for $29.95 was sent on August 29th, so I must have renewed. The last issue I received was #16. This morning I sent an email to the publication asking them to check the status of my subscription. From the comments read here, I'd probably just as soon get a refund rather than the magazine. I thoroughly enjoyed every issue of Corvette Market, and although the total market may be smaller than some if it was in fact profitable I am surprised it was pulled. ACC would not appear to break any new ground as there have been other similar publications (Car Collector, Cars & Parts, etc.) that were mainstays and subsequently went under. They didn't have the auction coverage ACC supposedly does, but they did cover multiple makes. I guess I'll reserve final judgement until I actually receive a copy, but I have my doubts...

[Kenneth H.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

I know that we can't please everyone, but I will say that there was no way that Corvette Market was going to go to six, eight or twelve times a year. The market is just too small. KM

Keith,

For a long time I was hoping that you would do just that. I would gladly have paid more for your magazine if it was published more often. And since it was profitable, as you stated in the original thread about the change, why couldn't you have tried that first?

Thanks.

[Joe C.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

The handwriting is on the wall.

[Peter N.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

The handwriting is on the wall.

u said it...I wonder if any printed mags or books will exist in 25 yrs??

[Peter M.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

u said it...I wonder if any printed mags or books will exist in 25 yrs??

Probably not. I don't see how printed materials will ever last. We will probably get to the point where printed bound books will no longer exist beyond a private antique book collection or library.

[Keith M.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

To Walter and Peter: First, I sympathize with your feelings. But let me ask for some understanding from you here. We are small, family-run organization and some of the decisions we make play out better than others. Growing Corvette Market into American Car Collector is a big risk for us, and we have tried to figure out the best way to do it.

As far as still seeing print and Internet advertising for Corvette Market, I agree that is unfortunate, but print deadlines sometimes stretch out so that our ads were placed before we had finally decided to pull the trigger.

As I mentioned earlier, I decided that the simplest way to deal with any frustration or confusion was to offer a 100% money-back guarantee - the law only requires that we provide "an equivalent magazine," not refund monies.

I have instructed the IT depatment to make sure the Corvette Market website prominently states that CM has become ACC, thanks for calling my attention to that. And there have been no more CM print ads placed for awhile now.

I hope you understand that while we were making the decision to grow CM, we decided that it didn't make sense to say, "Don't renew now because we're not sure what our future direction will be." Instead, we decided to offer a renewal, and put together our 10% money-back guarantee as a way of being able to make things right.

It appears that both of you are not satisfied with the experience that ACC offers. I do hope that your comparison with other magazines that have failed is not correct; if we have guessed wrong here it is a huge financial issue for us, and we believe that the look, quality of reporting and writing, and data will set ACC apart and allow it to succeed. But in the end that is up to readers like you.

I have had Rich Coparanis, our subscription editor, cut refund checks to both of you for the entire amount of your last checks, but I will continue to send the magazines (if you wish) so that you can judge if we have succeeded in our attempt to make a magazine that has value to American Car Collectors.

Again, I apologize for the confusion during this transition, and encourage you and others to communicate with me with issues and concerns you might have. In the end, we are all in this together, promoting the world of collector cars, and our readers, like you, are our most valuable asset.

[Peter M.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

To Walter and Peter:
I have instructed the IT depatment to make sure the Corvette Market website prominently states that CM has become ACC, thanks for calling my attention to that. And there have been no more CM print ads placed for awhile now.

It appears that both of you are not satisfied with the experience that ACC offers. I do hope that your comparison with other magazines that have failed is not correct; if we have guessed wrong here it is a huge financial issue for us, and we believe that the look, quality of reporting and writing, and data will set ACC apart and allow it to succeed. But in the end that is up to readers like you.

I have had Rich Coparanis, our subscription editor, cut refund checks to both of you for the entire amount of your last checks, but I will continue to send the magazines (if you wish) so that you can judge if we have succeeded in our attempt to make a magazine that has value to American Car Collectors.

Again, I apologize for the confusion during this transition, and encourage you and others to communicate with me with issues and concerns you might have. In the end, we are all in this together, promoting the world of collector cars, and our readers, like you, are our most valuable asset.

Keith:

As I said above, "I do not want my money back. I have not asked for a refund. This is not about money. If I wanted to take you up on your full refund offer, I would have already made such a request. Moreover, I do not want to receive a magazine for which I have not paid.

I also mentioned above that I fully respect your decisions as a publisher and a business man to combine Corvette Market with other similar publications. Again, I really have no problem at all with the hard cold facts of this matter. And, while I am disappointed to see Corvette Market magazine go by the way side, I respect your decision and will give the new ACC magazine an objective try.



Finally, I am pleased that you have agreed to remove your Internet ads for Corvette Market and that no further hard print ads will run. As far as I am concerned the matter is closed and I hope we can put this thread to bed and get on with the effort of restoring our Corvettes.

I look forward to receiving my first paid issue of your new American Collector Car magazine. Good luck with the new venue. I hope it works out for us all.

[Willard M.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

Keith-I think that you meant 100% money back rather than 10%. I continue to be impressed by your business ethics. I don't like the loss of a Corvette only magazine but understand that new directions were desired. I plan to stick with things for the future to see how things go. Your business plan reminds me of a great local business here in Maine, L.L.Bean. If at any time I'm not 100% satisfied with the product I get 100% of my money back. How can it get any better than that?

[Keith M.]

Re: Sad,sad,sad

Just a quick thought on the future of print. When television came along, everyone said radio was doomed. In fact, radio found a different, smaller market. I believe the same is happening with print magazines. The huge magazines, like Newsweek, that simply regurgitated stuff you can find on the web, are going or gone.
The well-written magazines with a point of view, like the Economist, are growing.
Our belief is that a well-written magazine, that has a point of view, and offers things that can't be found on the web will have a secure place. The magazine must have a digital component, but we believe there will always be those who prefer to have a printed piece in their hands.