DanWardTruckinEditor
+1y
Edited: 5/11/2009 3:12:12 PM by DanWardTruckinEditor
This post has one purpose: Setting the record straight. Truckin’ magazine is not the same magazine it was three years ago, two years ago, or even one year ago. As of November ’08, Truckin’ has a new Editor. I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Dan Ward, I’ve been on staff for 6-1/2 years and I took over with one goal in mind — take Truckin’ back to its roots and give the people what they want. I’ve heard all the trash talking; “we have too many ads” and everyone wants to know “why are boats in a truck magazine.” I’m here to set the record straight. Boats. Since November, when I took over, you’ve seen one boat. The reason why we ran a boat is simple. For those of you who attended and had fun at our multiple Havoc shows (Fresno, Bowling Green, Havasu), the only way we had those shows was because of sponsorship money from Vortec Engines. We had to run trucks/boats with Vortec engines because of a signed contract. Get it. We had cool shows because of them. Four pages in six months isn't going to kill anyone. Ads, yes we have them, no we don’t apologize for that. In the past we were known as a catalog, but the economy has made it hard for every company to spend a ton of money, hence we have less pages (like every other magazine). Even if you were to cut all of the ads out of the magazine, we’d still have more pages of features, tech, shows, and more exposure for the cover truck than anyone else. If you have a truck, and you want to customize it, don’t you need to know who has the latest parts and where they are available? We think so. Here are the facts. Whether you read Sport Truck, Mini Truckin’, or Street Trucks, these are the facts and no one on any of their staffs can argue with black and white numbers. In the last four months, here are how the custom truck magazines break down: Truckin’ Street Trucks Sport Truck Mini-Truckin’Cover truck pages: 49 23 18 31Feature pages: 133 70 86 74 ‘Bagged trucks: 41 25 14 18 Body-dropped: 30 27 26 51Static lowered: 38 11 40 1 Lifted: 14 7 6 4Tech Pages: 97 82 59 27New Truck write-ups: 8 4 7 0# of New Products: 84 95 107 41Show coverage pages: 6 39 28 53# of Reader’s rides: 27 8 17 30# of Renderings: 19 1 1 3I took these numbers just like you would, by going through the magazine issues. There is zero B.S. involved. Just the facts. Keep in mind, Truckin' has 13 issues a year, so during the time you would have received four copies of these other mags, you would have five copies of Truckin' in your hands, which would have made our numbers even larger (ie: 59 cover pages, 124 pages of tech, and 35 reader's rides). There is one area where we are lagging in print—our show coverage, however, if you look on our newly-redesigned website (to go live in 14 hours), you'll find more and larger show coverage than any magazine, period. And our show coverage goes live in 3-4 days after the event, not 3 months later when it hits newsstands. Yes Truckin’ had its faults, but we as a staff have worked hard to correct it and make it better than ever. No other truck magazine can offer what we do each month and despite what some other titles are claiming about increasing pages, take a closer look and you’ll see they’re just a bunch of filler.Ask any cover truck owner in the last five months why they chose Truckin’, and I guarantee you all of them will reply with “I wanted to be on the cover of the biggest and best truck magazine.” There is a reason why each month we bring more “Best Of” and upper-echelon fullsize trucks on the cover and as features than any other magazine. Take a look, and you’ll see why. Better photography, better layouts, and more how-to articles about all-things trucks.-Dan Ward