8:52 am, April 16, 2020
I am very proud to publish the first digital edition of Car Dealer Magazine – packed with help and advice for car dealers to improve their businesses.
Some 146 issues in – all of those going before it having rolled off physical presses in Peterborough – this has been a landmark change in how we keep you up to date, as this magazine reaches you digitally.
No longer do we have to wait for the presses to start rolling, the magazine covers to be attached (they’re printed separately) or the mail service to do their thing.
That lag between sending the magazine and our subscribers reading it used to be seven long days – we’d only know you’d got a copy when we started seeing readers tweet about the content.
But not any more – we hit publish on the latest issue of Car Dealer Magazine late last night and already we can see hundreds of people are reading it.
My business – just like yours – has been severely hit by the coronavirus crisis. I have had to furlough staff, as contracts have been cut and business evaporates.
However, in times of adversity you really do see the best of people – and I cannot express quite how proud I am of the small team I have left, who have worked day and night to not only keep our new website up to date, but at the same time edit a digital magazine.
Like many businesses, we’re getting used to a new normal – one of morning coffees and catch-ups on Zoom, working while looking after our kids and of never being able to find a comfortable seating position in the home ‘office’.
As much as I love printing a magazine, I’ve got much the same buzz out of remotely producing this one.
Working with a talented and dedicated team – one who have spent most of their Easter break working on pages – I like to think we’ve managed to pull together a digital issue that keeps the automotive industry up to speed and entertained.
We’ve moved things around a bit and added a few new features – there’s a motoring news section and general business news section to reflect the fact these are different times and readers might want some different news.
We’ve kept some of the lighthearted features too – so you’ve got something to take your mind off things when you’re reading the magazine on your tablet, phone or desktop.
But we’ve made sure our dealer readers are still at the heart of the magazine. We’ve featured their stories in a whole new section and highlighted the best of the news lines that came out of our recently launched Car Dealer Live interviews.
These are difficult times for everyone – businesses are adapting and changing at the fastest pace I’ve ever seen – and Car Dealer can be included in that.
We launched a new website after a (long) weekend of work, launched our daily Car Dealer Live broadcasts with industry figures and experts, and we are publishing more content than ever before on our website.
This digital magazine is just another example of that change.
Before I go I want to say a huge thank you to the advertisers who have supported us with this new publication. It’s a new format for them as well as us and their faith and support has without doubt kept us alive.
I will never forget some of the conversations I have had with our clients over the last few weeks – their continued support during what is a difficult time for everyone in this industry will never be forgotten.
I hope you enjoy this first digital Car Dealer Magazine. I’m sure we haven’t got everything quite right with it – this is a steep learning curve for us all – but I’d love your feedback to help us continue to improve the magazines as we go forward.
You can contact me via this website, Twitter @CarDealerEd or on LinkedIn.
James Baggott
Founder, Car Dealer Magazine
