Suggestions for Toyota Trails? Maybe
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Sounds like an Assistant Editor spot JUST opened up for you Kofoed... 
Please do not make it an online/email magazine, I love a print magazine I can thumb through, look at ads, then see which article gets my attention, then look at some pics, etc. Just like a newspaper, I love to browse which does not work well on the computer, even with my broadband connection.
firetruck41 said:
No worries, I'm a big fan of the printed word. That said, we will be putting portions of the magazine online as part of the website overhaul project (now underway
).TJK
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Just to keep everything straight, "Technically" I'm a Staff Writer, and I receive renumeration just like Todd. 
I'm sure the Trails will always be a hard copy publication. There are a lot of people getting it who don't really use the internet much. I get a surprising number of submissions through the mail (hand printed even).
The photography in the trails just can't have the same impact on a computer moniter as it does on a page in you hand.
Like has been stated already, any well written article from the membership is more than wlecome. Begged for even? Those of us who are regulars in the Trails don't have nearly the time to write the articles we would like to and that the readers would like to see. I am after the guys that I run the trails with all the time to take a stab at writing about our runs, or about their rigs, or about projects in the garage. I even try to get my wife and daughters to give it a try, just to get something a little different in the Trails. So far no luck with any of them. If you have a story or some pictures or a rig you want to show off... Send it!
Mark...
I'm sure the Trails will always be a hard copy publication. There are a lot of people getting it who don't really use the internet much. I get a surprising number of submissions through the mail (hand printed even).
The photography in the trails just can't have the same impact on a computer moniter as it does on a page in you hand.
Like has been stated already, any well written article from the membership is more than wlecome. Begged for even? Those of us who are regulars in the Trails don't have nearly the time to write the articles we would like to and that the readers would like to see. I am after the guys that I run the trails with all the time to take a stab at writing about our runs, or about their rigs, or about projects in the garage. I even try to get my wife and daughters to give it a try, just to get something a little different in the Trails. So far no luck with any of them. If you have a story or some pictures or a rig you want to show off... Send it!
Mark...
Just for jiggles, and I completely understand that this is a membership magazine, but who out there thinks that Toyota Trails could sell on the shelf next to JP and Pedersons Offroad? I understand that TT is a members only mag, but I think put a bar code on it and getting it on the shelf at Barnes and Nobles could create a stir for TLCA.
It could still be a membership mag, having members contribute, but MAN, I AM SO sick of seeing J**p mags and two different types of Land Robber mags at the local rack.
It would be tempting just to get a few extra TTs and throw them on the shelf just to see if they were to sell. I wish I was back in western Mass, a friends family had a shop I'm sure they'd let me try.
Anyway...One day.
It could still be a membership mag, having members contribute, but MAN, I AM SO sick of seeing J**p mags and two different types of Land Robber mags at the local rack.
It would be tempting just to get a few extra TTs and throw them on the shelf just to see if they were to sell. I wish I was back in western Mass, a friends family had a shop I'm sure they'd let me try.
Anyway...One day.
Because Ive got a HJ60 I wouldnt mind seeing some more "foreign" type cruiser write ups.
Id be willing to send in some pics of my rig along with write up information on it if youre interested.
TB
Id be willing to send in some pics of my rig along with write up information on it if youre interested.
TB
madams557 said:
Michael,
Thank you! I, for one, take that as a real compliment. Our "rate base", or number of issues distributed per run is 5500. 4 Wheel & Off Road's rate base is over 400,000! The best thing you can do is recruit more TLCA members. After we get a few thousand more, maybe we can go for the big time!!
"'78 FJ45 Longbed", where'd that come from? Cool.
Chris Hatfield
Ad Sales Manager, Toyota Trails
Rising Sun 4 Wheel Drive Club of Colorado
HZJ60 Guy said:
Please do.
Todd J. Kaderabek
Toyota Trails
78 Grovewood Road
Asheville, NC 28804
todd@larkbooks.com
Thanks,
TJK
hatfieldcb said:
FJ45 is from Canada.
I completely understand the need to bring more members into the fold, but I just think TT could bring so much more to the shelf than some of these other magazines that have 90% advertisement filler.
I actually have an old college friend that owns a chain of gas stations here in Colorado and I have been tempted to leave a TT or two on the shelf at his place to see if they get any attention. I've even chatted with a friend about taking one over to Barnes and Nobles and leaving it on the shelf while we get some coffee at the shop adjacent to the magazine racks just to see how many people pick it up if it was next to the other 4x4 magazines.
What is the process to get a UPC symbol? Is it easy/hard or costly? Does it require a licenses with the U.S. gov't? Or distributed through a publisher?
Like I said before, I can see TT evolving to a shelf magazine. Read an article a few years back on Consumers Union, distributor of Consumers Report. Started out as a members only publication, but went public years before Consumers Digest did. Consumers Report captured the market before CD and holds a commanding circulation over Consumers Digest.
I think I might pay my gas station friend a visit...
My full time gig is in magazine and book publishing (not related to Toyota Trails). We'd need circulation of at 25,000 per issue in order to have a chance at garnering the interest of a distributor. And even then (spoken as someone who works for a subsidiary of B&N), we'd have a hard time getting into the major chains. Shocking though it may seem, what interests us to such a large degree interests others not much at all. And that is hard to sell.
TJK
TJK
Kaderabek said:
25,500 huh. That seems obtainable over time.
So, and by absolutely no means am I being argumentative, are you suggesting that the magazines on the rack at B&N have a circulation of 25,0K or more? Magazines like Sailboat (even in Colorado), Recreation Vehicles, Land Robber, Civil War, and the cigar magaizine Aficionado.
Sounds like the age old question - which came first? Egg??
Thanks for your background knowledge Todd. As for what interest us, I have to add that I have talked to a few other Toyota truck owners, and they would be much happier to see Toyota Trails on the shelf as an alternative to J**p crap. I know, I know. I try to convenience them to became TLCA members, but its hard to sell to none TLC owners. I almost have one guy ready to trade in his Tacoma for a FJ60.
hatfieldcb said:(Note to self: Stop short of 90% ad filler.)
Sounds like Michael could help Nolen with the recuiting poster.
Chris
Just in case you were going to ask, I will NOT wear a Speedo...
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Those last 4 posts are high in humor value. Thanks, I needed that.
I did not need "Speedovision."
While we use virtually all of the TT's we print, it is fun to experiment with extra issues if you have any laying around. I take some and leave them in the service waiting room at the Toy dealer here. Been doing it for a while. Eventually the techs started swiping them. Customers started swiping them. I now get calls asking when I'm gonna bring more.
TT probably would not succeed on the shelf, and it's primary mission is to be a really whompin' good TLCA member benefit. I think it succeeds in that mission pretty admirably. We don't really have the resources to push it bigger than that currently, but it is fun to pipe dream. Lots of great ideas come from batting stuff around...keep swinging.
I did not need "Speedovision."
While we use virtually all of the TT's we print, it is fun to experiment with extra issues if you have any laying around. I take some and leave them in the service waiting room at the Toy dealer here. Been doing it for a while. Eventually the techs started swiping them. Customers started swiping them. I now get calls asking when I'm gonna bring more.
TT probably would not succeed on the shelf, and it's primary mission is to be a really whompin' good TLCA member benefit. I think it succeeds in that mission pretty admirably. We don't really have the resources to push it bigger than that currently, but it is fun to pipe dream. Lots of great ideas come from batting stuff around...keep swinging.
Radd Cruisers said:
The next issue of the Trails will feature the first in a series of articles I am writing about restoration. It will not be presented issue by issue because of size constraints, but is an attempt to get a different kind of tech started up. All the 'noise' last September kind of got the ball rolling on this one.