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[Alan Drover]

I'm sticking with CLR at the moment. Hopefully it might buck its ideas up and get more practical subjects rather than expedition reports which seems to be the "in thing" at the moment.

[Alan Drover]

I've just contacted the subscription section and I have cancelled my subscription and I will be getting a refund. I was offered a transfer to another Bauer publication but I already subscribe to Practical Classics and I don't want anything else.

[oilstain]

I wonder what will be the next to go, with costs going up a people cutting back...

[2286]

I always regarded LRO as the pick of the bunch historically.  Off road international was non land rover specific.

LRM had a try at toppling LRO but remained in my opinion not as good.

LRO started to loose my readership when they migrated to extreme modification.  Where as before it was stock vehicles, with a smattering of club, trials and comp results.

Latterly the classic and archive articles took my interest.

That I assume is where classic land rover mag picked up its readership and following.

Unfortunately pages and pages of ads for revenue wind up folks who want articles, or me at least.

Because advertisers migrated to online, prices of the mags rose even with depleted content.

It used to be a pinnacle or feather in cap to be featured in lro, I know wittsend has starred with his pristine airportable. 

[crumbly65]

That’s sad. It opened the whole Landrover world to me. LRO came directly from the gods and took me on a fantastic ride with every copy.

As a student in the UK in the early 1990s I eagerly awaited each new issue which I bought at the campus newsagent and read in one go in my dorm room the same evening, only to re-read it for the next weeks (ok, read some Shakespeare and lots of other books, too. If I remember about two to three a week).

I started rummaging on scrapyards back then and casting an eye on every Series Landy I saw, and upon my return to Germany I bought my first Landrover, an early 1980s 109, still as a student and with a limited budget. And I started subscribing back then.

I still have these copies of LRO in the basement and from time to time a take the odd old issue and read it for the memories.

I stopped subscribing when CLR came out as I felt that by that time too much content didn’t really address me. Incidentally, I cancelled my CLR subscription a while ago as there wasn’t enough workshop and hands-on material in it for me either.

Maybe I should re-subscribe? I miss the good old real paper reading.

It is sad.
When I bought my first and only Land Rover as a cheap working runabout in 2000, I had absolutely no idea there was such a thing as the “Land Rover scene”. It was LRO that introduced me to that, and my first attendance at the LRO Show was where I found the Series 2 Club, and subsequently this Forum.

I agree also it lost its way over the years.  Too much consideration given to building no cost spared “trailer queens” for my taste. The CLR mag is far better for me, and one can only hope that the journo’s from LRO find gainful employment elsewhere within the scene……

[Mycroft]

Hopefully this will lead to more quality content available for CLR to pick from going forward.

[Craig T]

Maybe printed paper magazines are all going this way?

I used to get LRO all the time back in the 90's It was the best way to get information and see suppliers. With the advent of the internet though, everyone offering online ordering and these forums for instant question answers, the magazine seemed to loose it purpose.

I stopped subscribing to LRO mid 2000's I guess when the last of the beam axle vehicles were made. Modern independent suspension things didn't have anything to offer me and I saw the LRO articles changing to be more focused on off roading, modified vehicles and new vehicles, all subjects I'm not really interested in.

Is a shame to see it go though. They featured me and my series IIA way back over a 4 or 5 page article. Still have that copy somewhere.

I tried the online version of the CLR but I have about 10 issues now I haven't looked at yet, just never seem to find the time.

Craig.

[oilstain]

I wonder if the main problem for Land Rover mags is that club forums such as those for the S11 and S1 club are so good there is no place for less focused Land Rover publications

[Bradfordseries2]

I started reading LROi back in 1994, there was a good mix of articles and as mentioned, the only way to find parts and suppliers etc. I stopped getting the mag in the mid 2000s, I felt it just became all about off roading, expeditions and bolting as much tat on your Defender as possible month after month. All the big 3 mags were running very similar articles on similar/same vehicles. I found the project vehicles interesting as I like reading in depth about restorations and rebuilds and tech articles, even hybrids,  engine swaps and the like . I’m not fussed about chequebook type rebuilds and the modern coil sprung ‘builds’ of throwing as much stuff as you can ordered from Scorpion Racing or whoever was the supplier of choice at that given period.

  In the modern world with the internet I suppose magazines and also newspapers have a difficult job as it’s so easy to read about whatever you want on the WWW.

[Daisythelandy]

I subscribed for a few years in the late 90s and early 2000s but let it drop as I felt there was less and less in it for Series vehicles and more about blinging up more modern motors, to me they had lost their way under 'Bauer Media' ownership just the same as some other hobby mags from the 'Bauer media' stable that I took and eventualy dropped.  CLR is better in that respect and is from an independent publisher 'Key Publishing' and not some big publishing conglomerate that is pushing for sales to new modern LR owners.
I attended an early LRO show at Billing and to see the carpark full of thousands of Series vehicles was a joy to behold and was a very enjoyable weekend, a couple of years later I decided I wouldn't be travelling the 300 miles to Billing as the LRO magazine emphasis had changed so much.
Dave.

[GlenAnderson]

I bought LRO regularly in the early 90s, when I was new to Land-Rover ownership. In those pre-internet days it was one of the best ways of sourcing parts etc, but there are only so many ways you can rearrange the same articles/jobs/trips and by the mid 90s I was unwilling to shell out the cover price to read yet another rehash of the same basic formula. Since then I have only ever bought the odd issue that had a particular article that interested me; and they had become very few and far between as the content's focus shifted to coil sprung vehicles and accessories. To be honest, I am surprised it has lasted as long as it has.

[oilstain]

I wonder how LRO sales numbers compare with the other Land Rover monthly publications
Anyone got the numbers

[Wittsend]

Yes,
Locate the Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation that appears within the magazine itself, printed annually, usually in December or in the last issue for a given calendar year. It may appear among advertisements in the front or the back pages of a magazine.

There is an organisation in the UK that collects circulation data for magazines and newspapers ...
ABC

 

[w3526602]

I stopped subscribing to LRO mid 2000's I guess when the last of the beam axle vehicles were mad

Hi Craig,

That is, arguably , sensible.

When a beam axle hits a bump, the wheel(s) rise, taking the differential with them, while the chassis may only rise a little.

When independently sprung wheel hit a bump, the wheel(s) rise, but the chassis and differential will only rise a little, if at all, so the differential may become a plough, with the chassis following suite.

The Austin Champ had (adjustable?) independent torsion bar suspension to all four wheels. I don't know how well they managed cross-country.

602

[rusty66]

I hope that someone from CLR reads this and they work on their mag. I’d be really sad if it all shifts to the Internet, I think, even if it’s so convenient.
For me a good real expedition article is fine, but what always inspired me were the down-to-earth builds and the technical workshop section. And the useful reviews with new, useful and affordable parts or kit.
I also liked the product features about old and proven kit, like the jerrycan, the Trangia stove or the Coleman lantern - even though you can only have that many jerrycans or stoves. But they were entertaining and inspiring.
As were the Mike Manifold style articles (I think he was from a rival mag). Hugely entertaining, down to earth and also educating.
Sadly, even CLR is a bit thin in these (and in a literal sense). Sure it’s hard to come up with genuine content about something like Series vehicles that have been around for a while, but that’s why these people are professional journalists and that’s what we pay them for.
It’s true that it’s all far more convenient on the internet. But all these old copies of LRO, LRE, LRM never fail to inspire me after a long day of work or on a relaxing weekend. Far better than the internet does.