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3 hours ago, waiheke1 said:

Tony: any chance of Retro speedway producing a digital version

Phillip: any chsnce of digitalizing the speedway star back catalogue?

The Exact Editions digital subscription includes back issues dating back to 2013.

Agree over Retro Speedway. I'm sure if it was practical Tony would have taken it up though. He has started putting some of his books on online download as e-editions however.

Edited by RobMcCaffery
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6 hours ago, RobMcCaffery said:

The Exact Editions digital subscription includes back issues dating back to 2013.

Agree over Retro Speedway. I'm sure if it was practical Tony would have taken it up though. He has started putting some of his books on online download as e-editions however.

Yeah, was thinking more 70s/80s/90s . Cost to digitalize wouldnt be huge, and i reckon there would be a matket...

As a southern hemisphere based speedway fan, obviously a digital version would be preferred, but understand the need to be commercially viable. Have bought Tonys books in both forms.

For a minor sport, it is fortunate to have two magazines of such quality, as well as an array of good books.

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4 minutes ago, waiheke1 said:

Yeah, was thinking more 70s/80s/90s . Cost to digitalize wouldnt be huge, and i reckon there would be a matket...

As a southern hemisphere based speedway fan, obviously a digital version would be preferred, but understand the need to be commercially viable. Have bought Tonys books in both forms.

For a minor sport, it is fortunate to have two magazines of such quality, as well as an array of good books.

I'm reminded of these astronomical projects that get people to use their home PCs / laptops to search through vast amounts of data. 
Couldn't we distribute the scanning activity? Get 100 fans to do a bit each and we'll reading about Peter Collins winning the WC before you know it. I know there is the logistical problem of getting the copies to people to do the scanning (especially in the C-19 times) but there must be a solution to create this perpetual archive, surely?

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2 hours ago, waiheke1 said:

Yeah, was thinking more 70s/80s/90s . Cost to digitalize wouldnt be huge, and i reckon there would be a matket...

As a southern hemisphere based speedway fan, obviously a digital version would be preferred, but understand the need to be commercially viable. Have bought Tonys books in both forms.

For a minor sport, it is fortunate to have two magazines of such quality, as well as an array of good books.

Yes we are lucky to have Pinegen and Retro - people who love the sport. The main thing with digitising magazines, apart from the initial capital cost is the labour to have the magazine physically scanned. I have a friend who is archiving photo collections and it's arduous and a full-time job for him. 

I understand that being based in NZ digital is ideal. The only consolation is that matters have never been better for getting publications from around the world. 

I suspect that survival is the key matter for both publishers right now but it would be interesting to hear from Philip and Tony what the prospects might be in calmer times. I'd certainly appreciate digital versions of Retro's work, and especially more e-books. 

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1 hour ago, RobMcCaffery said:

I suspect that survival is the key matter for both publishers right now but it would be interesting to hear from Philip and Tony what the prospects might be in calmer times. I'd certainly appreciate digital versions of Retro's work, and especially more e-books. 

I would much prefer electronic versions these days as I'm rarely in one place and I usually end-up with a pile of Backtracks when I do eventually get back to where they're delivered. But perhaps more pertinently for Retro Speedway, my subscription may expire in the meantime without me remembering, so there's a possible loss of cashflow because of that 

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16 hours ago, PHILIPRISING said:

YES

JUST to clarify, copies for subscriptions that started this week were mailed out this morning direct from our office. For the duration of the subscription, copies will be mailed direct from printers on a Wednesday.

 WE realise that with no actual speedway taking place our editorial team have to work extra hard to provide content that is worthy of your money. We will do our best to weather what is undoubtedly the biggest storm Speedway Star has ever faced.

Thank you ...

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Just received this week's edition Philip and full marks to the editorial staff already for producing such a great read.

 I can only say to anyone not already subscribing, the mag is superbly put together and great value. 

As to content, perhaps ask the readers for ideas?

I actually emailed Andrew earlier this year a suggestion around getting a rider like Scott Nicholls to give us his views on each of the tracks in the top two divisions. My thought was that many fans never get to see a track at the other end of the country and would be interested in hearing a rider comparing tracks.

How about transcribing a conference call between 3 or 4 riders getting their opinions on a different subject every few weeks?

One thing I think the Star did miss out on was a suitable tribute to Andreas Jonsson when he announced his retirement. Bjarne Pedersen even got a front cover - I am sure a lot of Coventry and Lakeside fans in particular would love to see AJ treated similarly. A true racer and great guy for both tracks.

Finally, a shout out to Jeff Davies again for his covers - they are works of art! Crumpie in all his glory  this week.

 

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2 minutes ago, hawks 1975 said:

Just received this week's edition Philip and full marks to the editorial staff already for producing such a great read.

 I can only say to anyone not already subscribing, the mag is superbly put together and great value. 

As to content, perhaps ask the readers for ideas?

I actually emailed Andrew earlier this year a suggestion around getting a rider like Scott Nicholls to give us his views on each of the tracks in the top two divisions. My thought was that many fans never get to see a track at the other end of the country and would be interested in hearing a rider comparing tracks.

How about transcribing a conference call between 3 or 4 riders getting their opinions on a different subject every few weeks?

One thing I think the Star did miss out on was a suitable tribute to Andreas Jonsson when he announced his retirement. Bjarne Pedersen even got a front cover - I am sure a lot of Coventry and Lakeside fans in particular would love to see AJ treated similarly. A true racer and great guy for both tracks.

Finally, a shout out to Jeff Davies again for his covers - they are works of art! Crumpie in all his glory  this week.

 

Some good ideas, unsung heroes of tracks (volunteers), ex riders stories, fans stories, fan photos (amateurs), many have been done but just kicking a few ideas around.

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31 minutes ago, hawks 1975 said:

Just received this week's edition Philip and full marks to the editorial staff already for producing such a great read.

 I can only say to anyone not already subscribing, the mag is superbly put together and great value. 

As to content, perhaps ask the readers for ideas?

I actually emailed Andrew earlier this year a suggestion around getting a rider like Scott Nicholls to give us his views on each of the tracks in the top two divisions. My thought was that many fans never get to see a track at the other end of the country and would be interested in hearing a rider comparing tracks.

How about transcribing a conference call between 3 or 4 riders getting their opinions on a different subject every few weeks?

One thing I think the Star did miss out on was a suitable tribute to Andreas Jonsson when he announced his retirement. Bjarne Pedersen even got a front cover - I am sure a lot of Coventry and Lakeside fans in particular would love to see AJ treated similarly. A true racer and great guy for both tracks.

Finally, a shout out to Jeff Davies again for his covers - they are works of art! Crumpie in all his glory  this week.

 

WE were planning to get hold of Andreas Jonsson for an in-depth ‘farewell’ piece looking back on his career but we deliberately decided to delay it so that we could also get him to go through this year’s SGP field for the season preview issue, tying the two together. The farewell piece would have been in today’s edition, and Jonsson’s SGP preview would have been next week in the season preview. Obviously, present circumstances have totally wrecked our best paid plans! We can still do the farewell piece in the coming weeks though!
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21 hours ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

I would much prefer electronic versions these days as I'm rarely in one place and I usually end-up with a pile of Backtracks when I do eventually get back to where they're delivered. But perhaps more pertinently for Retro Speedway, my subscription may expire in the meantime without me remembering, so there's a possible loss of cashflow because of that 

A recurring direct debit helps to keep absent-minded subscribers in check ;-) I've noticed many magazines outside the sport encouraging this. 

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11 hours ago, PHILIPRISING said:

JUST to clarify, copies for subscriptions that started this week were mailed out this morning direct from our office. For the duration of the subscription, copies will be mailed direct from printers on a Wednesday.

 WE realise that with no actual speedway taking place our editorial team have to work extra hard to provide content that is worthy of your money. We will do our best to weather what is undoubtedly the biggest storm Speedway Star has ever faced.

Thank you ...

Phil, Thanks to you and to your editorial staff, for the efforts in keeping going at this extremely challenging time.

The sport needs the Speedway Star to survive and we should support and help them to weather this serious storm. 

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1 minute ago, Speedtiger said:

Phil, Thanks to you and to your editorial staff, for the efforts in keeping going at this extremely challenging time.

The sport needs the Speedway Star to survive and we should support and help them to weather this serious storm. 

THANKS, much appreciated.

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