MJB
New member
Peter_Bull said:
Peter, I think that it all began to go wrong quite some time ago. After losing its last proper editor PP limped along with the help of a professional motoring journalist until the decision was made to appoint a full-time editor once more. I don’t think that this position was advertised within the Club -none of the many others vacancies over the past few years ever seem to have been either; why is that?- and it was publicised via the Reed recruitment agency. Eighteen people applied and from those candidates one was appointed who had previously been involved with the production of the monthly Morgan Club magazine. Unfortunately he was apparently only in the job for around six weeks, although the circumstances of his departure are unknown to me. After that the choice seems to have been made to forget about the other 17 applicants and to instead turn PP over to a "content agency”, something which might have looked like a quick and easy fix at the time but which has taken us up the very narrow cul-de-sac in which PP finds itself today.
Given the possible lack of car club membership experience which I mentioned in my previous post, I think that Archant and the Board seriously misunderstand the needs and interests of PCGB members in respect of PP. They fail to comprehend that subscribers want to read about the (sometimes old and unfashionable) cars that they own and can find out everything that they might wish to about the current range and racing achievements online - and a lot quicker too. In fact, Porsche produce a weekly email digest of just such information to which anyone can subscribe. I also get the impression that there is a massive misapprehension by the Club and PP that many members only own the cars which they do because they cannot afford a new or nearly new one and so constantly need to be informed of what they are missing, rather than appreciating the fact that they -as enthusiasts- drive the models that they do by choice. On the other hand the owners of recent vehicles are seen as commercial opportunities to be targeted and so PP is littered with advertising irrelevant to car enthusiasts.
Anyway, while writing this I see that the Annual Membership Survey has arrived. I’ve not looked at it yet and find that such exercises can sometimes ask rather leading questions, but at least this is a chance for anyone concerned about PP and the general direction of the Club to have some sort of a say, so please do so.
