I was in my local W.H.Smiths the other day and was shocked at the prices of other 4×4 magazines – Land Rover Owner and 4×4 Magazine were a penny off a fiver, and Land Rover Monthly £5.25. A crazy amount of money that’s getting into book price territory, but being fair, the cost of producing a paper magazine these days is rising astronomically, as every part of the production has gone up in price.
| Publication Information |
|---|
| Cover Price: Free |
| Format: Digital, pages |
| Frequency: Monthly |
| Subject: 4×4, Off-Roading, Green-Laning |
| Publisher: The Mud Life |
| News, Reviews & Adventure |
The Mud Life 4×4 Magazine Issue 38 May 2022
Turner’s Torque
Pondering About Money, & World Domination!
I was in my local W.H.Smiths the other day and was shocked at the prices of other 4×4 magazines – Land Rover Owner and 4×4 Magazine were a penny off a fiver, and Land Rover Monthly £5.25. A crazy amount of money that’s getting into book price territory, but being fair, the cost of producing a paper magazine these days is rising astronomically, as every part of the production has gone up in price.
There’s the rising fuel prices that are affecting every part of life, both in the business world and the personal, and there have been unforseen market forces that have occurred, an example of which is that during lockdown a lot of paper producers and printers found it more economical and good business to make cardboard boxes for the likes of Amazon and other home delivery companies, and, seeing as the fondness for home delivery hasn’t really declined, they haven’t come back to the market, which means less producers and a much tougher market.
I was chatting to a fellow motoring writer the other day about these problems, and he asked when I was going to start charging for the magazine.
I have to be honest, it’s a discussion Muddy Madam and I have had numerous times in the past, especially late on a Sunday night after a long day spent with us both tapping away on the keyboard instead of getting out into the open air.
It would be great at some point to be able to pay ourselves a wage for the time we spend creating this mag each month, ‘like a real job’, and although we are not a print magazine, here at Muddy HQ we have costs and they are rising too, so thinking out loud, would you, dear reader, pay a quid or two for The Mud Life 4×4 each month, or how about a yearly subscription?
Does that sound reasonable?
Fear not, that’s a decision for another day.
Last month I gave out a massive thank you to all our existing and new readers. I am constantly amazed that our readership numbers continue to thrive as each issue, during its first month of publication, is read up to 5,000 times. This obviously increases month on month as we’re found by new readers who enjoy previous issues.
Even more amazing is that we have grown our following organically without paying for advertising. Word of mouth (that’s you), and sharing the magazine on a variety of social media pages (a huge thank you goes out to the moderators for allowing us to do that) has been our only ways of getting our mag out in the world so far, but we really would like to get our magazine out further, so please continue to comment on and re-post our stuff on social media, and don’t forget to tell your friends about the magazine.
Finally, because we know all you laners love stickers and we love you, we’ve decided that, for this month only, we are going to knock 50p off the price of each and every Mud Life sticker so head to the next page and grab yourself a bargain.
Anyhow, that’s enough from me, hope you enjoy the mag!
Damian, Editor-in-Chief
The Mud Life is all about 4x4s, and enjoying the great British outdoors.
Damian and Karen Lee Turner (A.K.A. The Muddy Madam)
TURNER’S TORQUE 4-5
NEWS 6-23
GENESIS GV70 24-33
LANING LIFE 35-42
GOODS & GEAR 44.45
FORD RANGER DAY WILDTRAK 46-55
CAMPING LIFE 57-59
INEOS GRENADIER 60-70
SUZUKI JIMNY COMMERCIAL 72-81
THE TALES OF LILLY 82-83
LILLY’S ON THE LOOKOUT 84-87
MOOCH -SUZUKI S-CROSS ULTRA 77-84
STARS & CARS EVENT 94-101
BACK ISSUES 102-103
DIRECTORIES 104-107
SUBSCRIBE 108
Important information
Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the contents of The Mud Life magazine are accurate, we accept no responsibility for errors or omissions, nor the consequence of actions made as a result of these. When responding to any advertisements in The Mud Life magazine, you should make appropriate enquiries before sending money or entering into a contract. The publishers and owners take reasonable care to ensure advertiser’s probity, but will not be liable for any losses incurred as a result of responding to adverts.
Copyright
All images and material on these pages are protected by copyright © Damian Turner. All rights reserved. None of the images or material within this magazine may be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose that is not expressly authorised by Damian Turner or Karen Lee Turner.
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