Welcome to Which? Car

by JonQ on Feb.08, 2010, under News

Really enjoying my new role as Digital Producer of Which? Car, as we’re working hard to deliver a re-designed website that offers more value and is heaps more user-friendly. Which? was originally launched as a magazine in 1957 by the Consumers’ Association, an independent charity. Today, it remains an incredibly strong UK brand, having become the trusted voice of the consumer through its rigorous testing procedures and fierce editorial independence.

Which? Car: no ads, no bias

Financial independence is a guarantor for perpetual editorial independence and one of the manifestations of this is that in addition to offering you the “BEST BUY” cars, Which? can also name and shame the “DONT BUY” cars too. How many editors would let you print that?

It’s pretty obvious here that some people still lament the digital migration, and there is an image issue – you may not have heard of Which?, but your dad will have. But the quest for good journalism is noble and that should matter to a much broader demographic.

Fortunately, the hard part with online is done: Which? Car is in profit. Together with Car Design News, these two sites probably represent the holy grail of motoring content to other online publishers, thanks to their subscription based business model. Usually, web users hate to pay. They hate the concept, the very word, and would rather spend their lives in pursuit of sites that only offer stuff for free. Fortunately, both Which? Car and Car Design News offer enough original content and campaigns to justify the subscription.

Which? subscribers get the opportunity to take part in the UK's biggest and most robust car reliability survey

Car Design News: people subscribe because you can't get this depth of design content anywhere else

My job now will be to ensure what we deliver beyond this pay wall, continues to be worth much more than the outlay. I’ll keep you updated on progress.

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3 Comments for this entry

Harry Palmer
February 12th, 2010 on 2:29 pm
Hello,

I’m soory to ask here, but it seems that this blog is the only one where I can join you.

I was a fan of the long-term review of the Mini Clubman cooper S you owned last year, but I just cannot find again on the web the video you made of your Clubman intitled “Snow drive test”.
Where can I download it ? I just can’t find again the skymotoring blog. Looks like ti vanished in the air…

I saw the short vidoo of you long-term review of you black & yellow little monster, but there are only few seconds of the “snow drive test” on it.

Thanks for you answer & have a nice weekend !
JonQ
February 12th, 2010 on 10:04 pm
Hey Harry, thanks for the post. Indeed the snow dancing Clubman was a video blog for Sky Motoring so Im afraid it will have gone down with the site. I’ll get in touch with the powers that BSkyB, and see if they’ll let me publish it. But failing that, I’ll have a go at creating the sequel during the next snowfall! Jon
Harry Palmer
February 17th, 2010 on 7:10 pm
Hi, Jon

Thanks for your fast reply. Well, I tried to retrieve this excellent video of your Clubman “snow drive test” by using Resurrect (a plug-in for Mozilla Firefox, you can donwload it on geckozone.org if it may be useful for you)but it looks like you snowy little mule vanished in the cyberspace…Too bad.
Please tell me know if you can get it however.
It’s purely for my own pleasure, but I admit that the way you drove that morning is a very pushy, powerful stimulus to buy a Clubman (as soon as I have the money !)

Keep on writing you excellent reviewes, I’m a fan !

PS : did you finally repaired your blue “Paul Smith Edition” Mini Classic ?