With due respect to Pokey and his brother, I can't understand why it's taken you thirty one issues to realise that there are "too many ads" in VMX. Like Graeme says, have a look at the other motorcycle magazines on the newsagent rack, including VMXs main opposition, Great Britains 'Classic DirtBike', and you'll find the advertising to feature ratio much, much higher.
On another level, the majority of ads in VMX are vintage dirt bike specific and are in effect, a service for us to source services and parts for our old bike restos and maintenance. Often those ads become the most important thing of the moment, especially when you're chasing down that obsure gizmo that's missing off your Sprite 405 or whatever.
I don't pretend to know all of the financial ins and outs of producing a magazine but after twenty years in the game I know enough to realise that without advertising a magazines life is extremely tenuous. Advertising pays the bills. The advertising revenue far outweighs actual sales in regard to financial income. Rather than whinging about there being too many ads in VMX we should be hoping that they can find more 'big end of town' advertisers like Suzuki that can throw some significent advertising moolah at our magazine.
The owners of VMX aren't basking on the yacht in Monte Carlo or driving Dodge Vipers or Maseratis with the income from the magazine. The bottom line is that there isn't a fortune to be made producing a niche market magazine, cult following or not. Ray Ryans continual battle with VMX was to find enough lucrative advertising income to be able to maintain the quality and content of the magazine. It was a very hard battle that I'm sure the currnent owners are still fighting.
Pokey,rather than criticising the publishers for having too much advertising in the mag, you should be celebrating that the magazine is surviving despite being under Rays 25% advertising/feature ratio. I'm proud to be a part of VMXs history over the years and I'm still thanking my lucky stars that the boys managed to bring it back from the dead.
