Since the early days of the WWW, magazine publishers – like so many others – have stumbled, staggered and struggled with fashioning effective Web sites.
Hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20, so we have a clear view of the laundry list of World Wide Whiffs. Suffice it to say, we all made mistakes over the past decade.
Time and technology have cured a lot of ills, and now traditional paper publishing companies offer some of the best digital content available.
The key, we discovered, was one word: resource.
Just as we were the first magazine covering the tire industry, Tire Review was the first tire magazine with a Web site. Therefore, we were among the first to stub our toes on our mouses. Or is it mices?
But that’s old news.
The new news is that www.tirereview.com has been completely revamped. In fact, our "new" site went live a couple of months ago. Without fanfare, and more a work-in-progress than a finished piece. In fact, that’s the way we want to keep it. More on that later.
With our new site, we’re evolving new ways to bring you more. How we can use new Web technologies to deliver data and education we could never provide in print. How we can apply our resources to enhance the kinds of information you expect and demand.
We are blessed with an outstanding technical team, an in-house group that not only handles all our paper publications but their own long list of customers, as well. That internal ability allows us to better tailor our Web persona to meet your information needs.
And we have paid particular attention to resource materials to help you better help your customers.
Items like a convenient DOT number look up, so you can instantly find out where certain tires are manufactured. A state-by-state rundown of tire stud regulations. A complete listing of tire brands available in North America, with manufacturer/marketer contact information for each. And a comprehensive Tire Fitment Guide so you can find the right size tire for thousands of passenger vehicles – by year, by make, by model and by model options.
Then there’s our 850-plus company Purchasing Directory from our annual Sourcebook issue. And Web Site Directory with URL listings for hundreds of tire, tool, replacement part and equipment suppliers. And the industry’s most comprehensive listing of national, regional, state and provincial trade and dealer associations, including hot links directly to each association that has online capabilities.
Of course we also have a fast-growing calendar of upcoming industry events and educational opportunities. If your state association has upcoming events or your company or association offers scheduled training seminars, please get that information to us so we can get it posted. And our Tech Chat area allows you to trade ideas, answer questions, and run ideas past fellow tire dealers.
And, as you would expect, every word of every monthly issue of Tire Review will appear on our Web site. Plus, you can search through back issues. Remember a story about winter tires or CV joints? Use our key word or issue date search systems to find that story. Plus, you can also search back issues of our sister magazines for additional vehicle service how-tos, tips and techniques.
Plus we have a lot of plans for the future. Updated industry news. Tire market research. A huge new products section. Site specific content and exclusives. Additional cool tools – like the DOT number look-up and Tire Fitment Guide – that can help you day-to-day. And some super double secret stuff I’m not allowed to talk about.
As I said, our new Web site is a work-in-progress. And we plan to keep it that way. Why? Well, the two key goals we have for our revised Web site are:
- Keep it fresh, updated and vital, making it an important tool for all our readers
- Keep it totally free. No subscriptions, no fees, no nuthin.’
To us, those are the best ways to make the Tire Review Web site a valuable service to everyone in the tire industry. And the only way to treat our valued readers.