[R129 SL] BENZO Magazine and MB Coupes!

[Admin-MB Coupes.com]

Hi Folks,

Over the past few years, MB Coupes as steadily increased in size both
content-wise and membership involvement.  It's nice to see growing
members and posts in the SL and W124/CE forums as well.  Many may be
wondering where more recently sent pictures of their cars are or why
they are not on the site.  The entire website is undergoing a MASSIVE
overhaul as we speak.  Once it goes online, I'll update it with more
photos and new content.

That said, I was contacted last winter by Joshua Blumenthal, Tim
Coleman, and Lou Ferrente from Metropolitan Media Group, LLC in
Manhatten, NYC.  The large publishing company which houses issues of
Maxim, Men's Health, GQ, and contributes to Road & Track was about to
start a large-scale print magazine geared SOLELY towards Mercedes-Benz.

It started by the publisher himself who wandered into a large bookstore
in Manhatten searching for a Mercedes-specific magazine to browse. After
looking and looking, he noticed that BMW had Bimmer and BMW World
amongst others, Porsche has Excellence, Ferrari has Forza, VW and Audi
have VW/Audi World, etc., etc., but NOWHERE is there a proper magazine
devoted solely to Mercedes.  Sure there is the Star magazine for MBCA
club members but that's more or less a glorified Benz brochure.  Nothing
to do with high-performance stuff either.  These guys wanted to produce
a magazine with a look/feel of Robb Report magazine with the print
quality of say Automobile or Architectural Digest.

Well, many enthusiast magazines have interest forums for readers to
participate on-line much like we do here at MB Coupes.  The publisher
and editor started web-browsing and noticed that Mercedes DOES however,
have a vast number of forums...rather large participation in them too.
Rather than compete with a well-established forum, they decided to
partner with the more well-known forums.  Many sites were reviewed and
from 19 sites, they narrowed to just 4.  I'm proud to say that alongside
Mercedesshop, MBNZ, and MB World, MB Coupes was chosen by Metropolitan
Media Group to join.  The prototype premiere issue has just been
published with 150+ pages and 4-color print at a cost of hundreds of
thousands of dollars.  When I spoke to the publisher last winter, they
stated that initially, the publication would be printed 6 times a year
but if sponsorship rose to 70 or greater, they would increase
publication to a regular 12 issues per year.  Well, turns out that they
have already well over 100 sponsors including all the big guys like
Mercedes-Benz A.G., MBUSA LLC., Brabus, RENNtech, Lorinser, CEC, Alpine,
Pioneer, Reebok, Nike, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, BBS, Blaupunkt, Performance
Products, Kleemann, MB Quart, etc., etc.  Basically, they're sitting
pretty.  The good news for MB Coupes members is that we will all get
subscription discounts for the magazine.  Also, clips of some content
will be available at the publisher's website, www.benzomagazine.com

More importantly, events that MB Coupes members participate in, such as
the National Meetings will be featured in upcoming issues.  Also, our
on-line presence will increase substancially due to exposure via print
format in the newsstands.  Benzo IS an international publication so
people abroad may subscribe as well (with surcharges for shipping).  I
was told last week from the Editor, Tim Coleman, that EVERY SINGLE
factory-authorized Mercedes-Benz dealership in the United States has
been sent a 10-pack of the magazine for free distribution amongst their
service, sales, and customer personnel base.  So, if you're really
envious, zip down to your local MB dealership and grab an issue.  Jack
Middlebrook informed me that he was able to swipe the last one at his
local MB dealer down in Florida.  

To subscribe at a discounted rate, click on the Benzo Magazine link on
the opening page of MB Coupes.  

-Satish

BTW, of COURSE they did a full article on the W126 SEC in their
prototype issue...I supplied some of the raw data and they wrote in the
rest.  Check it out!



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