NATHAN DUFF

When he is not out shooting or putting the magazine together, Nathan likes to pretend that he’ll actually finish the series 3 Land Rover that sits in his garage gathering dust.

Follow Nathan on Instagram @retromotive @retromotive_editor

About a year ago at the baggage carousel, I bumped into an editor I used to work for. We had spent some time on the road together, he a writer – me a photographer. I was in town to shoot a BMW drivers event for EVO magazine – he was there to film part of a new TV show his company was developing. We chatted briefly and he asked how Retromotive was going. ‘Just about ready to print the third edition!’ He responded, ‘Well, they say that everyone has enough ideas for three magazines in them, good luck with the rest. And with that, he was off.

I walked away from the conversation and thought about how we’d evolved in the short time we had been working together and realised that time and circumstance dictates our growth.

I’ve never considered a shelf life for the magazine or running short on ideas after just three issues. This being the eighth edition, I still have content I couldn’t squeeze into the magazine that I’d love to be able to and it’s always bothered me.

I have an ideas list that I scrawl on and revisit every now and then – the legible ones I try and put into action. The others, well…i may have one too many and there’s a reason it’s illegible.

I’ve maintained that Retromotive will first and foremost be a print magazine and that’s not changing anytime soon. But, one thing that has been at me for a while is finding a way to add value for those who subscribe to the print version.

I’ve been toying with the idea of an on-line companion for the magazine. This would be accessible for those who subscribe to the print edition. About eight years ago there was a massive push for print magazines to have a version for the ipad. We were promised lots of interactive features, but it all seems to have fallen by the wayside.

The online companion of Retromotive will have the same features as the print edition, but with added interactive content. I can rarely put all the photos I want to into the print version, so online layouts will be extended to include additional galleries, historic imagery and, where possible, audio and video content relating to features.

We will now look at event coverage. Print lead times can be anywhere from six to eight weeks and events would be dreadfully out of date by the time the print copy arrived in your mailbox.

Hot spots will take you to interesting sites gaining a deeper insight into the marque/car /person. There will also be BTS look at the shoots and cars, etc.

Best of all, it will be updated with new content during the magazine’s life-cycle. Retromotive itself will grow and evolve with each edition.

The wheels are in motion as I type this and I’m hoping that by the time you’re reading edition eight, we’ll be very close to launching on a redesigned website platform.

As always – any and all feedback is welcome.

Cheers, Nathan. 7-Feb-2020