Shining up the old model T

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1995 by Lori Marden

If Mobilia's growing circulation is any indication, the popularity of collecting old-car models and related memorabilia (or automobilia) is clearly on the rise. Started two years ago by publisher Eric Killorin, whose passion for old cars outpaced his interest in computers, Middlebury, Vermont-based Mobilia began as a newsletter with 150 subscribers. Today, the monthly is a glossy trade with a paid circulation of more than 7,500.

"Advertising has never been a problem," says Killorin, "because ours is probably the only title dealing with automobilia. Advertisers of collectibles can go to [Bennington, Vermont-based] Hemmings Motor News, but it is 800 pages of advertising serving collectors of the old cars themselves--not the memorabilia--and with no editorial." Another competitor is Iola, Wisconsin-based Old Cars Weekly, but that title also focuses solely on the cars.

Even so, Killorin and his staff of one (editor Tom Funk) decided it was time to upgrade Mobilia to make its own ads stand out more. Mobilia's evolution from a newsletter on buff-colored, uncoated stock has been achieved almost entirely on desktop. Pages are created in QuarkXPress, Adobe Photoshop 3.0 is used for the art, and photos are reproduced using two flatbed scanners--a Microtek scanner (ScanMaker IIXE) and a $3,000 Umax (PowerLook) that approximates the quality of a $25,000 drum scanner. Instead of sending photos out to a service bureau and paying someone to do silhouettes, the magazine handles that processing in-house. Killorin even buys a 12-month supply of barcodes by disk and scans them onto the cover. He says all this is cheaper in the long run and that producing most of the magazine on disk enables him to keep control over the product.

Killorin plans to upgrade equipment even further with the purchase of two Power Macs, both using an IBM Windows Coprocessor, a faster modem (to access information online), and a faster tabloid laser printer.

Reflecting the conservative attitudes of the collecting community in general, all text and photos are in black and white, with section headers created by template and carried through the magazine. New departments include Roadside America, a little bit of nostalgia along the nation's highways; Road Trip, which describes automobilia shops; and Market Action, with price commentary provided by an expert. Although text typeface is still eight-point Palatino, columns are now narrower in width and ragged right, creating a less dense appearance and making stories easier to read. "It doesn't have to be gorgeous, but Mobilia is clean and crisp, giving readers information they need," says Killorin.

With Mobilia's classified ad section serving as a collector's conduit into the magazine, Killorin says the title is a natural for cyberspace. Mobilia is available electronically via America Online, and Killorin also plans to apply his computer expertise to open a home page on the Internet's World Wide Web.