^^ Back in the day, I think just about everyone believed the magazine reports. I remember when I was a teenage reader, whatever the mags printed was gospel.
Then, during my long career, I met all of those "big names" in the magazine business. What a letdown.
Yeah, well back in the eighties we got involved with several of the magazines for tech. articles, and got so fed-up with the unprofessionalism and lack of any concern for any really accurate conveyance of information; the final straw was an instance when the proof read was full of supposed quotes from us that were first, not made by us, and then were technically wrong in their context! Upon attempting to rectify this issue, it was stated by the magazine representative to us that: "Let me explain, we (magazine) are in the business of selling magazines, not educating the public, and we feel the way in which we have written the article will sell more magazines, even if it isn't technically accurate!
Our response: "Good luck, and please don't call again"!
But, that was O.K. by them, as they just went and found someone else who wanted to be made famous; if only in the eyes of the naive patrons of the car magazines.
And yes, in my presentation I am stereotyping the industry, and I'm sure there are exceptions to this scenario, but this was our experience, repeatedly!
Scott.