After almost 15 years the end has come for editor-in-chief Joris Bergsma. Yesterday evening, at just after 23.00 GMT, the Pre-war Post-war Publishing team came to an agreement to end their relationship in good order. Within the last few months an untenable situation developed as the opinions expressed by Bergsma increasingly emphasized on the profile and image of PreWarCar and PostWarClassic. This saw the PWC head offices in Amsterdam divided into two camps. Bergsma's increasing interest for unrestored cars, saloons and 'bread and butter' vehicles were considered as counteractions to the business opportunities for PreWarCar and PostWarClassic.
The appointment of a new chief-editor is expected later this week. One thing is sure, though: the future will be bright. The emphasis will slowly but surely be directed towards the top end of the classic car scene, with more concours reports from throughout the world and an increase in high-end restoration work.
It's been a very tough decision and the team, which from now on will be running both PreWar Car as PostWarClassics websites without Bergsma, want to thank Joris for the fantastic work he did for both websites. Joris has made an invaluable contribution to the pre-war car scene and due to his efforts thousands of cars have come into the hands of new owners, a large number of who have been made enthusiastic through his webpages. We wish him all the best for the future.
For all editorial issues you can contact office@prewarcar.com. Or contact UK correspondent Robin Batchelor. USA correspondent Kit Foster. Spain correspondent Francisco Carrión. Or Amsterdam editor Jeroen Booij.
UPDATE , April 1, 2015 15.03 : Thank You all so much for your touching and heartwarming responses! For the more than hundred comments. For the dozen of phonecalls from various countries. Plus some 30 personal emails this morning. The friendliest push in the back we received since the SAH E.P. Ingersoll award we received in 2003..! Sorry if we tackled some of you with our 'news' a bit hard with this year's April 1 feature. Look at it this way, we try to serve you well 365 days a year and one of those days is just for our own pleasure. This time with the pleasant side effect - like one of you wrote - that it gives very good support for our scruffy strategy approach. So let's pick up where left of. Tomorrow is April 2.
Thank you for your support!
Joris Bergsma, founding editor
(special thanks to Jeroen Booij and Robin Batchelor who advised on strategy & text. Photos by PreWarCar photographer Pjotter Bergsma, age 15 )