Car magazines closing doors

Probably to be expected. MOTOR TREND and HOT ROD are the two iconic magazines from the old Petersen Publishing Company. I'll pickup a magazine every so often for the ads in them, rather than the road test content (as in the past).

If you go to www.hotrod.com, you'll be into the Hot Rod Network of many magazines online. Quick and easy.

The digital e-zine market has exploded with new offerings for almost any vehicular orientation. www.EngineLabs.com will get you into that network. Some good articles, but many are related to their advertisers' products, it seems. An interesting diversion.

As with print news, once you read it, it's re-cycle time. But I have a good collection of car magazines (MT, HRM, Car and Driver, CAR LIFE, etc.) from the late '50s-mid-'80s. Lots of good reference material! But even many of them are now at www.wildaboutcarsonline.com, which is related to the vehicle history section of the Detroit Library? Most of that website is free, but some access requires a membership in a automotive historical society.

Get those electronic interfaces ready so you can read your car magazines on the 65" UHD TV!

CBODY67
 
Mopar Muscle, one less subscription to get at the shows. Not surprising since it's become a glossed over advertisment with a few pictures.
 
Par for the course for conglomerate-owned media....

They buy it all up, run it into the ground, drive off their customers, then shutter it. Just like radio stations these days.
 
I’ll bet you guys a soda somebody picks these up. No way on earth they let titles likes Mustang Monthly and Car Review die.

They sure ruined a lot of these magazines. I look over a lot of them for free at the bookstore and then buy a couple I like but I make sure to only buy Mopar Action at our local market. I figure if we keep buying them they’ll keep stocking them at the store.

There’s nothing better than buying 4 or 5 mags and saving them to read while on vacation or a good long trip.
 
I wish the phone was still used fir just talking. No one seems to use them too much anymore to talk. Texting has replaced it and speaking into your phone...to text, has changed everything on how we communicate.
I hate looking up stuff in the web with this little screen. But its convenience has made my eyesight worsen faster as I get older.
But for business its great, and the connectivity is second to none. But it also makes everyone including your clients/customers sometimes expect you to drop everything your doing, expecting a faster reply to their text message.
 
I'm a bit surprised that they didn't try to merge some of these titles first and see if they could still turn a profit on them, since they probably have a lot of readership overlap. A couple of the other magazines being shuttered are fairly unique in their market, but perhaps it's a declining market.

There's got to be a fine balance between how much to charge readers, how much to subsidize from ad content, how much "real" content to include. Now it gets even tougher thanks to the internet. There's lots of free, easily searchable content on the internet, including brand-specific forums such as this one, competing for our eyes.

I watched the slow decline of Popular Science magazine to irrelevance. My dad had a subscription for decades. Every issues used to be thick and have lots of interesting content. Then it slowly got thinner, and more of it was advertorial content such as the "What's New" (high-tech gadgets) section, and Consumer Reports-style product comparisons. I finally convinced him to save his money and cancel his subscription because he could find much better science-related articles online for free. I see they're still publishing PopSci, but down from a monthly to only producing it quarterly.
 
I cannot remember the last time a purchased a car magazine. Probably at an airport hears ago out of boredom. If I’m looking for performance specs I find them online. I don’t need to read an article to tell me what car I should by.
 
Wonder if I will get a refund on Unsent issues ? Reupped on MM at Carlisle last July.
 
The cell phone replaced magazines for bowl reading.....End of story
I don't use my phone for reading. I do use my computer, but I still prefer print media. But none of this surprises me. Of the list, I currently only subscribe to one, and that is Mopar Muscle. I have become very disappointed in it the last two years so if it goes away I won't miss it.
 
So many folks don't read anymore. No pictures... no interest! Even here I've seed it said " if there's no picture, it didn't happen".
Even with ebay ads, more pictures, less print.
 
I read the local paper every morning at my regular breakfast joint. For all the people that claim they don’t read the paper it sure gets scarfed-up fast once I finish it and put it aside. That paper will often be read by three different people before I have finished my senior coffee and crossword! Our papers look like USA Today, same owner, with so much blank white space and political views. Many just refuse to pay the $2.50 for the daily paper.
 
I read hot rod, car craft, MCG.
I'm 42 and prefer a print magazine, guess I'll have 1 less. CC had a lot of Chevy in it but also junkyard and off kilter stuff I enjoyed
 
i look at them in the store , seldom purchase any . but i have drawers of the older ones , back to 48 n 49 hotrod . lots of 50's ones printed back then have gone bye bye by the wayside as well . even my 60's mags have less publishers today . the hey day of hopping up your car has passed us bye with an electric car , lol . how to hop up your e car ? don't think that the issue , it would be how to get it to travel farther on a charge , thats some trilling reading boys , lol .
 
I still have to read most of the last two years of the four rags I subscribe to, just don't have time to read them all. I mostly bought them for the t shirts! Maybe I'll catch up this winter.
 
:wtf:
i subscribe to car craft, muscle car review(just renewed for 2 years last month) and mopar muscle (got the renewal in the mail last week, 2 yrs for $70.97)i was still debating about the renewal at that price. i have terrible internet, digital does me no good. i have hundreds of back issues of multiple magazine titles including hot rod deluxe. :mob:
 
I dropped my Lowrider subscription years ago. Less feature cars, show coverage and good looking models, but they added more 4 page wheel and tire ads!
Is sad as long as I can remember my dad has always had a subscription to Street Rodder. So I guess now he'll be down to Hemmings and the Goodguys gazette.
 
Combination strategies are everywhere . . . and have been for quite some time. Most of the ionic brands of car parts are now under about TWO holding company groups. All aluminum wheel companies are similar (even if they might be cast in China, some are machined in the USA). Look at what Holley has under their umbrella now!

Want to consider department store chains? Only thing was that Macy's wanted to be "coast-to-coast" rather than just in NY, so they bought out the May Company (which had already purchased some other smaller chains years ago) and got their "national chain" status. Only thing was that they replaced MOST of the regional content/store brands with their own (made in China). Plus messed with the other merchandise brands that were already there. A few years later, they were in trouble. The people who had been loyal to the May Company-brand stores didn't like what the "big time" Macy's had done, so they went elsewhere. Macy's closed many larger stores in TX, for example, which had previously been profitable.

How much of Exxon/Mobil is "Exxon" and how much is "Mobil"? I'm surprised they haven't combined their motor oils already!

Larger competitors buy up smaller competitors to allegedly have more market share and make more money. The price of success is a "buy-out"?

In the '60s, I always read Motor Trend and Hot Rod. Back in the "green page" days of Hot Rod. Then I discovered Car Life and that they seemed to think favorably of Chrysler products. Then after some great years in the later '60s, Car Life was "merged" into Motor Trend. End of that great deal!

I, too, liked Popular Science and Mechanix Illustrated, in the '60s. They had some good car articles, road tests, and customer surveys, even into the middle '70s.

But "Those were the days"! Digital publishing seems to be "where it's at", BUT if vinyl records can make a comeback, possibly print car magazines, too?

CBODY67
 
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