Car magazines closing doors

[The Goose]

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

Lol!!! I just bought my 21 year old daughter a brand new Pet Sounds on LP. She can only afford used and I guess some of the more popular albums are $$$$$ New or used.

 

[mrfury68]

Digital is not going away. The production and distribution cost associated with print media is astronomical compared to what it costs to produce digital. Combine that with the declining number of people who read printed media each year and it is not too hard to figure out.

 

[Snotty]

Digital is not going away. The production and distribution cost associated with print media is astronomical compared to what it costs to produce digital. Combine that with the declining number of people who read printed media each year and it is not too hard to figure out.

Still sad....

 

[mrfury68]

Still sad....

It is. I had a front row seat to watching the demise of print media. From 2001 through 2010 I was a delivery truck driver for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It was a great paying, union job with good benefits and a pension. It was a job that generations before me retired from. It was a job I had wanted since I was a paperboy in my early teens. In the years I worked there and saw the contract negotitions drag on and the union have less leverage, I started to have doubts about the stability of my job. I wasn't getting any younger either. When I was offered a job with my local municipality in the public works dept. at age 48 I took it. It too was a Teamsters union job with decent pay, benefits and a pension. Not to mention stability. Currently this major metropolitan newspaper prints only 3 daily editions and a "weekender" edition. The content in the print editions is almost laughable with full page ads for hearing aids and such. When I left there were 110 delivery drivers. There are roughly 30 left today and the company just made them all part time and stripped their benefits. There are a lot of good people at that newspaper who are now out of work. It does make it a little personal for me watching magazines and newspapers fade away. Sorry for the rant, like I said, it's a little personal.

 

[MoPar Maniac]

Newspapers have faded away because of many reasons. Notice there is no investigative journalism? Every paper gets all their "news" from the same source so if you see one paper you see them all.
And their news may as well be editorial opinion.
Now what papers are left are partnering up with tv stations. Why do I have to buy the paper when I can see the bubbleheaded bleached blond on the news at 5 giving me the same info in the paper and its free? And now much tv news is advertising thinly disguised as news They are killing themselves, too.
Now, combine magazines into one company and they all become alike.
Lots of changes in my line of work over the years, photography. No more film, chemicals, processors and the like. Now the most ham fisted klutz with a phone can be a photographer and produce passable photos. We tore out all our processors years ago. Now its all digital from the camera to the printing. We used to build our own cameras. They were infinitely rebuildable. If we needed more parts we had them made. With the demise of film and changes in the industry we now use consumer cameras and since we aren't an authorized repair facility-which would require me to go to a school and then work on cameras from people off the street it isn't cost effective. For most repairs cameras go to an authorized facility. Lots of attrition at my employer. Seen a Kodak or Polaroid ad lately?
I used to subscribe to a few motorcycle rags. Many of them ran the same articles about the same time, all with their own "comparo" and "shootouts". Then I noticed many of the featured stories started repeating. Almost word for word. I pulled out old issues and, sure enough, I found the same articles.
The print industry its its own worst enemy. Its no wonder they are failing.

 

[rapidtrans]

I still read the local papers daily. I’m amazed at the lousy editing these days. Apparently they rely solely on spell check. Sheesh autocorrect doesn’t know proper word usage and forget about gammer and punctuation. It’s annoying as hell to have to read a statement a couple times to figure out what they mean.

 

[MoPar Maniac]

I think your post prove spel chek doesn't werk!
Lol
Seriously, you are correct. These "journalists" get a four year degree and can't spell or form proper sentences.

 

[rapidtrans]

I was waiting for someone to catch that. Corrected.
I also hate this auto-fill feature that wants to over-ride my word choice.