More Magazine Closures

californiamilleghia said:

I am at the Moon-eyes show now and probably NO photos of this show will now end up in a USA print magazine  , sad....

But they will be on the Web somewhere this afternoon .

European and Japanese magazines are still out there. at least for now

Me thinks this is a lot of the change.  Even the white camper Ford van articles GRM Tommy wrote are kinda on the forum way ahead of the magazine so I might gloss through it.  

I quit getting the Chicago Tribune delivered and they still send me it daily via email.  I like reading it on my phone and don't miss the actual paper.    

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

I’m with you. I’m subscribed to the New York Times, Washington post, and Baltimore Sun via their online subscription as well as  several enthusiast magazines. I would never read all of that content if I had to rifle through print. I’m far from a digital native, but gladly usher in that which makes my life easier and keeps me better informed. 

CrustyRedXpress said:

In other news-the Editor of Jalopnik resigned today, citing interference from the private equity owners that bought it after Gawker folded. 

It's not just print that is having a tough time, it's anybody trying to build a business on automotive content. Much respect to GRM for what they do.

That's not terribly surprising, given that everyone  at Deadspin left as soon as they were told to "stick to sports".  I would not be surprised if every Gawker brand is dead within a year.  Kinda ironic that Peter Thiel and Hulk Hogan couldn't take it down, but private equity could.

OjaiM5 said:

A friend of mine has a really nice publication called Peloton (yes the f'ing exercise bike stole the name from him).  It is a high-end bike lifestyle mag. . 

You know that peloton has been a bike term forever, right? I’m not sure your friend gets to,claim ownership. 

I think high end (like TRJ) is the way to survive print. Make it part of the experience, the long form curated content with glorious photography well laid out. Digital can’t compete there. But stuff like Car Craft? Better suited to online. I used to subscribe to Hot Rod and Car Craft years ago, when Hot Rod used to get a new editor every few issues (“Frieburger is back!” “Frieburger is out!” “Frieburger is back!”), but dropped them because I wasn’t getting enough good content to justify killing a stack of trees for 20 minutes of reading every month. 

Keith Tanner said:

I think high end (like TRJ) is the way to survive print. Make it part of the experience, the long form curated content with glorious photography well laid out. Digital can’t compete there. 

Cycle World magazine made that jump last year, going from what had become a run of the mill monthly to an upscale quarterly.  I've been happy with the change - more interesting stories, better photography.

In reply to stuart in mn :

Same here. Motorcyclist has had that format for quite a while tho' and they shut down the print version of the mag. I've got my fingers crossed for Cycle World.

I find it interesting that the majority of the magazines that seem to be affected are the ones that go for a broader audience. The well targeted ones like GRM, CM seem to be doing better than the mainstream ones. Another example seems to be RoadRunner, which is targeted specifically to motorcycle touring.

These threads pop up from time to time.

Short version: Adapt or disappear.

Long version: I think everyone's story will be similiar, along the lines of:

"I used to read car magazines all the time, but gradually tired of how 50% of the pages were ads, and how articles eventually degraded into glowing infomercials for the products used in the article. The nail in the coffin was the arrival of the internet, be they forums or aggregators."

Emissions laws, shifting interests, the now very complex computers that happen to be cars, and the attraction to video over reading, have all spelled the ongoing change beneath our feet. It brings to mind "I, for one, welcome our online overlords", even if we don't really like it.

kb58 said:

These threads pop up from time to time.

Short version: Adapt or disappear.

Long version: I think everyone's story will be similiar, along the lines of:

"I used to read car magazines all the time, but gradually tired of how 50% of the pages were ads, and how articles eventually degraded into glowing infomercials for the products used in the article. The nail in the coffin was the arrival of the internet, be they forums or aggregators."

I have a pretty extensive collection of Hot Rod magazines.  People were writing letters to the editor complaining about too many ads in the 1950s.  So, that's always been a perception.  I don't know what actual percentage they use for ads vs. content these days, but I suspect it really isn't that much different than it was years ago.

I want content. I don't care if it's delivered via physical item or digital. Offer something that is meaty and not watered-down with outside influences. I don't mind advertising at all as long it is relevant to what is in the content.

kb58 said:

These threads pop up from time to time.

Short version: Adapt or disappear.

Long version: I think everyone's story will be similiar, along the lines of:

"I used to read car magazines all the time, but gradually tired of how 50% of the pages were ads, and how articles eventually degraded into glowing infomercials for the products used in the article. The nail in the coffin was the arrival of the internet, be they forums or aggregators."

Emissions laws, shifting interests, the now very complex computers that happen to be cars, and the attraction to video over reading, have all spelled the ongoing change beneath our feet. It brings to mind "I, for one, welcome our online overlords", even if we don't really like it.

Some magazines actually don't have ads. Gun Tests being one of them.

I do admit getting a magazine for 8 bucks and it being 60 percent ads is really annoying

GRM is the only magazine I still get (my kids get a few kids ones), and I still get the Washington Post actual newspaper (because I can't easily look at news when I'm at work, so like to kick back with a real paper). 

OK . here is my inside report , 

One of the editors said he knew it was coming but thought they would do it the "sniper method" , killing one off every now and then , 

They used the "shotgun method" and just got it over , 

Some of these magazines still make a decent profit  , but "money guys"  have another way of looking at profit.....and what is enough....

Not sure where the stock went after the announcement  , but it was better to take one hit than many , and often its considered "cost savings" and the stock goes up !

Ranger50 said:

Typical buy, cut, squeeze, fold scenario prevalent in "investor based" MBA schools of thought when you have zero ideas on growing your brand.

RIP

And we wonder why the Brit mags aren’t folding.  We’re racing to new bottoms 

CrustyRedXpress said:

In other news-the Editor of Jalopnik resigned today, citing interference from the private equity owners that bought it after Gawker folded. 

It's not just print that is having a tough time, it's anybody trying to build a business on automotive content. Much respect to GRM for what they do.

Berk PE.  Right in the corn-hole

In lighter news who here can't wait for the GRM 2019 Challenge issue!?!?!

Interesting.  I've never read any of those magazines (the canceled ones).  I have read Motor Trend, but I wouldn't subscribe to it.

Every time I buy a car magazine I am excited by all the content, but when I sit down to read it, it amounts to maybe 1 article I care about.

Shadeux said:

 I don't mind advertising at all as long it is relevant to what is in the content.

GRM does that to a T. Grab an issue. BMW article? BMW widget company's add is right next to it. They are really good at it.

GRM is the only car rag I subscribe to. I also get Bicycling and Popular Mechanics.

You know, growing up my favorite part of any car magazine, by far, was the letters to the editor.  That’s where you found what the real world thought.  BAT is on to something because it’s just like the letters to the editor except that IT TALKS BACK...in near real time!

Appleseed said:

Shadeux said:

 I don't mind advertising at all as long it is relevant to what is in the content.

GRM does that to a T. Grab an issue. BMW article? BMW widget company's add is right next to it. They are really good at it.

Standard sales technique. "We're doing an article on (car). You sell parts for (car). You should advertise!". Pretty much all the smaller magazines do this. Interestingly, the big ones like R&T/Automobile/C+D never do.

^In fact, letters always accuse the generalist car mags of doing it and the letter writers treat it as the Ultimate Sin whereas a specialty care mags are like "Hey, we're here at advertiser's shop having advertiser's staff put on advertiser's parts that we got for free on our magazine's car" and nobody cares.

Collaboration between car magazines and advertisers has been around since forever - I could show you plenty of Hot Rod articles from the 1950s that involved testing with Edelbrock or Iskendarian or whoever else that was running ads in the magazine.  At various times back then they even had advertisers who worked as paid staff or contributors to the magazine.

stuart in mn said:

Collaboration between car magazines and advertisers has been around since forever - I could show you plenty of Hot Rod articles from the 1950s that involved testing with Edelbrock or Iskendarian or whoever else that was running ads in the magazine.  At various times back then they even had advertisers who worked as paid staff or contributors to the magazine.

Sport Compact Car and Shiv Pathak/Vishnu. Man, those Vishnu products tested well in the magazine.

I can also say that GRM is the only print magazine that I subscribe to.  ...and while the others being cancelled is sad, I also haven't bought one of those in many many years.  

As a youth, MiniTruckin' magazine was the one I waited on every month to hit the mailbox.  In pre-internet days, it was a lifeline to this big scene of possibilities and shows and features that a midwestern kid could only dream about being a part of watching scenes develop.  While that trend faded, MiniTruckin' was one of the "niche" sub-publications that got the ax in a prior cull about 5 years ago.  It's not much of a surprise it's big brother Truckin' followed suit in this batch.   

That said, I find the existence and postured thriving of GRM somewhat fascinating in contrast to those mass market publications.  The fact that we're here on a GRM forum, and the powers at be embrace it, almost seems counterintuitive to the bean counters that ran the other publications.  The forum becomes less a threat to the eyeballs that would otherwise be "competition" for the magazine, and the editors get direct insight into the builds, the discussions, and the responses to their work on the print side.  Even my last two renewals to subscribe to GRM were results of posts here on the forum informing us about the Black Friday deal, or two for one deal with Classic Motorsports in the past, etc.  

I also only subscribe to GRM these days and only because of subscription deals posted here. I started picking up the mag in supermarkets back in maybe the late 80's? when it was made on newspaper stock or something.  I remember it having really cheap paper and only coming out a few times a year but it was interesting. Was a subscriber on and off over the years.

I subscribed to probably 20 monthly niche car & motorcycle mags a month before the internet. I'd rotate around and let one magazine lapse while subscribing to a new one or another I hadn't gotten in a while. I'd read them over morning coffee or late evenings. Those time periods got taken away with the advent of the web. The mags started piling up every month while I was checking out the "new" internet. So I started letting more and more subscriptions run out without buying new ones. Once car forums got going I let all the subscriptions die off. Started back with GRM a couple years ago only because of deals I saw here on the forum.