The Demise of Automotive print media

The first Automotive magazine to go on line only was Autoweek on November 4, 2019. Next in line Car Craft, Sports Car and now Hot Rod is a quarterly coffee table picture book.  What is happening? Are advertisers and subscribers that hard to find? Am I that hard core that I skip the pretty pictures and dive right into the tech sections? I know that I don't fit that advertising sweet spot of 18 to 34 year olds. Ahem, by 30 plus years. But it dosen't mean that I do not buy performance parts, tires, wheels etc. At least now I have the money to do so compared to 30 years ago. Some things are better in print rather than watching a utube video. Remember some things, not everything. I think that utube is great. Where else could I go to find out how to remove the front bumper from a Vauxhall Astra? So long as you don't mind that the entire dialog is in  another language.  How about releasing the electric parking brakes from a 2019 Ford F150?  As far as I'm concerned, the latest and greatest tool in the box, is a smartphone and a utube video. However if you are looking for minimum valve clearance, bore specs or cam degrees. The print option may be better. Lets just say thank the creator for GRM and Classic Motorsports for continuing to support both types of media.  Now I'm done with my rant.

I dunno... I got a genuine Jegs catalog in the mail yesterday. Had already leafed through it prior to getting an email about said mailing.

I get Sick the Mag which is holy moly and not cheap.

I believe the print magazines have to be direct to consumer mostly and in an elevated print manufacturing style to make it. The days of tabloid style: stapled, poorly assembled, and just generally rushed, are history for the prices being charged. 

It's not just automotive print media, it's all print media that's taken a hit. Special-interest print media is vanishing. Even magazines such as Popular Science aren't around in physical form anymore. You may even note that there aren't any US-based motorcycle magazines in print, either (though there's the delightfully denim-flavored Motorcycle Mojo available). 

We may not have many of the legacy magazines such as Autoweek and Automobile -- that last one is particularly sad, as I always enjoyed reading Cumberford's editorials in print -- but we do still have Motor Trend and Car & Driver. 

You know what else we have? It's a stellar example of niche publishing and special-interest media and is still around in print:

Grassroots Motorsports. 

Now, go renew your subscription. Let's keep it alive.

I love a physical magazine for when I am pooping.  I miss Car Craft.

In reply to brandonsmash :

Actually there is still at least one US based motorcycle magazine in print (RoadRunner). Like GRM, published by a small family owned business and not a big conglomerate. Yes, I'm a subscriber much like I subscribe to GRM and CM. 

Given I ended my subscription to R&T, C&D, and autoweek over a decade ago, I would not have even known had someone not posted this.  They had declined so much in writing in content that I could not bear reading them, even when I could get a subscription for less than $10.  Autoweek had become Watches of the rich car people every other week by then.  Their racing coverage was embarrassing.

And the two & magazines- they had become bad comparison magazines- both with a rather obvious agenda against US makers, and for BMW.  When cars like the Vette and Mustang beat their competitors they 1) moved them to a much, much higher price bracket to compare to and 2) always found some minor thing to make them finish last in comparisons.  I remember them claiming that the Focus was so very dangerous because it was mostly the previous generation chassis so that was the reason the superior performance was dismissed.

I was bummed when another sports car magazine went digital, but I canceled that magazine as soon as it did that.  When I called to cancel, the writer/publisher answered- he and I had known each other for a long time via the Alfa club.  He mentioned that it was very important to keep the stories alive of the old cars, and I reminded him that he needed to make sure it was in a form that the consumers wanted to read.

The ads they put in were just so silly, too.  And when you compare them with the very applicable ads you see in GRM and CM, it's no surprise they lost advertisers.  Sure, one can sometimes question the ads vs articles about the products in the articles, but at the same time- these items are very important to our hobby.  Better that GRM runs an article about a data acq system and runs it's ad than Autoweek doing articles about watches and their ads.  And it helps when GRM is actually using them and finding some issues.

I miss reading The Chicago Tribune.  

Delivered it daily in junior high - always a subscriber as an adult. Want ads, car ads, even the TV guide was read or checked out.  

New day - we move on.......

In reply to wrenchedexcess (Forum Supporter) :

I think the sweet spot for car advertisers are probably more like 35-55. People a little later in life that likely have the money to buy new cars and parts advertised in the magazines. I'm pretty sure GRM does an annual advertiser package to show demographics and all that. 

I observed it as a spiral.

Subscriptions started to wane. Fewer subscribers = fewer advertisers willing to part with their $. Fewer advertisers = fewer pages. Fewer pages = less content. Less content = fewer subscribers. And down it went.

I subscribed to Autoweek for decades. I let my subscription lapse when the good columnists left/got fired and the watch articles began. Also got R&T for decades back when they actually road tested 'normal' cars. Got tired of nothing but supercars, BMWs and luxury SUV tests. Same with C&D. Motor Trend to me was always an also-ran. I was pretty convinced their content was mostly the result of advertising dollar tit-for-tat. 

I recently picked up (for free) a big collection of Mustang Monthly back issues. What a great magazine! Great tech articles, decent car features and several good editorials. The focus was mostly on 'vintage' Mustangs but if you had one (or wanted one) they were a treasure trove of information. I'd be a subscriber today if they still existed (in print). Digital? I'm just not a guy who reads magazines on a device, sorry.

Thank you for all of the votes of confidence and, yes, we’ve noticed everyone else dropping out, too.

One thing that’s kept us going all these years: put the reader first. 

I, too, dumped AutoWeek years ago when it became WatchWeek. The correlation between auto enthusiasts and watch fans is curious to me. I've never been a watch guy. I went from cheap Casios that I got at Target to smart watches. Spending thousands of dollars on a mechanical watch that doesn't give me notifications or count my steps is a mystery to me. And yet, there is a large group of people who like both, though they tend to be on the higher income side. Matt Farrah is one. Love his podcast, but when he gets going on watches, I skip ahead. In any case, I don't know if it was the watch stuff that killed AutoWeek, but it certainly didn't help from my perspective.

Mechanical watches and manual gearboxes actually have a lot in common, as they are both effectively obsolete but are valued for the experience.

The GRM advertising team is really good at hustling advertisers that match their content in a given issue. Ask me how I know :) It's good for the advertisers, and GRM also makes sure the ad placement in the issue is good. So they're not just looking out for the reader. 

Mopar Action is also on its last issue now.

While part of me resents the fact that Hagerty tacks the cost of their Drivers Club magazine subscription onto their insurance premiums, they do let you opt out, and the mag is great!  Just got my new copy yesterday and got my money's worth within the first few pages, with great short articles by regular contributors Jay Leno, Wayne Carini, and Aaron Robinson.  Robinson's article regarding track closings is absolutely brilliant.  If you have vehicles insured through Hagerty, you know what I mean.

I've had Hagerty insurance for 20 years, but never the Driver's Club. Looking at the perks (other than the magazine), I may have to change that. 

Aw heck, I can drop AAA.

I was going to mention Hagerty's magazine.

The ones I miss are Sports Car International (I still have the first and final edition) and one of the Hemmings ones, Sports and Exotic Car.

The "&'s" as the are called above lost me years ago for many of the same reasons others have posted.  I thought it was almost sadly, ironically funny how biased they were.  No matter what their numbers showed across the board, they'd give the "victory" to a Porsche because of the last thing they scored, the subjective and higher weighted "b-but I just feel better about the Porsche no matter what was previously written" and so on.

 
Unrelated I'm sure, but those issues often contained a glossy multi page advertisement for the very Porsche model that was reviewed.  

Huh, how 'bout that. 
 

edit to add:  my money only goes to GRM these days.  I was an early subscriber to CM when I had a classic of my own, but I still remain a "true believer" and have "sold" many a friend with classic sports cars on the magazine over the years.

I sure get irritated when I subscribe to a magazine and I begin to receive renewal offers in the mail before I even receive my first issue. 

I'm just saying. Fix that E36 M3. 

Reminds me I need to renew my subscription to CM.  There is really nothing else quite like it on this side of the pond for the price.  I keep threatning my wallet with a subscription to Motorsport Magazine but that's a whole nother financial committment (5.50 UK Pounds per month, roughly 85 bucks a year at current exchange rates).  Compared to that CM and GRM subscriptions are a bargain.  Long live GRM!

Coniglio Rampante said:

No matter what their numbers showed across the board, they'd give the "victory" to a Porsche because of the last thing they scored, the subjective and higher weighted "b-but I just feel better about the Porsche no matter what was previously written" and so on.

 
Unrelated I'm sure, but those issues often contained a glossy multi page advertisement for the very Porsche model that was reviewed.  

Huh, how 'bout that. 

Porsche did not advertise much, certainly nothing like GM or BMW, two manufacturers they presumably beat in the comparisons of your recollection.

I still have a bunch of old magazines.  Sept '11 C&D.  The Porsche GT3RS was beaten by a 458 Italia and MP4-12c.  Two manufactures who don't advertise.  No Pcar ads.   Feb '12.  The newest Carrera 911 S beat out a C6 Z06 and a GT-R.  No Pcar ads, just Nissan, Suzuki, and Subaru. 

Regardless, is it really so hard to imagine as a car enthusiast that a car that's objectively 'worse' might be subjectively more desirable and that some manufacturers might just be better than others at producing desirable cars?  I mean, why do people buy Miatas?  My friend preferred my Ferrari 360 to his  (amazing) C6 Z06 w/Z07 package despite the numbers.  Another friend had regular access to a GT-R for about a year (long story).  Great numbers car but his take was "neat, but it's a big pig and not much fun to just drive around in".   

Since I'm sitting in front of a wall of C&D's:  Sept 2006.  Ferrari 430 1st, Porsche 911 Turbo 2nd, C6Z06 3rd.  Car ads: Hyundai 3pg, Toyota 2pg, Acura, Subaru, GMC, Buick, Mazda, Jeep, AMG, Toyota truck, Pontiac 4pg(pour one out), Nissan 2pg, Saturn (pour out another), Mazda, Lexus 2 pg, Chevy, Chevy on-star, Infiniti 2 pg, Chevy (celebrating the C6.R racecar), Cadillac. Phew.

Aug '14.  M4 beat 911.  Car ads:  Acura, Jaguar, Infiniti, VW, Mazda.  The drop-off in OEM advertising from '06 to '14 is shocking.  No budget, no magazine.  I don't know how they stay in business.

As noted above, the motorcycle press is in even worse shape.  Any idiot with a camera is a 'reviewer' now.  It's terrible.  Bikes being 'reviewed' by people barely off their motorcycle training wheels desperate to keep new bike access.  Weirdly, I find the best reviews on a site owned by a giant Internet retailer, RevZilla (CoMoto).  The primary reviewers are accomplished riders and not afraid to be critical because their business model does not require OEM advertising.

Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) said:

I sure get irritated when I subscribe to a magazine and I begin to receive renewal offers in the mail before I even receive my first issue. 

I'm just saying. Fix that E36 M3. 

Man oh man do I wish we could. 

We don't like them either--they cost us money, and they annoy people. 

But that doesn't compare to the volume of calls we get  (angry, angry calls) from people who "only got three renewal notices" and "can't believe you stopped mailing me the magazine when I didn't renew!"

These happen every time we slim down our renewal campaigns, so sadly, they're a necessary evil. Part of me wonders if people are so used to meaningless renewal notices from every magazine, that they don't believe them if you only send a few. 

A few things, as far as watches are concerned, check out an issue of Motorsport from the U.K. it's their primary advertisement. I quit wearing a watch years ago after I fried a few working on fleet vehicles. You can thank Crain publications for the demise of Autoweek, I framed the last issue and one of my favorites was the last page "But wait there's More."  R&T was a favorite until the staff changed. As far as Automobile goes, the magazine was fine. The circulation department was sleazy, several times they tried to con me into a subscription. Hemmings, I suscribe to their Muscle Machines and have every issue from number 1 on.  Considering the size of the last issue, they probably won't be around much longer.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :

Smithsonian magazine was like that for me. I received a "your subscription is expiring!" mailer before the first issue even arrived. I called them and told them to knock it right the eff off. Two months later I received another "your subscription is expiring!" mailer, so by month 3 of my subscription I canceled. 

Tom: 

A year or so ago my subscription to GRM lapsed. I legitimately had no idea; I never received any notices and didn't get any magazines with the "this is your last issue" cover. It was super confusing. Thankfully Marjorie took care of it for me when I wrote in, but genuinely there was no indication my subscription was running out. 

At that point, however, I just re-upped for the next 10 years anyway. 

It's definitely a balancing act between upsetting people with too many notices and upsetting them with not enough. We mail and email renewals, and also affix alerts to the next-to-last and last issues, for a total of 6 notices between all the methods,  but we do still hear from people who legitimately missed every one. Murphy's law, USPS gaps, missing or old email addresses all happen. Best we can do is tread that line carefully and make it right when it doesn't work for someone.

Margie

In reply to brandonsmash :

Motorsport Magazine is in it's 99th year. Classic & Sports Car is on year 42. I also get GRM and CM.

If it is a quality product people will buy it.

Most GRM articles are not anything I am interested in BUT I read it cover to cover. 

I find it informative and it keeps me abreast of the latest wares.

Mostly I read it because it's written by real car people doing real car people things.

Tom Suddard said:

Man oh man do I wish we could. 

We don't like them either--they cost us money, and they annoy people. 

But that doesn't compare to the volume of calls we get  (angry, angry calls) from people who "only got three renewal notices" and "can't believe you stopped mailing me the magazine when I didn't renew!"

These happen every time we slim down our renewal campaigns, so sadly, they're a necessary evil. Part of me wonders if people are so used to meaningless renewal notices from every magazine, that they don't believe them if you only send a few. 

I think GRM has a problem  with Black Friday renewals and adding them to your subscription that ends in a few months , I get the renew letters a month after I subscribed again.

Next Black Friday can you ask if we already have a subscription and maybe the number off the mailing sticker ?

But overall  you guys are doing a great job with a small staff

Cheers