Event Coverage Hot Rod Magazine going quarterly?

When doing ads in HOT ROD for my clients, they wanted a bunch of copy and photos in those ads. But, they didn't want to pay for enough ad space to contain the copy and photos....thus smaller type face! FYI a third of a page B&W ad in HOT ROD in the early 70's was $995. Circulation was in the mid 600,000 range.

 

I can see that, but this isn't ads it's copy. I tend to skip the articles with white type on black backgrounds, let alone the pumpkin colored pages. That has to be more expensive anyway and not attractive.

 

Artsy-Fartsy youths using techniques 'cause they can.

 

Some of my favorite magazines have fallen by the wayside over the last ten years or so. The late, great MAD Magazine didn't even have advertising, and except for a few run-ins with the FBI (remember their three dollar bill?), did very well on its own merits.

 

Yeah, the print on pics *is* hard to read, need lots of bright light that doesn't reflect off the page. & the contrast is usually bad, making it harder to read. Don't want artsy-mag, want good, clear, correct info. Guess not that many people actually... read. Almost as bad, was the "mag-thickener" pages(80's on for awhile???) that looked like (poorly)recycled newspaper/brown-grocery-sacks. Read as easy as a day-old soaking wet newspaper. I know the reason(at least stated/claimed), but damn, guys... ;( .
& *if* they enlarge the type, the # of pages won't increase, so goodbye content. I was kinda figuring on HR going the way of CC, PHR & a few others as I saw the mag get "paper-thin"(no pun intended). At least they don't have the "editor" that single handidly(my opinion)destroyed RA & eventually SR. Who caused me to unsubscribe to both due to the content errors & crap features. That's literally worse than nothing.
I guess I'll give them some slack, see iffen the qtrly will be worth it & pan out. The best qrtlys I've ever seen, were the ones from R&C in ~'71. Great content. 4(?) of them, iirc? The R&C #1->#12 were also fairly good. When mixed w/other mags later, wasn't good. Also, HR put out some decent yearlies, but I only have ~ 6-8 of them, as I didn't like most of the content then, & still don't. I've had to buy replacement copies for both mentioned mags, as I wore them out - literally. Worst case - "another one bites the dust...". <shrug> .
Marcus...

 

I was in a Meijers store in Michigan yesterday, and was happy to see they actually still have a decent car magazine section, including Hot Rod.

 

^^^you really gotta look for the car mags...

 

This is sad. If it were a war report, they would be describing how they're retreating from the front lines, consolidating resources, and giving up positions. Now enter the marketing people, "we're thrilled to announce" and "charging ahead." That's cute.

 

I don’t care about the font size in advertising. I want to be able to read the articles. And as for the $995 price you mentioned, I find that hard to believe. That figure is about two mortgage payments on my parents home back then.

 

in the early '60's an ad about the size of a business card but smaller,in the back pages, was $100

 

my only experience as an advertiser was in the mid 1990s. The smallest ads in a hobby magazine were $360 for a year / 6 issues.

 

Well at least I got my pic in Hot Rod before it goes away. I am one of the "Faces of Bonneville" in the January 2024 issue.

 

I think Denis4X4 knows what the ads cost back in the day, since he was there.

 

Hot Rod is fighting a losing battle on two separate fronts - the customer base for their product (us) is dwindling. As deeply as we love cars and all things about cars, the youth coming up behind us has nowhere near our interest in the cars we build and buy. As time passes the situation only gets worse.

Second, and just as deadly especially when coupled with the above is the fact that the youth coming up behind us has no desire for print magazines and media. They are a digital based generation. Take the upcoming generations with no interest in Hot Rods content, coupled with them having no interest in the way Hot Rod distributes their content (in print), and the end of HRM as we know it is about guaranteed, the only question is when it actually happens. As sad as that is to all of us, it's the brutal truth. As Dylan sang,"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows".

As far as Motor Trend, it's about the sorriest damned excuse for a car magazine out there. All I see from them is the latest "MIDSIZE SUV SHOOTOUT !!!!!!!!" You couldn't give me that crap magazine for free.

 

I disagree, you may be partially right but I still have young guys that are very grateful for the print magazines that I pass on to them. They are also the same ones that appreciate pre 48 Hot Rods but cannot afford them! IMOP it is our responsibility is to help make them affordable for them. They will drive and appreciate early Hot Rods if we help make it happen! We are, and always have been the 1% ers of the car world!

 

Finally see a write up on their FB page about their demise. Shame, it was a good magazine. However, they continued to take in money for subscriptions befor shutting down their web site. That’s wrong. They at least owe an explanation or better offer up refunds for people that either renewed their subscriptions or new subscribers.

 

The info you have posted here referring to their demise is misleading and appears to be totally wrong! Where you are getting your information from. Their Facebook site is up as well as their website. They are part of Motortrend.com. They are offering subscriptions for their QUARTERLY magazine, that means it will be coming our 4 times a year. They have notified all of us subscribers as to that fact.

 

Honestly I think their issue was misreading customers lol. Lost track of how many people I've heard say they quit buying hrm after the project x fiasco lol. I personally just dwindled in interest for hrm. Like it seemed with every issue they've put out there's less of interest to me. Like I don't even flip through them at the store anymore

 

I had a complete page in “What Powers Bonneville” in January 2013 from the 2012 October meet. Many thanks to Friberger….

 

The latest development in the Hot Rod / Motor Trend saga...I had a subscription to Hot Rod, and got that notification when it was announced the magazine was going quarterly that they were giving me a free year of Motortrend+ starting in January. Well, today I got an email letting me know the subscription to Motortrend+ is going away as of March 25 and they're moving their content to Discovery Plus. However, it's not clear if this will just be the video content for Roadkill, Hot Rod Garage, etc. or if it also includes access to back issues of the magazine.

 

I gave up on printed magazines, when it became obvious
that greedy advertisers were running the show.

 

Is Hotrod still owned by that outfit, that went in debt to the tune of 1 billion dollars,
to buy every car mag you could think of, then went bankrupt twice ?
50+ magazine titles have turned into, how many now, five ?

 

I knew something was coming. The Motortrend+ Instagram page where they would post the upcoming video schedule monthly disappeared recently.

After I saw your post I checked my email, and saw the same. Regarding magazine access, the email I received said the following:

 

Source Interlink? They've become Motor Trend Group, and Discovery Communications has been a majority shareholder since 2017 and is in a joint venture on the video side. So it's not entirely the same, if that's what you're referring to.

 

I sent in to get my subscription changed to the quarterly. Then I tried to get the year of free streaming thing set up, no luck so far.

thanks for the update

 

Having the entire back catalogue of hot rod and other titles at my fingertips is really cool and easy to reference. I won't be getting rid of my physical magazine collection of the titles I do have, though.

 

^^ there only was notification page on front of the 1/24 issue, was 75th Anniversary of Bonneville on cover

 

^^^ part of HR going quarterly was offer of free one year subscription to online MotorTrend +. got notice today that MotorTrend + will end in March. content will be avaiable on Discovery +. no offer to get Discovery + instead of MotorTrend + as part of the HR quarterly switch. I have not of anyone get the new HR yet.

 

I haven't even tried to log on since they stopped the print. I try not to use electronic devices in the :library: (bathroom)