Event Coverage Hot Rod Magazine going quarterly?

I could have said A magazine instead of one magazine. It wasn't a quantity.

 

Seems like Hemmings has stayed with print. Looks like they may be the only one left in a few years.

 

We would never know, but I would be curious about the age distribution of Hemmings subscribers vs HRM.

 

If Hot Rod switches to a quarterly format, it may be time to take another look. As several guys have said, I've wasted more for less a few times already.

Hot rod was never really 'my' magazine. I've always been more of a 'custom' guy, I had a continuous R&C subscription starting in '62 and kept it until the (first) end. The flop over to HR to fulfill the balance was allowed to run out. I re-upped when R&C reappeared, same result except I kept HR a bit longer this time. I've had several beefs with HR (actually, Peterson publishing overall) with their GM centric content, those of us who favor Ford or Mopar had pretty slim pickins, and too many of their 'how to' articles were little more than puff pieces for their advertisers' products (Pat Ganahl's editing excluded, which is why he didn't last long). By the time I dropped it for the last time, HR had become 'Camaro Monthly' IMO.

I then switched to Super Ford magazine. All Ford, all the time. Well, I had my Ford content but missed the cross-pollination because of the single marque focus. But this morphed into MUSTANG and Fords (and that's how it appeared on the cover) and as I didn't own a 5.0 Mustang, not much useful content here either. They still exist as an online entity.

Next stop was Auto Restorer magazine. No glossy paper here, in fact there weren't even any color pics until later. One plus was they didn't accept any advertising so the product reviews were honest, but the hot rod/custom content was low (although to their credit they did do a start-to-finish top chop on a '48 Ford coupe). But typical how-tos such as rebuilding a '38 LaSalle starter solenoid weren't very useful for me and when they started featuring late '70s/early '80 vehicles they lost me... They went defunct in 2020.

My only current magazine sub (lifetime) is The Rodders Journal, assuming he's still publishing (and Ryan says he is). I like this mag, but it has one glaring omission; no how-to coverage. That addition would make it near-perfect, but I suspect that advertisers' toes getting trod on will prevent that, much the same as it did at HR and R&C.

That's something I'd hate to see happen. Like it or not, hot rodding has always been driven by the innovators and imaginations of gifted builders. I'm not convinced that even within the self-imposed straightjacket of 'traditional' that these qualities can't flourish, but if the 'purity police' get their way you may see a sterility set in. We already have that to a degree, but there's still enough 'outlaws' around to keep things fresh. Lose that, and you may see a snobbish Pebble Beach type mentality set in with rich guys pursuing ever-shrinking pools of vintage parts.

Of course, given how the ICE is in the crosshairs of the pollution crowd it may all prove to be moot in the end...

 

If you have read through all of this, it's about changing demographics. The marketplace follows younger people. Those of us that have read magazines for many decades don't appear to be the target audience anymore. Change is inevitable.

 

If the reader demographic is mostly past retirement age, and the magazine production crew is still working age, kind of makes it so there's probably not going to be any way for it to continue.

 

Also makes it difficult to continue when half of the remaining demographic stops buying it because it isn’t 100% what they want to see.

 

When the content goes off topic again and it will because things only stay the same for so long, this will all be a moot point then.

 

Wonder if the new quarterly format will be thicker... kinda like the old monthly but 3 times more $$$

 

I let my car mag subscriptions expire decades ago. The boxes of mags I had on hand, I could not give them away. Altho I do miss stuff by Leroi Tex Smith years ago

 

To be fair, Hot Rod has always had the quandary of trying to cover all aspects of the hobby in order to satisfy all their readers. In the 1950s they were doing new car reviews, I have one issue where they did a comparison of pickup trucks and how well they could climb the steepest street in L.A. A typical issue in the 1960s would have hot rods, customs, muscle cars, coverage of NASCAR, NHRA, and Bonneville. There would be go carts, boats, and all kinds of things, all of this in a single issue.

 

So I just went through this whole thread and didn't see one mention os Car Kulture Deluxe or Ol' Skool Rodz. Aren't they dead or at least in hospice?

 

^^ gone

 

That's a whole different thread.....

 

Yes, but relavent to the whole demise of hardcopy discussion....

 

Yeah, it's relevant.

Not quite the same as a name that's been around since the beginning, though...

 

I hear you -I have them all since January '48

 

Just got this in my email inbox today - looks like it's for current subscribers since it mentions renewals?
Not a bad deal if you can use it, and you could be a good buddy to a good buddy...

 

Instead of getting 12 issues, you’re getting a whopping 4 issues!!!! Wow what a helluva deal people!!!!! (middle finger comes in now)

 

Now, it’s looking like Old Skool Rods is done

 

If that's true, they should let their subscribers know!

 

they had a HUGE catalog. bigger than most towns' phone books!

 

'sides that, it's really hard to make notes in the margins.

 

Wow, what a great idea, and just in time for Christmas!! Before you renew, one of you needs to PM me for my mailing address, then you buy your subscription and send me the gift subscription !! I'll be so surprised .

 

Got an issue yesterday, milk truck doing launch wheelie.

 

London Drugs and Chapters both carry it out here. Must not be enough people buying in in Sherwood Park.

 

When Chapters here closed and the new Indigo opened, the magazine selection was much poorer than it used to be.

I haven't checked London Drugs here as it's out of my way. Good tip, thanks.

St. Albert Chapters always had a great magazine selection, but it's been a while since I frequented it.

 

I'll be interested to see the new format. I have every issue since Jan '48 but begrudgingly let my subscription lapse a little while ago. Half the content didn't interest me, the font had gotten so small I struggled to read it even with reading glasses, and the font colors and background combinations were often unreadable. I'll hope for something like Rodders Journal but won't be surprised when it isn't.

 

I still mostly like the mag but that miniscule font is terrible, particularlyi f it is not black ink on a white background.

 

If anybody from Hot Rod is reading this, listen to being what is said if you want a chance of us old timers to keep subscribing. MAKE THE FONT LARGER AND MAKE THE TEXT CONTRAST WITH THE BACKGROUND.