I'm surprised nobody else has started a thread about this. CKD and OSR are making a comeback. They've been posting on their social media for a month about relaunching, and were at GNRS. They were bought in the bankruptcy auction from Murpho's Publishing by someone named Elrod, and I know Matthew from Rod & Style is involved with them. They announced a "teaser issue" is available, and are doing it coffee book style like Hop Up, Rodder's Journal etc.. I ordered a copy and should have it by the end of the week. Autobooks Aerobooks has it, and some other retailers are supposed to soon. https://www.autobooks-aerobooks.com/product/car-kulture-deluxe-ol-skool-rodz/ They're unaffiliated with the previous owners, so they can't honor old subscriptions, and aren't taking subscriptions right now. It sounds like it's going to be a pre-order type deal like Hop Up? Hoping maybe they're going to be quarterly?? Doubt a monthly thing would ever come back... I'm looking forward to getting my copy, so we will see what the content is like. Hoping it's a little better than the ugly **** Murpho's was publishing. I also hope somebody there knows how to string a sentence together. I felt like I was having a stroke trying to read some of Murpho's articles.
Can’t imagine why someone would want to start with a name that has a bad reputation, and then work to change it? Why not just launch a new magazine from scratch, without all the baggage weighing you down?
I'd imagine they got the distribution list from Murpho's, and they got the social media accounts. Boom! instant access to 100K potential customers. Way easier than starting from scratch
Never got paid when they stopped print lost money on that one so no on being a subscriber but may buy a copy on the stand if it's offered.
Yes ElRod and Skratch are the new owners, Matthew is the new editor. I picked up a copy of the teaser issue at GNRS. It's very nice quality printing, more in line with what the Hop UP issues have become and Wheel Hub when it comes to print and paper quality. I'll be submitting articles again, although in the past magazine articles have never really paid enough to cover time and expenses, I'm just a glutton for punishment. I'm happy to have more print than less.
Hopefully it will be more car and tech focused, and a lot less T&A. JMO I like mags for the cars and trucks, to see them with cool backdrops, not some scantily clad woman obstructing the view. It's why I stopped buying myself. Yeah yeah I know I might not hold the popular opinion, but it's just my own.
...I hope they do well and improve those ***les, waiting for some feedback...I like hot rod magazines.
Mebbe this time around there'll be fewer van tilt columns and air ride setups lol. Seemed last few years they loosened requirements to be in mag. Many features were a set of wheels and a gloss clear coat away from street rodder magazine
I think the last magazine of any kind that I bought was back in 1973 About the same year time frame early '70s , I thing the best 2 magazine/books I ever bought that I read cover to cover and backwards at least 10 times each were How to Hot Rod a Smallblock Chevy and How to Hot Rod the Big Block Chevy
Buddy on the West coast hooked me up with a pretty decent collection of vintage hot rod magazine and car craft plus a bunch of other ***les from the early 50s-63. Those are honestly my favorites lol. At some point he's supposed to hook me up with a full set of honk! Magazines lol
I actually got my copy today. I give it a 5/10. It was well bound, has nice thick paper, and I generally liked the content. Three photos of girls, no tattoos or rebar. One tech article by Rick from Noble Speed. It's a double magazine, CKD on the front, and OSR on the back (or vice versa?). My criticism of the writing/editing still stands; there were various grammatical errors, some layout mistakes, and one story that seemed to be lacking some info. Maybe this stuff doesn't bother some people, but it bothers me. Also, the shipping cost as much as the magazine which was a bit of a bummer. Hopefully they get some distribution figured out by the next issue, and they can bring that down a bit. A few more pages couldn't hurt either. But this is the "teaser" issue, so who knows? I am a big print supporter, so I will be picking up the next issue. Hopefully they see this and take my criticisms positively. Photos below, I won't spoil the whole thing. Here's a few highlights.
I'll buy it, and support it, and overlook stuff that I don't care for. Went to my local Books a Million tonight and walked around the whole store. To a guy like me that started buying little books with my own money when I was 9, and who still has every one of them, seeing a modern bookstore is painful. I expect to see the doors locked any day. So Hell Yeah, I'll support this mag
You have no clue how happy I am that both magazines are returning. I have a sizable stack of them from the last go round. I will definitely be buying a copy or two ( or three).
Trouble is that they don't get a lot of money out of the ones that they send out through distributors. The distributors make the profit off those and the store gets a small percentage. I ordered one but as I don't spend a hundred dollars a month on magaznes at the news stand anymore because they no longer exist it doesn't dig very deep in my reading stuff kitty.
Yep, and the distributors run the distribution and placement in stores much like a mob business. F YOU, PAY ME. By far the best way to keep a print publication profitable today is to direct mail them to customers. Unfortunately, shipping is expensive today. Recently while shipping my calendars I was blown away that it cost on average $9ish to ship the calendars. Two calendars wouldn't up the shipping price, but 4 would weigh enough that it would. Shipping these "magazines" (really soft cover books) will be expensive, but if we the end users want them, we will have to pay it, because magazine rack space is shrinking and getting more expensive at the same time.
In defense of print mags, many get better with each issue. The basic premise grows in direction. As long as regular publications occur on time, I tend to purchase and support. I am sad over what has happened to a once vibrant industry.
The Jalopy Journal
