Current State of Print Media

I was just reading that Hemming Group is killing off their Muscle Machines magazine as of the March '25 issue.
Now just read Motor Trend/ Hot Rod SOLD to Hearst Group, publishers of Car and Driver, Road & Track and many newspapers! Crazy time to be a magazine fan....

 

Up until my partial retirement in Jan 2022, and full retirement a couple months ago, I've been the production artist at an agricultural magazine publisher.
Ag is pretty much the last bastion of print, but even that has seen revenues drop over the past few years.
It won't be much longer before print disappears completely. People are getting their content online now. Even us old coot that like something to read while doing the necessaries

 

Just take your smart phone in the shitah...

 

It'll be around for a very long time, just much smaller than it used to be. Vinyl records are making a comeback, you know

 

It might. But having an insiders view of the costs to print and mail, along with declining advertising brings prints future into doubt. The cost increases in paper alone, Holy cow.
I'll put it this way....i would not invest in print. And I'm glad I was able to retire....without being retired involuntarily!

 

This weekend the last issue of Hemming’s Classic Car magazine arrived and seemed like the end of an era. It is just another casualty of magazine publication and I suppose changing tastes. It really is hard to remember the titles of all the magazines who have stopped publishing and therefore did not honor the subscriptions that were paid up. Aside from the financial loss, I miss the enjoyment of getting a new issue in the mail with the prospect of a interesting car article or detailed historical article about the design of some icon of automotive history. In recent years a major publisher of the majority of car enthusiast magazines ceased their operations and devoted the corporate resources to video creating numerous shows on a dedicated cable channel. Video was the wave of the future! Then after 13 years they pulled the plug on that too. It is not hard to understand how interest in cars has diminished when the exposure to different aspects is erased.

To me viewing a screen it is just not the same as holding a magazine. The pre-computer publications from the last 150 years, which documented everything from travel and cooking to current news and the latest cars, will probably deteriorate to dust in time and the experience of receiving a new issue will be as remote as history.

Life is change and inevitable, knowing that does not make it easier to accept.

 

this end of my collection still gets the most use...even though this is only about 1/10 of the collection of this title.

So, while it's a loss for them to go away, we still have what we seem to be most interested in?

 

In the last few years I have been reading through my magazine collection which dates back to ‘49. Some of them are quite familiar as I read and reread them back in the day. And although they are kind of like seeing old friends, it is not the same as getting a new issue in the mail with new content. The prospect of a young wannabe gear head walking by a magazine rack in the store and being attracted to something cool on the cover is gone.

 

Guess I'll have to invest in a "laptop" to keep in the bathroom. Thank God for "wi-fi".........


The good side of this is that we can download tech articles easily and save them in "folders" on our computers for quick reference and tech info. I still have a LOT of old magazines if I want to reminisce on occasion.

 

That's not a good look. Your wife and family will be immediately suspicious.......

 

The loss of print magazines sucks. I see the reasons why, but that doesn't make it ok. I'm glad I was able to buy or subscribe to many of them over the years. I can only reminisce on the number of car pictures from magazines that adorned my bedroom and shop walls. Try that with an ipad.

 

I love Muscle Machines, hate to see it go. Now the last magazine I subscribe to is Mopar Collectors Guide. I hope it survives.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DD5sWHEvKcl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

Hop Up is taking orders for Hop Up Annual #18. Free shipping until the middle of Jan. Ships early Feb. Also ordered Rod & Style #3 yesterday, shipped today. Just talking about it don't cut it, get behind these guys with your money.