Do you find Rod & Custom Magazine Lacking ??

I just hate that they bought Hop Up. It was my dream to do so and get it back up and running. A day late and a dollar short I guess....

In regards to their content, if they have to put ads in to survive in a time like this then so be it. I'd rather see some R&C then none at all. It's a tough time out there in the publishing industry and what ever they can do to keep it going I'm cool with.

Now do I think they should have put the Dal Porto roadster as the main cover car in stead of that mess of a merc they did? Sure I do but I'm just happy they thought enough to put the roadster in this issue!

 

I highly doubt that. Where did you hear that?

 

I think the layout and design are better than they've ever been. The issues may be thin, but what's there is good - that's most important to me. The HAMB is fine, but I enjoy sitting on the couch reading a magazine - I work on a computer all day, so it's nice to have a break.

Besides, what the fuck do you want for $8.50/year (R&C combined with SRM for $17)?

 

on occasion they have some nice articles and the subscription is so damn cheap. its worth it just for the HF coupons. there is no way im gonna pay full price for crappy chinese shit.

 

Agree.

You have to get the portable version of the magazine, then you can read it anywhere. I'm not going to read a magazine with my phone.

 

it's hard not to be lacking with only about 20 pages to fill. pretty thin little rag now, for what, $6.99? circling the drain, too bad.

 

I worked for McMullen Argus/KIII/Primedia/Source Interlink/whatever they are called this week, at an O/T magazine that is no longer in publication. I can tell you for a fact that there is such a thing as "ad/edit ratio" that is a formula, stating that for X pages of advertising, there will be X pages of editorial (features, Tech, event coverage/ etc) Of course, the magazine I worked for, as the ads slowly disappeared, the ad/edit ratio wasn't too easy to attain...a good shirt sleeve way of judging a magazine's health is to look at the page just before the back inside cover... the Advertiser's Index, and compare it with an issue 6 months, a year, 2 years ago....a LOT less advertisers?

RUH-ROH...

I could see that handwriting on the wall, and "defected" over to the competitior's magazine. Sure enough, within about 1 year, the magazine I left ceased publication. As soon as the Corporate Bean Counters realize that it's taking 10 beans to put the magazine out, salaries, travel,(used to be) film and developing costs, printing, binding, distribution, etc, and only 9 beans are coming back, it's over.

 

I subscribe but, I'm on the fence on renewing my subscription. It's very thin and lots of ads. I've been enjoying their Miller Welder series articles.
May be the need a project with input from the HAMB and we can see the process in the magazine

 

In the new issue it said "our soon to be sister publication HOP UP" in the first sentence of the Dal Porto roadster article. I could be completely wrong but that's how I took it.

 

I've been reading it since "the Little Pages". It's the worse I've ever seen it. I'm not renewing my 'script.

 

I still like R&C, has always been a magazine I looked forward to getting since the late 50's. Still have most all issues, some are always better than others.
It does seem pretty thin lately tho, hopin it comes back around.
...at least we have Hot Rod Deluxe now, it's always great.

 

If Rod & Custom really wanted to keep their readers happy, why do they charge more for renewals than first-time subscriptions?
Does anybody know how to get around this? (Other than fake names at the same address?)

 

Buzzzz-click.....

Whatever, I like my magazines.

Oh, and T-man, where do I send the check?

 

I had a discussion about both Street Rodder and Rod & Custom with one of the publisher's upper staff at the Hot Rod and Restoration trade show in Indy several months ago.

I described R&C as "weak". He asked me what I meant by that. So I told him it was mostly about the endless advertisements posing as tech articles and my general dissatisfaction with their real tech articles. Mostly (but not always) Kev Elliott bolting something an advertiser sells in the magazine on to one of his personal projects.

The suit told me they don't get quality tech articles from the reader base. He challenged me to document something I am doing and send it in. I'm actually working on an article that I think folks will find interesting. But I must admit it isn't as easy as it looks. Hopefully it will be ready for ink before the magazine folds.

 

Beats me. I like the cars they do cover, so I buy it. A good percentage of magazine tech articles have always been disguised ads.

But the general trend for all magazines is downward, I don't know how many of you guys mess with trains too but I was almost shocked to get a Model Railroader that was back down to under 100 pages last month, it hasn't been that thin since the '70s. The guys who used to have as many as 4 pages of ads have cut back to one. I pay less attention to the ads in the car mags, but I assume it's the same thing.

It could just be a general conservative trend by advertisers because the economy is weak and no one's sure where things are going, and if things improve they'll come back, but I think the weakest magazines will get pushed out of the market and replaced by what you can find on the internet -

 

It's not just R & C, or other car mags, its all of them, my OT mags (NRA, Flying, etc.) also are getting smaller with less content and more ads.
I would much rather read a magazine, then view it online (as some have suggested). I don't have a computer with me every where I go, and a phone or even an Ipad are to small.

 

Exactly! Right back to the beginning. Grabbed a random issue of RnC from '54. 4 page ad-icle for an oil filter. 4 pages out of something like 60 pages? That's ONE ad! Of course there are many more throughout the rest of the issue. Bitchin' issue(?) OF COURSE!

Okay, THAT is all I'm going to say on this....probably not....

 

Yep but I had prevously brought up street rodder catalog in reference to the number of ads versus any real substance as in well written tech or pics of anything that did not cost half a mill dollars and I got my ass chewed. A lot of cars that make the mag or not my kind of cars. So I went back to R & C then theres just not a lot there face it is becoming a paperless world. The bad thing about it is this lap top burns my legs in the out house. I would suspect that someone smart will buy this name when they go out and use the name to start a new website. Oh no there is one that already disscuses rod and customs and has great tech and builds !! The good ol H.A.M.B.

 

I just subscribed... I think its lacking a little, but for $1.50 an issue or whatever the subscription comes out to, I think its decent. I picked one up and wanted to follow the modified build they are doing. Thats a big part of why I subscribed. The HAMB really fulfills what magazines used to do for me. I wish I had a TRJ subscription though.

 

I dropped it last year for the Rodder's Journal mag.

 

No shit... I hadn't gotten that far into the articles yet. Interesting. I don't know why they would need to buy Hop Up. The new annual was tribute enough to the fallen rag. They have nearly untouchable distribution so it's not like they have anything to gain there. On the other hand it's cool that it will live on, and an entity as large as SourceInterlink would certainly have the capital to carry on. Maybe Aaron or Rob can chime in there.

 

Adverts disguised as tech articles aren't new, or unique to any one rag. I've even seen them reprinted in their entirety in different mags within the same year. Most are prepared and submitted by the guys who sell the parts, me thinks. Why don't more readers submit them? Gary

 

Yeah definitely glad we might have the chance to see another issue. Kinda wish it was kept DIY/Punk Rock style with an owner that puts what he thinks is cool in there but if the R&C Little Pages were any indication I think it might be kinda cool. If I were running R&C I would ditch the little pages title and throw that content into Hop Up. That one little issue had a lot of great cars and info. It's like Hot Rod Deluxe, that kind of clout in the industry and their access to old images really makes for a better magazine then someone like me would be able to do so I'm glad that at least people that know what's up are going to run it. However this I guess this is all speculation until we hear concrete word of it's true.

 

Reading the editorial it sounded to me like things aren t going so good for them and they are considering being an ronline only magazine, whatever that means.

 

I've been disappointed in R&C for awhile now and probably won't renew when it comes up next year.

 

I enjoy R&C but it does have alot of ads. Does anyone else get theirs in the mail and it is ripped and all crumpled up? Maybe it is just my luck but that is why I don't subscribe to TRJ.

 

I have been meaning to e mail Rob for a while now, so this may suffice... Probably still will though. My biggest complaint with R&C the last year or two is wwwwaaaayyyy too much Custom... Sorry custom guys, but those things bore me to tears. The last year or so you open the mag and there it is, more custom stuff. I MUCH prefered the old way of doing things where the Hot Rod side of thing was the more prominent.
The other end of things is definitely the adverts disguised as articles, but that has been prominent if not from the begining, but certainly the last twenty years or so since this hobby really became an industry.
Now, those two bitches aside, I have never and will never miss a copy of the mag. My collection of everything goes back to volume 1 number 1, and the automotive magazine in general has been a major part of my life, all of my life. That said, I would never want to see paper production cease. I'm just not a dork enough to hold some gay assed little electronic device to do my reading. I love the act of holding the paper in hands, turning the pages, the smell of older mags, and the permenace of paper. I do believe that the e reader type thingie will be another flash in the pan techy kinda thing that won't be around too long. It's just too damn silly. Obvoiusly, I type this on my computer on a web sight, (which three years ago would have been inconcievable to me) but the H.A.M.B. being interactive is quite different than print, and both have a place in my heart.

As far as bitching about too many ads, How do you know what is out there for your use with out them? I never understood that, because I have always bought magazines as much for the ads as content. Seems people always ask about how to do this particular thing, throw out a complicated set of ideas, and I can point and say did you know this is available? I am definitely a fabricater, but damn if someone has taken the time to engineer something I can use without having to charge for custom work, more power to them.
Just my ramblings...

 

I really want them to do well..In years past,I bought every issue,now not so much for any car mag,not just R&C.Subs don't work in my neighborhood,too many missing issues.
I know it's a changing world,and the HAMB is 1000% more useful to me,but I want the good mags to thrive. Paper IS traditional,y'know.