Print is expensive to do, takes up a lot of space to store, is limited in content because of its final size. Electronic media is cheap to do, mostly unlimited space, can store in tiny spaces, content is expansive but quality runs from poor to great. Both require electricity to produce, but only electronic media requires electricity to view it. Print lasts for years if properly stored, but water and fire can destroy it in seconds. Electronic media lasts for years until a power surge destroys it, a file gets corrupted, or the media it’s saved on becomes obsolete, remember floppy discs and tape cassettes? Print can only be altered by new printing added in, by hand or machine. Electronic media can be changed at any time unless it’s formatted to be non changeable. Print can take a long period to search for specific information. Electronic media can usually be searched in milliseconds. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. It appears electronic media is winning the technology battle, whether we like it or not. Just like the old vehicles we like better, print will never fully go away in our lifetimes.
...... and here we all sit, backlit screens illuminating our aging faces, lamenting the rapid decline of print media...... It's fine to keep the flame of nostalgia burning, but be aware, those that fall behind the herd are soon taken by the wolves.
The decline of print media has simplified my life. I no longer have to decide if the magazine I just finished is a keeper or a recyclable. It’s been years since I’ve filled up a storage box with “keepers” and put it upstairs in the shop, never to be seen again. For a while I was cutting out specific articles of interest, putting them in plastic sleeves and into a box - again, never to be seen again. On the other hand, my collection of old magazines and manuals is readily available, organized by years and stored in a cabinet just inside the front door. Hours of education and reading enjoyment at my fingertips. These days, if I were to jump ship and need info on EFI or electronic ignitions or something I just search for it on the internet. Even if I could find it in my print piles it’s probably out of date and the referenced companies have gone under or been swallowed up by the mega brands. I really won’t miss modern print magazines.
There is actually a brand new magazine called One Shot made in Japan and available on Mooneyes Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show this weekend. I just asked if they ship to USA and Europe. I let you know when I got an answer. Maybe it will be available on mooneyes jp soon. Here's a screenshot of the very first issue.
Perhaps, but way too often my questions are answered inaccurately. I'm astounded by the amount of misinformation out there when using 'google search'.
Yeah, but print media is much more handy in "the reading room". I don't fancy dragging my laptop in there!
as old farts we forget that "old cars" to young farts these days are what our parents drove to work every day. a carbureted SBC is like a flathead or 235 Chevy to them. my 49 Chevy I bought in 1976 was as old as an 1996 Impala SS is now. Go to a Goodguys show these days and every other "old car" has an LS motor in it with 500 HP with the AC on. we are like the Model T and A restorers that were plentiful back in my formative years (early 70's). So is print. I didn't get a computer until I was 40. my 5 and 6 year old grand nieces have kid style computers. the times they are a-changing.
Ryan's post on "Popular Science" brought back a flood of personal memories....sitting in Doctor/Dentist office with those to entertain me, or a "Road &Track" or "Popular Mechanics". The sheer irony was I got so bored and tired of waiting on my latest issue of "Hot Rod", I found a ONLINE viewer of the whole January '24 issue! I have collected magas thru the years, just to daydream and stay up on history and changes. As others said, the smell and feel of new/old paper, nothing matched it. I'm honestly kind of disillusioned by it's death knell, even if content is readily available online. I'm the weird one who saw the internet coverage as a preview of the card and events to come in my issues two to three months down, and was fine with that. Now, it's like beating a dead horse. I'll wait for my Hot Rod quarterly, like I am my book sized "Speed and Kulture", as well as a new "Rodders Journal" or "Hope Up". They take up alot of room, and granted, I've never built shit....but I remember so many quotes from Baskerville, Ganahl and Greene...part of my life. I don't mean to stretch this out, and it's probably my ignorance about publishing, but I still feel since Hot Rod, etc. fell under of all things Discover Group....it was bound to be mishandled and poorly packaged. It needed true greasy handed gear heads running it from all sides,like the Wally Parks era.
About 10 years ago I purchased an iPad mini for $10.00 a month I can get data before I picked up an ifone I used to take it to shows to take pictures it’s small and very easily to travel with, great for navigating streets as well as the internet I added the keyboard to use as well as to help protect the screen. change isn’t easy but it’s better than being left behind
I use my computer for a lot of things and find it to be invaluable. However, I still like to read newspapers and auto enthusiast magazines (I subscribe to a select few). But I would say this about auto enthusiast magazines, some have done it to themselves. For example, I have read Road & Track for 60 years, but no more. It used appeal to a certain type of person who liked cars of all types, but especially the sporty types. It had a certain "patina" that exuded tradition, class and the the "soul" of the machine. The magazine layout and style reflected that. An example would be their staff writer Peter Egan, he elegantly esoterically related to what makes a person love cars and restoring old ones.. Towards the end, I only subscribed because of his column. The last ten years or so, they slowly began to cater to the "modern set," lots of flash and trash. I had difficulty telling what was an article vs. an advertisement, they all seemed to run together. Nothing noteworthy presented, I could have just as easily read a sales brochure. The magazine may appeal to others, but not to me. I wonder if there are other people who see it the same way. Also, the older generation grew up with print, and many still at least like it (in addition to on-line). But not only have some magazines changed their character from what it once was, but they seem to want to save paper by using smaller font sizes, and less contrasty type layouts. Small type is difficult to read for older types (especially in low light bathroom conditions). Some magazines have forgotten what they are about, and readership has accordingly declined. This opinion is mine only and not shared by anyone of consequence. dons
I will happily accept change. If none is available, bills work too ... I am not keen on this new "digital currency" though due to me simply not understanding it BUT, if it's all you got to give, I ain't too proud
All I know for sure is I got 2 of my 4 bought and paid for CKD’s. When my HRM sub is done, so am I. If my lifetime TRJ sub ever comes back, I’ll really be tickled. I’ve got 2 long ex supermarket magazine racks in my shop crammed full of all I’ve subscribed to and bought over the years, plus a few boxes in the bottom of my closet, to keep me busy reading and looking, for hopefully, a long time. Print won’t be dead for me until I’ve read all of them at least one more time, especially those wonderful TRJ’s.
Print takes a while. And the people that put it together slow it down. The good ones massage it to best explain and present it to their readers. Lots of you have brung my friend Pat Ganahl into play at that. He had a talent that we all enjoyed -- even if we couldn't put our head on why the things he wrote about were always so interesting. Was it magic? No, it was hard work and talent combined. (I always thought he worked for so many different publications because he was always just a little behind deadlines most of time. I never saw a work of his that was shoddy. He once did a story on a car of mine. He quit the publication but left his notes and pictures. Someone else wrote the story without checking on anything. Pat didn't make notes on the main idea of the story because he could remember what it was all about. The other guy wrote the story on the little items that might slip away -- so the article was not as meanable as it could have been -- something lacking.)
I was reading a preview version of Modern Rodding, and Brian Brennan's column had some interesting information from actual research he had done about the readership ages and more. Turns out his findings were inconsistent with what has been assumed here, and the largest proportion of magazine readers are 25 to 34. See it below.
I had this old poster on the wall, to remind my former bosses, that when they complained about various company policy's, in regards to budgets, or protocol, etc, etc, I would direct their eyes to the poster, and then I would go back to what I was doing.
I guess I'm the wrong person to ask as the last magazine I bought was Hot Rod Deluxe (first 3 issues, some middle and the last one). If I buy magazines they're at swapmeets or antique malls (1960s and older). The internet is a valuable tool to read info here and find parts (new and used). I've been underground and don't mind if I have to go back.
"magazines are here for the long haul..." then, "...in time magazines will eventually become an electronic media". Yeah, when 99.9% of humans use the word 'magazine', we mean a printed-on-paper-and-can-hold-it-in-our-hands-and-read-it periodical. E-zines are not the same thing as a printed magazine, period. To not understand nor acknowledge the significant difference between the two is...well, I'll just leave it at that. The number are shrinking, regardless of who is buying and reading magazines. They are inconvenient to store, and with the internet, there is little reason to keep them for reference. Back when new was a daily, not instant, cycle, they had their place, but other than becoming specialty, upmarket publications like The Rodder's Journal, they'll mostly be gone within a decade. FWIW, I held onto 100+ copies of '90s and early '00s Hot Rod and Rod & Custom mags, and after reading a comment here about how tech and how-to articles were mainly disguised ads for the companies whose products were used, I went back and paged through a few issues. Sure shit, that statement was highly accurate. I didn't notice it back when the issues were current, so, joke's on me. After offering them up locally for free and getting no takers, they were recycled, and I won't miss them.
Print won’t be dead for me until I’ve read all of them at least one more time, especially those wonderful TRJ’s. Hear, Hear! I have every issue of TRJ, #1 to #85 and looking forward to #86 which, I understand, is at the printers. It would be an outstanding Christmas present.
Many people read what they want to read in nearly any message. The editor of a pretty cool rodding magazine is committed to evolving to the market so that they can stay around. That's pretty cool to me.
The Jalopy Journal
