Recently one of my Facebook groups was up in arms over a major announcement from Car and Driver magazine. In case you missed it, they’re changing from a 12-issue annual subscription to just six. But the new format will be larger, with double the pages and on better paper. So 6 = 12 in the new math, somehow.
The reason this caused such a stir in that group probably had more to do with the nature of the group itself. It’s a private page for the community of automotive media professionals – writers, photographers, PR staff, and others in the business. For a group of colleagues I’ve known for two decades now, this hit close to home.
Of course, none of this was really news to our group either. Car and Driver was simply the last domino to fall in a long line of former “big book” titles. Road & Track had already moved to six premium issues a year, and both Motor Trend and Hot Rod had earlier announced a move to quarterly print. Car Craft was euthanized unceremoniously and Automobile magazine folded years ago, many of its staff ending up running Hagerty’s in-house magazine.
Having covered the new car scene for an exclusively digital publisher most of my career, I saw the writing on the wall for traditional magazines more than a decade ago. The internet allows – and in fact rewards – instant gratification, but the print cycle takes time. And money. A lot of money. When every title is relying on the same new car content, time is money. The faster you can publish, the better it is in the long run. I used to watch fellow journalists compete to see whose story would rank first in Google while still at the product launch. That’s what the business became.
Of course, pushing more people to read the website instead of waiting for the print edition to arrive changed the advertising revenue as well. Digital dollars aren’t as generous as print and advertisers can’t easily mine valuable analytical data from print ads like they can from digital clicks. Print budgets saw revisions accordingly.
The few print publications that remained got physically smaller with fewer pages to fill as advertisers fled from paper. I was actually embarrassed by the last copy of Car and Driver I picked up; it felt like a comic book. And so the viscous cycle continued until we got to the current situation.
I said I saw the writing on the wall more than a decade ago, and yet in late 2016 I launched my own print magazine anyway. It was a small, extremely niche magazine for Land Rover owners, published quarterly on quality paper. Sound familiar? It should, because that’s the current playbook for lifestyle magazines, which dominate today’s newsstands. These titles focus less on time-sensitive information in favor of deeper storytelling for specialized communities of enthusiasts.
Despite all the changes to the car magazines we once knew, today’s newsstand (if you can find one) is filled with vibrant new titles. A recent scan of my local Barnes & Noble showed dozens of magazines dedicated to every niche of the automotive hobby. Most are hyper focused on a single brand or interest rather than general automotive topics.
It’s true, these publish less frequently and they cost more to purchase. But for the right readers, they also provide a lot of entertainment, inspiration, and even value. All that, plus an immersive, uninterrupted experience that can’t be matched on a phone or laptop screen.
The car magazine still has a lot of life left in it, as far as I can tell. Just not the car magazines you remember. You owe it to yourself to check out some of the great new titles that have emerged in recent years. But what do I know?
Someone needs to step up and buy the rights to publish Mopar Action magazine from Athlon Media Group. They stopped publication with the February 2024 issue. The magazine covered all aspects of the Mopar hobby, a complete magazine. If I he’d the money…
If I need a Coffee Table quality magazine I’ve got Hagerty Insurance and I get theirs. I want Car Craft back in my mailbox monthly. I need the How To’s the Low Budget DIYer ideas and projects. I won’t be renewing my subscriptions to the rest. Print ain’t dead. It’s just MIA right now.
I srill subscribe to one magazine that started in the early 80’s. This was started by a guy w/ almost no experience in traditional magazines. They were an early adopter of forum, publish how-tos on youtube, and organize an annual how fast can you go for cheap. Thier latest issue was 122 pages on glossy paper, with I think it’s called perfect binding.
Why do I believe this is a survivor? (they picked up a second title 15 or 20 years ago)
I believe it was early integration of the readers into the magazine. We knew the publisher by sight, knew his wife and kids, partied with them @ the hotel (parking lot) where the annual event was staged. They didn’t speak down to us with $25K engines in $150K cars, it was Roadkill for the masses before Roadkill existed.
I subscribed to Hot Rod, Car Craft, PPHR, and a pile others. Occasionally picked up Motor Trend or C & D, but my hands are greasy. I want a rag that encourages me to go out and spin wrenches, teaches me how to do something, not spend piles o’ money buying parts that a manufacturer supplied free of charge for a coupla column inches
I still look at the magazine rack for car mags. As said they are disappearing from print & I`m not ready to move to a digital format. I saw errors in a few of the magazines I bought 10 years ago & wrote them ,but I never heard back or saw an explanation in the mags about the errors. I think their lack of proof reading-wrong info didn`t help the magazines survive. The news stands used to be full of all types of car mags. There still are a lot of Motorcycle magazines,so why are there so many motorcycle magazines,& so few car magazines ??
I have twice recently contacted car culture Delux and old school rods magazines for subscription services and have been waiting now for months for subscriptions or any reply to my request s !! Either they don’t need money or they are afraid to say they are done ! I really love their magazines and I want new subscriptions !! Still waiting !
I had at one time subscribed every year to Hot Rod, Car Craft and Popular Hot Rodding. I started collecting car magazines since 1978 and still have all those copies tucked away. I like opening up a issue from the past and see how much has changed since then. It’s disappointing when these car magazines stop the print or go from monthly to quarterly. I always looked forward to each new issue to come in the mail every month.
I don’t believe that the auto community isn’t shrinking as to cause the loss of magazines. All you have to do is look to the hundreds of car. shows with thousands of cars each year. I believe the main reasons are brought about by those suits sitting around a table counting beans. To me if they truly were car people as they professed , the decline could have been reimagined. The same goes for the part manufacturers who decry the shrinking market,but at the same time assist any decline by pricing thier parts out of the reach of those newbies who they need to keep the dream alive.
To my disappointment, I received notice of the change in monthly Hot Rod issues, that now will be (6) issues a year instead of the monthly delivery I so much looked forward to. I understand that printing costs and shipping have a great affect upon the situation, but like others, the anticipation of the new issue each month, as I did before I had a license, plays a big part of why I had no problem supporting the car magazines with extended subscriptions. Unfortunately, many magazines, both local (Michigan), and national, have abruptly stopped circulation, and are not refunding the money I faithfully sent for those extended subscriptions (i.e. Ol’ Skool Rodz, Car Kulture Deluxe, etc., of Murphos Publishing KO LLC, and even my local magazine, Cruzin News). This left a bitter feeling for any future subscriptions with any magazine. But unfortunately, it seems that may have been the intended practice to force online subscriptions for better profits. Expected.
There was a time when clubs put out their own gloss full color print magazines as well.
The Internet has been a boon for collectors and restorers in the form of instant access but many avocations exist only as Facebook groups .. no longer support an actual website..which, in my opinion, is not good. There’s no archive to which one can refer. No enjoyable, informative, research articles going back umpteen years. Just today’s advice and answers to the same questions that have been asked 12 times so far this month.
this was a really informative and easy to read article
I know I’m an old fart, but I think it all started back in 1979 with Toyota and their car of the year. Ever since then I realized, it was all about the money, not about the industry. That i think was the start of the downfall.
I know technology marches on but there is something to be said for the anticipation of that monthly subscription I longed for as a kid. Before I had a license I was pouring over magazines like Car Craft, Popular Hotrodding, HotRod, 4Wheel & Offroad, Fourwheeler, etc. As my attention grew to two wheels, it was Cycle World, Sport Rider, Motorcyclist and a few foreign publications such as Fast Bikes from the UK. I get that what has happened, had to happen, but I still want a monthly subscription & there’s just something about getting that magazine & having a cold beverage as you engulf yourself in the latest issue. I miss CarCraft most of all. It was the blue collar guy on a budget magazine for me. Someone revive it, I promise I will subscribe faithfully.