More print car media leaving
 

https://www.hotcars.com/popular-car-publisher-is-shuttering-19-auto-magazines/

Here is the full list of magazines going out of print:
•4-Wheel & Off-Road
•Automobile
•Car Craft
•Chevy High Performance
•Classic Trucks 
•Diesel Power
•Hot Rod Deluxe 
•Jp
•Lowrider
•Mopar Muscle
•Muscle Car Review
•Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords
•Mustang Monthly
•Street Rodder
•Super Chevy 
•Super Street
•Truck Trend 
•Truckin’
•Vette

I cancelled my subscription to Automobile when they did a hit piece on Mitt Romney just before the 2012 election. I didn't want politics in my car magazines. I would have held on to the bitter end if they actually provided content I wanted to read.

Those magazines get their revenue from advertisers. The news stand business is brutal, with the publisher paying a "pocket fee" for space on the shelf and a premium for faced-out, front row positioning. The publisher pays to have the magazines shipped from the printer to the distributor and the distributor charges a re-ship fee to send it on to the retailer. Once the magazines are on the shelf the publisher only gets paid for the ones that are sold, and that is often 3 to 6 months after the off-sale date (that's the date they are pulled from the shelves).
We had a good distributor that estimated our sales and paid us on the on-sale date for half of the estimated sales. We got the rest 3-6 months later. We had one of the best sell-through percentages at 40-45%. Some magazines see 80-90% of the copies they ship end up in the shredder.
We had a different business model, relying on subscriptions for 90% of our income. We spent our money on promoting subscription sales rather than on ad sales staff and paper and ink that was just going to be shredded. Our retail magazines were only on very select newsstands where sell-through was high.
OK you are all probably bored to death by now....

What magazine did you have?

It is a shame, they didn't adapt to the digital age. Where others turned to publishing online (motortrend, for example) they may have made enough ad revenue to stay afloat.

I only read print magazines, and newspapers (hardly ever access online news sources). I had a previous job where for 9 years, I operated the console on a Harris 8 unit web/offset press printing our local newspaper, and several others...I enjoyed the job, but not the benefits/pay package. I belive their circulation is down to half of what it was 20 years ago.

Automobile is the only one I’ll miss, they improved pretty substantially over the last few years.

I haven't really read Automobile since the DED days when Jean was still an associate editor. Miss that immensely. Haven't kept up in recent years.

Ads = $

For action sport mag Red Bull you can get a year for $9, and give a free subscription to a friend.


simply follow the money

Crap. Here we go again. My Autoweek subscription is paid through May 2021. I just renewed my Dad's Automobile subscription, and I still have a subscription which goes sometime into 2021.

Sigh. I had an Automobile "please renew" notice on my desk. Kept it, thinking I'd send a check. No need now. Memories of the David E. years, when they were neck & neck with R&T in my book. I left R&T after Peter Egan left...he the best automotive writer of that time period.

I was sorta letting my car magazine subs expire, thinking I was done buying cars...

I was a big fan of Auto Buff. Look it up. :D

I've sold off most of my titles, and most of them have subsequently died. At one time I had 8 or 10. One I am really sad about that is alive but struggling is Vintage Fire Trucks -I really love the subject matter, but it came along late in my career.
MrsWD and I still own Antique Power and Vintage Truck.
I started AP in the mid-1980s when I was sick of being an engineer and this subject was really my passion. I had 60,000 subscribers before the recession.
I started VT around 1990. It's been less successful, achieving about 35k subscribers at one point.
I don't have an active role in either one any more. Since I retired and sold my publishing company I just collect royalties for the use of the names.

https://www.antiquepower.com

https://www.vintagetruckmagazine.com

I 2nd GRM is pretty good, I like the Classic version too. I liked Automobile too, although I'm losing interest in most newer stuff. Its cool to know whats out there but really have no interest in the exotic stuff, other than to gawk at the photos, or suv's. Oh well, I have plenty of stuff to do without having to catchup on old magazine.

I've read Automobile since 1987 or so and have always liked it, but their web site drives me batty. I guess it's that or nothing, though.

Those are cool. :)

I subd to 4 wheel and offroad around 98-99. I learned ALOT from that read everything i could. Pre internet. Also grabbed 4 wheeler and jp when i could. Still have all those old mags. Then subbed to jp in 2005ish and promptly let it go I felt like it had become 3/4 ads that just repeated month to month. Internet was already miles ahead. Im surprised they lasted this long