What happened to all the great magazines?

[NYLIBUD]

Ok first,I can’t even get into my local Barnes and Noble to buy magazines.But that’s not the issue here.Where have all the great magazines gone.1)Popular Hot Rodding,2)Muscle Car Review,3)Offroad,4)and Sport Utility,5)Motor-cross Action,and a bunch more.They simply stop printing them.You can’t even subscribe to them.Anybody else know of an other of their favorite magazines that simply disappeared?

Edited May 24, 2020 by NYLIBUD

[TonyK]

Automobile. I let some of my other car magazine subscriptions go but kept Automobile because I liked it but a few months ago they refunded my money for the remaining issues and stopped printing.

[Rob Hall]

I miss Automobile..I had a digital subscription w/ Amazon for it, they are filling it with Motor Trend now.  Same thing happened w/ Muscle Car Review, the subscription got replaced w/ Hot Rod.    I still subscribe digitally to Car and Driver and Road & Track, only car magazine I still get in print is Collectible Automobile..  I subscribed to C/D and R&T in print from 1977 through 2014 when I switched to digital for my tablet. 

Automobile and Muscle Car Review were part of a group of 19 car magazines that got shut down in January by TEN publishing (there is a thread here somewhere from back in Dec that discussed it).

https://www.foliomag.com/ten-publishing-shuttering-19-print-magazines/

Edited May 24, 2020 by Rob Hall

[Snake45]

What used to be Petersen (dunno what it's called now) stopped publishing just about all car magazines except Hot Rod and Motor Trend at the end of the year. I read about it on the net--they never even bothered to contact me about my SUBSCRIPTIONS to Car Craft and Musclecar Review. I gotta call and give them an earful about that one of these days. 

[Rob Hall]

1 minute ago, Snake45 said:

What used to be Petersen (dunno what it's called now) stopped publishing just about all car magazines except Hot Rod and Motor Trend at the end of the year. I read about it on the net--they never even bothered to contact me about my SUBSCRIPTIONS to Car Craft and Musclecar Review. I gotta call and give them an earful about that one of these days. 

See my post above...there is a link to an article about TEN network dropping 19 magazines.

Edited May 24, 2020 by Rob Hall

[NYLIBUD]

31 minutes ago, Rob Hall said:

I miss Automobile..I had a digital subscription w/ Amazon for it, they are filling it with Motor Trend now.  Same thing happened w/ Muscle Car Review, the subscription got replaced w/ Hot Rod.    I still subscribe digitally to Car and Driver and Road & Track, only car magazine I still get in print is Collectible Automobile..  I subscribed to C/D and R&T in print from 1977 through 2014 when I switched to digital for my tablet. 

Automobile and Muscle Car Review were part of a group of 19 car magazines that got shut down in January by TEN publishing (there is a thread here somewhere from back in Dec that discussed it).

https://www.foliomag.com/ten-publishing-shuttering-19-print-magazines/

I still see some of the magazines that are still available on the news stand.JP for one.Im a Jeep fanatic so I know that one is still available.But Thanks for the list.

[TarheelRick]

One of my favorites was Traditional Rod & Kulture Illustrated, it was a quarterly mag with plenty of nostalgia rods and customs.  Another is Hot Rod Deluxe, similar format as TRKI.  Also miss Model Cars Magazine.  Oh well, I guess all good things must pass eventually.

[slusher]

Everything is changing, the electronic age of convenience has changed shopping, books, music and magazines. While we would like to have the magazine in our hand so many more don’t..

[NYLIBUD]

Oh yea,Model car magazine.Hmmmmm..I think the last time I saw that on the stand was about a year ago,hint hint.But there still is SAE.Super Chevy and Hi Po Chevy are still out there,but I’m a Mopar fan more than a Chevy fan.Hot Rod puts me to sleep.Canadian Hot Rod is A pretty good mag.Four wheeler and Four Wheel and Offroad are still on the stand.Bone Stock is fairly new magazine..Mostly stock muscle cars.Hemmings Muscle car is a great rag.Not the regular Hemmings ,which is very entertaining ,especially if your searching for those hard to find parts.But this is a magazine.Chrysler Power,Mopar Muscle,and Mopar Collectors guide are three more really good mags.Car Craft is ok,but as I said I really miss Muscle Car Review.Of all the muscle car mags that were out there,they get rid of that publication.I think Motorcyclist is history,but there are so many European motorcycle magazines,plus Cycle World,it doesn’t really matter.Classic Dirtbike is also a great mag,if your into older dirt bikes.And ADV MOTO is a great magazine too.Lots of adventure (dual purpose) bikes.Dirt Bike is still worth reading.RPM is probably the best drag racing magazine,out there,but it’s hard to find.And Drag Racer is history...Idk I guess it depends whatever your into,or not into.And yea it’s the electronic,on line age,but it’s still fun to find your favorite magazine on the stand.But for now,like I said,you can’t even get into BnNoble.Arrrrrgggg.Guess we have to wait till post Covid.???

Edited May 24, 2020 by NYLIBUD

[maltsr]

2 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

One of my favorites was Traditional Rod & Kulture Illustrated, it was a quarterly mag with plenty of nostalgia rods and customs.  Another is Hot Rod Deluxe, similar format as TRKI.  Also miss Model Cars Magazine.  Oh well, I guess all good things must pass eventually.

TRKI has been re-launched as Speed and Kulture, with much the same team on board.  https://www.speedandkulture.com/

[DonW]

These seem to be out of print (!), but I still have my originals from the seventies...

Magazine are are so much better then anything on the hyperweb... Don't disappear when the WiFi goes south and aren't carpet-bombed with adverts.

Trouble is the great writers are mostly gone now like Patrick Bedard from Car and Driver (that was a great American magazine that I loved) and of course Bill Boddy and Denis Jenkinson from Motor Sport. 

There's still Classic and Sportscar that I look forward to every month. I don't really look at the rodding and custom or bike magazines unless I'm down at my local BMW mechanic's shop, he has a few laying around. I used to buy Hot Rod and also our very own Custom Car magazine. Flared trousers and V6 Ford powered Vauxhall Crestas. And jacked up Ford Crapis: 

 

I sold several hundred sequential copies of Motor Sport, Classic Cars / Thoroughbred and Sportscar and various Bentley. Lagonda and Vintage and Sports Car magazine to a collector recently having thoroughly enjoyed them (they were passed on to me from my Dad)

 

But against all that, this forum is a great outlet for me and it always gets my interest in some way. 

Edited May 24, 2020 by DonW

[High octane]

I think that the disappearance of the magazines all started when Playboy was no longer in the publishing business.

[Draggon]

When I think of great magazines, what comes to mind are Car Model, Model Car Science, Model Car and Track, Rod and Custom Models, and the old pre-70 Auto World Catalogs. 

[1972coronet]

I absolutely need to encounter the tactile experience of holding whatever I'm reading (internet forums , et alia , are obvious exceptions) . 

Easy-access to previously-esoteric information via Wikipedia (for an instance) is one of the (so-called) Electronic Age advantages ; one-amongst-many advantages ( email is great --albeit , impersonal-- for communicating with friends , family , etc. , in an instantaneous manner ) . But , in my (shared) opinion , computers / electronics are NOT a replacement for the written word and accompanying photos or images .

I used to look forward to reading Muscle Car Review [ R.I.P ] and  Mopar Action  (still published... but overrun with 'Resto-Mod' and newer vehicles . No , thanks. ) , but those days are behind us .

To quote a line from Who Says? by Richard Hell & The Voidoids : 

"Once born you're addicted
And so you depict it
As good, but who kicked it?
Users just can't see the horror
Tell one if you want to bore her"

[Snake45]

35 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:

I absolutely need to encounter the tactile experience of holding whatever I'm reading (internet forums , et alia , are obvious exceptions) . 

Easy-access to previously-esoteric information via Wikipedia (for an instance) is one of the (so-called) Electronic Age advantages ; one-amongst-many advantages ( email is great --albeit , impersonal-- for communicating with friends , family , etc. , in an instantaneous manner ) . But , in my (shared) opinion , computers / electronics are NOT a replacement for the written word and accompanying photos or images .

Agree completely. Plus which, you can't take the puter into the john with you to read, or out on the back porch, or over to your sister-in-law's house, or into a meeting at which you might have to wait a half-hour for the suits to show up, or a million other places you can take a magazine. I want my MAGAZINES, dimmit! 

[Rob Hall]

After moving to digital magazines some years ago, I prefer them to print.  I can take my tablet anywhere and years of magazines don’t take up space. And I can read them on my phone or laptop also. 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Rob Hall

[NYLIBUD]

Yea well all there is now is on line magazines.Like I said,u can’t get into a book store,and there’s no curbside service for periodicals.Only books and music.Ah who needs them,mask or no mask.

[1972coronet]

2 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

 I can take my tablet anywhere[... ] And I can read them on my phone or laptop also.

Just don't go bringing those devices into the  " khazi while you suss out the moon" ! 

[Rob Hall]

9 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:

Just don't go bringing those devices into the  " khazi while you suss out the moon" ! 

?

[1972coronet]

4 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

?

An esoteric reference ; Khazi is "outhouse" in British slang . The line , " sing in the khazi / while you suss out the moon... " is from the Small Faces Lazy Sunday Afternoon (1968) . 

I was bringing to light @Snake45's comment regarding restrooms and electronic devices .

[TarheelRick]

11 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

I can take my tablet anywhere and years of magazines don’t take up space. And I can read them on my phone or laptop also. 

Yeah, but can you go back four or five years to bring up a copy that has an article you need to help you finish that award-winning model?

[Rob Hall]

7 minutes ago, TarheelRick said:

Yeah, but can you go back four or five years to bring up a copy that has an article you need to help you finish that award-winning model?

Yes. 

[Rob Hall]

4 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

An esoteric reference ; Khazi is "outhouse" in British slang . The line , " sing in the khazi / while you suss out the moon... " is from the Small Faces Lazy Sunday Afternoon (1968) . 

I was bringing to light @Snake45's comment regarding restrooms and electronic devices .

I’ve heard of the band, not familiar w/ their work.  

[iamsuperdan]

I hate reading magazines on my ipad.

I used to subscribe to a lot of magazines. And many have gone belly up over the past few years. 

People just go straight to websites now or blogs for instant reading. Seems like the number of people willing to wait for a monthly to come out is shrinking.

I still subscribe to a few though:

• Practical Classics
• Grassroots Motorsports
• Tread
• Outdoor X4
• Guitar World
• Classic Rock
• Metal Mania
• Kerrang! (although this one has temporarily halted print copies until July)

 

 

[NYLIBUD]

Well I guess I’m gonna have to start subscribing to my magazines......Arggggggg???Just so much easier walking into a Barnes and Noble,u see it,go and buy it.Plus I always find subscribed magazines,if that’s a world,hmmmm,take twice as long to get.And my local mail service sucks.?❌☹️