Event Coverage RIP: Rod & Custom Magazine

Just emailed the publisher suggesting refunds may be in order, and that it would be very easy to organize a group of jilted subscribers on the HAMB in order to make something legal happen. Here is R&C's publisher's info in case any of you are interested in doing what I did.
Publisher:
Angela Schoof
Tel: (949) 705-3351
Fax: (949) 705-3423
[email protected]

 

Looks like RF knew what he was doing! That sly devil . . .

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth re: print vs. online content . . . this 61 year old can haul a laptop or iPad into the john, I mean c'mon, what the hell is the problem? (Like Tman said about the poor oldtimer who would not get a computer . . . how does he get his porn?)

We have hashed this out many times before, in fact now I wonder, where are all the R&C haters? Laying low right now, just doesn't look good to rain on our "Sure Was A Great Mag" parade. Bitch and moan about a tech article masquerading as an Eastwood ad, but what the hell else are you reading?

I, for one, would rather read an Eastwood flaring tool ad thinly disguised as a tech article than . . .
1) watch Fox News
2) watch CNN
3) watch any reality show (with the possible exception of Duck Dynasty)
4) read just about any other print mag (with the exception of a select few) . . .

You get the idea. RIP, R&C.

 

You can't staple a computer image on the garage wall, but I guess times have changed.

Still, if you look at our human penchant for celebrating the past, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a revival of print magazines which are essentially art-based, (as opposed to ad-based) & selling for more than the traditional R&C of the past.

 

Hmmmm.... Wonder if Pat has one more "Comeback" left in him?!

I heard that the "We're back" (again) issue was practically a one man show with Ganhal writing almost every article himself. In fact, if you want to give credit for the revival of "Traditional Hot Rodding" to anyone.... It's Pat. The first 6 issues of Rod and Custom in '89 were all about historic Rods and Customs, "Primer is finer" and "Buy a 50s car".
While he didn't invent the stuff (I remember all kinds of 40s style hot rod stuff around SoCal in the late 80s... ) I have NO DOUBT... that without the format of R&C that first year.. we wouldn't be where we are now. In fact.. we might not even have the HAMB!









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C'mon Ryan.....the corner of your mouth is curling up, I can see it from here. Hahahaaa

 

It is sad to see R & C go away. I enjoyed a few issues a year and while I didn't subscribe and just bought the few issues off the newsstand it is still going to be a loss to our hobby.

I agree with the feelings that the title will not be back and that print media is in trouble.

The other magazine I bought on a semi regular basis is Street Rodder.
I have bought my last Street Rodder magazine ever, based on what I found in the May 2014 issue.

A full page ad for Newport menthol cigarettes of all fucking things.

That shit has no place in a car magazine, I don't give a crap and will not support any publication that pulls in advertising dollars from a company that's main goal in life is killing people. ( Lorillard Corp.)

I will be letting the publishers know that as well.

 

Bummer!

 

This one (R&C) had been revived by devoted men & women driven by their passion for old iron and those early day fella's efforts. The suits failed to recognize that. Too bad a very rich and powerful passionate group of investors could not have stepped up and kept literal 'All Stars' in heavy rotation to run that magazine in the black. Both in front and behind the scenes.

 

Support the guys still producing a printed magazine, hint hint.

 

I'm not saying you're evil, just shrewd.

 

Wow I am an admitted magazine junkie...wife loves the tubs of car magazines in the basement. I knew something had to be going on..it was getting thinner , bad printing quality ,and the paper sucked. I will continue to give my money to traditional rod and kulture, Kustoms illustrated, rolls and pleats when it's made, and of course Rodders Journal. I use my ipad to look at the HAMB....I want paper when reading a magazine.

 

sad day. I am a subscriber. always looking forward to rod and custom in the mail.

 

Gee that's bad news about R&C but I'm not surprised as the magazine was getting thinner and thinner and quicker to read.
I also thought the full page cigarette add was a bad sign of desperation for the advertising dollar but I guess they took the money from where ever they could to keep the magazine afloat.
Online mags are not the same as having a magazine in your hand and being able to flick through the pages as you want. You cant leave a computer laying around the place, in your car or in your lunchbox or......
I paid for a three year sub last year along with SR at the Louisville Nats so I lost out there. SR now has full page cig ads I guess maybe I can take that as a bad sign to.
I'm a bit like Brerhair on this if ya bitchin about a hotrod mag what are you looking at instead?
It is a sad day.

 

Well, damn, that was one of the ones I looked forward to every month. And unlike, say, Street Rodder, it hadn't gotten as thinner as some of them.

For what it's worth, the king of the model train mags, Model Railroader, has gotten a lot thinner the last few years too. Even Mad doesn't come out as often as it used to. So it's not just car magazines.

But I suspect was R&C not owned by the same outfit as half a dozen others, it might still be going.

 

Print is tough, very very tough. Very sorry to see those close down, and the guys lose their jobs. Suckage all around.

 

Funny you mention that because I noticed an improvement in the last issue, particularly the cover. I remember thinking "what's up?" But truth is, as much as I am a very traditional mag and book reader, R&C would be lucky to get you through a decent crap.
Sorry to see it go because as little reading there was, I still like the idea of getting something in my mailbox. I'm down to just two now: Collectible Automobile and TRJ. One's bimonthly and the other 'quarterly.' Long time betwen mailbox time. Actually my mailman puts those two at my front door under cover.

 

grumble.
will i ever see the purple pig finished?

RIP ArinC

 

best of wishes to the folks who lost there jobs.
thanks for a great mag.

 

A little more info here

 

Now that's worth repeating: "Best wishes to the folks who lost their jobs. thanks for a great mag"

 

how in the fuck is LOWRIDER still on the shelves, its the same damn 64 impala on wire wheels... It seems harder and harder to find a decent mag with less advertising. Too bad for R&C.

 

I'm sure Pete Petersen would not have approved of what his empire has turned into.

 

This has Been one of my favorite magazines since I have been a kid.I really have had hopes to have a car in the mag someday!!! Sad day for sure.

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Hate to see it go. I've got every issue since 1992. I was gonna write 'em and bitch about the percentage of cars vs. advertisements, but kinda thought things were getting sticky so I held off. Lotsa nice people there. Had conversations with a few of 'em, and they all liked their jobs. I'm 70 and can remember lookin' at the little pages at the local drug store when I was a kid. I realize things move on all the time........... just don't have to like it.

 

My timing is spot on as usual, I just re-newed for 2 years last month.....

 

I've noticed Street Rodder featuring more "customs", I wonder if that mag will be expanded to include more "old skool customs" too. Or perhaps, maybe again Hot Rod will get back to its roots and have an R & C section like in the past. I guess time will tell.

 

The world has changed, and continues to change..rapidly..

Some of you might be on a first name basis with the owner of a major hotrod parts supplier, that had advertized for decades in many magazines..

They wil tell you that the parts sales started to fall off within the last decade when many people took the hit in investments/IRA's in late 2001 and again in 2008. That rippled down through the entire population.

As the parts suppliers started to feel the crunch, they dropped "some" of their full page and two page ads. We are not talking hundreds of dollars per ad, per magazine, but thousands in monthly bills to stay on top of the parts sales war.

The magazines contacted the business and said they would continue to run those ads for "free", until the worst was over. Well, it did not get better, and I think the slide was now also affected by the quickly aging group of former rod builders...they simply don't want to build anymore.

So, in my opinion, it is not entirely the web causing the low magazine profits; it also has to deal with rapidly increasing costs for mail, printing in USA plants with those rising costs of employees, etc. The numbers just don't add up for many small businesses like low production magazines as well as the parts manufacturers that advertise.

This also explains why a magazine may be forced to do full page cigarette ads from a mega corporation,because the old stand-by rod company simply can't justify their former large ads, or pay for steady ads in multiple magazines each month.