History Popular Hot Rodding also gone!

Whenever I get into the City (Chicago), I stop at the City Newstand on Cicero, just north of Irving Park Rd. You think Barnes and Nobodys got a few mags?? They have nothing on whats REALLY out there. City is the place.

Cosmo

 

this is what happens when one company owns all the magazines. there's no competition. it's all about profit not passion. time for some new magazines to emerge.

 

I think we will go to small scale, limited print like Church is doing to keep our way of life into print. Think about it, regional rod mags coming out quarterly and traded amongst us. I have hope fellas and I believe in small scale business. I was not happy in recent years with some of the mags shutting down and many of you were not either. I was reading back issues from the 60s and 70s in my garage, not the new ones.

 

Isn't life all about profit not passion anymore?unless you consider profit a passion. There is very few people out there that care for much more than themselves or agendas

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

dang it bobby! I loved popular hot rodding... I was in it a few years ago, talked to a few of the guys there. They were all great people!

 

Chrysler Power though is back up and going. Canadian Rodder seems pretty good. Some of the mags lost touch with reality, motivated I am sure by a need to please their advertisers. However I don't have mega thousands for projects and most I know don't either so an article on how to build a 900 Hp BB Chev was kinda irrelevant. I like Hot Rod delux too and often buy it. I don't for a second buy the idea people read on line. If they do both of them are not doing so at the same time. Could be as simple as there were too many mags with similar articles. I grew up with Rod and Custom ,Car Craft and Hot Rod. First thing I ever had printed though was in Pop Hot Rodding about 1972. Perhaps we are really dinasours but there are a lot of us. Should be enough to support at least a few good mags
don

 

Gary said it straight. It is somewhat a dumbing down, but it's also the "instant gratification" generation syndrome. Someone can read an entire "magazine" on their smart phone or tablet while on a break or while they're a passenger on a commute. It's at their fingertips on the slightest whim w/o any pre plan to tote along a hard copy magazine.

My only 'real' bookstore nearby is a Barnes & Noble. Plenty of magazines with plenty of comfy chairs to sit and read while you have a coffee. Yeah... the internal Starbucks is conveniently located right next to the magazine area. B&N doesn't seem to care if you DON'T buy a magazine. They essentially condone getting comfortable and reading. Far cry from the 7-11 where the clerk clears his throat and gives you the look after you've paged through a mag for 30 seconds.

A few years back, an R&C editorial went on about circulation numbers dropping. The editor flat out said (paraphrasing) if you want to see R&C in the future; subscribe and don't pass a single copy through a chain of friends to have a read. And if you're that guy, don't bitch when we're belly up.

Magazines need to sell magazines. Without good circulation numbers there is no advertising sold. Print media is a tough gig.
History always repeats itself. In a few years we may be back to 1950 with a few standards and some regional and specialty mags trickling in.
Car magazines seem to be going the way of the drag strip.
It's tough for me to grasp that in 5-10 years we'll be saying "remember when Hot Rodding had magazines"?

 

Exactly. No competition, no choices. Sounds like socialism.

 

Street Rod Builder was one of my favorites. Great how to articles. Hated to see it go.

 

[QUOTE="Zapato, post: 10449082, member: Funny no one mentions missing American Rodder, Rodders Digest or either of both versions of Custom Rodder. .[/QUOTE].......I still miss all of those.

 

really sad its all going,and it ticks me off, we can blame many things i see the big corporates brainwashing the young,big corperates putting their $$$ before common scence,before families,before the home,or anything that once stood for hands on,were once we could stop and buy a spark plug, fan belt or dizzy cap at your local service station where we new the owners,now all i get is football,s, sunglasses,toiletries,overinflated rubbish,stale junk food and a person most of the times who would not even know what a spark plug is,,,most of us will suffer and endure all this if not already,but i know through all this some things will stay the same,thank god for hot rods and its people.

 

I have subscritions to PHR, Hot Rod, Super Chevy, Hemmings Muscle Machines & Muscle Car Review. PHR & Hot Rod have been my favourites over the years....I'm old school and certainly look forward to getting the magazines in the mail every month. I guess at the end of the day they will all go the way of the dodo bird which is a shame..... a damn shame.

 

I gave up on magazines a long time ago. Half the magazine was advertising and the couple times I ordered something from one of their advertisers I got burned.

 

This is just sad .I started reading Hot Rod in 67 and got my first Rod and Custom in 71 .Later I got Custom rodder which was my dream magazine as I love kustoms.Still got my Hot rod subscription and I got all The rodders Journals.Got my first Popular Hot Rodding in 75 but gave it up a year ago as it grew thinner and thinner by each issue .Hot Rod claimes " No more boring cars" ...well . They give us a rod or a custom car in each issue ,but most of the other stuff is not for me. I think I am part of a dying breed doing all the work on my cars and reading paper magazines .
Today I will have a cold one and look at Steve Stanfords beautiful drawings in the last Rodders Journal once more .

 

...............In a bizarre way it really is censorship. The powers-that-be are in a back-handed approach determining what we read and have access to.[/QUOTE]

Actually, it's not censorship at all, but democracy-pure and simple. Each individual got to vote with their subscription. Not enough people voted to pay the paper and ink bill. No government subversively shut them down, we did ourselves. Seventeen gun mags at Walmart? Walmart does not carry one single product that does sell. For a profit, sure, but each sale represents a vote in favor of that magazine.

 

It's only socialism if you bend over and spread em for those who demand it. The majority of those on these pages 'subscribe' to a style that transcends more than just an old car. Embrace your genuine minority status. I personally could care less if my choice of style "infects" anyone else.

Think about it for a minute...you're in your shop/garage and something's waiting or finished for the night/day. What's better than sitting there near it with a fresh beverage and a smoke as you cruise through an old magazine? It's really nice as that coat of paint dries, or that hot metal is cooling in the background letting you know it's there. I know I'd rather see the stuff of my past in those pages than these new mags. Sorta completes the vibe, and it's not something that welcomes visitors. It's yours. Nobody can take it from you, nobody can "feel" what you do in those moments.

 

Actually, it's not censorship at all, but democracy-pure and simple. Each individual got to vote with their subscription. Not enough people voted to pay the paper and ink bill. No government subversively shut them down, we did ourselves. Seventeen gun mags at Walmart? Walmart does not carry one single product that does sell. For a profit, sure, but each sale represents a vote in favor of that magazine.[/QUOTE]

It WILL be censorship, not by government per se', but by corporate interests.is there much difference between the two right now? It's the pursuit of the dollar over EVERYTHING that's a big part of the problem in my opinion. You seem to subscribe to the theory that is it "sells" it's good, if it doesn't it's useless. I dont.
I find it interesting that so many of you jones'd when Ryan took the HAMB down for a week, what about when it goes down and never comes back? You aren't going to find E magazines in an old box thirty years from now, one click and it's permanantly gone...forever. America, our jobs, our patriotism, our tradtions have been sold out from under us. I DON'T WANT THIS TO BECOME POLITICAL, it's CULTURAL it's more relevant that abandoning the printed word is a radical sea change for civilization, I get that change is inevitable, but that change might not be for the good.
We are headed for a homogenized world of blandness and conformity, you see it everywhere. It's FaceBook, television, cell phones, much less choice in everythin. Short attention spans, no skills, existing only to fill a specific profit making purpose.

 

Same thing has happened to radio and broadcast television. Those used to be locally focused, individual stations that had distinct local character. Now they are all owned by a mega-corp and the same shows and playlists dominate nationwide. What they have done is fuel a mass departure from those media.

I don't even have a radio in my MG or Deuce. There's nothing to listen to anymore.

But nature abhors a vacuum. If a need or strong desire exists, something will rise up to fill it. Just like pirate radio stations, we may someday see indy magazines rise up. Case in point, look at what Tim Suddard has done with Grassroots Motorsports and Classic Motorsports. As long as he can resist selling out to the mega-corp publishers, those will continue to thrive.

Maybe someone will convince Tim to hire a couple of editors and do a hot rod and custom theme magazine.

 

i was able to read all the periodicals for free since my parents had couple grocery stores. all that the distribution places sent back for credit was back cover so needless to say they would drop off all i could read.

 

Sorry to see this happen again, I've been with R&C since 1953, so I've had the whole ride. I've
been a regular subscriber to, Hot Rod,Street Rodder,Hot Rod Mechenix,Rodders Digest and a
few more over the years. I've stoped subscriptions to some when content changed, moved away
from my areas of interest. I've also stopped sub's when some publications became more catalogs
than any thing else, low content,mostly ads. R&C I'll miss the most, but even R&C has been slipping
to the dark side the last few years, with the shrinking page count and lower tech content. I guess
I'll have to kiss off the remaining year of paid up subscription.

........................Jack

 

The times they are a changing. Keep the HAMB going join the Alliance.

 

It WILL be censorship, not by government per se', but by corporate interests.is there much difference between the two right now? It's the pursuit of the dollar over EVERYTHING that's a big part of the problem in my opinion. You seem to subscribe to the theory that is it "sells" it's good, if it doesn't it's useless. I dont.
I find it interesting that so many of you jones'd when Ryan took the HAMB down for a week, what about when it goes down and never comes back? You aren't going to find E magazines in an old box thirty years from now, one click and it's permanantly gone...forever. America, our jobs, our patriotism, our tradtions have been sold out from under us. I DON'T WANT THIS TO BECOME POLITICAL, it's CULTURAL it's more relevant that abandoning the printed word is a radical sea change for civilization, I get that change is inevitable, but that change might not be for the good.
We are headed for a homogenized world of blandness and conformity, you see it everywhere. It's FaceBook, television, cell phones, much less choice in everythin. Short attention spans, no skills, existing only to fill a specific profit making purpose.[/QUOTE].......................Well said, Mr. Reynolds.

 

Independent bookstores are few and far between. Barnes & Noble and Borders moved in and drove all the Mom & Pop stores out of business, now Borders is gone and B&N is closing up. I live in the San Fernando Valley, not exactly the sticks. When I moved here there were maybe 35 small bookstores, now maybe three left.
There are two Barnes & Nobles left here. Go to any B&N in America and they will have exactly the same inventory. Go to any town in America and they all look alike, KFC, McDonalds, Wendy's etc. The Standard station, Shell, BP whatever, Alabama looks like california that looks like Maine etc. Conformity and blandness.
Even our "nostalgia" is pre packaged and predictable.....and boring. I'd compare it to the end of the Old West and wide open spaces, too many people doing nothing but chasing money.
The internet is both the greatest source of information and mis information, the greatest tool for learning and for propaganda. I'd love to be the optimist here, but that seems to defy reality. Events and people take the path of least resistance, whatever's easy. If it's difficult, it's not worth doing.
Enough ranting on my part, but DON'T BLOW MY THREAD BY MAKING IT POLITICAl, that's just more predictable stupidity, it's about tradition and culture, if you don't get it, please refrain from commenting!

 

I remember going to the subway station as a kid in the 60's with my mom to go to the beach in New York and thumbing thru the many car and Mad magazines on the news stand to see which one I wanted the most to take to the beach that day. Today's kids are screwed

 

Magazines that sell advertising and attract readers stay in business. Those that don't, die.

It's not rocket science, fellas. And it's not the dumbing down of America, the end of civilization as we know it, or anything else. (One of my children managed to get through college and law school and land a job as a corporate lawyer with a major corporation without subscribing to a single magazine...imagine that!)

Robert Peterson did not start his publishing business to lose money. He did it to make money. Rod & Custom was shut down in early 70s (mere months after I subscribed to it because it was the only magazine I wanted) because it wasn't making money for Peterson Publishing.

I go to the newsstand (Barnes & Noble) and there are at least a dozen different hot rod/street rod magazines for sale.

I could sit here and lament the fact that I can no longer go to K-Mart to get plugs, points, rotor, condenser, distributor cap and plug wires for my '56 Chevy like I used to back in the day....or I can find out who sells those parts now and get them there.

Same thing with hot rods and customs. I used to subscribe to seven different car magazines. I let all my subscriptions lapse about 6 or 7 years ago. I haven't missed those magazines at all. The content was not worth the cost and the storage space.

I love the HAMB. I get much more out of this site than all those magazines I used to subscribe to. Real people, real cars, real time. Not infomercials for paid advertisers like so many magazines were becoming.

Change is inevitable (my grandfather caught, broke and sold wild horses in Montana in the early 1900s) but how one adapts to that change is up to the individual

 

I AGREE!!, my wife works at a local school and started bringing WW2 books home for me, when I asked where she was getting them she said the local schools are getting rid of all the books in the schools libary and going to E-tablets....and like you said, Kids won't know the true history of anything.....the history can be changed at any time when it isn't in print!! Makes it easy to dumb down the next generation....

 

A few comments on becoming an alliance member and helping with the support of the HAMB. I agree with that, sadly however a lot of the members here are too cheap to do so.
These are the guys who would hang out for hours reading magazines on the news stands and never buy them, or couldn't afford to buy them anyway.

 

I read Popular Hot Rodding starting with Volume number one and read it for a lot of years until my taste in cars got away from what they covered. Lately I've only bought one or two issues a year when they contained something I wanted to read.

We have one decent magazine left in this area at the Fred Meyers in Yakima and no book store with a magazine rack within 60 miles of my house.
I'd have to agree that the magazine distributors have way too much say in what gets put on the racks rather than what many of us actually buy and read. Even the stores don't get to order what customers ask for but have to take what the distributors decide they get.
Loosing two of the ones I subscribe to: Rod and Custom and Custom & Classic trucks in this batch of lost magazines has pretty well burned my biscuits this week though.
I'd have to check to see how many years I've been an Alliance member but buying that plaque each year pays off if a guy makes many purchases from Alliance vendors. Now i just have to remember to ask for the discount.

 

Being an Alliance member and supporting the Hamb is definitely not a sign of great wealth.
But it is a sign of caring for something you participate in and support.

I have yet to use my discount with an Alliance vendor, I'm not really in it for that. I just appreciate the forum and what Ryan does.