Hello Ryan, In case you were not aware of it, there is a new very good car magazine out there. It is called Rodding USA out of Tucson, AZ. Paul Martinez is the editor, and the publisher is Paul Grace in New Zealand. It is by monthly and of very high quality and features only traditional hot rods and customs. Paul is a seasoned pro in the industry with some of his credentials piled up at Peterson with Tom Medley. Check it out.. Da Flash
Again, Check out Rodding USA . You can get a sub online or find your nearest dealer You won't be disappointed. Da Flash
damn I hatre the new format of the hamb…. learning curve…. Ryan I sure would like to read the afore mentioned ramblings of a madman that didn't get published … I'm sure its a good read… Dont open the door to wide , I know where you live and might just walk in compadre… cheers good read
I've yet to see an MBA tooling around in a '32 highboy![/QUOTE] How would you know? Not everyone wears labels. Some might even be PHDs
What killed the magazines years ago is a lack of originality. I think the problem with most enthusiast magazines today isn't paper vs. pixels, profit vs. passion, advertisers vs. editorial, writers vs. civilians, us vs. them, etc., it's a simple lack of originality. Every time I get excited about a magazine and subscribe the thrill wears thin because their page formula gets old. Looking back on the stack a year later, every issue runs into the next. Where's the fiction pieces, the art, the road trip stories, the personal, the inventive out-of-the-box tech pieces? Where's the creativity? Why is it European magazines look so interesting to us? It's because they offer a whole new take on the familiar. When writing staffs play musical chairs and everyone trades jobs with everyone else every couple of years it further blends one magazine into the other and after awhile what difference does make which magazine you pick up off the stand? The publishers don't care because they own the competing rags anyway so there's no incentive to offer originality. You're thinking "original" Ryan and I like it.
You make some great points, but the magazines have to appeal to a WIDE variety of readers. Not everyone is going to enjoy reading about a road trip. Hot Rod Magazine tried "out of the box" tech stories and guys whined like babies about it. Not many people want fiction in a car magazine. Then, you've got the folks who'll stop subscribing because a magazine didn't show enough 32's, 23's, 34's, 51's, 55's or what ever. Or they showed too much of one make. It's a LOT of work doing the magazine job. It's easy to sit on our asses and play couch editor, but none of us could handle it. Ask the members here, who have tried it. There's more to it than a few car features and a SBC how to rebuild issue. As for European v/s USA car stuff. Compare the European version of "Top Gear" against the American version. My TV only gets tuned into one version and the 3 guys have British accents. The magazines are the same comparison. What I'd REALLY like to see, is an American Hot Rod magazine, done in the style "Road & Track" is done. How about a hot rod magazine with a few road tests, instead of a bunch of crap about where the owner bought his shit. How about having articles about a new product, but installing it on a car and actually showing what improvements came from it. American hot rod magazines treat the reader like he's 12 years old and now they're paying for it. 'OOH! Look at the chrome!" That BULLSHIT is for kids. Now, show me how to build a damn 392 HEMI, drop it in a '40 coupe and thrash the fuck out of it! THAT'S what I want to read about and I'll pay to do it. You know a good reason why The Rodder's Journal" is so damn popular? The stories and articles are for SERIOUS car guys. Not the bonehead, who's going to ask what wax to use. It's beyond beginners. It's for guys who already get it and want more of it. THAT'S the kind of magazine that needs to fill R&C's void. A HUGE hole just got punched into the magazine market. Is there NO ONE, who can come up with SOMETHING to fill it? If they do, I'll subscribe pronto. SOME ONE STEP UP.
Outstanding! Yer Boy (hehe) has it . . . passion, it is all about the passion. He has preached this from the beginning. The JJ will become iconic due to your boy's (MBA-trained so cool) fucking passion for the era in which it all began. The JJ is authentic, therefore it attracts authentic passionate folk, and therein lies real value. Certainly excited about the possibilities for more great reads, and . . . Jay, you will always be No. 2 writer in the pecking order, the new folks will line up behind you.
tfeverfred: What you're talking about is genuine authenticity and I agree. To that I would add fun. I don't have the experience of producing a new magazine every month but I know awesome talent when I see it. A publication that gets it right is indeed a rare thing to create. I think the rational, the emotional and the "just plain fun" are winning attributes to appeal to a wide variety of readers. I used to think ROLLING STONE was a great combination of those elements on the music side and GEORGE for something as dry as politics. These days DICE does it for the chopper scene and KUSTOM in France really shows up the U.S. mags covering many of our own kustom kulture events. Above-average cover photos, insightful interviews, interesting people profiles, good stories, great pictures, great typography, cool graphics, fold out surprises and not every 1lb. page stuffed with 100lbs of clutter. If it were my magazine I'd think of it like entertainment while doing the stuff you like to keep it real. Website forums have the advantage of a dialog although not all of it qualifies as post-worthy. (I just thought of this - Maybe the key is to produce the perfect print magazine and then continue each story on an online forum. You need to get the magazine to know what everyone is talking about - and then go to the online forum - organized to reflect the magazine content - to comment on the mag article or to see what the reaction is). Ryan's JJ has many of the winning attributes I mentioned but I miss the tactile experience of the page flip versus all this airy vertical scrolling. If I were Ryan I would collect the best of the HAMB tech, builds, road trip, history, people stories, fun stuff, art forums and put out a "The Best Of JJ" annual book.
I came upon this thread a little late. But, I just wanna say... Great writing Ryan, and righting of what IT is to hot rod. Go Independence! ....it's smiley face time again. S2
Wow Ryan, I hope that this will turn into a major eye opener for other publications. I am a man stuck in between the different formats. I love to get on the computer and do my research and to get ideas for current and future projects in regards to cars, my home, yard, etc... but grow very tired of the bickering and one upmanship that goes on in the forums. Thats when I turn to my magazines. Although I don't get any feedback from them, they also help to encourage my imagination from that lack of feedback. I guess what I'm trying to say, if you are planning to support these new authors, make a separate section that is more or less just vehicle features, editorial or event articles and how to's with no feedback or responses. It would be very similar to writing article for the magazines. Then the forums would be the place to discuss them. Very similar to how you do the front main page of the Jalopy Journal but with sections you could browse though instead of a blog format. Funny how you just made a huge upgrade and now might have to make another one. Good luck and God's speed! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Again,,,,, Rodding USA Look it up, find a dealer near you, order a sub. You will be a happy camper Da Flash
Just looked it up. I think I'll give them a shot. Cover cars look inviting. Their mission statement, sure sounds inviting. AND they're digital as well as print. Hmmm...... http://www.roddingusa.com/
I gave up on the mags several years ago because of the lack of effort. Almost all of the articles were just puff pieces for equipment manufacturers. Joe's garage installs Bob's suspension kit....blah blah blah. The mags were slaves to their advertisers.
Let it be known! I hereby decree, The Hamb as the sovereign nation of hotrodding. Stick to your guns. soul cannot be bought.
R & C died again? The others are going with it? We've seen it coming a long time actually. My head is filled with visions of a pair of shorts and sandals under an old straw hat climbing into a dusty old blue deuce and driving off into the sunset. I almost want to follow the old geezer. Gotta be more interesting where he is now. Probably writing about whatever Millar, Roth, Norm, Tommy, Doane, Hirohata and all the other innovators are up to. And the old magazines here are folding because corporate bean counters can only sell just so many ads for Mustang II front ends, stereos and air conditioning brackets.
So, Ryan, you're gonna "give them a shot" at freedom to write what they want. Are you gonna pay them a living wage? Say $35,000, or maybe $45,000 a year? Are they gonna buy the products they need to do these unbiased tech stories? Or are you gonna buy the parts for them, and fly them to companies and events? I'm not arguing the digital model here. As someone above here said - how about paying a staff, buying a building and paying travel costs to get those cool "free" stories? This ain't no socialist collective we're living in - passion alone won't feed your kids, man. Cut out the penthouse offices for sure but be honest about the need for advertising revenues - even JJ sells advertising. And if it takes an additional effort to get readers of a website to look at the advertisers message of an unknown product - you'll only be supporting existing brands - never launching new ideas or products. Without advertising any monthly magazine would cost $100 a year to each subscriber. Even TRJ can't produce an issue with ads - and could use more! And producing a website with quality PAID content cost money too. The internet has de-monitized hundreds of product categories (meaning putting people out of work). Work for a better future, but stop all the "free love and passion" bullshit. People need to eat, eating cost money and nothing in this world is totally free.
While I absolutely agree that an annual JJ book would be awesome, Ryan already put out a book. It's a sweet little package and I've read through my copy a number of times. However, (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong), the book still hasn't sold out even after a year. Maybe if everyone went and bought up the remaining copies, Ryan would see the worthiness of further print medium. http://jalopyjournal.myshopify.com/collections/calendars/products/the-jalopy-journal-2
I think Ryan already answered your questions... It looks like he's offering to pay for freelance work. Not pay salaries, but not something for nothing either.
I don't eat with advertising revenue. I eat with Alliance Memberships. On top of that, my relationships with my sponsors doesn't drive my content in any way, shape, or form. My sponsors support OUR cause rather than the other way around... Most of them are just buddies of mine. For proof of this, do a search for Coker on the forum. You'll see plenty of threads with negative remarks despite the fact that Coker is very important to both the Alliance and me personally. Corky is a very close friend of mine. I know him well enough and I've been around his business long enough that I would go to war for him without a second thought, but I would never let that effect my content. And I think there is plenty of real examples of this. The only junk ads I run are on the forum when you aren't logged in. And while those suck (adsense), they don't effect content and they don't effect logged in users. As for writers, of course I'm paying them. I don't have the budget to pay someone's mortgage... But I do have the budget to pick up someone's car payment once a month. You call passion bullshit... To me, that's exactly what I'm fighting and what the reader's of Rod & Custom, HRM, etc... are up against. It's not bullshit to me. It's my legacy. Passion is EVERYTHING to me and EVERYTHING to my business.
The above got me thinking about the people that sponsor this place. To many, they probably just seems like advertisers. They are I guess, but I consider them sponsors more than anything because they support us unconditionally and without expectations of reporting every single month. Somewhat incredibly, we've only had three new advertisers in the past four years. Once people get a spot, they tend to hang on to it... I love that. Anyway, here's some transparency: 1. Coker. Already explained above... Corky is one of my closest friends and someone I really care about. They have been our biggest financial supporters for eight years now. 2. Autometer. They are newish in that they have only been sponsoring for about two years. This relationship started with me going to them in an effort to get some gauges made that would equal the quality of vintage SW. The project was deemed to expensive (sets would have been in the 3 to 4k range), but they liked what we were doing and decided to sponsor us. I deal with Joesph... He's a great guy. 3. Owens Salvage. Everyone knows Bob. He's one of us... and a moderator. He's been a sponsor for seven years. 4. American Collectors. Our first sponsor... The deal went down after they came to me for some consulting work. They too like what we were doing and have been a sponsor for eight years. 5. Bob Drake. Again, one of us... They've been sponsoring for two years now. 6. Garage Art. Another pal. Steve is big on garagejournal.com and just wanted to expose himself to our group. He's been sponsoring for five years. 7. Gear Drive. Matt... One of us... A good pal... and a new sponsor. I think he's been on about 6 months now. 8. Motorhead Extraordinaire. Joe is another good pal. He's currently helping me out with my shop tool boxes. He's been sponsoring TJJ and TGJ for about five years now. 9. Rocket Racing. Our newest... They launched with the new site. I went to them after seeing that new smoothy wheel. Certainly not a period piece, but cool as hell. 10. Baileigh. These guys award all of our tech week winners and have done so for three years. If I had to guess, they've given away over $20k of stuff to our membership. 11. Garage Envy. These guys I work mostly with on garagejournal.com. Again, they wanted to expose themselves to this audience and the have been super supportive for seven years now.
The Jalopy Journal
