Print Finally Died

Well said.

 

I havent had a subscription for probably 15 years. I stopped because 3/4 of the content was ads. I got tired of having stacks of "catalogs" piling up in my house. If I wanted to find new parts, an internet search was all I needed. The Hamb filled the void for the actual content. So like it or not, in a small way the Hamb did help with the death of print.

 

But that's part of the reason we are here on the HAMB. We can share our own content, voice our own opinions and stories, etc. without the facebooks and instagrams of the world mining our data to somehow use 'against' us for their financial gain.

 

"The Rodder’s Journal. Don’t take it for granted fellas…"

Don't forget Hop Up

 

Good way of providing a true perspective as to how much the world has changed right before our eyes. We all took too much for granted, and still do. Most of us grew up by learning, in part, from reading magazines. Younger generations have had the world of overwhelming information at their finger tips, or voice command. Some here have truly gone with the flow of the high tech world, others not so much. As ships of old needed a fairly safe haven cove to find protection from a storm, the H.A.M.B. provides us that place to go to now. The tech storm is mixed into almost everything we do daily. But, being connected to the past through old cars, etc helps us to ride out the storm and not be sucked entirely into the "latest is greatest" world.

 

As I said on Malcolm's thread:
TRJ and Alliance member, I'm happy with that.

 

Not sure anyone had a better seat than you to watch the slow train wreck and man! but I love hearing your take on it, now that is an expert opinion.
Long live TRJ

 

In several states, Web mining & Privacy acts are legislativly underway.
It should have Not been presumed, that permission to pirate your personal info was granted.
One may trust, eventually, wisdom will prevail.

 

Remember when you were excited to get that Rod & Custom magazine in the mail? thumb through it looking at the photo's and then go back and reading it cover to cover? those were the days but those times cease to exist, or do they?

The Hamb is instant gratification each and every time you log on, We still have the Rodder Journal magazine which many of us bought lifetime subscriptions and from my point of view we insured that a publication that thinks more of it readers than the advertisers will survive far into the future.

I don't subscribe or submit to Facebook,Instagram,Twitter or and of those type of site, all that interest me are automotive sites like the Hamb and the other FB (ford Barn) and the '54 Ford club of America .

Maybe some day all these old treasured magazines in the closet might be desirable and be worth a few buck, as for my collection of Rodders Journal I don't let my friends borrow them and the can only peruse them in my presence. HRP

 

Ryan, I had a career in industrial marketing (I'm 74), and your very well-written essay on the death of print media really hit home with me on both hobby and professional fronts. On the business-to-business level, it's all about costs, and more than once when I was employed by a small company doing well, a bigger company would buy them out, the bean counters began running the show, and customer service went into the dumper. Literature and print ads among other things were soon vastly reduced or lost in the process. Trade journals steadily disappeared too, as their advertisers waned.
On the retail business-to-consumer end, the same thing happens, but with the added issues of loss of privacy, largely caused by everyone on social media feeling like the world wants to hear what they have to say. (I call it anti-social media.)
Both consumer and business marketing have suffered the loss of good print media. Is there more info on screen? Sure. But there is a special pleasure in holding a magazine (or newspaper, or book) in your hands while reading its contents. Same difference as walking with a friend to lunch vs being so consumed with texting him that you walk into a light post.
George Orwell's 1984 is becoming truer than we ever could have imagined.

 

Bingo! Snowman

 

who needs a magazine with this place around?

its a catch 22 for the magazines
the older crowd got mad and left when the magazines tried to change and attract newer subscribers with changing formats, young folks dont buy magazines that focus on cars they cant afford to build or cant relate to (they never see them cause they're locked up in a garage until the next rod run if its not raining)
everybody griped about ads.
change is the only constant.

enjoy and drive these cars while you are still able or allowed to folks

 

It was a good day for me when I found the HAMB.

 

You and I think alike, I've never had a cell phone, never been on Facebook or Instagram either. Also I have many old magazines everywhere.

 

...I hate to tell you, Hop-Up is gone too

 

I liked my magazines, but could read them cover to cover in an hour or so. I couldn't ask questions about what I read, and of course the tech articles were never about what I was working on at the time. That's what I love about the HAMB. I can ask any old car related question I want (stupid or otherwise), and get answers (stupid or otherwise). I also love that with so many members, I can read every thread I have an interest in on the first page, refresh it and start over with lots of new posts and answers. Thanks Ryan!

 

I disagree. seeing your ride posted on IG or FB..... causes someone saw it cruising somewhere is cool.

Club mags like Goodguys are still around but I bet are feeling pressure.

 

I can't find this information anywhere but here concerning Street Rodder. When you go to their site and click on subscriptions, it takes you straight to the publication store where only three magazines are left to which one can purchase a subscription: Hot Rod, Motor Trend, and Four Wheeler. A year subscription to Hot Rod is only $14.00!!! Won't be long now until they are gone as well...

 

As one that grew up pre-internet, the magazines were the source for inspiration and ideas beyond our small circle of car guy friends. I am a little sad the mags are going away, although I understand they will be digital, but it's not the same. I still look forward to getting the mags in the mail and reading them. Just like I look forward to logging on the HAMB and reading here. i even contribute when I can here, that interaction is missing with the mags.
The HAMB has been a great resource and I believe that the HAMB can coexist with printed. But the economics of print just are not able to keep up.

 

I have a cell phone, that give many a spam call, I read a newspaper every day, and I treasure the touch and feel of a new magazine that have come to me from the, also in trouble, US Post Office.
All the print I get has come to me thanks to the work of people and yes machines. Somewhere a reporter has trudged out or made a number of phone calls to an 'expert' for information that they feel is/or isn't needed to be relaid to a reader and if I am real lucky the reporter has drugged along a photographer, with a real camera and may have actually gone to school to learn about lighting-and other photography things.
The acquired information is taken back, hashed out, sent to a real editor that does some fact checking, sent off to layout, then to a real press room with the poor printers that had their jobs reduced to almost minimum wages (once you stand and hear a 5 unit press humming along at 10 copies every 1.5 second, it is spiritual).
The bindery department now gathers-boxes or bundles the printed material to be sent to the reader via mail- to the white box in-front of your house, where you stand at the window awaiting the arm coming out of the truck, pulling the little handle and they roll (ouch!-don't do that) up your magazine and shove it into the white box and close the door.
So, at least 10 people have taken the time with their jobs and have given you entertainment and technical information for you. And if you think the cover price of your magazine covered that cost,, sorry not gonna happen. It is up to the business that hope you buy something from them that pay for your magazine.
And if this was in print you would not be reading it for two to three months, but thanks to Ryan I can rant the micro second after I hit POST REPLY
Yes I was a in the Newspaper business and the magazine business and now I feel I am in the last bash of print - a silly calendar you can hang on your wall in a time you just look at your computer or smart phone, or watch for the time-date-current weather- and the future car events you have plugged.
LONG LIVE PRINT!

 

I have not heard anything from "Street Rodder" either and I just re-subscibed a few months ago... when "Rod and Custom" went under a few years ago, they transferred my subscription to "Hot Rod". I was not happy about it.

 

I wonder how much a subscription would be to a magazine with little to no advertising in it?
I read a lot of folks complaining about the content being all ads and that is why they stopped getting subscriptions..
I just looked through my latest SR and there were 46 pages of ads out of 108 pages... so just under 46% ad content...
I paid $1.67 for that issue as part of my $39.95 two year subscription...
So, how much is everyone willing to pay per issue of a monthly mag to get less ads?
Chappy
(full disclosure: I am the son of a career pressman. I was able to eat and wear shoes and have a nice Christmas growing up because of print media)

 

If you take a hard look at the magazines that were killed, there was A LOT of content overlap that they could have compressed into a few good magazines, ideally. It was never about idealism though, it was about the almighty dollar.
They catered to advertisers, not the common Joe on the street. Most guys I know with a mortgage and mouths to feed can't afford the $1500 part they're peddling in the tech section, or the "budget" engine build that comes in just under $5K, they want the speed secrets for the crap they have, or the true junkyard swap tips. Those have been gone since the 20th century. We're tripping over the nostalgia of the titles when they've been serving us a shit sandwich for 20 years.

 

This really stinks! I have been lucky enough to have one of my cars on the cover and a full spread in the now defunct Rod and Custom and my other car in the good guy gazette. This to me is a high honor and actually in a funny way gives you some bragging rights. It really saddens me that now the next guy with a kool ass car will not get to experience seeing his creation in print.
So here’s a big middle finger from me to all the online stuff that has caused this!!!

 

I work in a printing company as a Millwright, I have been in printing 39 years. I remember hearing in the 90's the internet will kill printing, now we also print catalogs for the WWW. companys.
Big Corporate printers buy small printing companies and close them, to get the magazines that the small printer is doing.
Share holder demand for profits are hurting us.
We under bid print jobs just to keep the machines turning.