Event Coverage The Death of R&C, Again (By Pat Ganahl)

Thanks for this, Pat. I can only add to carry it locally too. Support local shops and restaurants. Especially the old time auto parts stores.

 

The world is rapidly changing - time will tell if for the good or the bad.

I miss my print magazines, but I'm an old guy. It just isn't the same, reading your favorite car sites on a lap top while in the crapper............

In any event, this is the world we live in, not in the past. There should be a LOT more guys stepping up and helping Ryan support the HAMB by becoming an Alliance member. Less than $1.00 a week for all the car reading, information and advice you could ever hope to find at any time of the day or night.

 

Yup. Good read and I also encourage all members to join the Alliance. Small price for the return and the well being of the HAMB.

 

Yeah tagman, I'm with you. I have started recyling. My partner in crime has one wall of his garage in shelving, floor to ceiling hot rod magazines. He has been the recipient from guys like me who downsized and had no space anymore. So now I have library priviledges, take a hand full at time and reread them. Fills the void for me and at my age most of the stuff is "new", having forgotten the content from back in the day.

 

What Pat said is the hard truth. It's difficult to hear, and even more difficult to accept, but it is the truth.

The good news is that more than one "indie" has indicated an interest in filling the void Rod & Custom's demise has created, and those already existing are aggressively planning expansion.

And, as Pat has suggested, WE must aggressively support our area of interest if we want the indies to survive and thrive. How? Simple. Sell something you don't need and put the money towards something you do need: a traditional hot rod and custom independent publisher.

 

give us a list of who is filling the void

 

Thanks Pat , for airing your take on this. Having been loyal to RnC since 1967,its demise(yet again) stings. Thanks also, for your past efforts on it. Thank God for the HAMB and TRJ!

 

I have made several attempts to purchase print publications with no success and I've also looked into starting from scratch. There have been far to many posts here saying, "I thumbed through the magazine at the news stand and didn't buy a copy" to give one confidence that a niche book would survive. The key to the success of a new book has to be the distribution. Yet, Source Interlink was one of the largest magazine distributor in the country and couldn't make it work. Used to be that you could buy magazines and weekly drag racing publications at speed shops. How many speed shops are still around?

From time to time, I will print out some tech info off the 'net and put it into a folder for future reference. Perhaps there is a way to format a HAMB thread to make it easy to print.

 

God I wish HopUp was back

 

Support the HAMB join the ALLIANCE. Its only $50 bucks a year. Most of us spend that when we go out to dinner. And you get a nice plaque to put on your hotrod or tool box.
Just my thought.

 

Oh, ye of little faith...

Take a look at denis4x4's post above for just one example of a soul yearning to fill the void. He may not have had much success yet, but where there's a will there's usually a way - maybe not in traditional publishing but the vast resources of the internet have yet to be tapped more than on the surface.

Read also Ryan's posts on his yet-to-be-formalized plans for The Jalopy Journal.

As far as expansion is concerned, take a look at Pat Ganahl's post on TJJ about his titles. Do you think for a moment that he's going to stop NOW?

Note also the rekindled marketing of The Rodder's Journal here on the H.A.M.B. If that's not an indication of budding expansionism I don't know what is.

There are also other titles catering to the "traditional" concept of hot rodding and custom car building that are still alive and kicking, with no plans to give up that I know of.

Have faith, Texasred. This is America where "as one door closes, another door opens." And so it will be with the continuation of the Rod & Custom tradition, if not the title itself.

 

Same can be said for all "boutique" services in this hobby/industry - we should all be willing to pay a little more for better quality and support our suppliers and manufacturers who shun high volume/low cost, inferior imported parts with high profit margins in an effort to provide premium quality items that are proudly locally made.

Steve

 

Too Tall...Thank you for all you have done to promote hot rods & customs in general,your passion and dedication as a editor,spokesman,writer or visionary hasn't gone unnoticed. HRP

 

Mister Ganahl, You deserve a medal. You have contributed immensely to a group of souls hungry to know more about their hobby and lifestyle. Your writing, research and photographs have documented and explained the nuances of a variety of technical and aesthetic conundrums, and your enthusiasm spilled over into the lives of the readers of Rod and Custom, and the other publications you've written for, as well as the books you've put together (I would say authored by it goes beyond that in some cases). And, though I've never met you, (I know this sounds like copy for a TV commercial) 'I did get to see the 4dr beater Chevy you drove to high school and wrenched on for many years, at the LA Roadster show, one year'. My impression was that you take it as it comes, and don't let obstacles get in your way. Maybe my remarks are minor in view of all the things that have happened; but we all need to step back and realize that Rod and Custom was also about the people, who gave of themselves, went the extra mile and who kept it going through thick and thin. And, I know in the back of your mind you're waiting on that phone call, maybe in the years ahead, that asks you if you'd be willing to step back up to the plate. Let's hope so, but also be men enough, all of us, to realize fate is a bitch, and we lose some and win a few. And, with you at the helm, for a short time, we won a bunch. God Bless Rod & Custom.

 

Both Pat and Arin Cee, WELL SAID. I'm an old timer,too and I hope the young guys will step up in this matter AND in our hobby. The future is in their hands.

 

HRP, I could not have said it any better. Pat and Jake Jacobs, in the earlier days, have always been my favorites.
I have learned so much from reading their stories and how-tos. I hope things work out for you in what ever you get involved with in the future. Brian

 

The only constant is change. Sometimes it generates pain, trauma even, but there are usually opportunities as well, if we look for them. For most of us, it is a matter of improvise, adapt, and overcome.

 

Sad. Sad. Sad. Subcribers are afraid to subscribe because they might end up with a 3-year sub to Trucking in Belgium when the title is dropped by the publisher. What a world.

 

Been feeling guilty for a while about the time I spend on the HAMB and the pleasure and information it brings without any reciprocation on my part. I'm healed! I renewed my Alliance membership. Besides I needed another HAMB tag for my new Corvette.

 

...P.G.'s comments are true & common sense; You don't support a business, it won't be in business, no matter how cool, hip or sensible it may seem to people. But nobody works for free & enthusiasm don't pay the rent (even though most staff editors stayed at their desks due to their passions for the subject matter they covered). Operation costs & liveable wages are needed to sustain the enthusiasm, & yes, focus away from it towards profits will dilute it's quality in the long run (and apparently has).

But R.C.'s assertions I think are the bigger reason for the demise of R&C & other titles: the business models of these corporate publishing companies. They have parodied titles overlapping one another & competing for the same advertisers dollar, pushed inflated subscription sales as opposed to market focused newstand sales in an attempt to justify there advertising rates, engaged in seat of the pants market research for new titles and massaged the advertisers with informmercial editorial content. It was apparently unsustainable and collapsed on top of them. Consider why a consumer reports publication with almost nil advertising can survive? They don't engage in catering to advertising sales but instead engage the reader and cater to them through product test reviews instead of press release overviews. So, it seems there is now ample opportunity for the "indieand/or enthusiast based vertical content publications" to apply their passion & enthusiasm for this culture/lifestyle/hobby through their writing & imagery to bring the rodding & custom community to it's next incarnation that'll be fueled by enthusaism but maintained by some basic business principles & ethics.

 

It seems the common denominator for the 'bad' and the 'demise' is most always the almighty dollar. Things start out good, or great in some cases. People make a little money doing what they like/enjoy and then.....the greed starts creeping in. Just a little at first. Turn the pump up a little more....then a little more....and a little more (...'cause they're hooked like a crack addict now, gotta have more dollars!!), then the pump flies apart. Then here come the tears..."Whaaat haaaappened?!?!?" A lot of smaller businesses have the same same greed problems that the corporations do, it's just that the corporations affect more people and have a bigger impact. In the big blank box labeled 'Corporation', there are people in there making the greedy decisions. And, somewhere/sometime, there was a meeting by multiple people within the corporation that agreed that '....yes, this is the thing to do'. Amazing.

I believe Ryan and Pat are good examples of people exercising a passion, without the dollar sign being at the top of the list. The result is quality that people are attracted to. I honestly believe it's in your basic upbringing, waaaayyy before you ever reach the working world. Poor ethics have been instilled in a lot of young people for some time and now those people are in 'leadership' roles. (no, I'm not 'doomsday is near', it's just that it's in sufficient quantities that it's affecting a lot of people)

Ryan and Pat, keep 'skating the same line'! Hopefully more people will follow your example. We, the hot rodders and customizers, will benefit from your passion. Hey, workin' people help workin' people. I've never minded paying for quality from good people. It was the American way at one time. Y'all keep doin' what your doin', we're here for ya. (...'cause I damn sure can't do it, a man has got to know his limitations)

 

I live in Florida now but still get Area Auto racing News the oval track racing paper and will never let my subscription expire, I still want to know who did what that week of racing and read the columnists (all of them work for free). The biggest reason I keep getting the paper is entirely because it is the last weekly paper left & they deserve to be supported otherwise they too will be gone. Many of the local racing forums have people bashing them (from a keyboard) for late delivery etc. and I really get ragged- this is the last one standing. Support what is left to the best of your financial ability & do the same thing for your local race track- everything about the car scene has been gradually contracting & we need to give support.

 

R&C was one of the main pillars of my universe from the time I discovered it at age 12...after its previous deaths, I was so pathetically paranoid about its economic viability that I subscribed AND always bought two on the newsstands, along with any copies encountered in odd places like the grocery store. If there had been an R&C Alliance, I would have signed on and signed on my dogs and cats to boot...
Ryan is right, the whole model has moved on and its creative edge is largely online...
The history, however, still exists. Decades of good stuff, not readily accessible to those who were born too late to buy it on the newsstand.
Hot Rod Deluxe (whose survivability also scares me...) touched upon marketing the glorious past with its use of the Petersen archive illustrations and history, putting that past back onto the newsstand and perhaps showing the rats a better way.
Is there a way to license the past and put today's relative ease of copying into play? Could someone with ambitions similar to denis4X4 hire reprint rights to, say, early Rod and Custom?? Could the past itself be a viable niche for publishing, marketed and sold in community venues rather than newsstands?
Imagine if you could buy a subscription for a year of Rod and Custom...and choose any year from 1953 to 1963!
The past is a niche that really belongs in print; perhaps the creative edge of traditional rodding is better served online in something that is more a community than a marketplace...like here. Our section of anything that the market can define is being gnawed away by the rats on one edge and buried in marketable fads by the streetrodders on the other edge...but away from the newsstands, a market could be found within focused communities like this.

 

Right on Pat and thanks to Ryan for the new beginnings and the thought full insights. I stated last week that there are two guys that have been publishing a new magazine for a year now. They both work out of their homes and the product is premium. Check it out, Rodding USA. Just go on line to www.roddingusa.com and see what they have to offer. Like it was mentioned, you are not going to get a sub for $2.50 but what you are going to get is a quality magazine that is right down our collective alleys !!!!
Da Flash