In terms of print coverage vs web, I often questioned if ALL those classic titles would have faired going quarterly.. Rod and Custom was naturally a favorite for me, then TRK filled void until it's death. Musclecar Review and Car Craft were entertaining, Drew and Johnny breathed( or attempted to) new life in those titles. I've stuck with Hot Rod through van era. Change in the hobby doesn't deter me, electric powered rods will grow. The diminishing variety of features is what still bothers me. At least show cutting edge progress and toss in some bangers and El Mirage. Maybe I'm just out of touch.
Never gave that a thought,but you're 100% right. This changing world is certainly not always for the better.
You remind me of the mouse in the poster giving the finger to the eagle as it swoops in with talons extended ....
Agreed, that has always been a very prestigious, coveted deal to have your ride make ink. And how many times has someone on the HAMB posted pics of an old Rod or Custom, asking for history only to have a member post the car in an old magazine feature or even cover? Pretty cool stuff compared to "I saw some old pics of that car posted online somewhere".
On another note. How will this effect the pro builders? Magazine coverage was a large factor in how or what parts may be used in a build. Some manufacturers of materials would supply parts, refinish materials ...... so products would be mentioned in the magazine articles. Tech articles would sometimes feature parts built by the pro shops. Some shops were almost guaranteed coverage and this was a selling point for customers. Many decisions in big buck builds are made due to exposure. As far as us regular Joes, magazine coverage is probably irrelevant. I haven’t seen Mini Truck magazine in a long time but currently building one. (Don’t worry, won’t be posted here) Meaning, the average person here seems to build for the joy of building. Another observation, does anyone else find it odd that the creator and mods of an internet based message board is leery of FB and IG?
We all probably learned something from them over the years. I started with Hot Rod in 54-55 when my allowance let me. (Dad didn’t like Mad-so my brother and I had to hide it) Recently I’ve a only subscribed to Classic Cars from Hemmings and pick up Drive once a week when I find it. I’ve been lucky Pat Ganahl made me famous in 1978 by showing off 3 pages of our 40 LSR/ drag Chevrolet Coupe in Street Rodder and Frieberger gave us a great full page shot of our roadster at Bonneville a few years back in Hot Rod; More than a 10-12year old could ever imagine in the mid fifties growing up. My wife and I still read a daily newspaper but it has cut back a lot lately and costs more than it’s worth. Oh well!
as a group who appreciates history of the Hot Rod and custom world what is happening is there will be no printed history of today for those not born yet. digital images are not forever, so a large percent of everyone's photos will be gone in 10 years. there will be no copies of the HAMB for sale at the local swap meet. a sad day for the future. I'm glad I'm old. the world is turning to shit in a hurry. this is just the tiniest part of it.
Is anyone surprised? Buy your car parts from Rockauto.... save big money. Meanwhile your local parts store closes. Buy your groceries online or a big chain store....save big money. Meanwhile your local grocery store closes. Buy everything from clothes to household items from Amazon. ..save big money. Meanwhile your main street dies. Read all your news online. Newspapers die Read car stuff instantaneously on the net...no cost but your privacy. Car magazines die. Is anyone surprised? Shouldn't be.
Ryan, this is very well put. We have given up way too much to modern technology in the last 10-15 years. I will miss Street Rodder magazine for sure
They traded mechanics and mechanical engineers for English majors ,they traded content for ads and neatly written snake oil sales by the English major who knows the proper “there their and they’re “ they did it to themselves, if the content was like it was up into the 80s I would have still bought magazines
Yes you are so very right. My car was in Rod&Custom magazine when I was at the NSRA Mid America nationals in Springfield, Mo several years ago. That was a fantastic feeling seeing my car in print.
The answer is "not enough boobies". Look, all I'm sayin' is, Easyriders Magazine has boobies in it and they're still printin' those. So... Seriously though, I've been reading this from different sources, for a few days, and all I can say is what everybody is thinking. This sucks! Oh hell, you know what just dawned on me? Just think of how expensive back issues are about to get.
I still remember the excitement that came over me when one fall afternoon near dusk in 1988 I came upon the PREMIER ISSUE! (again) of Rod & Custom in the grocery store magazine rack. I knew it was coming, but didn't expect to find one that day in little 'ol Fulton Missouri. I just got it back out from my stash to enjoy what I like about printers ink on paper. Thank you Pat Ganahl for all the memories! -Dave
Back in the '60s, Hot Rod and Motor Trend, along with some "newsprint with a glossy cover" specialty drag racing titles, were my gateway to cars, as a rug rat. I would get antsy while shopping at the grocery store with my Mom and sister, so I would get to pick a magazine to shut me up. Still have stacks of them, all re-read over the decades, to the point where the covers are falling off. What's the gateway for the little guys now? Later, my early real live cars were the old modified Japanese tin can stuff of the '70s (cheap and available). There were no magazines that covered that kind of thing, so there is almost no record of how it really was. There is on-line for the Nostalgic Japanese now, and they cover the old stuff, but it is all overlaid with how people do them up now, and they aren't the real deal. Nobody even knows what the real deal was, back then, any more. Old time hot rodders have all the reference works, the magazines, to get the builds proper and do them up right. So save those old magazines, they're all we've got to keep the thing going. Pixels evaporate quickly.
And with the flip of a switch the internet and the HAMB could be gone too. Glad I have the printed history.
[QUOTE="What's the gateway for the little guys now?.[/QUOTE] You driving your ride and engaging young folks will go further than a magazine would ever go.
Well said! Just signed up for another 3 years of Hot Rod. I found a few years ago they were a little more diversified than in the past. Stopped Street Rodder a few years ago. No real reason but probably influenced by all the on line stuff available. Really surprised to see them go. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
@Murphy32 the annual is currently at the printers and should ship in January. I think they are holding off shipping until after the holiday to better the odds of it showing up in a timely/ all one one piece/ manor. Looks like one annual a year and up to four little pages specials a year. You subscribe and they charge you as they come out, when you don’t want them to send them to you anymore you get ahold of them and tell them your done/out. Then you don’t have to keep track of when your subscription runs out, they don’t have to remind you, and you just pay as they come out. - not intended as a thread high jack but the info isn’t real wide spread at the moment so since people have mentioned it in these threads I figured I’d add what info I have available. Which could be wrong but as far as I know it’s not.
Interesting thread. Yes, everything changes, and it always has. When I was a little kid, I delivered the big area paper, the 7 days a week one, to damn near all the houses on my route. This was the early 60s. I read it everyday before I delivered it. To my old customers who saw me fucking off on the sidewalk where my papers got dropped, and reading the paper hours before they even got theirs, I say tough shit. You could have stopped, picked up your own paper from me, and saved me a stop, but no, you'd rather call in and bitch cause your paper was late. I sold that route so I didn't have to get up at some godforsaken time on Sunday morning anymore. Then I started delivering the 5 day a week skinny paper that paid much less to me, but wasn't as hard. So began a lifelong pattern of trying to always take the easy way out. This was in the early-mid 60s. I read all the Cuban missle crisis stuff every day, and thought we were all dead. This when I was 10 years old. Started buying car mags, little books in early 1962, almost always the 25 cent East Coast mags ( see sig line, I got it honest ). I still have all of them, and can remember details, because I read them over and over. The stuff I obsessed over then remains my primary obsession now. I read them at night by flashlight until my mom yelled at me. If my dad caught me, he didn't ever rat me out. I still read both of those 2 newspapers, the bigger one every day, the smaller one 5 days a week. I hear the delivery woman go down my dead end street if I'm up late enough, in her shitty minivan. I don't think she delivers to any of my neighbors anymore, just me. They don't print crime stats anymore in my 30,000 population town. Major local news is printed days later. You can get killed in my town and it'll be days before your name is told in the local paper. This is not a good thing, I don't care how warm and fuzzy FB makes you feel. I love the net, and the HAMB is easily my favorite part of it. But.... I go to my eye docs office, and at 67, I sometimes feel like I'm one of the youngest people there. It's a big waiting room... and not a magazine to be found anywhere. I don't think it because everyone sitting there is too blind to read. Rant over.
Yeah, I get that nobody wants them. I was going to touch on that, the cost of doing business these days, internet competition leading to poor quarterly numbers, and all that but left out a whole paragraph. I sometimes have problems translating complete thoughts. Maybe from all those times I banged my head on VW hoods as a youngin'. Still have a German latch shaped groove in the back of my gourd, but, I digress. Who would have ever thought that any of us would outlive print? One thing is for sure. This is going to make it real difficult for my wife to convince me to "throw out all of those old magazines". Especially the ones with boobies in them.
When I discovered forum boards on the internet, paper was for sure dead with me. I was still buying a magazine or two at the time, but the “ now” factor of the internet, not to mention the ability to communicate with like minded individuals pretty much sealed the deal for me. I have and still do belong to several different boards, come and go as my tastes change. You can’t do that with paper. Paper always involved waiting, something I’ve never been good at. I have fakebook, but my friends list is mostly car guys from other boards with a few family members thrown in. I did like everybody else at first, had a bunch of high school classmates and folks around town, then I got to thinking, I haven’t seen some of these folks in over 40 years, and we have nothing in common, so I dumped them! Like squirrel, I only do FB on my pc at home, never on my phone. My phone is used for my business calls and scanning my freight bills. I throw it in the cars at home when I go somewhere just in case I break down. Just think, the buggy whip and horse carriage businesses pretty much disappeared a little over a 100 years ago when ole HENRY FORD put America in horseless carriages. Change happens, we don’t always like it, but we can’t always stop it, either. We just have to adapt and keep moving forward.
The actual quote is: "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." We may be technologically advancing as a society while losing some desirable aspects. I wonder how long some digital entries will last when providers like Photobucket decide to change. What happens when Facebook and Instagram bail and for that matter the site we are on? Obsolesence is part of the computer and software business model.
It all goes to the giant server in the sky. Besides, according to the conspiracy folks it’s all gonna be stored with some government. 200 years from now your descendants will have to pay reparations for all the environmental issues your hot rod caused