A Sad Day for Car guys and Gals

[DRM500RUBYZR-1]

A Sad Day for Car Guys and Gals

It was announced by the publisher that 19 of some of our favorite Motor-head Magazines are being discontinued.
Some may remain in digital form, but the hard-copy versions will no longer be available.
Here’s a full list of discontinued titles:
4-Wheel & Off-Road
Automobile
Car Craft
Chevy High Performance
Classic Trucks 
Diesel Power
Hot Rod Deluxe 
Jp
Lowrider
Mopar Muscle
Muscle Car Review
Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords
Mustang Monthly
Street Rodder
Super Chevy 
Super Street
Truck Trend 
Truckin’
Vette
Now I know things change and I am usually OK with that but I wonder what impact this may have on the upcoming generations of car lovers.
But reading the obituary for those magazines made me stop and think of my affair with one of them.
The following is what I wrote about this in Corvette Forum:

The year was 1965.
I finally took some of my newspaper delivery money and asked my parents to write a check for me in exchange for the cash.
I was 12.
I sent the check and began THE WAIT.
Then one day I came home from school and there it was.
The first issue of my subscription to Car Craft Magazine!
Read the entire magazine 3 times before dinner.
Read it again and again until the next issue arrived.
Same drill as previous issue.
I continued to subscribe until well after I got my drivers license and my first car,
But it just wasn't the same.
The cars in the magazine and a car that I could afford were worlds apart.
Soon after the Car Craft affair simply died.

As an adult, Car and Driver took over the empty space.

Then Hemmings, Auto Week and Automobile.

Soon Corvette Fever, Vette, Vette Vues and Corvette.

Now, just Corvette and Hemmings.

It is sad however to see them go,

Would I or many of you become the rabid car guys and gals that we are without such magazines?

An earlier poster spoke of some of today's folly that can be found in some of them, and that certainly contributes to their demise.

Certainly though, these computers we sit in front of are the guilty parties.

I guess some magazines will go digital and maybe all will be well.................................... .....

I NEVER will forget the way I felt when those first few years of Car Craft came to my mailbox..........

MAGIC!

My condolences to the passing of the print.


Marty
Last edited by DRM500RUBYZR-1; 12-08-2019 at 08:19 AM.
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I guess I will look on the bright side.
Maybe more kids will discover their love for cars through the Digital Magazines if any remain.
Marty

[carter200]

Well said and I for one feel your pain......

[Jagdpanzer]

Very sad news
Just renewed my subscription to Hot Rod and Carcraft
Have to admit content is not what it used to be from back in the day.


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[rush91]

Well said. I still get Car and Driver in the ole mailbox but not for much longer. I guess it was a matter of time, with readership going the way of the newspaper.... Just not many people actually read physical copies of print magazines or newspapers anymore.

I remember getting the new Car and Driver, Car Craft and Vette magazines back in the day. I would love getting C&D top speed shoot-out issue every year. Or getting the new issue of Vette magazine and looking at readers cars. Knowing one day I'd love to own one of those ZR-1s......Sad day for those of us who enjoy and looked forward to a new issue coming out. I hope all those losing their jobs can land on their feet, it makes it even more hard at this time of year.

[billschroeder5842]

I own a publishing company that still producing print magazines (and yes, the full digital package) for the travel industry. We are fortunate as distributing magazines in hotel rooms is still relevant and popular. I'm lucky.

I grew up with Car Craft, Mopar Muscle and Hot Rod. My first car was a 71 roadrunner and I did everything a 16 year old could do that Car Craft told me to do. Like Marty, I DEVOURED each magazine and could wait for the next issue.

Unfortunately the features that drew us and the business models could not survive "tech."

Classified ads--- Craig's List, Ebay fills this void
Tech questions ---- digital boards (like CF or the registry) allow "live" interaction
Do it yourself articles--- You tube videos does a great job
Product reviews--- Again You tube

All that is left is the car features....

This makes me feel old.

[Young1]

I remember being a ten year old and getting the CARtoons magazines. Then graduated to Hot Rod for decades. I cancelled about a year ago. I agree with Phil. Content changed and they seemed to push you toward their web site and videos.

[Mystic ZR-1]

Good thing I‘ve still got the several hundred pounds of car magazines up in the attic! Some of these have been following me around since the early 60s...
Still getting 3 or 4 a month! But maybe not much longer?
Wife would love me to get rid of them...

[BigJohn]

Good thing I‘ve still got the several hundred pounds of car magazines up in the attic! Some of these have been following me around since the early 60s...
Still getting 3 or 4 a month! But maybe not much longer?
Wife would love me to get rid of them...

Is her plan to move you into the attic?
Maybe she just needs more room in the attic.
How is Vermont this week?
Yep I don’t like online magazines!

[Stingray1967]

Marty, I hear ya. When I was growing up, I remember the first magazines that came out that featured ZR-1. I ordered a few of those 1988 / 1989 / 1990 magazines off of eBay to have them. I even remembered some of the ADS that were in those. I loved going through those and looking at them again. And they were cheap, because nobody wants a 30 year old magazine right now. I currently take a group of magazines, but have noticed that I'm not keeping up reading them as much as I used to. Car & Driver, Road & Track, Motor Trend, and Corvette are the ones that come for me. I love Corvette magazine, as well as R&T (because of the racing features). The other two I could take or leave. I do however like keeping the "NEW CORVETTE" debut issues. I have the ones from the C6 and C7 debut. Kinda neat to look back on.

[EvanZR1]

I've made the transition at this point to completely digital for all my reading (and I do a lot). For magazines, I have MotorTrend, Automobile (only because MT offered a great "add-on" rate) and Vette. For books, I've converted pretty much everything to Kindle (read on iPad, Android phone or my laptop/PC). For music, everything is MP3 or streaming. The nice thing is this has allowed me to get rid of a lot of clutter (hard copy). It's sad, and I resisted for a while, but I'm much happier after making the switch.

[spork2367]

Very sad news
Just renewed my subscription to Hot Rod and Carcraft
Have to admit content is not what it used to be from back in the day.


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I love a good magazine in my hands and have a subscription to four of the magazines being discontinued.

I however spend more time on motortrend's streaming app than I do in the magazines anymore. Magazine content is blah and lacking the back and forth commentary provided by many of the shows. That combined with the fact that 50% of the magazine is ads and I'm not surprised at this move. Besides, the entire motorsport publication industry is like the same 100 people just constantly moving from one publication to another. Not very fresh in my opinion.

If a picture is worth 1000 words, a video is worth 1000 pictures. I get way more out of the shows than the magazines. Still a sad day.

[Bob Eyres]

I started reading Sports Cars Illustrated (Car and Driver’s original name), and Hot Rod in the very early sixties. Anything with fast Chevys.
Along with Road and Track, Those two were the best written.
There were a lot of Corvette mags over the years, of very uneven quality.
As a TV guy, I knew that eventually this kinetic hobby would best be served by Video. First by broadcast (NASCAR, NHRA, etc.), then cable with Jay Leno’s show, Top Gear, and more live racing. And now with YouTube, where any car freak with a smart phone and a vehicle can easily have his own show.
There comparatively aren’t many clips about C4 ZR-1’s on line, but that’s just not a “Mass Market”. But other cars, ( like my BMW 335i) have extensive library’s of DIY fixit and performance clips. So much so that I wouldn’t even own the car without “Vehicular DIY” to refer to. Maybe we can put a lot more C4 ZR-1 fixit and Mod it videos on YouTube.

All but the best Car Mags may be
Dead soon, but we are in the Golden Age of Information. And now we can see and HEAR these beasts howl, and even take a ride in them online. I’m ancient, but I’m diggin’ it. Enjoy!


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