I'm for "REAL" magazines, I find it difficult reading on the computer, (sounds like my job), I enjoy flipping thru the pages,( hard to take the computer to the toilet) I've put many motorcycle and cars back to original reviewing old magazine articles and original road tests. My mancave has areas with 4 high of wooden crates fastened together and attached to Harbor freight mini dollies, for ease of mobility with well over a thousand Motorcycle, Car magazines, tech manuals and original literature and well organized. I saw Stuart has a collection, but i enjoy researching and reviewing old tech articles, especially on crappy days.
Bottom Line each to their own, once things go all digital, I'm done and you'll find me in the cave!

I'm probably older than most of you. Years ago I tried Smoke on line to try to save a few dollars. It was so hard for me to read I gave up and went back to paper. You all have great responses. The same time I got the notice about Smoke I was notified that the local newspaper I had just received was the last one printed. A couple of months ago Hot Rod Magazine notified me there will no more monthly issues. After the loss of the Pontiac magazines that only leaves me Hemming's. I don't know anyone that reads books on paper. Everybody I know that's younger than I am does EVERYTHING on their phone. I think that "paper people" are a dying breed literally.

While I have not contacted POCI yet, I am very disappointed as well.
How do you share an "E" magazine? How would you like your car featured and have nothing to show for it? If you make "the cover of the Rolling Stone", how awesome to pass your phone around? I often include back issues (not mine) with parts I ship to spread the faith.
Best case scenario would be to do a periodic "E" issue with business related content & Ads and publish the car stuff in hard copy.
The world is going to heck, I tell ya!

I've been a POCI member since 1981. When the Canadian membership rates went through the roof several years ago, I opted for the digital subscription. I've read maybe one issue online. Same for SAE when they simply stopped offering Canadians printed magazines, and gave us no other option than digital. I hate digital magazines. The only magazines I read are the few that still arrive in my postal mail. Smoke Signals was an impressive magazine, I really miss it.

What's the current total membership of POCI?

Honestly, don't have an opinion either way on the delivery method of Smoke . I quit giving em my opinion & dues 25 years ago. While I'm sure I've missed a few good articles, from the multiple dozens of later issues that I've skimmed through, my whistle wasn't wetted.

FWIW, Im a huge fan of Magazines in my Kindle App on my Ipad (Or in the same app on my phone). I don't know if Smoke Signals is in the Kindle system. Ive read Hot Rod on there for years.

Magazines in general are a tough sell anymore though. Im 40, and that's probably young by this boards standards. People even younger than me done have a nostalgic attachment to standing in the magazine aisle why their mom shopped as a kid. In the information age where you can target search what you want, Its harder to convince people to pay for something that might or might not have content they are interested in every month.

I would like to see Peterson Publishing (Or whomever owns the bulk rights to all the car rags) to digitize ALL of their backlog and make it searchable. I would pay a subscription fee for that, and they could continue to provide new content along with the subscription.

I get old PHP and HR articles that pop up when I google search stuff, but its hit or miss. Sometimes the pictures dont work etc. And it can be hard to find a specific article sometimes.

As far as print media goes the new issues I miss the most:
-MuscleCar Review (Hemmings Muscle Machines blows! just cancelled again)
-Pontiac Enthusiast
-Classic Auto Restorer/Auto Restorer
-Guide to MuscleCars
-HPP (began subscribing in '81 with the second issue of ThunderAm)

I contacted the subscription / membership rep for Cruisin Tigers after having issues receiving a mag for past 2 years. He finally indicated he did not see things getting better in the future and offered / completed a refund. It was indicated this was because of the time you were taking away for your book. From what I was able to find there are a bunch of members that were in the same boat so getting them to re-up may be difficult. I for one really miss getting the mag..

Excerpt from the response I received:

“You should have access to the Members Exclusive section where past issues of Poncho Perfection and Tiger News are posted. The December issue has not been printed yet due to a delay from the editor of Poncho Perfection. This has been a problem this last year as he is writing a book and put the magazine on the back burner. I’m hoping that the December issue is ready by mid-February. He has a lot of catching up to do.
Very frustrating for all of us.”

“ I don’t see this getting better any time soon.”

Back in the mid 80's , when I wanted to join the local Pontiac (POCI) club in Greensboro , I had to join the National (POCI) and pay them yearly dues - before I could join the local club - and pay them dues also.

All I got out of the National was the Smokes magazine.
But it was worth that admission price to be able to benefit from being in the local club.

Do the local chapters still have to require their members to be paid up members of the National too ?

The local Pontiac(POCI) club in Greensboro was a super club. Great annual shows. Is is still active?

I am more than willing to own my portion of the problems but they are not the only reason that the magazine has had delivery problems. In December of 2022, the Cruisin' Tigers website crashed which destroyed the membership records. While a new website has been built, the records have had to be restored by hand and I was told that they weren't going to continue with that procedure, so in March of last year, the remains of the membership records were turned over to me to restore. We did the best we could using old mailing lists from before the crash and with the help of the new webmaster, we have put the membership records back in order. We have extended memberships where we didn't have records and sent out emails and postcards for people who have expired.

As for the schedule, we mailed out the August issue a few weeks ago and we are sending the October issue to the printer this week. I have all of the articles in for the December issue and will get on that as soon as October ships.

As you all know, we took a pretty big hit in November when Stan Rarden, one of our columnists, died and that further set things back. Our October issue is dedicated to him and lots of people in the hobby sent in their tributes to him. It was a very emotional issue to produce and we gave him the best sendoff we could.

As for my book, I freely admit I bit off a bit more than I should have but the topic was too good for me to pass up. It's called "Pontiac Factory Drag Cars: How a Manufacturer Ushered in the Muscle Car Era at the Drag Strip." It is being published by CarTech, who published Rocky's books and Dean Fait's bio on Arnie.

I have been working on it for two years and in the rush to get it finished, Poncho fell behind. I have been working my tail off every single day and honestly, life would have been a lot easier had I never taken on this project but I truly believe that that book will be a huge asset for the Pontiac hobby and will bring a lot of interest in the topic, as we have uncovered a ton of new stories and a lot of never before seen photography. The magazine and the Cruisin' Tigers will benefit from the added publicity this book will generate.

Yes, it's true that the magazine fell behind but we are catching up and I expect that by the time that we hit the road for the summer shows, we will be caught up- maybe sooner. We will be debuting the book at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals and I look forward to it being completely in the rearview mirror. There's still some minor revising left to do but it's essentially finished.

I apologize to those of you who have had your subscriptions screwed up but the problems are clearing up and we look forward to some spectacular new issues of Poncho Perfection, including tech, historical articles, Department X features and the best Pontiac coverage available. Again, if you have any questions or problems, please feel free to email me at donaldjkeefe@aol.com or call me at 585-489-9826. I do answer my phone and will make right whatever has happened.

Most magazine companies have abandoned the Pontiac world. Poncho Perfection and our staff are still out there fighting the good fight and we're doing it ON PAPER. Please put some faith in us and in the Pontiac hobby so we can all enjoy it and pass it on to the next generation. The worst thing that we can do is bitch and moan about how things aren't like they used to be and dig the hole deeper. There's still one all Pontiac magazine left (no Oaklands and no GMCs) and it's Poncho Perfection. If you haven't seen it yet, sign up here https://www.cruisintigers.com/products/print-membership and get instant access to our back issues. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope it answers all of your questions. If not, you know where to find me.

If you subscribe to Motortrend+, you get access to back issues of 27 different titles. They have every single issue of Hot Rod and Motor Trend, Car Craft back to 2008, Muscle Car Review back to 2012. There are offroad and truck magazines, Mustang magazines, Mopar Muscle, Hot Rod Deluxe and many more.

I was a long time subscriber to Hot Rod, they gave me a free year access to MT+ when they changed to quarterly issues.

Nuff said apology accepted, nice to know 'the rest of the story', appreciate your dedication to the breed...


Frank

I would be happy to. I wish we had that option.

When GM muscled GMC into the Pontiac clan, I was PO then, you go to the Dustboff and see GMC trucks next to GTO”s. Not sure why the GMC guys think they’re better than the Chevy boys, hate to tell you, ITS THE SAME TRUCK, just 200 lbs of plastic chrome.

Mine do.

I'm in POCI so that I can maintain membership in my local clubs (the Motor City Chapter, and the Widetracker Chapter).

K

That would be July of 1863, for those keeping score.

;)

K

I also like the printed mags vs online but online is better than nothing. I'm also surprised nobody suggested printing out the online version? I also think POCI and GTOAA should merge, it just makes sense.

Lots and lots of good and varied responses to this thread! I just want to say for the record you can all read Don Keef's responses here. His dedication to the hobby and the magazine are clear and line up with my first post about Pontiac Perfection Magazine. Taking subscriptions in house again can only help the situation IMO. I think everyone on the message board wants the magazine to thrive and continue. I will be contacting Don directly as I don't want 4 years of the magazine for free. We will work something out. I want to support his efforts and the hobby in general. I also see a trend in these posts that the vast majority prefer PAPER magazines and are willing to pay more for them vs digital. I really hope someone at POCI with decision making power reads this forum and takes the posts here to heart. I use my computer for several hours each and every day for work and fun. But I can say without any hesitation I will end my 46 year membership to POCI if the magazine goes 100% digital. I own several old Pontiacs and enjoy the hobby specifically because the cars are NON-DIGITAL. You have to actually drive them!! It's relaxing to me much like reading a PAPER magazine. I quit my local newspaper delivery about 2 years ago due to poor delivery. I look at the digital version 1-2 times a month. I doubt I would get any value from a 100% digital Smoke Signals magazine. 9 print issues a year I can live with, but I am not happy about it.

That version of Muscle Car Review was a wannabe;
The real MCR was a whole different beast;
I was initially fooled when the title re-appeared on the shelves...
But as soon as I opened it, I could see that it was almost a Car Craft/Hot Rod re-hash done with the MCR title...