[Skip Fix]

Well another gripe by me about the new Hot Rod. Nicer pages and paper used for sure. Quarterly vs monthly. I have had a subscription to it, as well as in the past Car Craft, Popular Hotrodding and Circle Track. All of those have gone away.

But my main gripe is what is their target audience? To me it looks like Rod and Custom magazine for the ultra rich that have a builder make their $100k-1M car!
It is sure not the cars most guys I know build. No "how To articles" just high end very custom hand made cars.

[b-man]

It’s been that way for a long time.

200k is the average build these days it seems and from there to the stratosphere.

Haven’t been interested in any automotive publications in decades myself, just advertising with a few articles trying to not look like advertising and high-end stuff that follows the same modern boring trends for the most part.

I dumped HRM back in the late ‘70s during the custom van craze which dominated both their features and tech articles, a terrible time right there with disco music taking over the radio waves.

[Skip Fix]

Circle Track actually had a lot more "regular guy" tech and build articles until Petersen folded everything into Hot Rod.

The new cover has the hand formed body 53/54 Vette custom chassis and everything from the guys in Salt Lake. I saw I think a Roadkill where they stopped by the shop and they were reproducing that car for big bucks.

[Goatracer1]

I have subscribed to HRM since 1962 and have a copy of every issue since the very first. I will not be renewing.

[Sirrotica]

Skip, there is a magazine similar to the old circle track currently published that is monthly and has a lot of technical articles in it still. It's called Speedway Illustrated, I have a subscription to it and look forward to it coming in my mailbox each month.

https://speedwayillustrated.com/

Of course, most of the articles have to do with circle track cars but can be applied to other vehicles as well.

[Skip Fix]

Thanks for the link. Since a lot of circle track Hobby classes used F bodies and other bodies we use for street cars there were lots of parts that crossed over-and usually from their sources cheaper than the "handling" suppliers! My IA/Camaro has weld in circle track lower A arm sphericals in them!

[Sirrotica]

By the same token I used to use Herb Adams technical articles written in the 70s and 80s to help me tune the suspension on my dirt track cars. A lot of the science and information can be cross referenced when setting up a chassis for racing, as well as street use. When you get the basics down, the other stuff can be used to fine tune whatever you're working on.

It never hurts to see how different people attack problems to get a better perspective of solving your own challenges.

[bdk1976]

Traditional printed media is DEAD and had been circling the drain for a while and will never come back. We are a niche market and becoming more of one each day as folks age out, and the few that are backfilling the hobby do not want, need, or use the traditional print magazines. There may still be some aborted attempts at new magazines, and probably a few successful 'boutique' titles (I'd love a "Rodders Journal" type rag for muscle cars), but those are generally niche/expensive and not mass-market publications.

Their target audience is "the last few remaining people who might lay out cash to buy/read print magazines" as they attempt to stay afloat and squeeze every last dime out of the brand before they kill the magazine completely (probably soon, IMO). Ad revenue used to be their moneymaker but that is going away too because VERY few want to read magazines (especially paper) anymore, and fewer yet are willing to pay a premium for the privilege.

I've come across more than a few former magazine guys with youtube channels these days. Smart move as that is where most people are getting their info these days-good or bad. The only reason you read magazines back in the day (and still do now) is that was the best way to deliver the information then, and what you are used to. That isn't the case anymore and the market proves that out - if these guys could make more money writing magazine articles I'm sure they would be doing that instead, but that ship sailed a while ago and most of them have (smartly) pivoted away from the industry. Almost every young person these days is going to YouTube for the type of content we used to get in monthly print rags - so am I! Luckily I have nearly complete runs of HPP, PE, and MCR to reread if the internet goes down or I feel nostalgic.

[mgarblik]

I recently received my third quarterly Hot Rod Mag. I have been a subscriber since 1968. I am going to let is run out as well. It's really awful now. Nothing at all that interests me inside. A bunch of LS junk stuffed into super high end million dollar cars. Every now and then a new style hemi or Coyote. I imagine some focus group convinced them that 30 somethings with high 6 figure incomes were interested in this stuff. Hagerty Drivers Club is an interesting paper magazine and Hemmings stuff is still good. That's about all in print IMO. Guess I am just too old.

[Longs]

I get the Hagerty Drivers Club magazine too, six issues per year, lots of content, but it's covering a wide swath of the car hobby. It isn't particularly technical from a "how to" perspective, lots of human interest types of articles, which is consistent with its purpose. I like the general premise, "If you have it, get it out and drive it". I wish the font was a little larger!

The Legend from GTOAA, is twelve issues per year, some "how to", a lot of promotion around the annual convention. Printing it is one of GTOAA's most significant expenses.

I used to get Hot Rod and Car Craft but they became too custom-focused as described above, and I got High Performance Pontiac and Thunder Am back in the day.

[RocktimusPryme]

I miss Car Craft

[69hardtop]

Hot Rod subscriber since 1982. I’m out…….nothing written in the mag in the last few years has any relevance to me, a weekend garage rat with a driver 64 GTO. The high dollar stuff just not appealing to me, at all.

[burd]

Best thing to do is go to the store that has all the magazines on the shelf, look through it and put it back on the shelf. Pasteiners on Woodward has all the mags that are left. It’s like going to the porn shop, you don’t buy that garbage