19 magazines are stopping production:
If they will be available digitally, it’s meaningless to me. I don’t even read my newspaper in a print version anymore.
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Well, THAT is kinda sad. I subscribed to a lot of those publications over the years. Throw in AutoWeek as well dropping its print edition this year. The magazine business did not adapt well to changes in media preferences.
I found that if you follow Road and Track or Racer on Facebook, every one of the articles appeared online within about a month of them appearing in the print edition. There soon became no reason to subscribe anymore. I suppose they did that to compete with The Drive, Jalopnik and others but they were giving the articles away for free in a format I can read on my tablet.
Similar thing is happening to local newspapers. Local TV news is immediate and free while the papers are yesterday’s news done more and more poorly.
I cancelled Automobile and others but still getting them for a while. Over the past couple of years I have been unimpressed, at least for me anyway. They have changed formats, etc. but still the content is not very useful to me. I’m not interested in a $200,000 exotics or how they perform on the track. Their reviews cover things like general specs, mpg, handling, and so on but don’t say anything about expected longevity in engines, transmissions, or even give you towing information on anything except trucks. You folks provide a lot of this information. So I dunno, I spent maybe 30 minutes going through them and then it’s in the recycling bin.
Of course car magazines are going the way of the dinosaur. Today’s cars, trucks, and “compact utility vehicles” are so boring and generic-looking that people just aren’t excited enough to read about them. I have noticed for several years now that if you remove the name and logo badges from just about any car or CUV today, it would be nearly impossible to tell what brand it is, much less what model it is.
Even 20 years ago, you could immediately from afar tell the difference between a Ford Taurus versus a Honda Accord or a Toyota Camry, or the difference between a Dodge Caravan versus a Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna, or the difference between a Ford Ranger versus a Toyota Tacoma, etc–based on their unique styling. The unique styling has sadly become a thing of the past. Everything sold today looks the same, drives the same. Buying a car is like shopping for an appliance.
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I’ll miss having the chance to read in print format Car Craft, Classic Trucks, and 4-Wheel Off Road. They had some pretty interesting articles, can’t say I actually understood much of what they said, but still interesting. It’s highly unlikely I’ll ever read them in digital format. The only car magazine I read regularly is Hot Rod Magazine. Starting this year it stopped the Hot Rod to the Rescue series, and that was the most interesting part, so for me even that magazine isn’t as much of a draw anymore.
A car magazine that focused on helping its readers understand how their older, out of warranty big selling cars work, and on how to do common diagnosis and service on them in the driveway would probably be successful , at least as far as readership goes. But that subject doesn’t seem to entice magazine publishers.
You mean like rolling eggs ? Sadly cafe requirements have all makers have the same general shape except for the excellent Challenger which is why it still sells well.It harkens back to yesteryear .
As a long time die hard Mopar fan it pains me to say it but good riddance as far as the Mopar Muscle mag goes.
It’s been pretty skimpy for several years now with half the mag devoted to ads and the other half devoted to rotisserie work and quarter panel welding. In a few gaps they manage to squeeze in a couple of late model checkbook cars.
Local TV news is also dealing with the transition, some better than others. More and more people are consuming “TV” news online rather than on a television. Many stations are even doing web-only stories for stuff that they don’t have time to get in to the newscast.
I wouldn’t be surprised if not too far in the future the FCC starts yanking broadcast licenses in order to use the spectrum for something else, and everything moves online. Of course, that’s gonna marginalize people who live in rural areas with bad high-speed internet coverage, but that doesn’t seem of much consequence to the FCC these days.
People used to 50’s cars used to say the same thing about 70’s cars. There are marked styling differences among the brands even if they all have the same generalized shape.
That car is sold today. Doesn’t look like anything else on the road. If a Honda looks the same as a Camry today, it’s due to design laziness, not CAFE requirements.
In my high school days I always bought Motor Trend and other car magazines. Kept that up for many years.
Nowadays I rarely buy them anymore; most of the news is available online or in our daily newspaper’s car section. My dentist and family doctor still have several car mags in the waiting room.
Our cable network has 4 weekly car programs as well. I’m surprised those publication s have hung on that long.
It’s sad that print is losing out to digital. But it was the same for buggy whip manufacturers. Times change and things have to change with it.
Agree! We used to send about 100 or so Christmas cards every year. Now we are down to about 25 as we keep in touch electronically as well as by Skype with friends and relatives around the world…
For the price of one first class postage stamp we can talk for nearly an hour by phone to anyone in North America.
My Toyota and Mazda dealers keep pestering me to come in for unneeded service both by email and on my cell phone.
For years I subscribed to Motor Trend faithfully and really enjoyed it. But in recent years, more and more of their articles “pointed” print readers to content on Youtube and the like. If I wanted to see stuff on YouTube, I wouldn’t be reading the paper magazine.
Plus I felt like Motor Trend got a little full of themselves, especially with their Car of the Year award. I picked up just a bit of smugness in their articles.
I switched to Car and Driver and have really enjoyed it.
I remember 40 years ago people were saying the exact same thing.
Except it was Chrysler vs Plymouth, Olds vs Studebaker etc.
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I can avoid talking to someone on the phone for an hour by purchasing a postage stamp? Sold!! 
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That “Car of the Year” award was such a joke
As far as I’m concerned, Motor Trend magazine was a near worthless rag, and I’m not sorry to see it out of print
I used to enjoy reading “Automobile” magazine years ago . . . over 20 years ago, actually . . . and I don’t know anything about this “relaunch” that the article mentions
But I’m with George on one thing . . . it’ll be a shame to see 4Wheel & Offroad out of print
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Sorry, MotorTrend, along with Hot Rod, and Four Wheeler survived.
motor trend magazine is still a near worthless rag, pretty much no redeeming value
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Heh heh. We send out over 125 Christmas cards. Can’t imagine talking to everyone for two hours. And it ain’t just the stamp. You can figure close to a buck each to print them.
I don’t remember if it was MT or Automobile about last year, but one article by an obvious millennial was very insulting. They had done a cold weather test in a small town in Northern Minnesota and all the guy could talk about is how there wasn’t anything to do except to go to the Legion for hamburgers and cards. Small towns way up in the hinterlands are filled with very good natured, kind, self-reliant and generous folks that create their own forms of entertainment. Too bad the guy didn’t get off his horse and spend some time with them. What did he expect, Chicago? So it really turned me off and discounted my view of his report.
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