Rod & Custom

I've seen a couple of places that yesterday afternoon Rod & Custom shut their doors, and the message is that we've seen the last print copy. A Google of Source Interlink Media, LLC popped up a news release saying that SIM had "rebranded" themselves as TEN - The Enthusiasts Network, and that they were stopping production of not only R&C, but also Popular Hot Rodding, High Performance Pontiac, Custom Classic Trucks, 4 Wheel Drive & SUV, Mud Life, 5.0 Mustang, Modified Mustangs & Fords, Camaro Performers, GM Hi-Tech, Import Tuner, and Honda Tuning. I won't even know several of those are gone, but I will miss R&C. It's been an ongoing baseline in the hot rod arena for over 60 years.

I remember picking R&C up in the drugstore back in the 50's when it was a quarter. I always liked Popular Hot Rodding more than Hot Rod. I thought it was more oriented to building, and Hot Rod was more into pretty photos of high-end rides that I couldn't afford. High Performance Pontiac was on my coffee table starting in 1969 when I bought my 68 GTO and stayed around for the 15 or so years I owned that car.

Yup,,have a pile of Popular Hotrodding mags here..That's where I got the idea to build my Chevy LUV... 300hp 350/th350,,narrowed 9''...
Gotta say,,it was a shock to see those iconic magazines get the axe... :(

Rod and Custom was one of the few American hot rod magazines available here in New Zealand in the early sixties.
I used to buy it every now and then (never a regular subscriber,) until the Campbell brothers started publishing the New Zealand Hot Rod Magazine.
That had more local content that I could relate to; so R & C went by the board.
But R & C was the magazine that initially started me into playing with 'old cars'; so it's sad and disappointing to hear of the demise of an icon.

I just renewed my subscription r/c and hot rod and street rodder last mo. and the check has cleared the bank so wonder what happens to my 3 yr subscription

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Originally Posted by ted dehaan

I just renewed my subscription r/c and hot rod and street rodder last mo. and the check has cleared the bank so wonder what happens to my 3 yr subscription

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I'm in that boat too, Ted. :( My subscription runs through December 2016.... When you go to R&C's web page the first thing that pops up is a subscription offer :mad::HMMM::mad:, but if you click "Subscriber Services" it brings up a new page advising to contact them via e-mail. I'm still a paid subscriber to "Street Rod Builder", which is the magazine that featured a series of articles with Lil' John Buttera building a N&N '33/34 budget build. I think I got six of 36 issues there, and they closed down and quit talking to people.

Yeah, I too recently renewed my subscriptions to R&C and Custom Classic Truck. Does this mean all those back issues I have stored in the closet and under the bed will now be "collectors items"??:HMMM::HMMM::D

I'm not happy about what's happening here, but not surprised either. In fact the only surprise is it's taken this long for them to pull the plug. In retrospect a hint of the timing was at last November's SEMA, The Source Interlink booth was smaller and the stacks of "freebie" magazines were nowhere in site.

While we think as subscribers/readers, they think as advertisers first, content provision is just the vehicle. Businesses have been following the "most eyes" model for decades and took a shotgun approach to advertising. They'd place ads wherever they thought they'd get the most likely interested viewers. In the internet age it's become much more "scientific". A potential advertiser can track interest, and information collectors like Google, Amazon, et al can provide specific interest data that permits more targeted advertising presentations. So let's say you saw some commentary on here about a specific brand of electronic fuel injection. You Google or Bing the product name to get more info. Next thing you know, little pop up ads start showing up on your frequently visited sites and .............TADAH!, they just happen to be ads for the specific or similar product to the one you recently researched. Now that's targeted marketing. As a business person you feel that your precious advertising dollars are better spent on folks who at least demonstrated some level of interest in your product or service, rather than running an ad in some rag that broadly appeals to the market slice you HOPE will be interested in what you offer.
It's good business sense, and more productive for the business in question, plus helps them stay alive longer. In the end the survival of their business trumps the survival of the hobbyist magazine. A variation of Schumpeter's creative destruction.

So we will have assume the position and bend over and grab our ankles

One thought is, "Oh well, this will just make Street Rodder, Hot Rod and Car Craft stronger", until one looks at the mast head of those magazines and finds that they, too are published by Source Interlink, now TEN. I fear that the days of print copy magazines is coming to an end. It would be nice if someone with deep enough pockets could step in and buy the rights to name & content of these old line magazines and bring them back to a focus on valuable content to attract readers to attract advertisers to make the business plan work. Like Uncle Bob says, the digital world is driving today, and the market place for this content is graying.

Maybe its time for Brent to fix this place so some decent pics can be loaded-----

My subscription on Rod and Custom and Popular Hot Rodding just ran out. Guess there will be no more. Hate to see that happen plus a couple of others on the list. I have zero interest on web based mags yet that is the way the world is turning. Too Bad!

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Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Maybe its time for Brent to fix this place so some decent pics can be loaded-----

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.... or maybe it's time for you to learn the few keystrokes necessary to reduce the file size of your high resolution files. If Brent "fixed this place" it would be with an automatic editor function that would take the 6MB file that you want to upload and reduce it to nominal 640x480 pixel size. You're dreaming if you think that you're going to post your full size pictures on the web. No one allows that much space. But if it makes you fell better, keep bitchin' about not being able to post your pictures.

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Originally Posted by rspears

I'm in that boat too, Ted. :( My subscription runs through December 2016.... When you go to R&C's web page the first thing that pops up is a subscription offer :mad::HMMM::mad:, but if you click "Subscriber Services" it brings up a new page advising to contact them via e-mail. I'm still a paid subscriber to "Street Rod Builder", which is the magazine that featured a series of articles with Lil' John Buttera building a N&N '33/34 budget build. I think I got six of 36 issues there, and they closed down and quit talking to people.

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WOW..... just looked at mine and it says good until Mar. 2015...... not good...

I'll tell ya what, only an idiot would start a magazine in these times: but I got the rag for ya, if you are that idiot: drone magazine. It'll probably be an online format, but it's coming.

I recently got an offer from hot rod mag to re subscribe, at a rate so low, I felt guilty taking them up on it.

I don't think they make money on their subscriptions. I think the subscriptions are the means to an end- getting advertisers. If their subs get too low, they will loose advertisers, so they start offering their mag for free, to increase circulation to please their ad clients.

The mag companies for sure don't make money off the subscribers. They make the most money off advertisers, and chain store sales. If you guys have never picked up a Diesel Power, or Diesel World, or 8 lug magazine, just check out how many adds are in those things. And I don't think Hot Rod or the other couple of big mags will go away for a while. I bet they make a pretty big sum putting on things such as Drag Week and Power Tour. I don't know if they'd get the following on a net based org.