Don, you must be feeling better from your medical set backs earlier this year. You've been coming up with several good "conversation" starters lately. It's times like this that a live chat room could be fun cause there's so many points to be made.

I'm going to have to go against the predomiant flow here, probably because I look at this kind of stuff through a marketing/sales eye. For all that some of you don't seem to like the rod rags, there's a reason that they are as thick as they are, and there are as many of them as there are. There's demand for it!!! If you no longer find them appealing, it could be that you're not the target audience. But there are a bunch of other people out there that do buy this stuff. The advertisers are spending their money to buy all those ads you decry...........and they're not doing it just to see their name in print. They're selling hardware!! And make no mistake about it, it's the advertising dollar that keeps a magazine in production............not the money from rack sales or subscriptions. One qualifier, the numbers of subscriptions and rack sales do matter, but mainly to justify AD SALES.

That being said, I don't enjoy everything in every magazine every month either. A lot of stuff I just gloss over because it doesn't interest me. Dave Brisco and I had a chuckle/discussion a while back about each month it seemed that the Street Rodder top ten had to have a Coast to Coast "39 Convertible" in it. I've seen some that are very well done cars, but they just don't do a thing for me. Now a real '39 Ford convertible..............that's another thing. But I'm not arrogant enough to think the whole hobby should revolve around my choices, and certainly a nationally distributed magazine isn't going to survive on producing to my tastes alone. And I guess that's the point. If you were tasked with producing any one of those magazines, you'd have to make some hard choices as to content. As a responsible marketer you'd take a look at what your potential customer base is and shoot for that. If you want to grow your enterprise, you find out what else is out there that is similar to your core subject and include that with the hope/belief that you can draw in additional audience. Along the way you may do some cross pollenization and introduce new devotees to your original subject. Those that choose the options wisely survive, those that don't, perish. Richard brought up the Hot Rod Mechanix example. That was probably the last publication that catered to the scrounger rodder near exclusively. Tex Smith, albeit a talented writer, and a long time veteran of the auto magazine industry with a boat load of contacts and experience, FAILED. In the mid-90's someone tried to revive the magazine, lasted about 3 months.................and FAILED. That's the free enterprise system. Nobody forces you to buy the magazine, and nobody gives a magazine undue support.

Which is my next point. Let's say that the predominant view expressed here prevails, and is a harbinger of where a significant part of the marketplace is going with it's attitudes. Let's say too many people get tired of Street Rodder's editorial philosophy, tired of all the ads, and stop buying the magazine. As their readership drops, their ability to sell ads declines. That means their revenues drop, and, over time, they become less viable. Somewhere along the way they make choices. They either find out why readership, and subsequent revenues, drop and make changes, or they FAIL!! Like many industries, the publishing business is consolidating. Street Rodder, Rod & Custom, Hot Rod, Popular Hotrodding, Car Craft, and a bunch of the muscle car magazines are all part of Primedia now. A few years back they were competitors, now they're "family". That reduces competition and probably inhibits the flexibility of the editorial direction. In the short term it's probably helped in the advertising sales end, as one rep can sell space in several rags during one sales call. Probably the sellers will, someday, take a look at that and say "Why am I buying so much space from one provider?" As long as it pays off, they'll continue to buy. When they can identify that it stops contributing to the sale of their product, they'll stop buying space. Street Rod Builder, along with Super Rod, American Rodder, and Rodder's Digest, sprang from just that sort of reaction. John Diana, the buckaroo of Buckaroo Publishing, was a former big wig at Petersen Publishing. When Primedia scooped up Petersen, Diana didn't like what he saw and split. It's the American Dream. He too is a gifted writer, and well connected in the publishing business. Unlike Tex Smith though, Diana is also a good business man. Personally I think he's gone a little overboard with four titles. Someone mentioned that American Rodder didn't have much advertising in it. This is probably a sign of over saturation. If it doesn't change, AR will FAIL!!! That's how Buckaroo ended up with it, Pisano wasn't making money on it or Rodder's Digest. By the way, the last remnants of Hotrod Mechanix ended up at American Rodder. See a pattern? But then, I think the range of magazines at Primedia will compress too. There's too much overlap between SR and R&C, as well as Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Popular Hotrodding, not to mention the competition from Buckaroo. We'll probably lose R&C again, along with AR and RD. The street machine guys can likely kiss Popular Hotrodding or Car Craft goodbye.

And of course we have this evoling dynamic called the internet. Even though most publishers have a web site of some kind, I don't think they've yet figured out how to utilize it. There are a few sites that are e-zines only. They have limited appeal, but the people who run them seem content with that. As time goes by, I would guess that some smart folks will figure out how to market a web based info source to hot rodders and will take some significant cuts from the traditional print based guys. Then again, maybe not. We'll see. Part of the problem is evident here at CHR. People come, people go. Some stay on and contribute, others don't. Some of us may think that hot rods are just "older" cars, meaning before, say 1960, but then, depending on age, there are folks here who think mid '70's are really old. Some like the banter that goes on, others are offended by some of the flipant responses But the web provides a free forum, and only a little "policeing" goes on. I'd like to see us be more focused on "serious" discussion when the subject warrants (leave the jabs and jokes to the lounge), but nobody made me dictator, so the flow will go. And none of us has a marketing need here because we have no financial commitment.

So what does it mean when a magazine no longer winds your watch. It means that your expectations are unmet. Whether it's your expectations that are out of whack, or the magazine is going down the wrong path doesn't really matter to you. You're free to make your choice. Personally, I don't expect a magazine to appeal 100% to my tastes. I read it to glean what interests me. I find them usefull to keep me apprised of what kind of hardware is available. I've gone on before about my view of we hobbyists being narrowminded about our perspective of what the hobby should look like, so I won't rewind it here. If the hobby is leaving you behind, that's the way it is. We all have choices to make. Once you've made yours, live with it. Just don't fall into the trap of unduly criticizing those that don't share your vision.