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Tom Heath
Tom Heath Marketing / Club Coordinator
11/23/09 3:29 p.m.

Grassroots Motorsports magazine purchases Subiesport Magazine

For Immediate Release

HOLLY HILL, Fla., November 18, 2009—Motorsport Marketing, Inc., publishers of Grassroots Motorsports magazine, are pleased to announce that they have acquired Subiesport Magazine’s print and digital editions from MediaSpigot LLC, a media company based in Kirkland, Wash.

Grassroots Motorsports Publisher Tim Suddard had this to say about the purchase: “Here at Grassroots, we know and love Subarus and have been at the forefront of the blossoming Subaru market for many years. Bringing Subiesport into our fold is a good fit for both companies and will mutually benefit our combined readerships. Not only will we fulfill all remaining Subiesport digital and print subscriptions with Grassroots Motorsports, but we’re also going to ramp up coverage. Our hope is that we can deliver beyond our new readers’ expectations.”

David S. Wallens, Grassroots Motorsports editorial director, commented on how the acquisition will affect the editorial side of Grassroots Motorsports: “In addition to our already extensive autocross and rally coverage, we have begun to create even more Subaru-specific features in light of this acquisition. In fact, we already went out and purchased our new project car: a 2003 Subaru WRX, which we've been having fun with. I welcome Subaru fans to give us feedback on our Web site and tell us what they want us to do with it—while it’s still mostly stock.”

Tim Suddard continued, “Another great benefit of this acquisition is that, rather than have a competitor in the Northwest, we now have a friend and ally in former Subiesport Publisher Ryan Douthit. We have known Ryan for many years and have respected what he accomplished with Subiesport. Now, however, he’ll be able to put more of his energy into producing great content, both for Grassroots Motorsports as well as his growing video series, ‘Driving Sports TV.’”

Douthit added, “Having competed against Grassroots Motorsports in the cutthroat magazine business, I know that the quality of their editorial and the ethics of their staff is unsurpassed. Also, as a larger publishing company, they will be able to do a great job providing the Subiesport readership with the type of content they continue to crave—now eight times a year!”

The acquisition is effective immediately. Subiesport subscribers will receive all issues due to them, starting with the April issue of Grassroots Motorsports, which gets mailed in February 2010.

About Grassroots Motorsports: 
Grassroots Motorsports is the how-to magazine for the serious sports car enthusiast. From profiles of new sports cars to in-depth—and occasionally off-the-wall—project cars, for 25 years each issue of GRM has been packed with practical tips that help real-world sports car enthusiasts get race car performance out of their daily drivers. To receive a free trial copy of Grassroots Motorsports, request one online at grassrootsmotorsports.com/try or call the magazine's offices at (800) 520-8292.

About MediaSpigot LLC
: Based in Kirkland, Wash., MediaSpigot is an event and media company that focuses primarily on the automotive enthusiast market. Through its “Driving Sports TV” brand it has produced exclusive motoring content for Web, broadcast television, live streaming video and on-demand services. For more information, visit mediaspigot.com.

Tom Heath
Tom Heath Marketing / Club Coordinator
11/23/09 3:43 p.m.

With that news announced, we'd like to welcome about 5,000 Subiesport readers to the GRM fold. We hope you like what you see, thanks for giving us a try!

Keith
Keith GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/23/09 3:51 p.m.

Interesting!

Was Forever MX5 part of the deal at all? The magazine only printed 3 issues of what was meant to be a quarterly, and a bunch of Miata owners got shafted - again. Might be an opportunity to get GRM into their hands.

carguy123
carguy123 Dork
11/23/09 4:11 p.m.

So is this the beginning of an empire?

Marjorie Suddard
Marjorie Suddard General Manager
11/23/09 4:14 p.m.
Keith wrote: Interesting! Was Forever MX5 part of the deal at all? The magazine only printed 3 issues of what was meant to be a quarterly, and a bunch of Miata owners got shafted - again. Might be an opportunity to get GRM into their hands.

At this point we're just taking it one thing at a time. You don't want us to esplode!

Margie

jpod999
jpod999 Reader
11/23/09 4:16 p.m.

So there's just going to be a lot of Subaru coverage in GRM now?

Tom Heath
Tom Heath Marketing / Club Coordinator
11/23/09 4:18 p.m.

I don't know about Forever MX-5, other than they aren't on the table at the moment.

Beginning of an empire? Probably not, but I do feel pretty good about making sure those folks still get a whole year's worth of magazines that they paid for.

rdouthit
rdouthit
11/23/09 4:23 p.m.

In reply to Keith:

Hi Keith. No, we still own Forever MX-5 and are finally in a position to give that title the attention it needs. We simply overextended ourselves during a very challenging time. We'll be making an announcement soon, but needed to get Subiesport settled first.

Woody
Woody GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/23/09 4:23 p.m.

I propose a new monthly feature: "Powered by Subaru".

Show us some other car with a Subaru engine swapped in, or better still, show us how to swap a Subaru into another car. Or, even better still, show us how to swap Subaru engines into every other car, GRM style. Don't be afraid to cut and weld.

Issue One: Lotus Europa...

Karl La Follette
Karl La Follette HalfDork
11/23/09 4:29 p.m.

super cool ! hey I need a subie engine for my rail . Great news congradulations !

kreb
kreb GRM+ Memberand Dork
11/23/09 4:39 p.m.

cool, but.... I worry bout diversifying too much the perils should be clear. I also wonder why the main mag hasn't gone monthly.

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
11/23/09 4:52 p.m.
Woody wrote: I propose a new monthly feature "Powered by Subaru".

Interesting idea.

ignorant
ignorant SuperDork
11/23/09 4:55 p.m.

M&A awesome............................

good job looking for synergies..

Now make them profitable and you win.

Keith
Keith GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/23/09 5:01 p.m.

Thanks Ryan! I was just curious.

More Subarus in GRM? I could live with that. Even if they do sound funny

maroon92
maroon92 SuperDork
11/23/09 5:09 p.m.

Great! I need to subscribe to that. GRM needs more of my money!

i ARE happy camper.

Keith
Keith GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/23/09 5:16 p.m.

If I'm reading this right, basically Subiesport subscribers are now GRM subscribers. They won't be producing two magazines. Right?

I see lots of Porscharu coverage in the near future. Which is good. We had a Porscharu 914 at our last track day. David, need pictures?

f86sabjf
f86sabjf New Reader
11/23/09 5:27 p.m.

congratulations on the acquisition . More quality reading to look forward to..

Nashco
Nashco SuperDork
11/23/09 5:36 p.m.

Interesting news. I like Subarus a lot more than Miatas, maybe with this acquisition the Miata will have some competition for consistent coverage in GRM.

Bryce

maroon92
maroon92 SuperDork
11/23/09 5:45 p.m.

oh really? Then whats the point of purchasing the magazine?

It couldn't be to lower the competition...GRM has no competition, they are peerless.

Keith
Keith GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/23/09 6:12 p.m.

Subscribers.

Osterkraut
Osterkraut Dork
11/23/09 6:23 p.m.

And STILL no Sprockets.

kreb
kreb GRM+ Memberand Dork
11/23/09 6:24 p.m.

OK, this is making sense now. When Kit Car magazine shut down and Hot Rod picked up the subscriptions, I was suitably impressed that I stayed on with Hot Rod. Presumably a similar scenario will occur here.

maroon92
maroon92 SuperDork
11/23/09 6:37 p.m.

wow, they had 5000 subscribers?

rdouthit
rdouthit New Reader
11/23/09 6:42 p.m.

In reply to maroon92:

...and an even larger newsstand presence.

maroon92
maroon92 SuperDork
11/23/09 6:46 p.m.

I know, I was a "newsstand subscriber"....

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