A big shakeup in the Source Interlink organization today - they're shutting down a bunch of car magazine titles.
Jalopnik has this chart of what is expected to happen:
Popular Hot Rodding folds into Hot Rod.
Rod & Custom folds into Street Rodder.
High Performance Pontiac folds into Hot Rod.
Custom Classic Trucks folds into Classic Trucks.
4 Wheel Drive & SUV folds into Four Wheeler.
Mud Life folds into Four Wheeler.
5.0 Mustang folds into Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords.
Modified Mustangs & Fords folds into Mustang Monthly.
Camaro Performers folds into Super Chevy.
GM Hi-Tech folds into Super Chevy.
Import Tuner folds into Super Street.
Honda Tuning folds into Super Street.
Automobile Magazine lost a bunch of people as well, including Jean Jennings. A couple months ago they dumped a bunch of staff at Car Craft was well.
http://jalopnik.com/heres-how-former-source-interlink-mags-are-reorganizing-1583470716
That explains Ranger50's post earlier in the rants thread. 
I wondered how long until this happened. Since they bought the Peterson empire they had many overlapping magazines. Even Hot Rod has suffered for quite some time.
I enjoy the print versions of magazines, and hope they survive. The list above, though, contains not one surprise to me. There will be many more biting the green weenie soon, I'd bet.
Sign of the times, I fear.
It's a tough business, but they did have a LOT of overlap. I have subscribed to High Performance Pontiac for 30 years, so I am bummed about that one.
Yeah but if your play money budget tanks what's the first thing that doesn't get renewed? Good to see Freiburger in a SVP position, he's a major reason I have a three year (at less than $10 bucks a year) sub to Hot Rod after a long gap. Maybe they've realized that fewer specialized titles and better content with more pages works. Of course most of us 'round here figured it out a few years ago.
I'm really sad to see Rod & Custom get absorbed into Street Rodder. This isn't the first time R&C was absorbed into a sister publication. Last time was Hot Rod in the '70's.
I've never been a fan of PHR. Hopefully their pretentiousness doesn't make its way into Hot Rod.
My problem is the titles that are being absorbed into the remaining titles, suck. I mean they suck for the content they don't provide already. Case in point, 5.0 Mustang had awesome race coverage but catered way to heavy to the newest 5.0 or the hottest model out. Prices itself right out if my pocketbook. The title it's going into sucks because while it does have the earlier model content, it's nothing but ads. There isn't any content between the covers that holds my interest month to month.
In reply to Rob_Mopar:
I wasn't a PHR fan either. Honestly it seems "folds into" is PR speak to make subscribers to the titles that are "folding into" think some of the content they get now will carry over. If you look at the TEN (yeah they're changing the whole company's name too) management document attached to the jalponik article none of the staff at Hot Rod is changing.
This sucks. PHR was pretty pretentious and usually only good for 10 minutes of reading, but the Engine Master's Challenge coverage was well worth the price of admission. The Reader's Rides & Projects issues were great, and every couple of issues they'd actually have a nice (budget) feature car.
Rod & Custom, HPP, and GMHTP all hurt, too.
Rod and Custom was the only decent one, guys who read Street Rodder are not the same guys who read Rod and Custom. Time to break out the gold chains.
Too bad about HPP, they were the only worthwhile Pontiac publication left, Smoke Signals sucks.
Awesome! ROD & Custom is dead (Again!)
How many RPMs is Baskerville turning right now?
Javelin wrote:
This *sucks*. PHR was pretty pretentious and usually only good for 10 minutes of reading, but the Engine Master's Challenge coverage was *well* worth the price of admission. The Reader's Rides & Projects issues were great, and every couple of issues they'd actually have a nice (budget) feature car.
Rod & Custom, HPP, and GMHTP all hurt, too.
It looks like there is an "Engine Masters" title in the new lineup that is probably where all that stuff is going.
slefain
UltraDork
5/30/14 8:19 a.m.
And as a kicker Source Interlink Distribution just shut down as well. So one of the largest magazine distribution companies just went bust.
http://www.foliomag.com/2014/breaking-source-interlink-distribution-shut-down
Sad to see some of the titles go (especially Modified, although that one was pulled a bit earlier), but they did seem to have a GM-like problem of too many competing products that weren't clearly differentiated.
In reply to slefain:
Source interlink distribution and source interlink media (now the enthusiast network) are separate companies. The fact that one is going down explains the other changing names.
moparman76_69 wrote:
Javelin wrote:
This *sucks*. PHR was pretty pretentious and usually only good for 10 minutes of reading, but the Engine Master's Challenge coverage was *well* worth the price of admission. The Reader's Rides & Projects issues were great, and every couple of issues they'd actually have a nice (budget) feature car.
Rod & Custom, HPP, and GMHTP all hurt, too.
It looks like there is an "Engine Masters" title in the new lineup that is probably where all that stuff is going.
There's always been an Engine Masters title. It's a once a year overview of the competition. PHR did stories nearly every month, usually a complete breakdown of one of the motors showing every trick they did.
Yeah this is the second round, and a bigger bloodbath this time. They actually closed some of the smaller niche titles earlier in the year. Modified / MiniTruckin' / and a few others.
GM Hi-Tech folds into Super Chevy.
Damn. I really liked GMHTP back in the day.
xflowgolf wrote:
Yeah this is the second round, and a bigger bloodbath this time. They actually closed some of the smaller niche titles earlier in the year. Modified / MiniTruckin' / and a few others.
Ah, that would explain why I'm not seeing new issues of Modified then.
<crawls back under his rock>
Of course, I also took out a digital sub to Import Tuner recently...
I finally got around to getting a 2 year grm sub. I keep meaning to get automobile just for Ezra Dyer's column.
Can't say I'm that surprised. I had a Super Street sub a few years ago, due to a free promotion.
I'm not exactly the Hot Rod or similar demographic (Roadkill is obviously cool), but all of their mags seem to be one huge advertisement.
As far as writing goes, I've always liked Auto every/other week. C&D isn't bad, either.
I only sub to GRM/CM, though. All my news I can get from TTAC.
Talk about an industry in decline. I was laid off from a magazine/book distributor in 2010. I spent 11 years working in that business. Sad to see those titles die but not surprised at all.
My sister is a successful writer and editor. She has worked in print and online.
She's looking at changing careers into talent recruiting.
