end of Hemmings Sport & Exoti car magazine

[32tatra]

I just got my last issue of Hemmings Sport & Exotic car.  According to the editors page "We had a good run, and now it's over."    He goes on to say "It's not for a lack readership." It is because "the business case for this magazine no longer makes sense."

What does this mean?

Edited March 25, 2017 by 32tatra (see edit history)

[mike6024]

Not enough advertising revenue

[plymouthcranbrook]

Hopefully Hemmings  Classic car is not next

[John_S_in_Penna]

Richard Lentinello, of the Hemmings family of magazines,

spoke at our AACA Annual Meeting at least once, and

I think twice.  That was a few years ago, and he mentioned

that Hemmings Sport and Exotic Car magazine had the

lowest circulation.

 

I got it for a couple of years, but since that type of car

is not my main interest, I let my subscription lapse.

They often dealt with more "modern" cars, such as 1970's to 1990's,

more than their other magazines did:  After all, foreign cars

didn't appear much in the U. S. until the late 1950's, and so there

aren't many people to write about 1910 Fiats and 1932 Horches.

 

There's no need to worry, as far as my limited knowledge

goes, that their other titles are endangered.  I hope not.

Edited March 25, 2017 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Frantz]

Hemmings is a great publication. I'll admit I no longer get the Muscle Car one, but that's the one that first interested me as a teenager. I made the grown up switch over to Classic Cars and look forward to reading it monthly. I think they do a good balance of finding amazing old classics but not snubbing the "new" antiques in the slightest, often devoting many articles and editorials to them. I suspect we'll see more of the sport car articles show up in the other publications though, and that's fine with me too if they fit the bill.

[TerryB]

Hemmings classic car is a favorite of mine. Their mix of cars featured is refreshing, everything from fine restored cars, survivors, and average 4 dr cars that are often overlooked by many.  

 

Terry

[Dosmo]

I've been subscribing to the Sports & Exotic car publication, although I haven't been finding enough in the magazine to justify the cost of my subscription.  I loved most of the articles that dealt with cars from the 1970s on back.  I would not object to seeing some of the older vehicles in the Classic Car mag.

 

But, the articles about cars from the '80s and '90s are of no interest to me.

[John_S_in_Penna]

Did they say where the current subscribers will go?

Often, discontinued magazines transfer subscribers

to another magazine so that they don't have to refund money.

[Dosmo]

I

13 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

Did they say where the current subscribers will go?

Often, discontinued magazines transfer subscribers

to another magazine so that they don't have to refund money.

I received a letter from HMN stating that the S&E subscription would be transferred over to extend my existing HCC subscription.  And, even if I had not already had an existing subscription to HCC, my remaining subscription term would have been completed by receiving an appropriate number of HCC issues.

[Doug Novak]

4 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

Did they say where the current subscribers will go?

Often, discontinued magazines transfer subscribers

to another magazine so that they don't have to refund money.

 

 

Yes, they tell us "we are excited to introduce you to HEMMINGS CLASSIC CAR, THE DEFINITIVE ALL-AMERICAN COLLECTOR-CAR MAGAZINE, beginning next month".   For me I live in both Worlds having American and European Cars and have had Japanese as well.  So, looks like the I'll not be getting articles for any foreign manufactured Cars with the switch be Hemmings as they also state Classic Cars covers American Classic Cars from the Brass Era to the 60's. Not saying I have a problem with this as I also get Panorama from the Porsche Club, and Road & Track that covers the void for me.  

[John_S_in_Penna]

I did a quick internet search, and found that, now that

the magazine is defunct with their post-dated "May" 2017 issue,

they put the entire 12 years' content on the internet, as an archive:

https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hsx

 

Here, for convenience, are some more quotes from their farewell editorial

that they posted.  (The link below gives it in its entirety.)

https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hsx/2017/05/The-end-of-the-road/3750829.html

 

          "We had a good run, and now it's over. With this issue, number 141, Hemmings

Sports & Exotic Car ceases publication.

          Why? It's not for lack of readership. Since the day we launched HS&EC nearly

12 years ago, starting with a readership of zero, the magazine's circulation has done

nothing but rise. We've grown to more than 55,000 enthusiastic subscribers, with a

renewal rate that's the envy of the industry. For that, we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

          The reason we have to do this, I'm told, is financial. Fear not--Hemmings Motor News,

the company, is financially strong, and turns a healthy profit. But the business case

for this magazine no longer makes sense.

          That's the bad news. For the rest of this column, I'd like to focus on what's good.

Our goal from the beginning was to create the kind of magazine that we'd all like to read,

one that draws from our shared passion for the world's most interesting cars, and I believe

we succeeded.... While we concentrated on British, German and Italian marques that make

up the bulk of our hobby, we also put out the welcome mat for admirers of microcars, French cars,

Czech cars, prewar cars, Swedish cars, two-strokes and more. We recognized the rising interest

in Japanese cars, and made a commitment to including them in the magazine on a regular basis.

Our features generally ran the gamut from the Fifties to the Eighties....

          This approach brought us an audience that was young--58 percent of you are between

the ages of 39 and 64--and well educated, and that had the highest median income of all of our titles.... 

          We planned this magazine long before we knew it would be our last..."

 

Edited March 25, 2017 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Doug Novak]

Thanks John, that's good to know there's 12 years on line, should help if I go through withdraw or need to search for some info. I really liked that Magazine.

 

Doug

[mike6024]

This approach brought us an audience that was young--58 percent of you are between

the ages of 39 and 64

 

That is a weird statistic. 

Edited March 25, 2017 by mike6024 (see edit history)

[John_S_in_Penna]

7 hours ago, mike6024 said:

This approach brought us an audience that was young--58 percent of you are between

the ages of 39 and 64

That is a weird statistic. 

 

And surely it's a guess, or a conclusion

about all of their 55,000 subscribers based on

the answers of just a small number of them.

When you subscribe, they don't ask you your age

or your income!

 

If the numbers are even close, maybe those 58%

are between the ages of 60 and 64, yet they get

classified in the 39-64 category! 

Edited March 26, 2017 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[lump]

I've been buying lots and lots of ads as a full-time professional from car magazines for over 30 years.

 

Publishers discontinue magazines for the same reasons other businesses shut down certain locations, product lines, or entire operations. They weren't making adequate money. Simple fact. They MUST have enough readers to attract enough advertisers to pay for each issue. If they do, they will continue. If not, they will eventually listen to the bean-counters, and walk away. 

 

Publishers pursue success by trying to find under-served market niches, and fill that niche. HEMMINGS gave this a good, long try. Kudos to them for giving it a shot. Too bad it didn't work out. The fact that it was a good, well-produced magazine has NOTHING to do with it. There simply was not enough demand, plain and simple. I can think of dozens and dozens of now-defunct car magazines that went away, in spite of being pretty good magazines overall. But NEVER before in history have we seen so many disappear all within a span of a very few years. It is a brave, new world my fellow car-collector friends. 

 

As for statistics, I'm pretty sure HEMMINGS used "39-64" because many collector-automotive-oriented advertisers in America today identify that statistic as being the "sweet spot" in their customer profile. In other words, MOST of their customers are males, within that age group. 

[Akstraw]

It is no secret that print media is on the decline.  Car magazines are just a subset of that industry in general, and we are seeing survival of the fittest.  Heck, here I am (and so are you) looking at this forum on an iPad in my liesure time.   Ten years ago, I would have been reading a car magazine, or, perish the thought, a newspaper!

 

Edited March 27, 2017 by Akstraw
Grammar correction (see edit history)

[Eric Wahlberg]

20 minutes ago, Akstraw said:

It is no secret that print media is on the decline.  Car magazines are just a subset of that industry in general, and we are seeing survival of the fittest.  Heck, here I am (and so are you) looking at this forum on an iPad in my liesure time.   Ten years ago, I would have been reading a car magazine, or, perish the thought, a newspaper!

 

I could not have summed this discussion up any better.  In my professional life of sales and marketing in the world of broadcast electronics, from which I retired 12 years ago, I have watched many of the top trade publications which were the basis of the industry go away.  Magazines I supported with advertising for decades no longer exist and even their on line news has come to an end.  We live in a different world and our media is no longer dominated by paper and ink.