Periodicals

[TAKerry]

I know this subject has been brought up ad nauseam, however does anyone here subscribe to Old Cars (weekly?) ?  I have received 3 issues in the last 3 months. 2 came yesterday, one issue was for the beginning of April? 

 

Dont really want to get into a long tirade about magazines, publications, delays, etc. Just curious if others are seeing the same with this newspaper?

[8E45E]

If you lived it Canada, it would be no surprise.  Canada Post has mail delivery issues on a regular basis.

 

Craig

[Paul Dobbin]

Last fall we had very slow delivery of everything, but it's getting better.   I'm down to Antique Automibile, Classic Cars,

Mother Jones, Time, Hemmings & Harbor Freight Catalogs and tons of junk mail.   I think if junk mail rates went up, the

Post Office could Survive & Thrive.

[Skylark4367]

Old Cars cut their frequency to twice monthly, issue dates are the 1st and the 15th.  They've said subscribers will still get the number of issues they paid for.  I've occasionally received issues of Old Cars out of order.  This month my copy of Hemmings Classic Car is late.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Old Cars Weekly used to publish an annual "best of" book, I have a few from over the years. 

[plymouthcranbrook]

The only book I still take is Hemmings and it just arrived yesterday about two weeks later than usual. I have noticed that the volume of mail has decreased as well. So days I get none which until recently was very rare.

[Walt G]

Mail service does seem to be better , not take 3 weeks to travel 10 miles as it had once the pandemic arrived. I agree, most of the mail is advertising, solicitations for real estate or credit cards and other ( non old car) boring stuff. AACA and Buick Club, Franklin Club publications are arriving in a timely manner - these being the only clubs I now am a member of. Plus the new Crankshaft magazine ( a quarterly) will be at hand by the end of June.

[60FlatTop]

36 minutes ago, Walt G said:

Plus the new Crankshaft magazine ( a quarterly) will be at hand by the end of June.

Great topic! I bought the first issue of The Crankshaft   and kept forgetting to subscribe. I just took care of that.

 

The Bugle.

The Self-Starter.

The Crankshaft.

 

As long as none of them emblazon the cover with "Important", "From the desk of the president", "Last Notice", or an eagle or government logo we're good.

 

Funny how unopened mail can just slide across the table into the waste basket. Makes me think of how one identifies unmarked police cars.

[ia-k]

This year I didn't renew my Old Cars subscription. Several reasons, as mentioned before never knowing if I got all the issues I paid for because you never knew when it was going to show up. Another reason was sometimes the print/picture quality was so bad it would give me a headache trying to read it. And the biggest reason... the Alex Maranios (sp?)/ Peter Kumar (Gullwing) ads. It seems like it was half the magazine. Doesn't help the fact that I tried contacting Peter Kumar several times when liquidating my dad's car collection and he didn't even have the courtesy to contact me back.

[TAKerry]

11 hours ago, ia-k said:

This year I didn't renew my Old Cars subscription. Several reasons, as mentioned before never knowing if I got all the issues I paid for because you never knew when it was going to show up. Another reason was sometimes the print/picture quality was so bad it would give me a headache trying to read it. And the biggest reason... the Alex Maranios (sp?)/ Peter Kumar (Gullwing) ads. It seems like it was half the magazine. Doesn't help the fact that I tried contacting Peter Kumar several times when liquidating my dad's car collection and he didn't even have the courtesy to contact me back.

Preaching to the choir, I have the same sentiments but for some reason I keep going back. I always throw them away after reading and last week thought, maybe I should put them in a pile and see what I have in the end of the year. Have had it in the house off and of for many many years, old habits hard to break. I miss them when theyre not here. Its kinda frustrating though that I get one or two on the same day then nothing for 2 months!! I re-upped my hemmings and even bought a back issue. Back issue was here in a week, still no regular deliver. Havent seen one of theirs since last nov.

[alsancle]

I only get club magazines now and SCM,  and when I forget to pay my dues and they don't remind me there is one less magazine.

 

SCM is basically a bunch of European go-kart engined car loving guys who will occasionally and incorrectly talk about a prewar big "C" Classic or interesting American car.

 

I'm waiting to dance on Hemmings grave.

[Matt Harwood]

What's a "magazine?"

[8E45E]

1 minute ago, Matt Harwood said:

What's a "magazine?"

Part of a gun.

 

Craig

[TTR]

2 hours ago, alsancle said:

SCM is basically a bunch of European go-kart engined car loving guys who will occasionally and incorrectly talk about a prewar big "C" Classic or interesting American car.

 

Besides various car club publications (none of which I have time to even browse often) and several gift subscriptions of commercially produced (car) magazines (which I don't have time nor much interest to read either anymore), SCM, which a friend who thought it was one of the best car magazines ever, gifted me a subscription for couple of years +/-15 years ago, turned out to be so laughable, I had to ask him not to renew and after explaining (my views on) how ridiculously hypocritical its "mission"(?) is, he ended up stopping his own long-term subscription to it also.

 

I think most periodicals, including (vintage) car related, seem to be just platforms for advertisers with minimal amount of  actual "content" (mostly pictures) sprinkled in between and that's why they are a dying/outdated breed of media in this digital world.

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by TTR (see edit history)

[Walt G]

When some of you do have time to look at a periodical that you can hold in your hands that is  printed on high quality paper and you can turn pages without the aid/need  of a plastic button to press. If you seek a decent magazine that some author's still care to write for that do have considerable factual written information and period photographs and images  that you may not find else where check out Crankshaft magazine.

[CarNucopia]

I get Old Cars, but through an ap called Libby my public library offers. With it, I also get all the Hemmings publications, some interesting British classic car magazines and a bunch of other stuff. All for no fee (other then my property tax, but I won't go there).

[rocketraider]

I'm slowly culling the print magazines I get, but not because I intend to go digital. I like the feel of printed matter in my hands and very much dislike reading literature off a screen.

 

I've ditched two 25-year-plus subscriptions already this year because of the political slant they've taken (as much stuff as the Smithsonian has in its collections there is no justifiable reason for them to inject political overtones into their magazine; they could easily cover five topics a month for decades without duplicating anything). I looked at the cover of the newest Atlantic and put it in the trash unopened and unread. Won't renew that one either, nor The Sun- which has devolved from a fine contemporary literary magazine to a neverending litany of woke grievance.

 

Some of the car magazines I get are also devolving into lowest common denominator rags too. How many stories do we realistically need about another first generation Camaro or Tri-Five Chevy?

[60FlatTop]

I am a reader and come from a long line of readers. Most of my friends are readers. Our conversations often turn to something we have read and the topics are diverse. I started reading when I was very young.  My ability to recognize a periodical as a snapshot in time has always been clouded. I saved every magazine, never wrote in them, never folded pages or folded against the binding. I saved my own as well as the magazines of others. The stacks grew from piles in my childhood bedroom to piles in the garage. Come to my garage today and I can point to the first automotive hobby magazine I ever owned, the 1959 Rod & Custom with the yellow coupes on the cover. My Aunt bought it for me in our village drugstore when I was 11.

 

Over 60 years in the hobby ask me what the most familiar and recognizable hobby sound I know. No, not the sound of some spirited engine or the whisper on the fan on an assembled block of cast iron. Nope, it's that slow shuffling the flapping whoosh of yet another stack of magazines sliding over as I move gingerly in the corners and sides of my garage.

 

A few years ago I found a Nirvana in my efforts to keep periodicals in their fleeting context of life. I share them with a couple of friends and then dispose of them. Some have special value and there will still be piles. Just not so much. And I already see the difference in my garage, in my small home office, and the corner of the dining room table. It is a good feeling.

 

A couple of decades ago I was invited to attend a cruise night across the border in Canada. I left early and met a join friend at his house. He invited me in the front door to his living room. Every surface was stacked with books; tables, chairs, floor, couch. As I walked in he stood up as he removed a big stack from one end of the couch. With a beaming smile of optimism he said "Saundra says I can have a Mistress as soon as I get the living room cleaned".