THE SKY IS NOT FALLING

I participated in a “How to Get Your Car in a Magazine” seminar at the Nickey Corvette & Muscle Car Nationals in Rosemont, Ill., this past weekend. I was surprised to hear speakers talk about how car magazines are doomed and saying that it will be nearly impossible to get your car in a magazine in the future. Most of the speakers painted a “The Sky is Falling” scenario and I understand that much of their sentiment was driven by a self-serving editorial in a HEMMING’S book pitching the same kind of doomsday thinking. Well, I can tell you that all magazines aren’t dying. If you read annual circulation figures like I do, you may have even noticed that OLD CARS WEEKLY’S circulation increased last year. And other magazines that I worked for are also doing well. It’s probably true that there were too many magazines aimed at the collector car niche and that some of them are suffering in a bad economy. In other cases, some bad decisions were made that hurt, rather than helped, certain publications. But you can take my word for it that the sky is NOT falling and that printed car magazines will be around for a long, long time. And yes, if you have a unique and interesting car that’s in nice condition, you WILL be able to see it in the pages of a future car magazine….maybe even in Old Cars Weekly.