The end is near for Hot Rod Magazine

Surprising that any magazines are viable these days, the internet basically wiped them out. I used to enjoy going to the news stand or book store to buy a few car mags but I haven't done that in years.

It has to be really hard for print to compete with instant content now. Stuff like the Drag Week live stream is cool and you don't have to wait months for the coverage to come out. Motor Trend On Demand is basically the same thing as what the magazine used to be just on You Tube or whatever social media you use. I don't have a subscription but I don't really need one, their stuff is everywhere.

Beyond MTOD there's so much car related stuff available online it wouldn't make sense to plunk down the money for a magazine now. It's not a bad thing, things evolve. Anything you want from super-specific niches of the automotive world to general interest is available at your fingertips. Less clutter in your house too.

But that announcement seems like Hot Rod might be trying to use the Rodder's Journal model? I'm sure the O.P. of this thread Big Dad knows TRJ well but for those not familiar, it is/was a glossy traditional Hot Rod quarterly. The features and photos are really great and the writing is top notch. Very little advertising too. I had a subscription for years. Expensive but worth it. I'm not sure if they are still publishing it anymore though. A few years ago they had some organizational problems and it seemed like they just vanished.

For me, Mopar Action is mostly unreadable now, too much goofy crap. Hemmings Muscle Machines is good though. They seem to be getting some of the old HRM writers to contribute now so there is a familiarity to it.