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Tim Suddard
Tim Suddard Publisher
5/31/22 11:31 a.m.

As we all know, prices have gone crazy. It’s certainly not the time to buy a house or a car. 

Still, life goes on, and sometimes you must stick your neck out and make a major purchase. Personally, I’m thrilled to see Chris Tropea, who runs our video department, buy his first home–and perhaps more importantly, now have a decent …

Read the rest of the story

Jim Pettengill
Jim Pettengill HalfDork
5/31/22 11:49 a.m.

As a longtime member of this family, short answer:  YES!  I'll gladly pay another $10/year for the best car mag on the market.  I also take Classic Motorsports (of course) ,Racer, Hagerty, Hemmings Classic, and Old Cars, (and more than a dozen non-car magazines) all of which have higher subscription rates.  I prefer a hard copy of magazines in general. 

Noddaz
Noddaz GRM+ Memberand UberDork
5/31/22 12:03 p.m.

The prudent thing for me to do would be to re-up now, before the price increase.   lol

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter)
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/31/22 12:04 p.m.

another YES here.  if every magazine on the planet went up by $10/yr, it would only cost me $10.  :-)

rotorglow
rotorglow GRM+ Memberand New Reader
5/31/22 12:08 p.m.

Absolutely yes.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/31/22 12:14 p.m.

That's not too much of an increase. I'm doing my part with a digital-only GRM+ subscription, with PDF downloads it's just way more convenient for me, also more eco-friendly wink

wspohn
wspohn SuperDork
5/31/22 12:17 p.m.

Yes and no.

I have dropped most of the magazines I used to subscribe to (down to a couple from a dozen or more) in favour of subscribing to the internet editions, which is much less expensive and which I can archive on my computer instead of in endless boxes of old print issues.

On some magazines (high end audio for instance) I have narrowed my focus over the years and the areas I am interested in (music) are greatly outnumbered in terms of volume by material I don't care about at all any more (equipment reviews).  I'd have dropped them completely without the internet option to continue as a subscriber.

I still buy both your magazines at the local store when I want them, but should get around to signing up for your net based versions. 

Have you guys done a projection of how many subscribers you'd lose if you went internet only versus the saving in print costs?

Byrneon27
Byrneon27 Reader
5/31/22 12:18 p.m.

As someone who may have forgotten about their subscription charge what you need to in order to make a fair profit and continue to treat your employees and subscribers well. There's honestly no difference to a $20 and $80 annual drop in my "fun car stuff" ocean

 

That said please cover more about what makes you guys unique... More challenge coverage/FEATURES!!!!. More UTCC coverage/features. Cover the higher level hillclimb/time trial events as well as SportsCar does for autox. There are absolutely fascinating cars being built for these events usually with good stories attached. 

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
5/31/22 12:21 p.m.

Thanks for the support you guys. We appreciate it.

Y'all would seriously freak out if you Saw the kind of paper price increases we've been dealing with the last couple years. The paper market is unbelievably volatile. Trees take a long time to grow, production is complex, the final product is heavy and bulky and spoils easily in shipping and storage, and there are countless variations and standards around the world that conspire to make it one of the trickiest commodities to manage at scale. It used to be that "good news" from our paper suppliers was paper NOT increasing in price or (gasp) even going down. But now, that good news is confined to a slowing of the rate of acceleration of the near constant increase. Seriously at some point it's just going to be easier to hire people to call you and describe each page to you on the phone.

Anyway, enough complaining. We're all eternally grateful that we're able to still make this product. And I'm also thankful for those of you that have found alternative methods to the physical printed edition to do your part to conserve resources. I'll always appreciate the physical printed format as well, but I'm really glad we have multiple avenues of distribution that are available fo those that want optional methods. That's the kind of thing that I think will ensure that ALL of the methods—and probably some we haven't even foreseen yet—will be around for a long time.

trumant (Forum Supporter)
trumant (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand Reader
5/31/22 12:24 p.m.

I was just thinking this past weekend what it must be like to run the GRM business. More specifically, I was wondering if/when Hagerty, who seems to be in a bit of an acquisition mode, would come knocking and try to buy the business.

However, all of my curiosity aside, I'm more than happy to pay an increased subscription rate if it means that the people who put their hard work into the content I enjoy so much are able to make a decent living.

Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
5/31/22 12:30 p.m.

I can't speak for everyone here at GRM headquarters, but it's been a really pleasant surprise thus far how many of you, our readers, are accepting of a price increase. The positive reactions so far are outweighing the few negative reactions we've received.

pushrod36
pushrod36 Reader
5/31/22 12:32 p.m.

A year ago I mailed to magazines to a friend.  The postage was $8.  I promised I would never complain about the price of a magazine.

rob_lewis
rob_lewis UberDork
5/31/22 12:34 p.m.
Noddaz said:

Ditto here.  I subscribe to the print and to the forum, but am happy to pay more to keep GRM around!

-Rob

Javelin
Javelin GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/31/22 12:46 p.m.

I subscribe to print, GRM+, and was a 100% patreon supporter. I'd buy stock in GRM if you sold it, even if it was meaningless. Yes please keep printing, and no I don't care about a price increase. Heck double it! Still buying it. 

rattlecan
rattlecan New Reader
5/31/22 12:48 p.m.

In reply to Tim Suddard :

Yes, I will. For two reasons 1) I enjoy the physical magazine, it's the only one I still subscribe to, and 2) I really want to support keeping forum alive, it's the best remaining auto forum on the internet. 

Cheeks
Cheeks New Reader
5/31/22 12:50 p.m.

as was echoed previously, an additional 10 bucks a year is not something most of us would be in a position to complain about

 

I like having the print copy of your magazine around, anyone that comes over will see them and leaf through them, never a bad thing. Plus, I have something to read at nite while the wife watches another serial killer documentary 

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
5/31/22 1:03 p.m.
trumant (Forum Supporter) said:

More specifically, I was wondering if/when Hagerty, who seems to be in a bit of an acquisition mode, would come knocking and try to buy the business.

We love partnering with Hagerty on events and projects and they seem to love doing it with us, so maybe that's why the relationship has stayed as it has for so long. Why fix it if it isn't broken?

Although I can't say that I don't have dependents who are like "YO WHEN WE GONNA GET SOME OF THAT SWEET HAGERTY MONEY I NEED THEM FANCY WORMS?" 

Actually I have no idea if that's how it even works, or if they pay in dried melaworms. I'm just eternally grateful that all of us here have a platform that we can use to communicate on that benefits the amateur motorsports community while having the added benefit of allowing me to pay my bills.

chaparral
chaparral Dork
5/31/22 1:13 p.m.

When I renew my 10-year, I won't mind if it goes from $99 to $149 or even $199.

914Driver
914Driver MegaDork
5/31/22 1:19 p.m.

YES !! 

Even though the direction has wandered and I don't read every word of every magazine, YES.

jkstill
jkstill New Reader
5/31/22 1:20 p.m.

I get two print magazines that I pay for.

GRM is one of them. I will gladly pay the $1.25 more per issue.

How about this? 

Give me an option that includes the print magazine + all digital content. I don't like having 2 different things to pay for.

KaiserM715
KaiserM715 New Reader
5/31/22 1:20 p.m.

I think that is more than reasonable.  I also prefer a paper copy and would be more likely to drop it if it was online only because I know I wouldn't keep up with it as well. After I read each issue, I pass it along to a high school kid that I know who wants to be a mechanic.  You can't do that with an online only publication.

300zxfreak
300zxfreak Reader
5/31/22 1:21 p.m.

I'm one of the ones that much prefers the tactile sensation of reading printed material, I like books over e-books, I like magazines over electronic media, etc. So, while not particularly happy about price increases in general (we did just buy a second home in Florida, just to say we're closer to you guys), I would absorb the increase willingly, provided I can get a cool hat out of the deal, of course. 

And, as an aside, I'm also one who really loves how-to articles, the more, the better. I always get some more knowledge every time I read one, and I've been fabricating for years.

Thanks.

 

wae
wae PowerDork
5/31/22 1:28 p.m.

I've been thinking about that since I got my physical copy in the mail.  To be brutally honest, I think that taken in aggregate the product is good - good enough to renew every year and good enough that I went ahead and added Classic Motorsports this last time around - but there are at least one or two issues a year that I flip through real fast and chuck onto the shelf because there's nothing that particularly interests me.  If I needed to renew today and you told me it would be $50 for each magazine, I don't think I'd be able to swallow that.  If you told me that it was $75 but that would enable you to not run any of the articles that are either "sponsored content" or at least read like they're sponsored content, I might be more inclined. 

Masterdebator
Masterdebator New Reader
5/31/22 1:29 p.m.

I'd pay more than that if it were an option. 

Patrick
Patrick GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
5/31/22 1:38 p.m.

Yes, but also i chose to let CMS lapse not due to content but because personal budget says one or the other 

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