Is a print magazine still worth the price in 2022? | Column

Tim Suddard said:

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&…

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I have subscribed to GRM from pretty close to its first published magazine.  (any body want my collection?)   I get some of my car magazines in paper form and read some via "Readly".  The publishing business/magazine  business is highly competitive niche but it deserves our collective support.  So all you motorheads skip a pint of $7.50 beer or $5.00 coffee ok?  I don't know the value of GRM, but it is not that hard to figure given the number of subscribers is generally given in the magazines, I suspect its advertisers have an idea.  I know one thing, GRM/CM drive alot subscribers to buy the advertisers products.  KEEP UP the great magazines and the excellent content and don't be afraid to ask for a fair price for your magazine subscriptions!  I suspect you are no where close to the breakeven price vs lost subscribers.

Kevin  Duke906

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If and when I go digital-only at some point it wouldn't be over $10/year, or even price generally unless it's truly bonkers, just prioritizing which magazines I want in physical form when I get too many.

I would pay the increase and I am going to go ahead and add CMS to my subscription today too. 

Edit: Done.

I didn't realize it was so cheap.  Another $10 is no problem.  

I would like to add that I would prefer more how-to and project car coverage vs. industry news.  News I can get lots of places.  Quality tutorials and advice are less easy. (There's lots of stuff on YouTube but the quality, or music, is often pretty questionable.)  

I'm running out of magazines to read before I go to sleep. Please continue with the print edition.

I doubt, no I'm certain that I wouldn't read much of an online edition, and I would never even see the online ads before moving past them or skipping the whole thing altogether.

I do spend a good bit of time reading almost every ad in the print edition, so there is that.

In reply to Tim Suddard :

Certainly!!! I'm all for print magazines that I can cut out articles I want to keep, or keep issues with my name in them, or underline tips I want to go back to. 
I'm increasingly dissatisfied with my Road and Track subscription, so that's the one I'd part with. Keep up the good work!

While we're expressing gratitude, I'll also pitch some gratitude for TireRack who, having recently gone through merger/acquisition, continues to be a strong partner & supporter of GRM.

While they've earned my customer loyalty based on pure service and selection, knowing that they also support one of my most favored media outlets/online communities certainly sways my purchasing decisions toward them.

Been here since the first AutoX so no problem here. But this is my concern also;

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

I'm due to re-subscribe to GRM. Should I go ahead with the current rate or go with a new rate?

JG, sure hope that thing is a young swan. 

I'll gladly pay another few bucks an issue to keep GRM alive and well.

Yes! Please keep doing what you're doing! 

Even though I really prefer print material, I don't pay for many magazines anymore, mainly because I feel at some point the content went decidedly downhill. There has been a noticeable loss of writing quality in the last 10 years away from technical, detailed information and more towards the "influencer" informality and trendy style, and it started to appear that the people doing the writing often didn't have the background, passion, or skill set to write articles that meant anything to me. I love motorcycles and dirt bikes, and that industry seems to have been even more impacted (insert rant about regurgitating spec sheets and press release material as an "article").

I'm happy to pay a bit more for GRM and CM since you continue to put out such quality work and have this great community online. I used to get every major non-marque-specific car magazine out there....GRM and CM are the only ones I still get. The current price is a great deal for what I'm getting and would have no problem with a price bump, especially if that's what it takes to keep the business going. 

Everybody is getting whacked with higher rent, higher property taxes and higher gas prices as the same time most businesses are talking about increasing prices. I keep looking at ways I can cut costs on other things to make up for the increasing costs of getting to work every morning. Something's gotta give. I am giving up autocrossing this summer.

I will probably keep subscribing through the increase. But then I'm an older guy and my house and all my vehicles are paid for. Others out there aren't so lucky. Someone else in my office just got tossed out of her rental house and is now paying twice as much to rent a much smaller apartment. A family down the street from me just got evicted. The sheriff came and hauled their stuff to the curb. I don't ever remember that happening in my neighborhood before. Dog rescue is a nightmare right now. People going back to work and dumping dogs. People losing houses and dumping dogs. People can't afford vet bills and dump their dogs. Full shelters and lots of euthanizations. At the beginning of the Covid epidemic we actually ran out of dogs. Now this.

Also consider that the more dedicated readers are the ones who are active on the board and more likely to be positive about a price increase. Casual subscribers might just drop their subscriptions when they see the price jump as they look around for things to save money on. Ask Netflix about that.

Take my observations for what they are. Who knows what the future will bring.

Tim,

I just have to have one worthwhile decision per year influenced in the right way by your material or ads, to make the sub totally worthwhile.  (OK, ignoring when you published that A052's were not significantly faster than RE71R's, so I got new RE71R's, and when I got to Nationals everyone in the trophies were on A052's....)  So I will continue to have GRM as part of my racing budget.

THAT SAID, I'm pretty torqued off about the stuff in your e-mails.  I buy the freaking magazine to read stuff there.  But a chunk of what is in the e-mails is from the upcoming magazine!  If there is extra digital content, fine, give me a list of what will be there and let me choose.  I do not want duplication which makes the paper magazine worth less.  I am a reader who strongly prefers to read the paper.  If you regurgitate material from older issues, put it right in the description, pre-click, as to how old it is.  I am imagining your marketroids, "No, they might not read it (again) if they know it's not current, it's better to confuse those old folks and get the clicks/eyeballs on old material!"

For that matter, always make sure that those of use getting mails from you and from Classic, have the choice to /reduce/ mail without totally nuking it.  Apparently all marketroids are on a constant ratchet towards daily or twice-daily mails because, "It's almost free!!"  I have dumped literally (yes, I know the meaning) dozens of firms/catalogs/magazines who can't resist the urge to higher frequency inundation, and unsubscribed from most of the rest.  I know what my e-mail box is for, and it's not going to be a drag on my life.  Please make sure that weekly or monthly are choices that we have, because GRM and Classic are already perilously close to circling that drain. 

Yes and no.

Magneto is a fantastic magazine but they couldn't manage to get it to my front door without it being mangled.

If I'm spending almost $200 Canadian for a quarterly publication, they can send it in a cardboard mailer like The Rodders Journal does.

They insisted on a plastic pouch so I dropped them after the first year.

Tim,  Haapy to pay more for both in print!!!!  Keep us the good work!!!

I don't even read it with the vigor that I used to, but I do still love it, so my answer is "yes".  

duke906 said:

So all you motorheads skip a pint of $7.50 beer or $5.00 coffee ok?  

that's a good way to frame it.  i've spent far more on far less.  Windsor Ballet, i'm looking at you.

Yes!

In reply to PT_SHO :

We offer a weekly newsletter option for both publications' email subscriptions.

Click Here for GRM Email Subscription Options

Click Here for Classic Motorsports Email Subscription Options

I would gladly pay the extra for the print version.   However - in the spirit of ESG, should there be print magazines anymore?   I know, the print mag is cool and sometimes easier to pick up and look at than logging in to the digital version.  And yeah, I know - my cars aren't exactly Tesla's, so it's a bit hypocritical.  But, I'm trying!   Keep up the good work btw.  

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

duke906 said:

So all you motorheads skip a pint of $7.50 beer or $5.00 coffee ok?  

that's a good way to frame it.  i've spent far more on far less.  Windsor Ballet, i'm looking at you.

I guess that's where I'm weird because, yeah, if I want coffee out and failed to fill my go-mug, I'll do $1.50 coffee from White Castle or Speedway.  Spending more than that for coffee is just dumb.  And I'll happily drink 6 or 8 beers at home, but usually only one or two if it's not Two Dollar Tuesday at the bar.  I stopped having an iced tea or a coke at lunch when they started charging me $2.50 for the privilege.  So I guess I'm the wrong person to ask, because I'm a cheap sunuvabitch and proud of it.

I've read GRM content for a long time but have only ben a subscriber the last two. GRM is the last of any magazines I subscribe to and I have many interests, e.g. high end audio (previous Absolute Sound subscriber). I take advantage of online content but love my physical copies. I would not hesitate to pay for the increased subscription rates when the time comes to keep receiving paper copies.

I just just just paid $100 for 10 years of magazine subscription.  If you honestly think after doing that, that I am going to pay a single cent more....


... Then you're absolutely right!!!!!  At twice the price I'd still consider it a bargain!

This is a magazine and a forum that doesn't cost me money, it saves me money.  It's been doing so since my first issue back in 2009 and I'd be happy to give back.

If the subscription price has to up, so be it - I think most people understand that costs have gone up for everyone, including magazine publishers.

There are so few automotive magazines left these days as it is, and most of them have gone to the USA Today style of publishing, which sucks...(I happened to see a copy of Road and Track the other day and it's almost unreadable) it's even more important to keep yours alive.

Reading a magazine is just a different experience than reading something online, and that's part of it for me.