Wow...anyone else get their latest Muscle Car Motion mag from Jeff Gaddie? And read the Pg.1 editorial? Man, Jeff gets some serious digs in, targeted at a just recently shipped, long overdue, competing magazine. I'm very surprised to see this. Earlier this winter, he had expressed a certain degree of support here on V8Buick, for the efforts of the publishers of the other magazine. Maybe I missed something that's happened since then, but apparently he's none too happy with Tom Shaw's publication. Basically refers to it as a clone of, or an attempt to clone, MCR. I'm not sure what the intent is, but I personally think Jeff has put together a fantastic magazine that gets better with each issue. I also loved the first Muscle Car Power issue, even if it didn't feature any Buicks...
i dont know what to say about muscle car power seeing they decided to take my money and not send me a copy
I see that bash David. I don't know how the "other" mag will do but MCM had a GSX as centerfold it's 1st month. Pretty good stuff. It's a 442 AND a '70 MACH I this time
John, I would think that if you don't have your copy yet, something got screwed up. Here's a link to a bulletin board that they are operating. You should be able to post a question there for Tom Shaw and get a reply. He is posting on there too. http://musclecarpower.com/cgi-bin/boards/ikonboard.cgi?
haven't seen the editorial you mention David...I guess that's called competition (or outright fear) in the mag business. You would think this other guy with the existing magazine would show a little respect for Tom Shaw...after all, he basically "invented" the musclecar mag format back in the 80's. Calling it a knockoff is a cheap shot....let's see....what was this guy doing back in '85 or so when Tom came out with his original mag. On the other hand the guy is in a business and needs to do what he can to defend his turf. I recieved my issue two days ago...I'm in Austin,TX...so they are arriving. I know people are getting impatient with the wait but Tom started this thing from scratch...not under the guise of a large publisher. Give him the benefit of the doubt, don't complain about the price(you do get what you pay for), and sign up for a subscription.... Thanks Patton Glade
I'm not sure about that David. I just read it and it seems to allude to 'MuscleCar Magazine', not 'MusclePower'. I received a copy of 'Musclecar' magazine (how??? o No: ), but I never subscribed. I think it went out of business already. 'MuscleCar' magazine states '...So don't be surprised if we look more and more like MuscleCar Review in the future'. It's in vol1, issue #5 dated November 2002 on page 4. They're out of business, so they look just like 'em now :gt:
Re: Re: Muscle Car Motion-rippin the "other" mag... Well, that's possible, Marco. Jeff doesn't actually state the name of the magazine he refers to. I've never seen this "Musclecar Magazine" that you mention, so the only conclusion I could reach was that he meant Tom Shaw's new mag. I don't think that oddball mag you mention has been seen by too many people. Did they have former MCR writers/editors? So they had at least 5 issues done...I've never seen it on the newsstand here, and I check weekly for something new. Patton, Jeff Gaddie's magazine is also a family operation, not a large publishing corporation just in it for the money, ala Primedia. I'm very happy with the quality of Jeff's mag, and equally impressed with Tom's first issue, which I received a couple weeks ago. I say kudos are due to both operations, even if one took nearly a year longer than expected to get done. At least Jeff featured a beautiful GSX in his first issue. No sign of a Buick in Tom's first!
David Didn't intend to mean Jeffs mag is something other than a small guy effort also. Hope they both do well as we need a mag or two for the musclecar "purists"...something other than the PHR, HotRod, CC stuff. My comment on Tom's mag not being done under the umbrella of a larger organization was meant more as an answer to the complaints and comments everyone has been posting about not recieving their initial issue(ie-his is a bootstrap operation also...he doesn't just hit the print button and crank out an issue). I was getting impatient also...so I emailed Tom and got an email back with a good answer....those that haven't yet rec'd it should do the same or check the thread on this same subject under the "pure stockers" or "stock appearing" section. Thanks, Patton
David - Here is some additional information on 'Musclecar' magazine - http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13174 http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9389
i miss muscle car review, but i did notice something about it i found kinda annoying. that they used the same stories over and over again, usually word for word, as filler or something when they didn't have enough content to puff out the mag. i have a lot of issues that go back to when they first started up and can find a lot of these articles. even a few articles that i can find in other magazines of the time by the same author. don't know about the ethics of this practice, i suppose budgets and royaltys and contracts were involved. this is one of the reasons i started to pay less and less attention to muscle car review, and probably one of the reasons for its demise. however, any magazine that covers cars of this interest range without getting into the carcraft/hotrod over-kill is ok with me
yes-they had some of the repeat articles but compared to Hot Rod, etc they it wasn't as bad. Primedia owned Musclecar Review and Primedia, after it's debt financed acquisition binge got into trouble...so they started chopping titles. I think ad revenue is the guage they use to make those decisions. Tom is trying not to rely on ad revenue to make or break his magazine...that is why the price is higher...I think it's worth the price. Street Rodder magazine has a related, quarterly mag, called American Rodder...not cheap and extremely high quality...I think this is more of Tom's goal. Now if you look at Hot Rod etc, you see the repeat articles every year...."15 bolt ons for 15hp", "paint and body How To" etc, etc. What you have to remember is they do this every year because every year there are XXXX number of new readers "coming of age"....they need to hook the new subscriber that just got his or her license, first car, etc...these new readers aren't going to go back and look for a back issue that had these articles. In that regard, their strategy makes perfect sense...for a mass market mag you have to keep pulling in new subscribers.....they want to see these "how to" articles so why not give them what they want? I thought, jeeze these guys keep rehashing the same stuff...until I put the "repeat article" idea together with the demographics of the typical car mag reader. Patton Glade
i agree on all you said. the magazine business is, after all, business. i cant fault them for that. i can remember a couple decent car magazines that fell by the wayside in the late 80's because of one reason or another, but not because i didnt buy their product. did you catch the car craft a few months back disguised as MCR? that is when i found out who owns car craft, hot rod, and a couple others. as for knowing what is in hot rod magazine...i quit looking at hot rod back in the early 80's when they started pandering to the multi-colored stripe/mega buck machine crowd [it is like they got bored with what was really going on with the street scene and went with the flashy stuff]. i can appreciate a magazine oriented twords the guy who wants a classy,clean ride that still goes like snot! to hell with the flash, stripes, and non-performance junk they want to sell along with the over-priced cams, intakes, and what-nots. of course, i am in my 40's. if i were 17 i probably would want that stuff-though i still couldn't afford it.. i like american rodder, by the way. i had a 49 international kb1 i was fixing up and magazines like that gave me untold amounts of inspiration. still got a few old copies of it too.
