[Casey Marks]

So folks don't havta be-bop between sites, here's the *OFFICIAL* response from Primedia .....

Dear Sir or Madam,

I appreciate your recent email regarding the decision of Primedia to cease publication of Muscle Car Review. This was a very difficult move for me personally because I too I am a die hard muscle car fan and, in fact drive a restored Mach 1 daily. I was also Publisher of this magazine not too many years ago. Our senior management made this decision for a variety of reasons, which I will attempt to outline for you now.

The number one reason we will cease publishing MCR is that it has not made money for several years. There are really two reasons for this; dwindling advertising support and the state of newsstand distribution.

As you may know, advertising is a necessary portion of any consumer magazine that is published today. The fact is that advertiser support of MCR has been in a decline for several years and has shown no signs of an upturn. I can speculate about "why" this is, but would merely offer the obvious that Detroit isn't building any more of these cars and there are a limited number of them being restored. I have spent many an hour trying to figure out a way to expand the ad base in MCR without corrupting the editorial (i.e. more late model platforms). There simply was not a way to do it and preserve what everyone demanded which was a sixties and early seventies focus that was restoration based with little to no modifications.

The other major issue is newsstand distribution.

When I started in this business twenty years ago there were over 700 independent magazine wholesalers in the USA distributing approximately 2000 monthly magazines. Today, there are only 4 wholesalers distributing over 4000 magazines. Magazines used to be looked at by your local bookstore and grocery as a service to their customers. Today they are looked at as an important profit center and the number of copies that are sold are life or death to a magazine. Small niche titles have a very difficult time in this environment because your local food store would much rather sell People magazine, than another car title simply because of dollars and cents. Primedia spends enormous resources and time trying to combat this, but it is an ongoing problem, which is likely to get worse before it gets better. I get a number of letters from people every month asking why they have a hard time finding our magazines. This is the reason.

It is my hope that when the economic and newsstand climates become more reasonable, we will be able to produce MCR in some form, perhaps as an annual. Rest assured I am already working on such a scenario.

A number of you inquired about refunds as well as getting other Primedia magazines in place of MCR. All of those inquiries can be handled by calling
1-800-777-4370.

Thank you once again for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,

Doug Evans
VP Group Publisher
Performance and Motor Sports
Primedia, Inc.