[VintageMusclecar]

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I can't speak to this particular magazine but car magazine staffs are under INTENSE pressure to put every issue together as CHEAPLY as possible. I think Frieburger even wrote about it a few years ago in his Hot Rod column. Numerous different magazines have been sucked-up into large corporate publishing conglomerates and their only concern is making a buck as cheaply as possible. If a magazine sucks it's probably because their budget sucks. If it's filled-up with ads and only a few car features well that's just business. The die-hard staffers with real pride in what they do, like Frieburger and Magnante and Pat Ganahl (and guys like the late Gray Baskerville), bust their asses for us for not much pay. No million-dollar bonuses for these guys.

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Bill is very much on point.

To preface, this is not directed at any specific publication, but more an overall generalization. That being said...

I have a very good friend who's been in the magazine business for many, many years, even serving as editor for one of the largest-circulation publications at one time (not going to mention names for obvious reasons), and they've shared with me many of the "ins and outs" of how the magazine business works today, esp. since so many have been bought up and placed under one corporate roof. What it boils down to is the advertisers, not the readers. The magazines don't make their money off of subscription fees, nor from newsstand earnings (despite the hefty price tag). Their primary source of income is the advertisers, which brings along with it a fair share of "issues."

Ever wonder why we never read about (just for example) an intake manifold, cam, or cylinder head comparison between several different brands like we used to? It's because brand "X" spends big bucks with the magazine advertising their latest and greatest gizmos, and even if brand "Y" or brand "Z" offer a superior product, the fact that brand "Y" and brand "Z" don't advertise with the magazines (or if they do, it's not on the level of brand "X") means the magazines aren't about to let the cat out of the bag that brand "X" might not be the best out there, lest brand "X" get a knot in their shorts, take their football and go home, taking along with them their advertising dollars. And since the filthy green stuff is what makes the world go `round...well, you can figure out the rest. The "tech" is primarily geared as a printed "info-mercial" for the readers, and the car features are more or less there for filler now. Most of the event coverages are also geared towards bringing in revenue and little else.

That's it, in a nutshell.