01/08/2024
With heavy hearts, we must share an update on the future of our beloved car magazines, Car Kulture Deluxe and Ol' Skool Rodz. Please see the announcement below from our publisher.
I want to preface my comments by first expressing my deepest regrets to our loyal subscribers, advertisers, and wonderfully talented contributors. And most importantly, to the full-time employees who lost a job, a means of livelihood. Additionally, to the pioneers of Car Kulture DeLuxe and Ol’ Skool Rodz who came before me, who created the brands and did so beautifully for so many years before me, bringing so much of our kulture’s coverage each month. It is utterly agonizing to make an announcement of this nature after such an arduous fight, trying so hard to preserve these brands for the kulture and community.
In 2019, my predecessor shared with me that he had determined it was no longer viable to continue, and had decided to cease publishing altogether, and was looking to either sell or fold the magazines immediately. He gave me one week to produce a company and the means to continue and take over. As a car guy, I have always felt that having something published was the ultimate milestone, and I felt compelled to do all I could to preserve that opportunity and carry the torch. We had ideas, of course, and the encouragement to try to create new, reinvigorated interest and to try to compete with digital brands and the internet. But keeping actual printed magazines going was always the goal.
Immediately after we began, some 19 or more automotive brands ceased publishing altogether, and we had hoped for a silver lining, that our brand would get some additional support and we became ever more determined to succeed. When COVID hit, however, there was so much uncertainty globally as to everyone’s future, both business-wise and personally, that companies throughout the print industry pulled out of advertising, and we lost 70% overnight. It was obvious we would never have the ability to turn a profit again, but it was always a passion project with the goal of just breaking even, and doing our best to help preserve print for all who love it as much as we do. Ultimately, however, the expense of being distributed on newsstands and shipping internationally crushed us. We had to succumb to, in essence, being forced off the shelves as the ever rising cost of paper, ink, shipping, distribution, currency exchange rates and postage continues to skyrocket to this day, literally increasing every month. It is just impossible to sustain printing magazines that ultimately are so exorbitantly expensive to produce that we cannot sell them for anywhere near what they actually cost to create. Therefore, after losing tens of thousands of dollars monthly, we have hit rock bottom and have had to accept our plight.
We cannot create new interest from the younger generation who are glued to the internet on their phones, living for instant gratification and able to see everything we are trying to capture instantly, and so many do not value the tangible anymore at all. They can see all the shows, the cars, the shoots with models, and advertising for free, and despite the fact it is here today and gone tomorrow, they just do not want to spend any discretionary income on magazines, nor do they desire to collect them.
It is a very sad state of affairs in my opinion, but the fact of the matter is we literally tried our guts out to the end, losing everything yet pressing forward until ultimately we were cut off. The debt is insurmountable, and without any other options, we must cease publication altogether. I had desired to have the option to print one last commemorative issue and to have been able to say our thank yous, apologies and goodbyes in print, but sadly, it had to be here. Again, I cannot begin to thank all of our supporters enough for their years of unwavering loyalty, and wish the very best for all of the brands that somehow continue to press on. We wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year.
