Hemmings Motor News

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Hemmings Motor News
Hemmings Motor News logo.svg
CategoriesClassic Car Magazine
FrequencyMonthly
Total circulation
(December 2012)
211,510 [1]
FounderErnest Hemmings
Founded1954;70 years ago (1954)
Company American City Business Journals
CountryUnited States
Based in Bennington, Vermont, U.S.
Website www.hemmings.com/aboutus/ OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
ISSN 0049-1845

Hemmings Motor News is a monthly magazine catering to traders and collectors of antique, classic, and exotic sports cars. It is the largest and oldest publication of its type in the United States, with sales of 215,000 copies per month, and is best known for its large classified advertising sections. The magazine counts as subscribers and advertisers practically every notable seller and collector of classic cars, including Jay Leno and his Big Dog Garage, [2] and most collector car clubs are included in its directory.

Contents

The magazine was started by Ernest Hemmings in Quincy, Illinois, in 1954, then purchased by Terry Ehrich, who moved the company, Hemmings Motor News Publishing, to Bennington, Vermont, in the late 1960s. Ehrich published the magazine until his death in 2002. Hemmings Motor News Publishing was then acquired by American City Business Journals (ACBJ). [3] Hemmings Motor News currently has 100 employees at its Bennington, Vermont headquarters. [4]

Starting in 1970, Hemmings Motor News Publishing added Special Interest Autos, a bimonthly periodical focused primarily on American collectible automobiles. From 2000 to 2003, they published the muscle car and hotrod magazine Hemmings Rods and Performance, relaunched in 2003, under new owner ACBJ, as Hemmings Muscle Machines, with muscle cars as its sole focus.

In 2004, shortly after the release of Hemmings Muscle Machines, ACBJ ended publication of Special Interest Autos and began to develop its successor, Hemmings Classic Car, launched in October of that year. That was followed in 2005 by the addition of a new magazine, Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car.

Hemmings Motor News also contains an approximately 80-page section of editorial content. Content includes coverage of collector-car shows and auctions, sports cars, touring cars, classic cars, pre-war cars and historic racing cars, as well as family-type automobiles.

ACBJ, under the Hemmings banner, also sells a large line of calendars, clothing, signs, and other items relating to automobile collecting and memorabilia, and formerly maintained a public display of 25 cars at their headquarters. The display has been permanently closed as of 2022. [5]

Richard Lentinello, executive editor of the three Hemmings-related magazines, left ACBJ in 2020. [6]

Hemmings will cease publication of Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Muscle Machines effective March 2025, leaving Hemmings Motor News as the only publication in their lineup. [7] Both publications have been dropped from the website as of November 2024.

Hemmings Classic Car

Hemmings Classic Car, launched in October 2004, was a monthly magazine and successor of Special Interest Autos (1970–January 2004), covering the topic of American, European and Japanese-built collector cars, targeting enthusiasts, owners, collectors, dealers, restorers and parts manufacturers.

Hemmings Classic Car captured several distinct collector-car audiences in a single publication, with an emphasis on early post-war 1946–1960 automobiles. Other categories included the pre-1916 Brass era cars, pre-war cars, CCCA-recognized Classic cars, and cars from the 1960s through the early 1980s.

Hemmings Classic Car featured photography showcasing these automobiles, including in-construction photographs of the entire restoration process, showing readers what it takes to produce a concours-quality collectible. As of 2008, data showed it as the best-selling old-car magazine in the world. [8]

Subscribers to Hemmings Classic Car were notified in a letter with their January 2025 issue that the February 2025 issue will be their last. Hemmings cited "significant inflation related to production costs," "changes in advertiser demand," "newsstand supply-chain struggles," and consumer tastes shifting to digital and social media as reasons for the cancellation. Content from Hemmings Classic Car will be consolidated into Hemmings Motor News. Hemmings Classic Car subscribers will receive Hemmings Motor News instead for the remainder of their subscription after February 2025. [9]

Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car

Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car, launched in 2005 by American City Business Journals, was an automobile enthusiast magazine with content consisting solely of collector cars built outside the United States. In March 2017, subscribers of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car were notified that the May 2017 issue would be the last, citing "financial reasons" for the cancellation. [10]

Hemmings Muscle Machines

Hemmings Muscle Machines, an American City Business Journals 2005 refocused continuation of Hemmings Motor News Publishing's Hemmings Rods and Performance (2000–2005). It is a bimonthly periodical focused primarily on muscle cars from the postwar era to present. Content includes original cars, restorations, modified cars and new-production muscle cars.

Racing activities

In 1979, a team from Hemmings participated in the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. [11] [12] In 1986, the same team of Terry Erich, former BMW factory motorcycle racer Justus Taylor and Hemmings editor-in-chief David Brownell entered the Great American Race, [13] and Hemmings later became a primary sponsor of the race. In 2007, Hemmings ended their participation in what was now called the Great Race, and began participating in the Hemmings Vintage Car Rally. [14] Hemmings' sponsorship of the Great Race resumed in 2011. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vintage car</span> Cars made between 1919 and 1925 or 1930

A vintage car is, in the most general sense, an old automobile, and in the narrower senses of car enthusiasts and collectors, it is a car from the period of 1919 to 1930. Such enthusiasts have categorization schemes for ages of cars that enforce distinctions between antique cars, vintage cars, classic cars, and so on. The classification criteria vary, but consensus within any country is often maintained by major car clubs, for example the Vintage Sports-Car Club (VSCC) in the UK.

A classic car is typically described as an automobile 25 years or older, although a car's age is not the only requirement it must meet before being considered a "classic." However, a standard criteria for recognizing cars as classics does not exist, since different countries use their own rules and have their own regulations for classifying potential cars. Despite this, a common theme is that an older car of historical interest becomes collectible and tends to be restored rather than scrapped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMC Javelin</span> Compact car produced by American Motors Corporation

The AMC Javelin is an American front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, two-door hardtop automobile manufactured by American Motors Corporation (AMC) across two generations, 1968 through 1970 and 1971 through 1974 model years. The car was positioned and marketed in the pony car market segment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antique car</span> Automobile classed as an antique

An antique car is an automobile that is an antique. Narrower definitions vary based on how old a car must be to qualify. The Antique Automobile Club of America defines an antique car as over 25 years of age. However, the legal definitions for the purpose of antique vehicle registration vary widely. The antique car era includes the Veteran era, the Brass era, and the Vintage era, which range from the beginning of the automobile up to the 1930s. Later cars are often described as classic cars. In original or originally restored condition antiques are very valuable and are usually either protected and stored or exhibited in car shows but are very rarely driven.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMC AMX</span> Two-seat sports car produced by American Motors Corporation

The AMC AMX is a two-seat GT-style muscle car produced by American Motors Corporation from 1968 through 1970. As one of just two American-built two-seaters, the AMX was in direct competition with the one-inch (2.5 cm) longer wheelbase Chevrolet Corvette, for substantially less money. It was based on the new-for-1968 Javelin, but with a shorter wheelbase and deletion of the rear seat. In addition, the AMX's rear quarter windows remained fixed, making it a coupe, while the Javelin was a true two-door hardtop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rambler American</span> Compact car produced by American Motors Corporation

The Rambler American is a compact car that was manufactured by the American Motors Corporation (AMC) between 1958 and 1969. The American was the second incarnation of AMC forerunner Nash Motors' compact Rambler that was introduced in 1950 and marketed after the merger with Hudson Motors under both marques during the 1954 and 1955 model years.

AUTOart is a Hong Kong–based scale model car line manufactured by Gateway Autoart Ltd. and sold by AA Collection Ltd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American City Business Journals</span> American newspaper chain

American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market's edition named for that market, and also publishes Hemmings Motor News and Inside Lacrosse. The company is owned by Advance Publications. The company receives revenue from display advertising and classified advertising in its weekly newspaper and online advertising on its website and from a subscription business model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hudson Italia</span> Two-seat sports car produced and marketed by Hudson and American Motors

The Hudson Italia is an automobile styling study and a limited production two-door compact coupé that was produced by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, in cooperation with Carrozzeria Touring of Italy, and subsequently marketed by American Motors Corporation (AMC) during the 1954 and 1955 model years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rambler Marlin</span> Two-door car featuring a fastback by American Motors

The Rambler Marlin is a two-door fastback automobile produced in the United States by American Motors Corporation from 1965 to 1967. A halo car for the company, it was marketed as a personal luxury car.

Karl E. Ludvigsen is a journalist, author, and historian of the automotive industry and motor sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance</span> Automobile show of classic and sports cars

The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is an automotive charitable event held each year during the second weekend in March at The Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island in Amelia Island, Florida. A New York Times article about celebrity car ownership listed "the nation's top concours d'elegance: Pebble Beach in California, Meadow Brook in Michigan, Amelia Island in Florida, and the Louis Vuitton Classic in midtown Manhattan."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Cumberford</span> American journalist

Robert Wayne Cumberford is a former automotive designer for General Motors, author and design critic – widely known as Automotive Design Editor and outspoken columnist for Automobile magazine.

The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum is an automotive museum located at 6825 Norwitch Drive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The museum's collection consists of approximately 75 racing sports cars and has been assembled over more than 50 years by Frederick A. Simeone, a retired neurosurgeon and native of Philadelphia. Frederick Simeone has been ranked the #1 car collector by the Classic Car Trust Registry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Auto Museum</span> Car museum and Event Center in Glendale, Arizona

The Martin Auto Museum and Event Center is a privately owned non-profit automobile museum located in Glendale, Arizona. The museum and event center are open Tuesday-Sunday from 9am-5pm. The museum is dedicated to the preservation of collectible automobiles for educational purposes. Admission is a free for children 5 and under, children 6-12 admission is a $5.00 donation. General Admission is a $15 donation per person over the age of 12. Seniors 62 and over is a $12 donation. Some of the services provided by the museum include guided tours for such groups as local schoolchildren, veteran organizations and car clubs.

The Willow was a 2-Seat Sports Car kit produced by Seltzer Motor Industries, Chatsworth, California. It is known to be the first transverse, inline 4-cylinder, mid-engined kit car ever offered to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Eberts</span> American painter

Ken Eberts was an American painter who had been a major contributor to the automotive art genre. He was a founding member of the Automotive Fine Arts Society (AFAS), and was its president since its inception in 1983.

The Academy of Art University Automobile Museum is a non-profit museum located in San Francisco, California. The museum serves both as a conservator of automotive history and as a tool for students in the industrial design department at the Academy of Art University, particularly those in the Automotive Restoration program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AACA Museum</span> Transportation museum in Hershey, PA

The AACA Museum is a transportation museum located in Hershey, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit museum dedicated to the preservation of American automobile history. Despite its name the museum is not affiliated with the Antique Automobile Club of America.

References

  1. "eCirc for Consumer Magazines". Alliance for Audited Media. December 31, 2012. Archived from the original on January 23, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  2. "Leno's EcoJet blows through SEMA". Hemmings. October 31, 2006. Archived from the original on November 10, 2006.
  3. "American City to acquire Hemmings Motor News". Jacksonville Business Journal . April 15, 2002.
  4. "About Us". Hemmings.
  5. https://forums.aaca.org/topic/372923-hemmings-museum-is-closed-permanently/
  6. Lentinello, Richard (November 9, 2020). "Ciao, My Friends!". Hemmings Auto Blog. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  7. https://forums.aaca.org/topic/422884-hemmings-changes/
  8. "2008 financial year data". Audit Bureau of Circulation .
  9. https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums/general-discussion-33/hemmings-classic-car-cease-publication-183007/
  10. LaChance, David (September 24, 2018). "The End of the Road". Hemmings.com. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  11. Yates, Brock (2003). Cannonball! World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race. Motorbooks International. ISBN   0-7603-1633-3.
  12. Special Interest Autos #52, ISSN   0049-1845
  13. Special Interest Autos #96, ISSN   0049-1845
  14. "Hemmings-Branson Vintage Rally". Vintage Car Rally. Archived from the original on August 17, 2009.
  15. "Great Race Launches From Chattanooga on June 11". The Chatanoogan. May 16, 2011. Archived from the original on September 19, 2011.