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MPH reportedly DOA as brash upstart falls victim to restructuring

MPH reportedly DOA as brash upstart falls victim to restructuring

Posted Apr 5th 2006 10:31AM

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The irreverent monthly car magazine MPH is reportedly road kill. The move by publisher American Media Inc. comes as Chairman David Pecker restructures the company, doing away with the upstart publication less than a year after its September launch. The changes at AMI will also see the demise of Celebrity Living (read: MTV’s ‘Cribs’ in print) and Shape en Español. The National Enquirer, an AMI mainstay will move its offices back to Boca Raton, Florida and change editors.

The publication's website remains up and functional, but doesn't appear to have been updated since word of the shuttering came down Tuesday.

No word yet on what (if any) compensation awaits the magazine’s subscribers.

[Source: Media Week via Photo District Online]

Category: Etc.

Tags: American Media Inc, AmericanMediaInc, AMI, Car Mag, CarMag, Celebrity Living, CelebrityLiving, Magazine, National Enquirer, NationalEnquirer, Periodical, Shape en Espanol, ShapeEnEspanol

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Jason

[And now a personal message from the CEO of Weblogs, Inc. ]

It's funny... when Dave Thomas was leaving Autoblog we had this big discussion of which was a safer home for him: an upstart blog company or a print magazine?

I remember begging Dave to stay (we really need him!) and saying that print was *NOT* safe any more. I told Dave print was declining at the hands of blogs--it was obvious to both of us. However, Dave had a dream of working at a print magazine and he left to persue his dream. I can respect that (even if I didn't/don't agree with it).

I told Dave not to leave because he would # 10 or 20 at MPH, which was the #20 or 30 auto magazine in the world. Why trade keep being the #1 guy at the #1 automotive blog at the #1 blog publisher?!?

(Note: Autoblog is still the top automotive blog in the world, and Weblogs, Inc. was bought by AOL).

Anyway, Dave Thomas is a great blogger and we would welcome him with open arms if he wanted to come back to Autoblog.

Dave, if you're out there, you've always got a home at Autoblog... ping me any time and we'll turn your account back on. :-)

April 08 2006 at 10:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

slick

Hey klaatu,

You have to be the most naive parent ever. Your son is 17, and you're worried about him picking up an issue of MPH. I'm 19 and have(had) a subscription and the magazine wasn't too graphic or tasteless. When I was 14 I had already experienced enough and more than what's in those magazines. I'm POSITIVE your son has either, had sex, done drugs, or commited an illegal activity already, and if you deny that, you sir are a bad parent. You should open your eyes and realize a world we live in today is called an information age for a reason. Info is easily attainable. I'm sure he's whacked one right on the computer you're typing on now.

April 06 2006 at 1:16 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

AutoWriter

I think that the potential for MPH was never realized. An irreverent car magazine aimed at enthusiasts who were raised on tuner books and Maxim is a good idea. Unfortunately, MPH wasn't able to pull it off. I put some of the blame at the feet of the editorial staff (getting automotive journalists to be hip is asking the impossible), but I'd put a big chunk of the blame on Pecker and the rest of AMI. The company (and Pecker) has a history of short attention spans and constant questing for the quick buck. The company will start a magazine with great fanfare, then ignore it by hiring second-tier advertising reps and not investing properly in the magazines. For example, MPH didn't have a full-time west coast editor. With all the Asian manufacturers based there (except Subaru) and all the other automotive industry activity in Southern California, in my opinion it's indicative of the lack of commitment that American Media had to the publication. There's a reason that Pecker is the most appropriately named man in publishing.

Too bad. Despite some of the comments here, it's a pretty talented group of writers and photographers. I hope the concept is renewed somewhere else, with a publisher willing to give the magazine the resources and time it needs to grow and develop.

April 05 2006 at 6:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Kevin

Check back at the MPH site for disgruntled writers venting with headlines like:
"Pecker Pulls MPH, Leaved Us Holding Bag."

April 05 2006 at 3:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

I bought a couple issues of MPH when it first appeared on newsstands, but their layover between my coffee table and my recycle bin was a short one.

My biggest problem with this mag was that they didn't really do any substantial road testing. Aside from three or four comparison tests, most of their articles were fluffy "look at the pretty concept car" pieces. In a couple cases, they didn't even drive the vehicles featured on the cover.

It didn't really seem like it was written by car guys, either... it read more like a "lifestyle magazine."

The best youth-focused mag I've seen to date was Road & Track's "Speed." Lots of sport-compacts, lots of comparison tests, and lots of objective data. Didn't try too hard to be "irreverent," either. Unfortunately, it only lasted five or six issues.

April 05 2006 at 3:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

imlicknem

MPH was the only magazine that consistently did not cater to the car companies and products it wrote about. Piss off a car company by telling it how it is, or "flogging" their test car?! So what, who needs more corporate bullsh!t. If you want correct grammar, go read the New Yorker. If you want a real world car analysis, MPH was the mag. If you want fantastic photo layouts of cars (that are not provided by the manufacturer), MPH was the mag. I can assure you that this is the only car magazine I have ever wanted to read cover to cover. Besides, I see worse depictions of females on network TV on a daily basis, so put that excuse to bed you prudes.

April 05 2006 at 2:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mark

MPH has been steadily moving from my mailbox to my trash can with a shorter stay in between each month.

The primary reason for the fast-track to the trash: awful writing. "Irreverent" is no excuse for ignoring every rule of grammar and for failing to have any point in an article. I'm not talking about slang, or style, I'm talking about plain old miserable, meandering, self-indulgent formless, flabby, godawful writing. Many of the sentences (and paragraphs, and articles) in MPH were so poorly constructed as to look like something scribbled out by third graders on a sugar rush. Not only that, they were littered with factual errors and little blobs of badly thought-out editorial. Reading an article in MPH, you were sure to come away with the impression that the writer thought he was "Too Kewl fOr the ClassrOOm" but with little to no insight about the vehicle in question. Was there no editorial oversight at all?

Just as painful as the text were the layouts. It was as if they looked at Gear, and Maxim, and Stuff and extracted every bad layout those magazines ever created, while carefully dodging anything that was halfway readable. Hey, I know, let's cram a finger-nail width of text into a corner and print half the article on top of an image so dark nobody will be able to read it. Radical! Let's do so many insets no one can find the next piece of the actual article. Cool!

MPH was all formula, no skill. There are plenty of magazines out there with girls in skimpy clothing, and the combination of girls and cars is a recipe that goes back at least to the 50's. If you're going to sell this, you have to bring more than just "attitude."

April 05 2006 at 1:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jim

Well not much of a surprise there. The magazine and website always looked like it was run by a bunch of frat boys. The print edition was like soft corn porn and then....oh yea, some cars.

April 05 2006 at 1:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

David Thomas

thanks to the guys giving props. Appreciate it. If you read the first few issues and not the last few you missed some amazing magazines. But all is not lost just because AMI is no longer publishing.

And always remember that LLN, AB etc get a majority of their posts from original content providers like MPH, C&D, edmunds, Autoweek et al. And don't worry AB would never think of bringing me back.

April 05 2006 at 12:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

josh

Dont bring Dave back, i prefer Paukert and Neff. If I wanted snide remarks i'd read jalopnik. The magazine *was* juvenile.

MPH online was an ok site, but i get enough info from Leftlane News and Autoblog to satisfy my needs.

April 05 2006 at 12:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply