The shelves are empty?
 

Is there a magazine that supports this aspect of the hobby anymore?

Trying to find an electric touring car in a magazine is the needle in the haystack now.

its all nitro and all truck... ahhhhh my name is not billybobjoe Monster truck, but it seems they are the ones buying all the magazines..

I used to really enjoy having something to read on a long drive. OH well back to nudie mags ;)

Magazines are nearly useless for information these days. You get more topical information from message boards like this one where you can interact with racers/company reps/bashers.

Nitro is popular right now, so you see more nitro in magazines. They can't afford to highlight less popular stuff because they have to sell magazines.

It's just the way it is.

Mannn...

I watched that pong game for 5 mins.. they are good.. !!! NEVER miss!! :weird:

I was never that good when I was a kid.. :D

You have to understand that TC racers make up about 5% of the RC market. The majority of people bash around in the street and backyard with off-road RTR electric and nitro kits. Hence what's in the magazine, because that's the target audience.

Why do you think when you open the magazine there are 20 pages of Traxxas ads?? :lol:

Magazines used to highlight what was coming now unfortunately to stay in business they can;t tkae the risk and highlight what went buy. This leads to a cycle where the rookie thinkg that what they read is all there is so they buy what is already popular and the circle of strife goes on and on.

Rock crawling is hot so is Drifting ( both are electric) but the magazine are afraid to switch ahead of the curve so get used to nitro monster trucks for a long time. 7 years ago it was all Electric TC 7 years from now it might all be Nitro 1:18 scale micro offroad who knows? One thing is for sure the Web will always deliver the most information sooner as there is no red tape or printing presses to delay the news.

Seems like there is definitely an opportunity/demand for a RC Racing magazine. A magazine that focused on racing would be a good seller. There are over 41,000 members in this forum alone. If a fraction of that number were racers, that's definitely enough to be profitable making an RC Racing magazine. 10,000 subscribers x $30 per year is $300,000 per year. Who's got the ability to make a magazine? Take advantage of this opportunity. Make it happen.

I remember staring at pictures of Masami Hirosaka's cars that he ran in the big races. Those sold me more than any other ad. I miss the days when RC Car Action had decent content in it.

it is the cycle of things. electric off-road was the IT topic in the late 80's, then oval had the spotlight for about 4-5 years. electric offroad took back over for another stint, then electric TC's grabbed the spotlight. we are now about 2 years into the nitro BOOM. so yeah (as a previous poster said) get used to it because it's going to be a few more years until things run their course for nitro.

there will always be niche markets (micro, drag, tanks, rock crawling, motorcycles, etc), but for the most part, the mags will focus primarily on mainstream because that's where the advertising dollars and circulation come from.

... minus print costs, computer equipment, overrun costs, photography fees, employee salaries, travel to the events to get the newsworthy stories, and finally shipping - it's not as much $$$ as you think. 10,000 subscribers would give you a small start, however, it's not the readers that make a magazine a money-making success - it's the advertisers. Unless the top-shelf advertisers are willing to step away from the current crop of magazines and invest into an unknown - starting a magazine will not be as lucrative as you may think.

What might work is an active newsletter - however, with the access to information that is on this site, making a newsletter work will be a tough business.

ya i know what you mean.
oh mag stuff ya hmmmm i read them its still all good

I know I would subcribe to a magazine if it had content worth reading,I miss the days when I could take a magazine to work and read,and nowadays with employers watching every stinking move you make a mag would be the answer.

I think a mag is something I could keep.. refer to..

Also I used to trust these guys.. they were not factory drivers from any one company and they used to do head to head tests..

For example.. if I wanted a review of the new Mi3... where do I go?? to get a real review from someone who has no vested interest in saying it is awsome... yes I know advertising.. but at least you would get flaws or frustrations pointed out..

Even websites that used to do a lot of that... are gone..

Ho hum...

Exactly, and actually what advertisers are not advertising their products in magazines to make up this mythical "racer" magazine.

I can't understand how people get upset at magazines for covering what is popular.

Drifting and Rock Crawling are NOT popular. Sure they are something different. But the last drift event we went to maybe had 50 entries? Rock crawling? Cool trucks, attention span of about 7 minutes before you wonder why you're only going 3mph.

In the past year we've covered just about every major TC race there is, and always review the latest car.

Right now TC is on a huge down swing, some people get all butt hurt when they hear that because it's what they love, but sales don't lie.

There comes a point in every "self proclaimed" expert they feel they can't learn anything. Part of life.

But RC magazines are one of the few media outlets advertising RC to new people, and despite what people think it's not easy to do, or cheap.

Right now 1/8-scale nitro is hot...few years ago Monster Trucks, before that Touring. Our hobby is a bunch of cycles, some return others don't. We're a very small hobby, and to segment it more and break it up into smaller parts is not the thing we need to do.

There are two which I buy in the UK;

Radio Race Car International

Radio Controlled Car Racer
Obviously they are biased towards the UK events but they are mainly TC related.
They also cover the big international events as well.

Might be worth ordering a copy to see if you like it..

Skiddins

Derek,
In my opinion, I feel that cycles have nothing to do with the lack of racing content in today's magazines. Regardless of what is hot, there is almost no racing covered in the magazines. Even the biggest races only get a couple of pages of content.

Magazines have all the higher quality kits and not some of the junk that you get at Walmart. Is TC really only 5% of the kits? I would think it would be more than that in $. Touring cars sure aren't cheap.