Dubious Winners of the Lemmings Award!

CPI's Lemmings Awards is a tongue-and-cheek roasting of selected publisher online miscues, foibles, and often bizarre attempts to hang on for dear life (do I hear "Free Diskettes" anyone?). Like many industries caught in a Twilight Zone of channel conflict, some publishers have capitalized on new media, while others cling to obsolete print models, aka "Lemmings" off the cliff.

All in fun, but serious business given that over 40 once-vibrant automotive titles just a few short years ago are no longer filling our mailboxes and local newsstands.

The coming shakeout means there's gonna be more spilled re ink while the fittest eventually figure it out. After all, it would be nice to put The Lemmings Award out to pasture.

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Hemmings Announces Digital Editions

Web 1.0 implementation is pure vintage.

29Mar2011 | | 3 comments | | Continued
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Car & Driver’s Wayward Pitch

Like a restaurant selling forks… where’s the beef?

27Nov2010 | | 0 comments | | Continued
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6% Circ Drop at Old Cars Weekly

Format change at Old Cars Weekly contributes to 6% drop in circulation.

21Nov2010 | | 0 comments | | Continued
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Car Collector Future Tied to Investor Durham

Investor Tim Durham’s Car Collector magazine faces a rough patch.

7Aug2009 | | 24 comments | | Continued
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Motor Trend Turns 60

Motor Trend turns 60. As in Years. Its editor espouses the value of newsstand while parent Source Interlink attempts to rebuild out of brankruptcy.

29Jul2009 | | 3 comments | | Continued
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Sticker Shock: $300 for Old Cars Weekly Online Service

A new online data base from Old Cars Weekly carries a hefty price tag in an age where info is free and the collector car market is in a free fall.

28Jul2009 | | 10 comments | | Continued
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Source Interlink Bankruptcy Clouds Future for Motor Trend, Automobile

Source Interlink is set to emerge from bankruptcy after shedding $1B in debt. Automobile, Motor Trend, and Hot Rod ad stat’s are off by 28%. And management gets to stay. Is SI too big to fail?

28Jul2009 | | 1 comment | | Continued

Old Cars Weekly Expands Cover Advertising

More paid advertising is a good thing, but execution is everything.

22Sep2008 | | 0 comments | | Continued
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Hemmings Digital is a Web Edsel

EZines, or digital versions of printed pages, once had their rightful place as a mid-life kicker circa Web 1.0. Hemmings Digital attempts to retain online readers but its execution is too little too late.

7Apr2008 | | 9 comments | | Continued
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These Self-Mailers Miss the Mark

Self-mailers have persuasive cost benefits, but decades of testing have shown they simply don’t deliver the yields magazine publishers seek. And these two particular self-mailers break another key rule: All About Me. Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car is the more workmanlike of the two, whereas the art gallery production from Auto Aficionado is, well, slick. [...]

30Mar2008 | | 8 comments | | Continued

  • Eric H. Killorin, LLC

  • Keys to a Successful Web Magazine

  • Recent Comments

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      maynard griggs | 11Oct11 | More
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