what happened to our clean, car themed, family friendly magazine?

Originally posted by Mark: The After Hours parts review section was a staple of Modified Mustangs from issue #1 and was very popular with the late-model guys who read that book.

On the contrary, the letters to the editor section of Modified Mustangs has had many, many items decrying this section since the second issue hit the stands.  Personally, I don't give a darn about "family friendly" or not, I just don't have any desire to look at trampy women in my Mustang magazines.  And the writing in that section...  Don't get me started.  If I want to look at chicks, millions of better images are just a Google image search away.  The single biggest improvement to the magazine that could be made would be to dump the bimbos.  Remember, not all of your readers are 19.  

lol, classicstangfan thats truely funny.  as I have not lived at home since I joined the Marines many many years ago.  married and have my own kid.  if you cant take the heat and a little bit of ball bustin stay out of the kitchen.  

oh and fyi even before then held down a job and went to school to graduate towards the top of the class.  

And let me guess your hero is Howard Stern?  

ClassicStangfan:
And let me guess your hero is Howard Stern?

no, actually I cant stand howard stern.

bottom line I was just bustin some of these guys chops, the same way you came back at me.  these women are far from scantly clad or even nude, and they are running away with it like she is a full penthouse pin up, showing all the goods.  like I said before you see worse walking threw the mall or even your local cruise in spot.  

I see kids out today in things I would kill my daughter if I caught her wearing them, and to get upset cause there is a women in blue jeans and bikini top leaning against some car parts?  honestly you are never going to make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time but I am willing to bet there are more people who dont mind or actually enjoy seeing the women in the mag then those who hate it.  me personally I could care less if they are there or not but it doesnt bother me.  I do understand its and advertisement, what does bother me about it is she is normally leaning against the SAME parts month after month.  please showcase something different instead of headlights and rims everytime.  

This goes back to the same old BS......if you don't want to see it, don't look at those pages! I for one am glad they are in there.  

MustangMan:
Morning guys...

Just getting ready to head out to the Carlisle fairgrounds and see what's shakin. First, to answer a few questions. The After Hours parts review section was a staple of Modified Mustangs from issue #1 and was very popular with the late-model guys who read that book.

With the merger of the two books the section stayed. It is, to be blunt, a paid revenue part of the magazine, just like an ad. Calling the advertiser is a good idea if you wish to voice a complaint, but I honestly don't know if there's enough people complaining to make a difference/change. Sure, there's some upset guys here, and I've gotten about a dozen emails at work on the subject (it's either the late-model cars or the model, only two complaints), but I don't see that being enough to make a change to it or removing it.

I can understand the After Hours section touching a nerve but I'm a bit surprised about the late-model comments. I was hoping our M&F readers would be a bit more open to the whole Ford family, as I am.

I saw a really nice SVT Contour yesterday when I got to the Carlisle fairgrounds. Would you guys hang me for running a FWD in the magazine? Have you ever driven an SVT Contour. Way cool car. I love my early Mustangs, but man, there's so much more cool stuff out there to experience.

Anyway, I've got to get going.

I do hope you guys will give it a few issues and expand your horizons. Sure there's late-model sister mags, but they're all about 9-second drag cars. We're going to be focusing on street driven cars. Nice, early Fox GT Mustangs? I just got a photo from a guy the other day in Arizona with a two-door Fairmont. It was a really cool car too! I might put that in the magazine. They're all Fords, can't we get along as a big Blue Oval family?

Thanks guys...

Mark

Mark,

I'm two issues or so into the new "merged" format and so far "It's not getting it done for me".

I have been buying Mustang & Fords or subscribing to it for about 15 years I'd guess (since the Peterson Pub. days) and have seen changes that are good and ones that sucked.  As of now, this one falls into the last category in a big way.

The girlie thing is not the "straw" for me. I have no problem with that if it does not water down the content.  My big problem is 140 pages and maybe 10 of them are real "content" worth reading.

It is just not worth wading through all the ads and worthless fluff to find the tech. stuff or the feature car layouts with "meaningful words".

The ads pay the bills...but not when the sponsors realize they are not read due to ad overload and the short attention span we motor heads have.

Make the tech. articles in B&W to save cash (and keep the earth greener) and ditch some of the sponsors.  You might even keep some reader's that way.

As for me and my ~15 years of reading, you have 5 more issues to change my mind before I pull the plug.

It does not sound like I'm alone.

I'm not threatening...Just stating fact. The car hobby is supposed to be fun. Reading about it should also be enjoyable and informative. The current format of Modified Mustangs & Fords is "WORK" and that is a four letter word.

We have a wide range of Fords so I'm not just stuck in one narrow area I want to see. Our stable includes:

1965 Mustang 289 Hardtop (Restored)
1977 Ford F-100 w/302 V8 (I'm the original owner)
1989 LX 5.0 Sport Convertible (original car)
1994 Ford Explorer Limited (Pronounced EXPLODER)

I recently sold my 1988 GT 5-speed with flowmasters and such.

I'm accepting of a lot of things (and a lot of change).  What I won't put up with is a lack of value for my hard earned dollar.  

All that I can say to those who are cying about the After Hours section is,
grow up! Im tired of people griping about stuff like this. Do you have so little self control that you cannot stand to look at an attractive woman without scarring
you for life. If so, then dont watch tv or go to a car show or the beach in the summer.  

Back in the Dark Ages that I came from, there used to be 3 or 4 magazines about cars, period. The only articles were about THE HATED!!!!!! In 82 or 83 I found magazines that were devoted to nothing but, and all was GOOD!!!!! I have more magazines stored in the shed I had to buy to put them in...house was full...over the years, I have heard more excuses to quit a subsription than you can ever shake a stick at. I have heard over the years we don't want women in the magazine more than once...people complained, and they disappeared. The threat to cancel only hurts you and other readers..look how many magazines have fallen by the wayside...so.. complain if you like,don't expect an immediate response, tear the pages out if you like ,but please don't cancel!!!! some day we may only have 1 magazine again!!!  

The new format of the magazine isn't to my liking anymore and i have stopped buying it.I now buy 5.0 mustangs and fords and muscle mustang and fast fords as they haven't changed anything in the past 5 years since i bought my mustang.I for one liked the tech section and the models which is one reason i bought it in the first place and i hope American Muscle pulls funding and advertising out of Your magazine. i purchase a lot from them and have referred them to my friends in canada but i will mention to them that the tech section should be picked up by one of the other magazines and they should pull ads from this one and give the ads to the other magazines as this magazine if you look at it is over 50% advertising and from what i have seen since the change it is getting worse. like i said i buy it from the grocery store but now i just do a flip through there and put it back after i have looked at it i still buy my others regularly but i'll never buy this one again. if there is an article i want i'll just goto the library and photocopy the page i need. NO HARM NO FOUL that way  

You need to check your math on your magazines.

Here's a recent issue compilation I made of ad versus edit pages in our Ford magazines:

Muscle ad/edit
Sept. 103 ad        69 edit    3.83 page difference

5.0 Mustang ad/edit
Sept. 95.62 ad 68.38 edit   3.21 page difference

Modified M&F ad/edit
Sept. 34.83 ad 65.17 edit

Mustang Monthly
Sept. 26.45 ad 65.55 edit  0.38 page difference

As you can see, we are FAR from 50% ads. I love when people complain OUR book is all ads. Look at the number of ad pages in 5.0 and Muscle. You're getting nearly the same amount of editorial pages and in most cases TRIPLE the ads. We have MORE edit than advertising, something 5.0 and Muscle can't say.

And as for American Muscle, the owners of AM are a great bunch of guys and we've talked to them at length and they understand our position of dropping After Hours (which was mostly a financial decision). Matter of fact, they INCREASED their advertising with us after the August issue when we dropped After Hours.

All these arguments are about perception and I'm just putting the facts up here. People complain "too much late-model" or "too much classic" and it's all because they only want to see the same car sitting in their driveway. If they'd calm down for a second and actually look at the product and count the pages they'd see we keep it fair and try to have some content to their liking in every issue.

I hope this puts a clearer picture on things for you.

Mark  
Mark Houlahan
Editor
Modified Mustangs & Fords Magazine

1965 FFR Roadster 427W/TKO-600
1966 Mustang 289-4V/C4
1968 Mustang 4.6L Three-Valve/5R55S auto
1990 Mustang 347/AOD
1998 Escort 2.0L SOHC/F4E-111 Auto
2002 Explorer Sport Trac 4.0L V-6/5R55 Auto

Hah!  You people want to know about the number of ads in a magazine?  You wanna complain about the quantity of ads in this mag or any of the the other car rags?  Then may I suggest you go get a copy of Vogue or Vanity Fair and take a look at that.  You will never complain about ads in a car rag ever again.  The lastest issue of Vanity Fair has a good article on Jackie Kennedy that my wife wanted to read - IIRC, there are about 25 pages of advertising BEFORE you hit the first Table of Contents page.  By the time you get to the Editor's page, you've almost gone through a whole issue of MM&F. The "snoot level" is pretty high in there too.  Be glad for what IS in our car rags, it could BE WORSE by a long shot.

Here - shows MM&F is well under the industry average: http://www.magazine.org/ASME/EDITORIAL_TRENDS/26312.aspx
"Most magazines contain both editorial and advertising content. The editorial content keeps readers interested, while the advertising revenue enables magazines to keep subscription and newsstand costs affordable for average consumers. In 2008, the ratio for consumer magazines was 46.2% advertising, 53.8% editorial. "

[EDIT] Actually, I think MM&F should take a lesson from those high-end coffee-table-anchor magazines.  I would just LOVE to open the mag and smell a little whif of WD-40 drifting off the page, a little sniff of gear oil in the Valoline ad,  maybe a little burned rubber on the event coverage articles.  
1967 Falcon 4 door 351C-4V
1970 Mustang 351C-2V
http://raceabilene.com/kelly/hotrod
Owner built, owner abused.

I don't really care about the feature cars i have a 1998 mustang gt that has seen it's share of awards in the past 5 years and it isn't because of some magazine. i bought the car as i wanted something different and i found it but every month i search for articles on 1998 mustangs and NOTHING so i just go happily on my way. i have bought every issue of all three mags since i purchased the car and there were a lot more sn95's featured in 2004 than today. and yes i do read the tech ad section as that is where i got my smoked headlight covers and tinted 3rd brake light and the sequential tail-lights,etc if it wasn't for the model holding the headlight covers i probably would not have thought about them at all...

why not put the models in the last 6 pages of the magazine where American Muscle has the ads now and move the ads to the front of the mag that way everyone is happy and the people who think the models are non-complacent can just choose not to look but i know they do and they probably drool over them and they must have been caught by their wives looking at them and got busted....  

PS - Car Craft's December issue is their end of year, full court press circulation booster.  It's a bikini issue.  
1967 Falcon 4 door 351C-4V
1970 Mustang 351C-2V
http://raceabilene.com/kelly/hotrod
Owner built, owner abused.