Busy week in the auto enthusiast publishing community. First, Pecker and posse at AMI pulled the plug on our friends at mph (although rumor has it that the crew will be allowed to shop the title, listening, Felix Dennis?) and now it comes down that Bay Area-based DRIVE! Magazine has been sold to Apprise Media, where it'll be slotted in with the company's Orange County-based Action Pursuit Group. Note that we cut our autojourno teeth at that magazine and left on bad terms with the owner/publisher (as did many of our co-workers).
We overheard a lot of grumblings at the SEMA show last fall, and from what we've seen both in the months preceding our departure and in the year since, the title could only benefit from new management (and that's not bitterness talking, either). What isn't clear are the terms of the sale, apparently, for the time being at least, the magazine will stay in the East Bay, rather than being moved down to OC. Apprise picked up enthusiast publisher Y-Visionary late last summer, and will apparently be merging DRIVE! into that group of magazines, including Drag Racer, Street Trucks and Drifting. We wish the remaining friends we have at DRIVE! luck and continued employment; here's to hoping it gets better for y'all.
Action Pursuit Group Acquires DRIVE! Media [The Auto Channel]
Related:
Black Tuesday: AMI Shutters MPH [Internal]