With the Jan. ’24 issue of All Chevy Performance magazine, we are excited about starting our third year in production. To all of us here at the In The Garage Media command center, it’s a huge milestone. At a time when print publications were struggling to survive, we decided to start a new one. That doesn’t sound very smart, but we were convinced that putting out a superior product to what was available would prove the naysayers wrong. We were right and All Chevy Performance’s reader base is growing each and every month.
As the saying goes, “Time flies when you are having fun.”
Who knew when we started this magazine endeavor three years ago we’d come as far as we have. Exactly how far is that? Glad you asked. When we began publishing All Chevy Performance the idea was to have the magazine available by subscription only. Since then, we grew at such a rapid pace, ACP can now be found in major book retailers like Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million. But the game changer was when we got into Walmart stores. That was kind of a big deal. It was also a big deal when we took the magazine to a larger format starting with the Jan. ’22 issue. When it comes to magazines, there’s no denying that bigger is better.
Part of our success was due to filling a void in the industry and recognizing the need for a quality Chevy-only monthly magazine. But not just any Chevy magazine—one done better. One with thicker stock, high-quality paper so the words would be more legible and the feature photography would jump off the pages, so that’s what we did.
I’ve said this a number of times, but the fact that In The Garage Media publishes this and two other magazines (Modern Rodding and Classic Truck Performance) with a full-time staff of just nine people, bears repeating. Sure, we contract out various aspects of our brands and hire a talented group of freelance writers and photographers, and also have an outside company running our website to ensure our editorial content goes from print to an Online format seamlessly.
Typically, the editor is the first one to get props for a magazine’s success, but that success would not be possible without the driving force behind In The Garage Media: Yasmin Fajatin, Sarah Gonzales, and Patty Ludi. They are the ones in the trenches who handle all the production aspects of our magazines, manage subscriptions, ship merchandise, answer the phones, and so much more. And I must give credit to our art director, Rob Munoz, as he’s the one who makes our magazines look so good—dude has a vision and it’s clear he knows what’s up when it comes to designing a magazine.
The positive feedback we’ve gotten regarding our magazines helps motivate us to keep print alive and the success we’ve achieved in just three years is a pleasant surprise but not entirely unexpected due to the talented people who make this all come together. But I don’t base our success only on growing subscriptions, newsstand sales, and our website traffic, it’s also based on our ability to inspire, inform, and entertain. Without those three elements, success will be limited and temporary.
Welcome to the Jan. ’24 issue and the beginning of our third year in production. On behalf of us all at In The Garage Media we hope you have a Happy New Year and may your mail carrier deliver your All Chevy Performance magazines on time and free of creases.
It looks like we’re here for the long haul. You in?
