Hemmings Motor News

Hemmings Motor News
CategoriesClassic Car Magazine
FrequencyMonthly
Total circulation
(December 2012)
211,510[1]
FounderErnest Hemmings
Founded1954; 70 years ago (1954)
CompanyAmerican City Business Journals
CountryUnited States
Based inBennington, Vermont, U.S.
Websitewww.hemmings.com/aboutus/ Edit this at Wikidata
ISSN0049-1845

Hemmings Motor News is a monthly magazine catering to traders and collectors of antique, classic, and exotic sports cars. It is the largest and oldest publication of its type in the United States, with sales of 215,000 copies per month, and is best known for its large classified advertising sections. The magazine counts as subscribers and advertisers practically every notable seller and collector of classic cars, including Jay Leno and his Big Dog Garage,[2] and most collector car clubs are included in its directory.

The magazine was started by Ernest Hemmings in Quincy, Illinois, in 1954, then purchased by Terry Ehrich, who moved the company, Hemmings Motor News Publishing, to Bennington, Vermont, in the late 1960s. Ehrich published the magazine until his death in 2002. Hemmings Motor News Publishing was then acquired by American City Business Journals (ACBJ).[3] Hemmings Motor News currently has 100 employees at its Bennington, Vermont headquarters.[4]

Starting in 1970, Hemmings Motor News Publishing added Special Interest Autos, a bimonthly periodical focused primarily on American collectible automobiles. From 2000 to 2003, they published the muscle car and hotrod magazine Hemmings Rods and Performance, relaunched in 2003, under new owner ACBJ, as Hemmings Muscle Machines, with muscle cars as its sole focus.

In 2004, shortly after the release of Hemmings Muscle Machines, ACBJ ended publication of Special Interest Autos and began to develop its successor, Hemmings Classic Car, launched in October of that year. That was followed in 2005 by the addition of a new magazine, Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car.

Hemmings Motor News also contains an approximately 80-page section of editorial content. Content includes coverage of collector-car shows and auctions, sports cars, touring cars, classic cars, pre-war cars and historic racing cars, as well as family-type automobiles.

ACBJ, under the Hemmings banner, also sells a large line of calendars, clothing, signs, and other items relating to automobile collecting and memorabilia, and formerly maintained a public display of 25 cars at their headquarters. The display has been permanently closed as of 2022.[5]

Richard Lentinello, executive editor of the three Hemmings-related magazines, left ACBJ in 2020.[6]

Hemmings will cease publication of Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Muscle Machines effective March 2025, leaving Hemmings Motor News as the only publication in their lineup.[7] Both publications have been dropped from the website as of November 2024.

  1. ^ "eCirc for Consumer Magazines". Alliance for Audited Media. December 31, 2012. Archived from the original on January 23, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  2. ^ "Leno's EcoJet blows through SEMA". Hemmings. October 31, 2006. Archived from the original on November 10, 2006.
  3. ^ "American City to acquire Hemmings Motor News". Jacksonville Business Journal. April 15, 2002.
  4. ^ "About Us". Hemmings.
  5. ^ https://forums.aaca.org/topic/372923-hemmings-museum-is-closed-permanently/
  6. ^ Lentinello, Richard (November 9, 2020). "Ciao, My Friends!". Hemmings Auto Blog. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  7. ^ https://forums.aaca.org/topic/422884-hemmings-changes/