R.I.P. Vette Magazine 1976-2019

Dateline: 2.25.20 – On December 6, 2019 I received an email from Vette magazine editor Brian Brennan. The title of the email said it all; “Vette is Terminated”. I wasn’t surprised, as I’d been hearing rumblings that the magazine was on thin ice for well over ten years.

Just the same, it was a sad day for me. Instantly I was back in the summer of 1976 when one hot steamy day in southern New Jersey at my local newsstand at the Cherry Hill News Stop at the corner of Haddonfield Rd. and Chapel Avenue in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; I saw a new magazine that stopped me in my tracks. There among the rest of the familiar car magazines was a new title; “Vette Quarterly”.

I had been haunting the local magazine stands for car magazines since 1965 and I was always on the lookout for Corvette special editions, but this was better than any special edition I’d ever seen. Vette Quarterly was “Corvettes-only” and I wanted to be part of this new publication. My favorite car magazine then was “Hi-Performance CARS”; a great east coast publication filled with the kinds of cars I saw on the local street scene and at the Atco Raceway and Cecil County Drag-O-Way where I’d been working as one of the weekend track announcers since 1972.

The icing on the cake was when I saw that Martyn “Marty” L. Schorr was the editor of Vette Quarterly. I was very familiar with Marty’s writing and leadership as the editor of CARS, so I knew Vette Quarterly was going to something special.

I’d been drawing for several car magazines for two years, so I made copies of my best illustrations and wrote a letter asking if I could be a contributing illustrator for Vette Quarterly. A week later, I got a call from Marty. As soon as I heard Marty’s voice, his Big Apple accent told me who was on the phone. Marty said, “Scott, I got your samples, very nice. What would you like to do?” That was it, I was in!

What I didn’t know was that that was the beginning of a 43-year long relationship with the publication. Vette Quarterly went bi-monthly in a few years and then by the early 1980s was a full-fledged monthly, Corvette-only magazine and I was part of it.

In the early ’80s Marty moved on to start his successful marketing and PR business, “PMPR, Inc, Public Relations & Marketing Agency”. As the decades rolled on Vette magazine was sold and bought by numerous publishers and somehow I managed to stay on as a contributing artist and writer.

In the spring of 1997 I pitched then editor, Richard Lentinello a concept I called, “The Illustrated Corvette Series” as a monthly column. Lentinello liked the idea but didn’t have an open page for another columnist, so it was, “Thanks, but no thanks”. A week later Lentinello called me to ask if I still wanted to do a column, as one of his other columnists informed him that he could no longer do his column. Of course, I said, “Yes!” My plan was to cover every year Corvette in chronological order; so maybe I’d have 50 installments. When Vette magazine was shuttered last December I had completed 275 installments and got a book deal from Car-Tech Books in 2010.

So, when I learned that Vette magazine was finished it was a sad day, as I never dreamed that my association with that one specialty publication would last so long. Along the way, in addition to my monthly column, I did a lot of feature stories. All of my feature stories and many of my monthly columns were published on www.SuperChevy.com. To check them out,, just use the search tool at the top of SuperChevy.com’s website.

In 2008 Vette published an interview with Marty Schorr where he shared with our readers how he got into the magazine biz and how and why he launched Vette Quarterly. Then in 2016 I wrote “Happy 40th Birthday Vette Magazine”.

Below are links to the two mentioned stories, as well as the transcript of when I interviewed Marty and Joel Rosen on my “Far Out Radio” show where they shared how they created their Baldwin-Motion Phase-III Supercars.

Will Vette magazine ever be resurrected? The paper publishing world is rapidly shrinking, even for mainstream magazines, so it is doubtful that we’ll ever see Vette magazine on the newsstands again. But, you know that old saying, “Never say never”. Anything could happen. We’ll see. – Scott

Marty Schorr interview for Vette magazine, Pt 1 – CLICK HERE.

Marty Schorr interview for Vette magazine, Pt 2 – CLICK HERE.

“Happy 40th Birthday Vette magazine”, CLICK HERE.

“Marty Schorr & Joel Rosen Interview, Pt. 1, CLICK HERE.

“Marty Schorr & Joel Rosen Interview, Pt. 2, CLICK HERE.


 


What’s New In Vette Vues Magazine! 8/15

Here’s what’s in the August 2015 issue of Vette Vues Magazine!

VV-August-Cover

Dateline: 8.15.15 – The cover story for the August issue of Vette Vues is “Victory At Le Mans!” There’s an old saying in road racing that goes, “If you win the 12 Hours at Sebring or the 24 Hours at Daytona, all of America will know. But if you win the 24 Hours At le Mans, the WHOLE WORLD will know. The Corvette Racing Team scored their eighth Le Mans win since the debut arrival of the C5-R cars in 1999. BRAVISSIMO! Corvette Racing Team!

Feature stories in the August issue include:

Circle City Corvettes Caravan to the Beach – Article & Photos by Charley Robertson

Second Annual Indianapolis Grand Prix – Story by Tom Fielitz & Photos by Dave Estes

“Eyes On Design” In Detroit 2015 Show Coverage – Article & Photos by Wayne Elwood

Corvette Milestones: August” – Story & Graphics by K. Scott Teeters

“The John Meyerhoff and Mary Carol Plott Corvette Love Affair, Pt 2” – Story and Photos by K. Scott Teeters Continue reading


What’s New In Vette Vues Magazine! 8/15″

Keith Cornett of CorvetteBlogger.com Blends Corvettes & Blogging

Scott talks with CorvetteBlogger.com and VetteFinders.com owner, Keith Cornett about how to create your own online magazine in the world of blogging.

Click HERE to Listen to Archived Show.

 CorvetteBlogger-FB-72Our guest is Keith Cornett, a modern Corvette guy. He has a deep appreciation for the car’s long and rich past and even owns his Dad’s tuxedo black 1966 Corvette 327 small-block Roadster. And he knows his way around modern Corvettes too and has blended his passion for Corvettes with his passion for the internet and the blogosphere.

Keith is the owner of one of the most successful Corvette blogs in the Corvette community. CorvetteBlogger.com is updated several times a day with varied, interesting, feature-filled posts that are always fun to check out. You never know what you’ll find when you go to CorvetteBlogger.com – videos, slide shows from car shows, interviews, sales stats for Corvettes, Chevrolet press releases, auction results, quirky Corvette items, unusual Corvettes on eBay, Vettes in the news, personality features, and on and on. Continue reading “Keith Cornett of CorvetteBlogger.com Blends Corvettes & Blogging”

So, You Want To Get Into The Car Magazine Biz?

Dateline: 11.29.11

An inside look into the wonderful world of automotive journalism.

"VETTE Quarterly" was the original incarnation of VETTE Magazine and only came out four times a year.

I’m sure that many of you are familiar with or are members of LinkedIn. If you are not a LinkedIn member, DO IT!  You never know what kind of connections you make. Thanks to LinkedIn I connected with a man that was familiar with my art work, and happened to be the “New Acquisitions Editor” at CarTech Books. Thanks to my LinkedIn connection with Scott Parkhurst, I was able to get a publisher for my “Illustrated Corvette Series” book. That made me a LinkedIn Believer!

As a LinkedIn member, you can join all kinds of special interest groups. One group I’m part of is the “Automotive Journalists” group. A young fellow named David posted the following question to the group. “Any advice for someone who wants to pursue automotive journalism some day?” I wrote an answer based on my experience, but it turned out that my answer was WAY over the character count limit. So, I decided to just turn it into a post here at CorvetteReport.com. If you’ve ever wondered what the magazine biz is like, below is my advice to a young car dude with the itch to be in the car mags. – Scott


Fall 1974, the car mags were splashing Chevy's new '75 Monza. Bill Jenkins' Pro Stock Vega had turned Pro Stock on its head, so it wasn't a stretch to imagine that Jenkins would build a Monza Grumpy's Toy. Drag Racing USA magazine jumped on my illustration and ran it as a cover story scoop, "Grumpy's NEW Monza!" The illustration was created with Rapid-O-Graph technical illustration pens.

I drifted into automotive journalism through the art department. I was one of those kids that was always drawing cars in school and in my free time. I was always pouring over art in Hot Rod, Motor Trend, Road & Track, and other magazines, hoping that some day, if I practiced enough, my drawings would be good enough for publication. My first published illustration was a 2-page spread in a drag racing magazine in 1975 of what I speculated Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins’ Pro Stock Chevy Monza “might” look like. I think I was paid $150, which was enough to cover my rent for a month! That was IT, I was hooked! Continue reading “So, You Want To Get Into The Car Magazine Biz?”