• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 18, 2010

After a three-year hiatus, Source Interlink Cos. is relaunching Motor Trend Classic, a special-interest publication targeting enthusiasts of old-school automobiles. It is also reorganizing editorial responsibilities for its other car enthusiast titles, per Mediaweek.

Source Interlink Cos. acquired the Motor Trend flagship magazine, several other car-enthusiast titles, and a number of other pubs from Primedia in 2007 for $1.2 billion, including the defunct Motor Trend Classic brand, which Primedia published on a bimonthly schedule from 2005-2006. Source is relaunching Motor Trend Classic in March as a quarterly with a cover price of $14.95; the magazine will include only a small amount of advertising, according to Folio:.

Also, Source is consolidating editorial responsibilities for its various car enthusiast titles, including Motor Trend Classic, in the Motor Trend Automotive Group, which also includes Motor Trend, Automobile Magazine, Truck Trend, Motor Trend Radio, automotive.com, IntelliChoice.com, internetAutoGuide.com, Autobuyguide.com, NewCar.com and AutoMallUSA.net. To help coordinate the transition, a number of personnel received new roles: Edward Loh was appointed executive editor of Motor Trend, Mike Floyd named group digital integration director, and Joe DeMatio named executive editor of Automobile Magazine. On the business side, the Motor Trend Automotive Group will be headed by Senior Vice President and Group Publisher Ira Gabriel.

Automotive-enthusiast titles sustained some of the biggest losses in terms of ad pages and revenue over the last couple of years, beginning well before most other consumer magazines. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, Automobile's ad pages fell 13.3% in 2008 and another 36.1% in 2009, while Motor Trend's ad pages fell 11.7% and 34.1% in the same years.

Everyday Food Launches iPhone App

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's Everyday Food magazine is launching a new iPhone app, which allows users to access a library of Everyday Food recipes. The new app (which is also available for the iPod Touch) also lets users transfer recipe ingredients into shopping lists, helping organize meal planning and grocery shopping. Gail Horwood, MSLO's senior vice president for digital programming and strategy, explained that the app help fulfill the brand's commitment to "convenience, simplicity and seasonality."

Features of the $0.99 app include daily alerts with dinner ideas and recipes, recipe search functions, sharing recipes via email, store locators using GPS technology or ZIP code search, and a database of the user's favorite recipes. The app also delivers large color photos alongside editorial content as presentation suggests.

Reader's Digest Leaves Chapter 11, Splits with British Division

After a brief delay, the Reader's Digest Association is leaving Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection -- but without its British subsidiary, Reader's Digest UK, which ran afoul of the government regulatory authority, whih oversees corporate pension plans in the U.K. The American flagship company was prepared to leave bankruptcy protection several weeks ago, but then delayed the move so Reader's Digest UK could attempt to persuade the UK Pension Regulator to sign off on its revised pension plan, which involved canceling part of its financial obligations in return for transferring a substantial stake to the pension fund trustees. After failing to receive approval for the revised plan, Reader's Digest UK was forced to enter "administration," or bankruptcy protection; official "administrators" are now trying to find buyers for the company.

Yoga Journal Debuts LiveMag

Yoga Journal is launching a new online video channel, LiveMag, with content based on several columns from the magazine, including "Home Practice" and "Master Class." The online video content, available at yoga.journal.com/livemag, illustrates yoga sequences described in the print magazine with full video and audio presentations featuring expert practitioners, preceded by short pre-roll video ads.

Karin Tracy Heads People StyleWatch

Time Inc. has named Karin Tracy, previously the associate publisher of InStyle magazine, as publisher of People StyleWatch -- a relatively new fashion and celebrity-focused title that has been one of the rapidly growing properties in the Time Inc. portfolio. Tracy is filling the slot left vacant by previous publisher Michelle Myers, who jumped to Conde Nast to take the top spot at Lucky. Bucking an almost universal industry trend, People StyleWatch enjoyed strong growth in ad pages in 2009 with a 24.4% increase over 2008, when the title launched.