Our commitment to distribution

When visiting some of your commercial accounts, I’m sure you’ve noticed the owners or technicians reading a magazine called Motor Age. As many of you may know, Motor Age is our sister publication serving independent service dealers. The editors of Motor Age are focused on offering the best business management and technical information in the marketplace. The way we figure it is that if we help keep them viable as business people, we are also helping to keep you viable. They need you, and you need them. And the more everybody knows, the stronger the distribution chain becomes.

Now we believe we have taken another important step in strengthening the 103-year-old Motor Age and, in effect, Aftermarket Business. Our parent company, Advanstar Communications, recently acquired Motor Service, another leading installer publication that, incidentally, has been published for 80 years. The plan is to incorporate the best of Motor Service into Motor Age making Motor Age an even stronger publication (although it has already been deemed the leading installer magazine by IMR Research Inc., an independent research firm).

It is also interesting to note that Advanstar, which is the fourth-largest trade publishing company in the country, chose to invest in the automotive aftermarket out of the numerous markets it serves. This, however, shouldn’t come as a surprise. You may remember that it was just over a year ago that we bought and incorporated Automotive Marketing into Aftermarket Business, making it a better publication for you, the distributors, marketers and sellers of auto parts and accessories.

Now back to Motor Service –– I think that it was probably an easy decision for our corporate strategists to acquire it when they considered the strength and growth potential of this market.

In a recent presentation at the Global Automotive Aftermarket Symposium, Steve Odland, CEO of AutoZone, said the aftermarket is posting numbers that “most American companies would kill for.” With growth rates of 5 percent to 6 percent compounded for the last 10 years, the aftermarket is in an enviable position.

Kathleen Schmatz, executive vice president of the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association, offered further perspective on the market. “We are the fourth-biggest contributor to this country’s gross domestic product. Only real estate, health services and construction beat us.” 

Clearly, the motoring public relies on the aftermarket. And, frankly, we want you and your installer customers to know that you can continue to rely on us for your informational needs. 

 So the next time you visit one of your customer’s shops, pick up Motor Age and take a peek to see the part we play in strengthening the distribution chain. When you do, you just might find that it isn’t a bad read for you, either.