Road & Track moving to Michigan from California
Reprints
Print
Respond
Road & Track magazine is moving its headquarters from California to Ann Arbor, Mich., according to Hearst Corp., which owns the auto enthusiast magazine.
Larry Webster , the former automotive editor of Hearst-owned Popular Mechanics, was named Road & Track's editor-in-chief and assumed the position on June 4. Former editor-in-chief Matt DeLorenzo will remain with the publication in an advisory role.
Road & Track now is based in Newport Beach, Calif., and Hearst said that office will remain open through the fall as the transition to Michigan takes place. A Road & Track spokesman declined to provide an exact date.
It's not clear how many of the magazine's staffers will relocate to Ann Arbor. Jim Meigs, editorial director of Hearst's Men's Enthusiast Group, said the publication is talking with its staffers about who will come to Michigan, according to a report in AutoWeek¸ an affiliate of Automotive News. Meigs told the publication that the move will be a "disruption but also (an) enormous opportunity."
He added: "Larry [Webster] is out there working with them, getting to know people. Through that process we will determine, both through people's own interest and how they might fit the new demands of the magazine when it moves, where there might be good fits."
Road & Track has 29 editorial staff members listed on its masthead, and there are more than 40 contributing editors, artists and photographers.
The monthly publication will join a crowded auto-enthusiast media landscape in Ann Arbor. Hearst-owned Car and Driver and Automobile magazine, published by Source Interlink Media, both are based there.
The Road & Track spokesman wrote in an e-mail to Automotive News that Hearst moved Road & Track so it could be closer to the Detroit area, where so much of the auto industry is clustered. Ann Arbor, which is home to the University of Michigan, is about 40 miles west of downtown Detroit.
Hearst bought Road & Track and Car and Driver in 2011. Road & Track has a circulation of 617,533, according to an Audit Bureau of Circulations audit for the last six months of 2011.
You can reach Joseph Lichterman at jlichterman@crain.com.
