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The story
It has emerged that Naigai Publishing — the company behind magazines like ‘Young Machine,’ ‘Monthly My Car,’ and ‘Lure Magazine’ — has halted operations and begun preparing to file for bankruptcy. The venerable publisher once posted sales of roughly ¥5.8 billion in 1995, but the business environment surrounding specialty magazines had been growing harsher for years. On the thread, reactions started with commenters correcting the confusion with ‘Young Magazine,’ followed by a stream of concern over the fate of the bike, car, and fishing magazines respectively. The main point of debate was the observation that while the number of people who actually drive or fish hasn’t declined, the habit of ‘buying and reading a magazine’ has simply disappeared — a take distinct from a simple decline in hobbyist interest.
Naigai Publishing Co., Ltd. (Taito Ward) halted operations by November 5 and entrusted its bankruptcy filing with the Tokyo District Court to attorney Kazuhiko Takamatsu (Yamada, Goya & Suzuki Law Office, 1-3 Hibiya Park, Chiyoda Ward) and two others. According to those involved, the filing is expected to take two to three months to complete.
The company’s liabilities are currently under investigation.
The company’s main business was publishing magazines and books, alongside web media, video distribution, and event hosting. Its magazines included the motorcycle title ‘Young Machine,’ the long-running car magazine ‘Monthly My Car,’ and the fishing title ‘Lure Magazine,’ among others, which had been popular sellers — in the fiscal year ending April 1995, the company posted sales of approximately ¥5.833 billion.
Source: sites.google.com / Read the original article here
What people said
Wait, that's the company that made that?!
Yaesu Publishing?
They're fine.
Guess neither fishing magazines nor bike magazines sell anymore… You can read both on Rakuten Magazine, but Lure Magazine's listing says 'Final print issue!' even though the content for both reads like they're continuing — maybe the editors weren't even told?
No, everyone still drives, and plenty of people still fish. It's the act of buying and reading a magazine that's disappeared
Young Machine AND Monthly My Car, seriously?
Are there still any motorcycle magazines left?
Looked it up — Motor Magazine Co. seems to be fine
Monthly Autobike was like that too
Background and Key Points of This Story
The publishing slump isn’t unique to this case — specialty magazines have spent the past several years under the combined pressure of shrinking ad revenue and the shift to digital. Because Naigai Publishing held specialty titles spanning three different fields — motorcycles, cars, and fishing — it couldn’t stay insulated from a downturn in any one of those industries. What split opinion on the thread wasn’t the idea that ‘fewer people drive or fish,’ but rather the view that ‘the act of paying for information in magazine form has itself gone out of fashion’ — a framing that treats this as a separate issue from any decline in hobbyist numbers. Also worth noting: as seen in the multiple comments mixing up Young Machine with Young Magazine, readers often aren’t that aware of the differences between magazine titles and their publishers. It’s also worth keeping in mind — something the article text alone doesn’t make clear — that other publishers in the same space, like Motor Magazine Co. and Yaesu Publishing, are unrelated to this matter and remain in business.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread ‘Naigai Publishing Co., Ltd. (Tokyo) to File for Bankruptcy — Publisher of ‘Lure Magazine,’ ‘Monthly My Car,’ ‘Young Machine,’ and More.’
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