Inside The Hub

Where do I even begin—putting together a magazine isn’t new to me by any means, but the combination of being a part of a fresh start-up with no top-heavy corporate influences is unbelievably invigorating. We’re no longer being told to cut content for whatever reasons and more importantly, we’re not dropping pages to save a few pennies per brand.

Chevy Hub and the entire Wheel Hub family of brands, including Mustang Hub and Truck Hub, have been a concept in motion for well over a decade, but the timing was right to make the move when we did. Many would argue that this is not the best time for a new endeavor with the global COVID-19 pandemic, however like most operations, this wasn’t something anyone could have predicted. So rather than sitting idle and waiting for the world to get back to its daily regimen, we buckled up and went for one hell of a ride in 2020.

I know many of you from my Chevy High Performance days, maybe even prior to that at Car Craft, but admittedly, I’ve been away on the Ford front for the past several years; six to be exact. After a lengthy time at CHP with the lead chair, I moved over to the Ford group, where I became the Content Director over the Mustang-360 network, which included overseeing Mustang Monthly and taking on the role as Editor-In-Chief of Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords.

After a twenty-year tour at the old place, it was a fun ride and an incredible experience, however it was also time to move on. Simply said, the focus and direction were changing and that’s okay, but it just wasn’t a change I was interested in.

What do you do after a long career? I wondered the same thing. Initially, that was a tough one to sort out. On one hand, I thought it would be a good time to slow down and put my energy into other projects, but in reality, I couldn’t do it. After leaving the old gig, I ended up pacing my home at all hours of the night for the next several days—I just couldn’t slow down the thoughts racing in my head.

After a few days of that nonsense, I followed up with our publisher Stephen Kim, where we finalized our talks and got cranking on two new brands (Mustang Hub and Truck Hub). We knew then we were going to launch Chevy Hub; it was only a matter of time.

Fast forward to today and we’ve successfully launched two new brands and here we are with the fourth addition to the Wheel Hub family—Chevy Hub.

Now that you know where this all stemmed from, where do we go and what can you expect? That’s easy, Chevy Hub is quarterly for now, but with its 132-page package, you can expect beautiful features in a bold large trim format with plenty of room to breathe; expanded event coverage; and in-depth tech from suspension basics to complete engine and car builds.

More importantly, know that Chevy Hub and the Wheel Hub brands are owned and operated by real car enthusiasts. So, forget everything you’ve been used to in the past, because the Wheel Hub family is the new standard in print.

Here we go again! As we charge into 2021 at wide-open throttle, it’s hard to believe that as of Spring of 2020, the Hub family of magazines had just one title: Wheel Hub. The additions of Mustang Hub and Truck Hub last summer proved such a hit with readers that we’re doing it all over again by bringing to market our all-new Bowtie brand, Chevy Hub.

With the launch of our fourth title, the Hub family has quadrupled its footprint and market penetration in just seven months. While that may seem overly aggressive from the outside looking in, to the contrary, the timing and launch of each brand extension has been painstakingly calculated and meticulously executed. More importantly, that rapid expansion is fueled by genuine market demand, not some silly smoke-and-mirrors show intended to impress investors and lure unassuming advertisers.

That distinction is far more important than meets the eye. Wheel Hub, Mustang Hub, Truck Hub and Chevy Hub have raised a cumulative total of $0 in outside investments. The entire Hub enterprise has been self-funded by its co-founders from the early concept phase of Wheel Hub in 2017. Like any grassroots startup venture, transcending that lack of investment capital required skillfully leveraging human capital, and like any entrepreneur that’s endured the immense challenges and sacrifice of those early days and come out the other side, we’ve emerged hungrier than ever.

Like the legions of fellow hot rodders out there that dedicate their hearts and souls to our great industry, we’ve lamented the passing of the many once-great automotive magazines that we grew up reading. However, where there is chaos and disorder there is opportunity. As we’ve proven with the overwhelming success of Wheel Hub, Mustang Hub and Truck Hub, the market demands a premium print product that far exceeds the status quo of yesteryear. Now that we’ve fine-tuned the concept and execution of the Hub brand in smaller, niche categories, we’re poised the bring the same quality-driven product philosophy to the broader Chevy market at large.

The handcuffs are off. The bean-counters are gone. The revolving door of corporate hacks peddling rehashed, regurgitated digital content have been escorted out of the building and sent back home in their Ubers. Meanwhile, we’re bolting up the slicks and ready to launch the same Hub experience into the Bowtie universe.