IRVINE, Calif. - Responding to major market changes, Newport Communications Group will suspend publication of RoadStar, its award-winning over-the-road driver publication, effective in January.
In part, the suspension is in reaction to shifts in marketers' focus
away from publications distributed through newsstands along the nation's highways. Newport continues to expand its Pump Topper fuel island advertising program. Pump Toppers, which carry marketing messages to truckers as they are fueling, are now exclusively in all Petro Travel Centers and many other chains and marketing groups totaling nearly 500 locations coast to coast.
Meantime, Newport will continue to reach the cream of the owner-operator market in print through expanded circulation of Heavy Duty Trucking, the industry's premier publication. HDT, already the top fleet magazine, now also targets truck owners with 1-4 rigs among its nearly 121,000 subscribers.
"There has been a great deal of consolidation and upheaval in the truckstop marketplace," said Marty McClellan, Newport vice president-publishing and RoadStar publisher. "That, combined with marketers' dwindling focus on the 'second-tier' long-haul driver segment, has caused us to re-evaluate how we serve this market.
"And," he said, "we have no intention of abandoning the important owner-operator segment. We will continue to serve independent truckers through other, more effective programs."
"This is not a decision we took lightly," said Newport Editorial Director Deborah Whistler. "Owner-operators are the backbone of the industry. We have a team of dedicated journalists with unparalleled expertise in this market and we will continue to deliver the information they need - but in a stronger, more cost-effective manner. Owner-operators are not just our readers; they are our friends."
In addition to the expansion of Heavy Duty Trucking's industry coverage, on Jan. 1, Newport will launch the first trucking-specific Internet search engine: truckingseek.com. This one-of-a-kind research/communications tool will offer numerous advertising and promotional tie-ins with an enormous reach to truck fleet operators and independent truckers.
RoadStar, launched in 1998, quickly became recognized as the premier publication in the owner-driver market. It won more excellence in journalism awards than its competitors combined - including the 2000 Grand Neal Award, the highest honor in business-to-business publishing.
"RoadStar had a good run, but markets change, and the media serving those markets must change with them," said Newport President Doug Condra. "In the past few years, magazine distribution through on-highway newsstands has become more complex, more cluttered, more costly and worst of all, ineffective at reaching enough real truck buyers. We are moving to better, more cost-effective ways to give owner-operators what they want and need."