After decades of publication, the two most popular American RV magazines, Trailer Life and Motorhome, were discontinued last year. Subscribers received a new, replacement periodical titled RV.
The new magazine, from Camping World and CEO Marcus Lemonis, is pretty — lots of photos and a snappy layout. But the content is aimed squarely at RVers in their 30s and 40s. The May issue only features a few photos of RVers older than 50.
RV advertisements are mostly for travel trailers, Class B and C motorhomes and truck campers. Many articles are about using RVs for outdoor adventure.
Some features will appeal to all RVers, especially reviews of products and some travel articles.
There are plenty of plugs for Camping World and ads from businesses that likely do business with Camping World.
I suspect, however, that baby boomer RVers and others just a bit younger will feel somewhat left out when paging through the magazine, despite the fact that these seasoned RV travelers have spent a lot more time in their RVs than younger, novice RVers, who, on average, spend little more than a couple weeks a year in their rigs.
A newsstand copy is $6.99, and a one-year subscription $19.97.
Have you read the new RV magazine? What do you think of it?
I dropped my subscription.
We canceled our subscription after the second issue. They gave us credit for the magazines we haven’t received. They did ask why we wanted to cancel and my husband said it didn’t have any articles of interest. They were very nice about it.
I give no answer as I have not read it and don’t plan to. Just not interested.
I agree,you didn’t ask if you never read it.I have not.I closest I get to camping world is the good Sam card only for campground discounts.
Waste of money. Too many ads and not enough good info to keep anyone interested. I bet the “young RV’ers” don’t even subscribe to it as there is much better info on social media, with most of it free. There is a reason print media of Trailer Life and Motorhome magazine died. They both have outlived their effectiveness and have become financial dead weight to the publishers.
You are correct Bill.
I use to get excited about receiving my trailer life and motorhome magazine that provided a lot of pertinent info on camping and rving. Those days are over after reading the past few issues of rv magazine.
Rv magazine now focuses on lifestyle. Many articles on food, decoration and although trying to link this rving that is not what i am looking for when i think about rving.
Hope someone picks up on the opportunity to bring back a magazine focused on rvs, trailers and the industry.
If i am looking for recepies, food and lifestyle i subscribe to lifestyle magazines that are dedicated to these topics.
Content is too removed from Travel Trailer. Will probably not renew my subscription.
I agree that the contents is geared towards a younger generation.
It is typical for a company to focus on a younger audience. They may stay loyal to a brand for years and years, while us older folks have less years to purchase their products. Sad but true.
I will not renew my subscription to RV ragazine. Total disappointment.
We’re over 50 and were featured in the March issue of this new magazine. There were photos of us and a write up around our full-time RV travels.
After 30 years of RV travel…I just do not care for Camping World in general.
I was really disappointed when I received my first copy. I only have a few more more months left on my subscription but will not be renewing. On another note I haven’t done any business with Camping World in several years after I was told by Lemonis that they didn’t need my business!
The new one is ok, but is geared towards younger people who are out there for an adventure.
Let’s hope it will also spotlight different groups and deal with some topics we older, “more seasoned” folks would like to read, too.
I got Motorhome for almost 4 years and as time went by, it got thinner and thinner, culminating in one issue that had only 60 pages, 30 of which were full page ads for Lemonis’ companies. I was so mad, I wrote the company a letter and cancelled my subscription.
Now I see I wasn’t alone in my dissatisfaction!
It appears FMCA’s magazine is on a similar path. Courting a younger audience in an effort to increase membership. They have done a couple articles on RV restorations which I find interesting.
Follow the money. Whatever you may think on Lemonis Inc, the man knows how to make money by the bucket loads. He and his minions have chosen a lucrative target demographic for the future who may not yet be turned off by his company’s business practices. Why market to the “seasoned set” who have largely cast all things Camping World (including magazines) aside and constantly trash the company?
Chuck – you left out a possible choice to select…..”Will you buy any product that Marcus Lemonis is involved in”……NO
Anything he sells that one needs can be purchased elsewhere, and usually at a better price.
I respectfully disagree to a point, we just downsized from a 38’ motorhome to a 23’ travel trailer, in stocking the trailer we shopped at Amazon, eBay, and CW as well as the local RV dealer, and Walmart. One of the first things was a roof vent cover to keep out the rain, all the options were $58-$67 CW was $24.18 on sale. Plastic leveling blocks were the same price as Walmart. If you watch for the sale emails you can get decent prices. Agree their regular prices are as high as a dealers, I generally buy online at eBay because if I’m not buying at least $25 most of the time I get free shipping. I don’t like Marcus Lemonis especially for what he’s done to the Good Sam Club of which I’m a life member, but when I can save that kind of money I’ll close my eyes long enough to place an order. Their policy for shipping is over $99 it’s free GS members over $49 is free. There was several small items DW wanted/needed this week so I spent time searching through the sale email to build an order of
Contd. $49 at checkout the site wanted to charge me $9.90 shipping, I called the helpline and explained what was happening an the lady said no problem and she placed the order without shipping. So even though I despise the man personally if I can save money I will.
It’s called marketing. Older folks have a unit and enough experience to stay away from buying a rig from camping world. Go for the young that must buy on credit and by the way you need all this stuff we have in our store.
If I wanted a cooking magazine I would have order a cooking magazine I’m not renewing my Subscription. Too much on lifestyle and not enough about the RVs and camping.
They are going where the money is.
I look at Camping World as a place to shop but always compare to others. I purchased my first TT from Camping World in Nashville. After comparing they had the best deal for what I was looking at. Nothing but great service from sales,Warranty Service and they were great when we were involved in a big accident that destroyed our TT. We did not buy from them the second time because we upgraded and they did not have what we were looking for. They did not get pushy at all about that.
I do not subscribe to magazine anymore. Just not useful to me. I hear some like and some don’t.
we’ve been a subscriber to MH mag since we began this adventure in 1986. we’ve had 3 or 4 issues of the new mag now and, sorry to say, there’s little to nothing in it for us. we are no longer the target demographic for almost anything. we will be canceling our subscription.
Younger people are the ones that need advice and guidance. Just read the posts on Facebook trailer owners groups. The lack of knowledge displayed by new owners is amazing. Us geezers are already experienced and don’t need as much guidance.
Mr. Lemonis is successful in his ventures. A lot of magazines have gone out of business over the years, or merged with other magazines. Who remembers “Wheels Afield” or “Popup times”? We are a small market.
After reading an issue of RV Travel several months ago warning me of the impending “change” to Motorhome magazine, I let my subscription lapse with the first issue of “RV.” However, in Camping World fashion my subscription was auto-renewed. I called and canceled it that same day. I had only subscribed to Motorhome for 10, or so, years and missed most of the “good stuff” when the Kievas and Gaylord Maxwell were contributors, but I was around for Bob Livingston’s retirement and it seemed to lose a lot when that happened. So, I only commented and did not vote because I just discarded that first issue of “RV.”
From the first issue in Jan. it has been a disappointment, 99% of my reading is in the reading room where I generally read maybe two articles each time. The Jan.issue had the first 27 pages were all ads, I counted them, then a small article and more advertising. It formerly took a week or more to read Motorhome Magazine, this May issue i went through the first 58 pages in one sitting, the magazine is not that thick. As you said it’s geared toward newbies and under 45 years, when my subscription that carried over from motorhome expires I will not renew. There were supposed to be technical articles with repairs and maintenance, the only maintenance I’ve seen turns out to be advertising for cleaning products sold by camping world.
My TL subscription was just renewed last fall and they gladly took my money for TL. Then a couple months later, they come up with this new rag. Boy what a BIG disappointment! I have been a subscriber of either TL or Motorhome for 20 years, but when this runs out “goodbye”. Looking thru the pages when I got my first edition, gone were ALL of the previous column writers. There was no e-mail address listed in which to ask any questions or give any comments about anything. Looks more like a cooking magazine or where to get the latest beer. No offense to all the beer drinkers out there, but do we have this in every issue? I understand that some of the writers that were “discontinued” from TL have started up an online type of magazine, but I keep my magazines in my “office” and don’t have access to a computer in there.
Same here. Really used to look forward to MH magazine each month and was very disappointed when I started receiving the new RV mag. There just does not seem to be anything for Motorhome owners, especially ones who want to do their own work and the see the result of others handiwork. I also really miss the technical Q&A. Sigh….
I actually kept my last issue of MH mag to try to remember what it used to be like. I guess I am getting old…
My subscription runs out this month and I will not be renewing. We will see if it continues as a publication
I dislike Marcus and CW as much as anyone, but can’t see the harm in a new generation of magazines. “Rootless Living” is great because it is geared towards younger people having adventures traveling in RVs, not geezers hanging around the rec hall swapping instapot recipes. If the new mag is anything like that, I applaud it, although I would recommend RL first because it’s published by real people, not a corporation; like RV Travel.
The older magazines have been a boring soup of ads for 5th wheel hitches, reviews of 40-foot behemoths, winterization stuff, shallow travel articles that seemed to be written by some PR firm.
Change is good.
Just subscribed to RL. Thanks for the info.
I let my subscription lapse, one I had had for years. I learned most of what I know from Motorhome magazine, and with none of the technical columns and how-to articles continuing, it is not worth my time or money.
Bingo! After 41 years of Motorhome my subscription will not be renewed this year. RV magazine is a genuine disappointment.
Will not be renewing. I couldn’t wait to open up the Trailer Life magazine when it arrived. Loved all the technical help articles. New one feels like a Good Housekeeping magazine with recipes etc. I want to learn from my magazine. New one is pure garbage in my mind.
I have no issues with Marcus Lemonis since I don’t know him personally. He’s just a business man that runs a company. I include CW when I am shopping for something RV and sometimes they have the best product and price.
We Baby Boomers can find much of interest in the RVtravel newsletter as I’m sure younger generations do also. Chuck and his crew have a goal of reaching all RV’ers with useful and interesting articles. They have a wide demographic to aim at and do it well.
Lemonis on the other hand has a different purpose, sales.
Has no one noticed that other than drug companies almost no one is aiming sales at the older generation. They have determined who is spending most of the money and aim their content at them. It’s not that we don’t spend money, it’s that we know what we want and generally don’t respond to advertising. I even gave up on AARP a few years ago when I realized their target group was the Pop Culture. I don’t take these things personally, I just move on.
Well said, Jim
I came to the realization several years ago that my demographic (early 70’s) is not being targeted in advertising any more. That pertains to most all areas of commerce. Sad to realize we’re not relevant anymore.
Oh yes you are. OLD AGE AND TREACHERY will always beat out
YOUTH AND SPEED.
Very disappointed. I will not be renewing. I don’t care about wine or beer tours, recipes, most romantic campgrounds or how to make my trailer interior fu fu pretty.
I liked the tech spots and how to take care of my RV.
This magazine is a Sunset for RVers.
As far as CW. I can buy anything elsewhere cheaper and Marcus said he didn’t want my business anyway, so I take it elsewhere.
RV magizine
I hated the new magazine and canceled our subscription.
We’ve been RV-ing for 15+ years and we’re in our mid-50s. I dropped most of our subscriptions to RV publications and clubs since the overwhelming majority of people in these organizations were far older than us. While I’m not a big fan of Marcus, he’s just aiming at the prime target for continuing to sell RVs which is the younger group that will buy 2,3,4, etc. more over their lifetimes.
In December I was still getting renewal notices for Motorhome magazine for 1, 2 or our best deal…3 years! Lol.
so was i. they should have said something . before i took out a 3 year sub.
Mr. Lemonis and staff made a decision on what we as Rvers – new and old – want to read; in my opinion they missed the mark. When he combined two magazines with technical information in each targeted to the respective readers and decided we were all more interested in trailers, alcohol, ads and other trivia and no hard do-it yourself or technical information – he fell short! (Sorry that’s a long tho’t!)
To finish my tho’t: Chuck et al, maybe you could contact Ken Freund and others and start a special Q&A maintenance column in Rv Travel or Daily Tips. Also the “Tips” you run now are great, informative for new and old Rvers. After all, this is where innovation meets the road, so to speak. PS: Ken helped me two or three times over many years with tech advice – I truly miss his expertise in all things Rv tech. Rv 101 is an excellent, relevant and interesting addition – but limited to one subject and general in nature. As an example, I have a genset which will not start after changing the fuel line!
I second your request to Chuck about Ken Freund and the Q & A maintenance column, Tech Tips, etc. I REALLY miss those columns from Trailer Life magazine! Maybe if more of us would put a plug in, Chuck would check into it??
My RV magazine subscription expires this month, and I did not renew it either. Like someone else said, it reminds me too much of Good Housekeeping. Literally nothing in there for me. At least we still have RVTravel! Keep up the good work, Chuck! Hope Chuck’s announcement next week of changes being made won’t lead to more disappointments for us, but knowing him, I’m not worried.
Y’all have a blessed day!
Yes. Great ideas and comments here today
I had been a Trailer Life subscriber for years. The new rag lasted 2 months til I canceled subscription.
I subscribed to Trailer Life for 23 years, and like many others, I eagerly looked forward to each issue. I would always learn something new, including new and better ways to take care of our RV. That is not the intent of RV magazine, so I too am disappointed and will let my subscription lapse. Go RVtravel!
I have had a subscription to TL for several years and will not be renewing. I miss the technical Q&A and it was my first stop every month.
We had been enjoying reading Trailer Life for decades. We also looked forward to it every month and read it cover to cover. Now, we have cancelled our subscription since the new magazine is simply too boring to read with little content worth reading!
I don’t like RV magazine. Loved Trailer Life. When my subscription ends this summer I will not be renewing.
We used to enjoy Trailer Life and were frequent shoppers at Camping World. However once Lemonis decided Trump supporters were not welcome in his stores we haven’t been back. I don’t care what your politics are, once you try to make a publicly traded business a platform for your personal ideology you are cheating the shareholders out of their chance to compete in a free market. I don’t understand why the shareholders of these companies put up with management that is harming their business by trying to force their personal opinions on customers. Could be why Lemonis is appealing to the under 40 crowd. In our travels we see many solidly conservative campers who are over 60.
I totally agree
To put it BLUNTLY——-RV Magazine ______SUCKS
RV full time is a commitment. Younger, working Rvers are already burning out. No room for toys, lack of privacy and costly repairs. A fad is a fad. Been on the road 14 years. We’re loving it with no end in sight. We summer work camp $$$ to keep busy and alert. Retired on pensions, social security is a bonus. We miss Trailer Life. The business is ripe for a new magazine and editor. Represent all or none.
Just a blanket comment. ALL of the comments on this timely issue were excellent. Applause…Applause.
I think Marcus will be disappointed as he sees his subscription numbers tumble. I’ve been subscribing to Motorhome magazine for years – long before I ever actually got my first rig. I usually read it cover to cover and found it all interesting. Like most here, the new RV magazine (like CW’s “Magalog” they’re sending every month) just seems like another ad for CW and related companies.
I find his decision interesting, as print media is really struggling. Taking two into one and losing subscribers faster than you can gain them is a great way to go bankrupt. I give the magazine two years before it disappears.
That’s just BS. They must be kicking your tail
OLD people buy subscriptions. Young people want it free on the internet.
Lemonis is correct to target younger buyers as that is who Camping Worlds RV sales are built upon. The old people got da money but the young people SPEND their money.
Unless this publication is free to younger buyer’s or a free subscription is part of the sales process at Camping World I suggest “RV” the magazine will have a tough road to success. You can’t target a magazine to younger buyers and expect them to pay for it all the while expecting the old farts to subscribe to your magazine when their is little content that will peak their interest.
Time will tell!
I hate it when younger people call us “old farts.” Bull, maybe you should read more subscriptions. Maybe then you would be able to spell buyers, there, and pique correctly.
jumped off the page at me as well!
Gosh, I must be the only 65 year old that likes RV Magazine! To me, Motorhome Magazine was more about presenting new motorhome models. I thought Motorhome Magazine was “tired” in the articles buried with a lot of advertisement, so I cancelled my subscription.
I like the articles in RV Magazine about how to repair things, new projects to do, and new-to- me places to go. It has a more fresh approach. Though it does have new model feature articles, there is more of a balance overall. Not a Marcus fan by any sort for a number of reasons, #1 slowly dismantling the Good Sam Club and everything it once stood for.
We just retired, and quite frankly want to know about things that may not be new to some “seasoned” RV’ers. Or places to go that a few older RV’s have no interest like staying at a Harvest Host – one of our favorite experiences. And venturing out to tour the canyons. We have owned our Class A for 3-1/2 years. Just now having the chance to go explore and try new things.
We are most likely to not renew. Not finding it interesting.
I am going to discontinue our subscription. Trailer Life could absorb for me for several educational hours. It took me 5 mins to thumb thru the last issue of RV Magazine. I would suggest they devote several issues to RV campground etiquette. It’s all about sales.
As soon as folks realize they have to go back to work, there is going to be a million RV’s of all kinds on the market for sale. And this magazine will have lost their loyal readers.
I think the new magazine is a major improvement over the thin gruel that Motorhome had become. Yes, it appeals to younger people – face it folks, us baby boomers are not the future of the RV industry. And yes, there isn’t as much advertising, and what there is seems to be only products sold by Camping World. But, how many articles do you need on how to winterize your RV? I enjoy seeing the “adventure” articles, I may still do some of those things, and if I want pictures of people over 50 I have the AARP magazine.
We had over 1 year left on our subscription to Trailer Life. We were never offered any kind of credit or special on the new magazine. We liked Trailer Life a LOT better!
We noticed the same thing immediately. Such a disappointment. We loved Trailer Life and Motorhome Life and were subscribers for well over 30 years. Not anymore.
I wanted to continue Motorhome Magazine after 16 years of subscribing. When I contacted to get a refund on unsent issues I was told there would be no refunds only RV Magazine in the future. As soon as it arrives I take a quick peek and rip my name off and it goes in the recycle bin. I will let my GS expire as well when my renewal comes up in Oct. since they won’t refund either.
I keep getting issues in my mailbox months after my last issue in my subscription was delivered. I’m very disappointed in the new RV magazine. If you’re trying to win me over, it’s not working. Out of 4 issues, I read maybe one article out of the last one I received. Just turned 60 & I always looked forward to setting out by the campfire & reading the old Trailer Life, now I tear off my address label, shred it & the useless mag hits the trash can fast.
I did not renew. Waste of time reading it.
I dropped my subscription to Motorhome after 20 years because I found nothing to read in it. Therefore I have “missed’ the transition to RV, gratefully after reading the reviews here. I love this newsletter, Escapees magazine, and Family RVing (or whatever they call it now).
Terrible magazine for this 74 yo RV’er. Complete opposite of Motorhome Magazine!
Not bad and not great. Basically a Camping World catalog. The article on outdoor cooking was pretty good this month. I liked the reviews on the old Motorhome mag the best as a little more objectivity.
The Escapees mag blows this out of the water in my opinion.
I have not read or seen it. I never liked their old magazines. They seemed focused on high end RVers. (like the AARP magazine is aimed at people with money). I enjoyed the Escapees magazine because it seems to be aimed at more the average RVer.
I had enjoyed reading Trailer Life because it was a way for me to connect with RVers in-between trips. I don’t feel that in this magazine at all.I just read the latest issue in 20 minutes.
The old magazines Motorhome and Trailer Life had lots of DIY and technical articles that helped me keep my unit going and allowed me to save money etc. The new RV magazine is just a bunch of recipes and other lifestyle stuff that is worthless. If I wanted cooking recipes and wine pairings I would subscribe to a food magazine. Bring back the old Motorhome Magazine