History

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Robert E. Petersen page on 17 February 2025, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

After the war, Petersen left Barstow, California, for Los Angeles and found work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), becoming a publicist there within a year. After being laid off during staff cuts, Petersen and other ex-MGM staff started Hollywood Publicity Associates, a consulting firm. In the summer of 1947, the company was commissioned to publicize an exhibition of hot rods held the following winter. While working to promote the exhibition, Petersen realized that there were no media specific to hot rods or hot-rodding. Seeing an opportunity, Petersen and Robert Lindsay, another member of the promotion team for the exhibition, left Hollywood Publicity Associates that autumn and began development of Hot Rod magazine. The first issue of the magazine, with a run of 5,000 copies, was released to coincide with the Los Angeles Hot Rod Exhibition, the show Petersen and Lindsay were initially contracted to publicize. The founders sold the copies of the magazine at the steps of the exhibition. After a successful debut, the magazine continued to sell out and grow in readership. By mid-1949, monthly sales exceeded 50,000 copies.

Starting from this, Petersen built his publishing empire on automotive-themed publications, including Car Craft, Rod & Custom, Sports Car Graphic, and Motor Trend. He also published CARtoons, Guns & Ammo, SPORT, Motorcyclist, Motor Life, Hunting, Mountain Biker, Photographic, Teen, Tiger Beat, and Sassy Magazine, 4 Wheel and Off Road.

In 1996, Petersen sold his company Petersen Publishing Company to a private equity fund for $450 million which, in 1999, sold it for $2 billion to publisher EMAP. In 2001 it was sold to Primedia. In 2007 Primedia's enthusiast publications, including all the once-Petersen titles, were again sold to Source Interlink, controlled by Ron Burkle. In 1999 Petersen bought Sports Afield from Hearst Corporation and he sold it in 2002 to the owners of Safari Press.

Bibliography