Formerly leading US bike trade publication Dealernews has completely folded. Owner UBM Advanstar celebrated the monthly print magazine’s 50th anniversary in June 2015 by closing it down — and at that time said the title would continue as a web-based entity.
However, Advanstar then reportedly announced the termination of Dealernews both online and across all social media on 23 December. Although the digital presence isn’t offline yet, it hasn’t been updated since 17 December.
As a magazine, Dealernews – it has no connection with British Dealer News – used to be a key promotional tool for the huge trade-only US Dealer Expo show in January and latterly December each year, held for most of its life at Indianapolis. But that Advanstar-owned event put the shutters up in December 2014 after a brief and ineffective relocation to Chicago.
Advanstar’s remaining bike business asset is a series of Progressive International Motorcycle Shows touring ten US cities, headline sponsored by Progressive Insurance. But these are severely challenged by AIMExpo, an EICMA-style national trade and consumer show held in Orlando, Florida — which is now organised by the US Motorcycle Industry Council acting on behalf of most major bike manufacturers active in the American market.