OVERVIEW:
JP Magazine was a niche, Jeep-only magazine that provided content for the do-it-yourselfer Jeep enthusiast. Articles included performance upgrades, maintenance, technical how-to's, product tests and performance shoot-outs. There was also extensive coverage of Jeep events, trail rides, competitions and Jeep history and news.

The publishing cadence increased as the title grew and had success. It started on a quarterly schedule (1996), went to six times per year (1997 through 2003), seven times per year (2004), ten times per year (2005 through 2014), and finally was published monthly in the home stretch to 2020.

JP Magazine was started in 1996 by Larry Dobbs and his Dobbs Publishing Group in Lakeland, Florida. Dobbs had an extensive array of titles, but most were muscle car and performance related. This Jeep magazine was a unique product for them, and the publisher wanted to bring the best of Jeep culture to the market. The founding editor was Rob Reaser, who left Dobbs a short time later and went on to publish another Jeep-only title magazine in 2005, Jrations.

Dobbs Publishing sold the company and all titles to Petersen Publishing in April 1998. Later that year, it was sold again to EMAP-PLC which become a new division, EMAP-Petersen. Rich Pewe took over as editor of the newly acquired title from his post as technical editor at Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road. Mr Pewe was the editor and only staffer. After a two year stint, he moved back to the editor role at 4-Wheel & Off-Road for 15 years.

The organization went through multiple changes as the title moved through various new owners. EMAP-PLC sold its American magazine titles to Primedia for $515 million (2001). Six years later, Primedia sold its Enthusiast Media division, which included this title, to Source Interlink Media for $1.2 billion. Source Interlink rebranded to TEN: The Enthusiast Network (2014). Finally, The Enthusiast Network was restructured into the Motor Trend Group where JP resided until its demise.

During these transitions, Rick Pewe changes roles (as noted above) in 2000 and was followed by editor-in-chief John Cappa. Mr Cappa held the editor-in-chief role for 10 years until 2010. He was then replaced by Christian Hazel who managed the title until its demise in early 2020.

The table of contents, if available, can be seen by clicking on the icon.

PUBLICATION DATA:
Multiple owners provided net paid circulation data to The Standard Periodical Directory. It reported the number of annual print issues at 84,000 under Dobb's ownership, then production climbed to 160,000 print issues by 2013. At this time, we do not have print production data for the last 6-7 years of its life.

CONTENT COMPLETENESS:
A total of 216 issues were printed between Spring, 1996 through March, 2020. All cover images are complete through 2014 except Mar 1999, Sept 1999, November 2001 and August 2004. It has taken your website publisher many years to finally track down the printed issues you see here.

INTERNET:
An internet presence was created and links referenced on the front covers starting in May, 2000. The site is now defunct: www.jpmagazine.com.