I think the overseas mags have it down - the Tamiya modeling magazine is really quite good.

Pages are thin and prices are up for the same reason everything else is - declining ad revenue and subscriptions. Retailers still carry them because they drive traffic to the store for the impulse bits, but truth be known, the publishers would get out of printing tomorrow if they thought they could get away with it. They were blatant with us at MLRC on "pay to play", which is endemic in the business, not just in the scales, but 1:1 car/truck/bike world.

As noted before, we all make our own decisions about how to spend money. That's why I take both MCM and FSM an issue at a time on the news stands.

I will continue to suggest that modelers look hard at FSM though, because they are very good at step-wise technique stories for topics such as painting, weathering, scratchbuilding, etc. While the examples tend to be non automotive, knowing how to draw out panel line detail, vacuum forming, airbrushing, etc. are all very helpful to level up builds.