Nothing gets a green light these days without the notion of a guaranteed money maker, and many flop even after that. The cost of production, people, content and dwindling advert space has pretty much put the kabosh on upstarts, unless they are pure online.
Do you think MotorTrend or Automobile make any money on your $10 annual subscription? This barely covers postage. Without circulation you can't charge advert fees. Without the subsidy of advert fees, you have no budget. So they basically give the magazine to subscribers and also hope the $5 each at the newstand blows your mind so much that you subscribe which is the only thing that pleases the advertisers, that and the promise of "readership."
Bottom line, if you find a magazine you like, buy stuff from the advertisers and tell them you saw the ad in that specific magazine. I used to enjoy a vintage VW magazine in the 90's -- it was great, nice content, all vintage stuff---turns out, not enough people felt the same way as me and it was dropped quickly.