snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
I think lots of blokes would be in agreement with you
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What's yer mag?
- Thread starter Onthedrops
- Start date
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smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
...and ultimately its audience was too small to sustain its continued existence.
Whatever anyone thinks of magazines like Cycling Plus, the simple fact is that they exist purely as a commercial enterprise to make money for the publisher - this is true of all mass-market consumer magazines, not only cycling titles. That's not to say they're not worth reading - the editor's job is to provide content that will be of suitable interest to enough readers to make them want to buy the mag, and the best editors will be good at this, but attracting readers is ultimately a means to the end of attracting advertisers. And whatever you think of advertising, it is essential to these magazines because it is what keeps them afloat - without ads, you'd be looking at a cover price of £20 or more just to cover production and distribution costs. No such thing as a free lunch.
The more 'boutique' titles are a labour of love and put together on a much smaller budget (contributors are often unpaid) and exist purely to promote the subject rather than to make money - which is just as well, because they don't.
Cycling mags are a tiny, tiny niche in the magazine publishing business, and the boutique cycling mags are a tiny niche within that tiny niche. Cycling Plus is easily the biggest player in the field but even that has a circulation in the few tens of thousands, compared to the several hundreds of thousands of the biggest women's mags and TV mags.
Freds Dad
Veteran
- Location
- Gawsworth.
I used to get Brompton Monthly but it folded
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
See my previous post. Would you be prepared to pay £20 a month for Cyclist if it had no ads in it?
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
It folded last year, after an expensive and ultimately unsuccessful relaunch. I suspect it was trying to be too many things to too many people - the most successful magazines generally have a fairly narrow focus as it helps maintain a strong brand that readers can identify with. Cycling Active no longer seemed to know what it wanted to be.
Probably not, but I'm not paying £6 a month for an advertising magazine either.
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
QED
al-fresco
Growing older but not up...
- Location
- Shropshire
I used to read Peloton, it had some good writers and some memorable articles. I read Singletrack when I was interested in off-road riding. Rouleur is a class magazine but I won't fork out £7.50 on a regular basis. These days I make do with Cycling (the mag that comes with Cycling UK membership) and the online version of Velonews.
Smokin Joe
Squire
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Read a cycling magazine every month for a year and that about covers it. Next year they'll just be rehashing the same old stuff over again. And then there are the product reviews which appear to have been written by impressionable 14 year olds quoting direct from the manufacturers catalogue. I haven't bought one for years and now don't even bother to pick one off the shelf to flick through.
Kajjal
Guru
- Location
- Wheely World
None, they are just full of adverts and copy and paste interviews. The journalism in the main seems to have been replaced by Apple style marketing, positioning and branding.
I don't buy that,i just do it.
John the Monkey
Frivolous Cyclist
- Location
- Crewe
I used to like "The Ride", and "Boneshaker". Something a bit out of the run of the mill.
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
I used to take Flour Grinders Monthly but that was a little run of the mill too
John the Monkey
Frivolous Cyclist
- Location
- Crewe
