Bicycling magazine closing down

[IceCreamMan]

Agree. A mate of mine was owner/editor and general scribe of a magazine, he was clearing a bar a month from it.

 

Circulation was around 35 000.

 

Without the overheads of corporates magazines can be lucrative business.

 

He sold it. New owner carrying on.

[sirmoun10goat]

The demise of magazines has been predicted for years.... as with books.

 

My experience tells me otherwise.... i live in a smallish town... one can buy magazines at numerous vendors including supermarkets etc etc but we also have 2 large book sellers being WH Smith and Waterstones... the book shops are right next to each other. These are large shops taking up lotsa real estate.

 

WH Smith has a magazine section which i estimate must hold at least 500 titles ...at least. I also estimate that is a tip of the ice berg of all magazines avaialble in the UK... i reckon there must be excess of 2000 different magazines.

 

Probably more titles today than ever before.

I’ve read in several sources ebook sales have flat lined, whereas physical book sales are growing. Apparently book fundis love the feel and smell of a book.

 

I prefer reading about cycling in a magazine. I can take a magazine to a stage race, or or read it easily on the bus/train. I knotted back do the same with an iPad, but then I need a charger, usually an internet connection, etc

 

I will miss a magazine, not because of the nostalgia, but i just find it so practical

[PygaSchmyga]

I’ve read in several sources ebook sales have flat lined, whereas physical book sales are growing. Apparently book fundis love the feel and smell of a book.

 

I prefer reading about cycling in a magazine. I can take a magazine to a stage race, or or read it easily on the bus/train. I knotted back do the same with an iPad, but then I need a charger, usually an internet connection, etc

 

I will miss a magazine, not because of the nostalgia, but i just find it so practical

can confirm.  i will also miss cycling mags. 

[Mojoman]

I haven't bought a mag in years really...Everything I want to read about is online, accessed via the PC, TV, cell phone or tablet. There is plenty to download out there as well for off line times.  Books are nice but to be honest the last book I bought was a coffee table type book on the Drakensburg many years ago....novels I certainly wouldn't bother buying though.

As for that Bicycle mag....years ago I got a good few boxes worth of mags, from Bicycle to What MTB, etc etc....I found that the Bicycle mag every year just regurgitated the same rubbish over and over. There was never anything of value in that magazine for me.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Mojoman

[DieselnDust]

Bicycling mags demise I suspect ha nothing to do with paper and print but rather content and target market. You can onlly reprint the same article so many times and people eventually grow tired of Argus training plans that don’t work.

The USA market has shifted more toward dedicated magazines like Bike, and failing the most content from YouTube or the website

[gogo@]

Bicycling mags demise I suspect ha nothing to do with paper and print but rather content and target market. You can onlly reprint the same article so many times and people eventually grow tired of Argus training plans that don’t work.

The USA market has shifted more toward dedicated magazines like Bike, and failing the most content from YouTube or the website

Agree with this.

It's why I finally stopped buying but still read back copies from years ago. As my interests and experience changed I still found those back copies useful yet the new mags coming out were to put it mildly thin on content.

[DieselnDust]

Agree with this.

It's why I finally stopped buying but still read back copies from years ago. As my interests and experience changed I still found those back copies useful yet the new mags coming out were to put it mildly thin on content.

And then they put a jogger in charge of a bicycling mag...

what a buff up that was

[Matt]

And then they put a jogger in charge of a bicycling mag...

what a buff up that was

To be fair, the "jogger" you refer to has been steering the mag in a better direction more recently. I'm not a regular magazine reader in general and like many here had grown tired of the Bicycling "formula" early in my cycling journey, but I picked up the most recent copy when the news broke and there's a refreshing amount of good locally created content in it.

[DieselnDust]

To be fair, the "jogger" you refer to has been steering the mag in a better direction more recently. I'm not a regular magazine reader in general and like many here had grown tired of the Bicycling "formula" early in my cycling journey, but I picked up the most recent copy when the news broke and there's a refreshing amount of good locally created content in it.

 

agreed but a case of too little to late. The formula they adopted recently was one a well known cyclist and previous editor tried to get implemented years ago but was told they could not "deviate from the formula". Picked up a copy to browse while waiting in line at the local Woolies and was pleasantly surprised with the much needed change.

I haven't bought a Bicycling for about 8yrs, preferring instead the local quarterly Mountain Bike Magazine and Road Bike Magazine products mostly because its just a better product filled with local and international content, glossy cover, large format photos for us 40+ visually challenged GenXers. And then there's the free Full Sus that is superb. Hard to compete with these when you are constrained by a formula that works in a narrow demographic in the US.

 

Media24 is a business that would treat each product according to its demand. The franchise format has clearly not worked and lets face it, they would have needed 2 yrs of the new format to gain back market share.

 

There is talented people there and I'm sure they will pop up in local or international publications looking to cover the Southern African market. We're still the hub of MTB stage racing and the running market is huge. Maybe there's room for a totally new product...

[ChUkKy]

Mens health is also closing ....

 

now how the hell am i ever going to get those ABS or make my wife orgasm.... woe is me

 

Maybe phone a friend, or ask the audience