deinonychi

Does anyone have any firsthand (or secondhand, or thirdhand) experience selling or giving cycling related material to your local newspaper? If so, I'd like to hear what you sold/gave away, and if you sold it what did you get?

Here's the story: To do my share to support and promote cycling in our city, a couple years ago I started making some road cycling maps. At the time mountain bike trail maps for this area were common but road, commuting, and bike path maps were all but non-existent. Then the local National Park Service entity changed some of their cycling related rules but were doing a terrible job getting the word out (the more paranoid among us thought they were more interested in writing tickets than safety, but that's another story). I got tired of hearing myself say, "Someone should make some road cycling maps!", so since I have a degree in Geographic Information Systems and actually have some schooling and professional experience making maps, I decided get off my butt and make some.

Fast forward to present day. I've now made a whole bunch of cycling maps, mostly for road riding but a couple for mountain biking and even one for commuting. You can check them out for yourself here: https://www.tomorrowhillfarm.com/John...cycleMaps.html

There are two competing newspapers in my town, both of which put out a special cycling supplement each spring. For the last three years I've offered these maps to each paper for free, and both papers have taken me up on my offer. Last year, for example, one supplement included nine of them. So this will be the fourth year that these papers have asked to use some of my maps and I've reached the point where I'd like a little something for my efforts, or to at least cover my expenses (I use three applications to make these maps, two I've bought outright and the third costs something like $100 per year for the license).

Now to get to my question. If I were to request payment, how much should I ask? I'm not out to make a killing, I do this mainly to support cycling, but I would like something. Should I ask a certain amount per map, or should I offer to provide them with as many as they would like? These papers are at each others' throats business-wise, so would it be appropriate to provide one of them an exclusive on the maps, thereby cutting the other paper out (as one of them has requested)?

I haven't a clue what would be reasonable, but I do know that these maps are a big reason why people pick up these supplements. Both papers have other sources on mountain bike trail maps, but I think mine look better; however, my road ride maps are the only ones out there that I know of.

So anyway, any suggestion would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Chris516

Why the newspapers? Why not market them to local bike shops. Because, As you pointed out, the newspapers put their respective special cycling supplements out in the spring. Why limit yourself to one season of the year.