Another bicycle mag going out of business :-(
 

The last issue of Paved magazine on newsstands on Tuesday. Sad.

http://www.bicycleretailer.com/north...top-publishing

It is print media that is having a hard time. Everything from newspapers to books are going electronic and there is a whole generation of readers that use electronic readers to Cell phones and Computers. when you can hold 3000 books on one device and it weighs less than one book it makes it hard to sell a book. when you can get the book delivered to you over your server or WiFi in a few seconds for less money that also makes a book or magazine a hard sell. Just how I see it.

Still a bummer no matter what the cause. Personally even though I'm a retired technology director I can't embrace the iPad world. I prefer paper thank you. Wait until they invent digital toilet paper...:)

I've fallen in love with Audible. Wouldn't work for text books, of course, but for non-fiction and fiction with a good narrator I'm sure I get more out of the "read"

It's been years since I last bought a paper magazine of any kind. And the last two magazines I bought was to buy from some of the companies advertising (it was a classic boat magazine). Since then I have completely dropped buying magazines as I find not only the information outdated, but also the format. If I need something explained to me, I'd rather go on a forum or contact the manufacturer directly, and if I want to read ride reports (of any kind), travel reports, kayaking reports, or something else, I use forums too. I don't see the point of paper magazines at all anymore.

I once tried to get a digital New Scientist subscription. They were so behind the curve, that I could only read it online, and if I ordered the paper version, I would get a free online subscription. I asked directly why on earth I couldn't buy a subscription where I actually downloaded a pdf or epub edit: To read on me ebook reader or whatever), but to no avail: Online or paper, no download.

Not a tear shed from me regardless of how many magazines die off. Actual news media is another thing entirely.

Bidet?

Or in a pinch: A hand shower next to the toilet.

Magazines, especially ones with beautiful picture spreads, are pricey. I cannot justify the cost and all of my cycling friends feel the same way. None of us have purchased a paper mag in years.
Darn shame because magazines done correctly are a piece of art.

An exception is Wired - beautifully and thoughtfully laid out, amazingly interesting articles, and I just got 2 years of monthly mags for $19.00. Even the ads seem especially tuned in to and designed for the reader, and I enjoy perusing them, also.

Still it doesn't matter if a new generation has an alternative they grow up with. Kindle Fire and Ipads have beautiful color and graphics and you can have every issue all in one place. I have more than 3200 books on a remote hard drive and a program the converts Ipad, Kendle and Nook to any format I wish downloads it to my reader. My sister had maybe 500 books total, hardbound, that takes up two rooms of her house and she could never carry more than six at one time. ( Most of my books were given to me by my some when he got home from Iraq and Afghanistan that were a collection of books all of his company had downloaded) I am not against books and magazines I am just saying they have a new competitor that doesn't always require the labor intensive business of Book binders and printers to get the books into the hands of 100,000 readers. The same problem is hitting the News papers, there is a generation that doesn't trust the editorial leanings of most published papers and so gets much of their news from the Net, for the good or for the bag of that media. So we should expect to see more of this as the years pass. I still get much more information from the internet on bicycles than I ever did from magazines. And I can click and save pictures or print them whenever I want.

The conversion to electronic media isn't only what's killing these mags. The subscription price you pay to a mag only really covers the production cost of it and a bit more. The real revenue comes from the ads, which are sold on all editions. Unfortunately, the fact that there's not a reliable audit method for electronic ads is one of the reasons they sell for less money, which makes it tough to produce a publication that carries the offerings we're used to from a print world, while making the economics of the digital world work along with it.

And I read 7 books on my phone on our recent cruise (where I have about 50 ready to read). Imagine carrying 7 books in your suitcase!! I still enjoy the Wired magazine, though.

The problem with too many magazines these days is the fact they have become a glitzy picture book. They have very little in depth technical information. Compare Bicycling now to an edition from the 80s. Same way with car magazines. Compare todays Car and Driver to one from the 60s. Lots of pictures, worries about the number of cup holders, and how soft the material on the dash is. BTW I do not fondle the dash as I drive. All the magazines seem to be printed for a person with no attention span. They seem to have a Twitter bent to them.

rydabent, you have observed the same as I. It is difficult for me to read some mags as they are choppy and lack real content. Picked up an expired Bicycling mag from the shop last week. Hey, freebies are always welcomed! To read it was a task in managing page content. Was so chopped up! Obviously it was designed for skimming and minimal depth of info. Very disappointed. Only one long article in it on Strava, the rest were snippets.
Remember spending an hour intently reading a mag from cover to cover? Blew through Bicycling in 10 minutes.
Have never read Wired. May go out and give it a whirl.

Never even saw that title on our bookstore's magazine rack, hate that it is going under but the bicycle magazine market seems saturated already, and not many of the title being published are worth the trouble to look at anymore. As said above several times, Bicycling seems to be intended for the Twitter and Facebook groups in its structure and content. I like the two titles I subscribe to (both in the print format,) Road Bike Action and Cycling Plus for their longer article format and decent pictures that don't overwhelm the words but are still well executed.

Ride Magazine out of Australia in another title I enjoy, but buying it here in the States or subscribing is very expensive. Peleton was the most disappointing newer title I have tried recently, it just didn't work for my taste, some love it and that is fine, different types for different people, that is why there are menus and different colourways offered.

Bill

I still subscribe to paper magazines, Wired and Bicycling for example. However a lot of my past subscriptions have gone all digital. PC Magazine and PC Word to name just two. I have no doubt that paper magazines are dying out, but I hope it takes a bit longer.

+1. Wired, Popular Science, and Outside for me. I also subscribe to many on the iPad (Zinio and Newsstand). I use the Kindle app as well. I do a LOT from tablets but I still greatly enjoy the print magazine experience (and print books also). There's something about the printed word --not worrying about the expensive tablet, etc. I take magazines when I travel, toss them when I'm done, read them from a hot tub, set drinks on them, yada yada -stuff you can't do with a tablet.

many Ive noted are Wholly paid for by advertising, and only having the copy sales as gravy schemes .

given the Internet in general is advertising funded ,

as a friend in the local paper says , advertising sales is the Last job to go ..

Paved was a pretty large format mag too .. big paper budget.

I subscribe to Road Bike Action. Pretty good and cheap.
Just discovered Cycle Sport. British publication. Kind of expensive, but full of reporting on pro cycling with lots of great photos. Will probably subscribe soon.

S

Paved and Peloton came out at about the same time and were by their format (if not exact content) in direct competition with each other. Joe Parkin (A Dog in A Hat) was the headliner for Paved, and was the guy that you would hope to have success with a magazine. Flipping through a couple of copies of each that I have, it's obvious that Peloton was much more successful in retaining advertisements. Everyone has to pay the bills.

ROAD magazine is a bigger format, all flash, no content publication, and RIDE from Oz is just too expensive. Although the the writing is fun.

I would go to the grocery store with my wife and look at the magazine rack and see several bicycle related magazines. Lately, I can't even find a one. Plenty of Teen, Hip Hop and muscle building magazines and the one with the most choices is gun related magazines. This seems to be a trend as I notice the same thing in most other magazine racks in places like Walmart and even Barns and Noble. I guess it's what the people are buying that keeps the shelves stocked. Whatever the magazine, I have to agree with those that posted that there is no more content in the magazines any more. Every story is cut off with an advertisement page (or two) and continued toward the back of the magazine. More snipits than anything else. Many of the articles lack true content and many even leave you hanging. I guess that , like on TV, you just can't find any decent writers any more.

I just picked up a copy of Cyclist for $13.95! Good quality paper, excellent pics and good info in general. But, I won't be buying another at that price.

I love the feel and smell of a book, magazine or newspaper. I see grown men on the morning train delicately flicking their hands across the bloodless surface of the 'tablets' which they pull from their man-purses. Depressingly, they are seldom reading in-depth articles of the kind found in a good broadsheet like the NYT or WSJ - they're usually playing games, 'texting', or frowning at their phone lists with the kind of mock seriousness you see on the faces of male models in fashion shoots. When there's no more paper, I'll adapt the way I did when movie rentals disappeared - I'll get along without.

But that being said you can read the WSJ on electronic formats and it is the same. Only the paper doesn't get dog eared and it is easier to flip back a page if you skip too soon. The articles are written by the same plagiarizing cub reporters that copy other papers anyway. In depth reporting has passed from the school of journalism and now is more concerned with being politically correct that reporting what really happens or is said. And a weeks worth of WSJ on a tablet doesn't weigh any more than one day's worth of information. I can start reading an article on my computer, synch to my Kendle and read it in bed or bring up the same article on my phone if I happen to be sitting in the doctor's office. Plus if I decided to keep a years worth of WSJ it doesn't need totake up a card board box and stored somewhere till my wife makes me toss the box in the trash anyway. By the time most print media hit the stands it is old news anyway. At least electronically you get almost real time access to information.

My feeling is that when magazines start closing down, the interest in their subject is waning, too. Maybe, just maybe, the interest in cycling has peaked, and now is starting to decline. The participation rate in BFs is another one of those indicators that has been declining for a while. Another cycling website in Australia that I contemplated participating in shows almost no activity.

Having said that, a lot of what Mobile 155 says is true. I will glance through the local rag if someone has it, but most of the "news" is what I read and heard the day before. Just about all my news information comes through my computer.

And taken to its logical conclusion, I am being somewhat more environmentally friendly in not consuming newsprint and magazine paper.

True - it used to be that there were more folks online at any given time. I attribute some of this, however, to certain policies of BFN that have infuriated some folks, and also allowing some folks, such as in this forum, to attack or belittle participants while being more worried about whether or not the thread is in the right cubicle. (Well, I wonder how long this post (or I) will last??)

Having only returned to cycling a few years ago, I've never read a hard copy bicycling publication. But as a long time follower of Thoroughbred racing and breeding, I've subscribed to several publications in that arena since the 70s. Only one remains in business and we still subscribe (my wife shares this interest), but now find they sit in a pile unread. We get the information we need and want elsewhere and their 'exclusive' content has declined in both quality and quantity to the point that we just don't bother anymore. With rates somewhere near $100/year, it won't be long before we decide to stop sending the check.

Similarly, I read one and often several newspapers every day for most of my life. I no longer do. The prices kept rising for an increasingly inferior product. My father was a newspaper editor and one of my brothers followed in that career, so I felt a certain allegiance to print media for the longest time. But I just don't think the industry was capable of adapting to changing times and as a result is fast becoming an anachronism. Magazines and newsprint will be an historical artifact in 20 years.

You may be right, but I hope not. The U.S. Census conducts the American Community Survey every year. They ask a lot of questions and many of them involve transportation choices. For the past five year, Portland, OR has seen no change in the percentage of residents who ride bikes to work (6%). Boston, MA has been flat for four years (2%). Sacramento, CA is has been stuck around 2.5% for four years. New York City is just getting in the game at 1%, so it hasn't made it there yet. Even Davis, CA, the former Bicycle Capital of the World, has stalled in it's attempts to recapture its former status.

Personally, I hope we are seeing a temporary leveling-off as opposed to the onset of decline. Considering the ever-growing percentage of Americans under the age of thirty who not only don't drive but have chosen to not even get a driver's license, I think it's too early to declare the third bike boom dead.

I have found personal attacks to be pretty uncommon but I do agree that this penchant for moving threads is annoying as hell. IMO if there's no foul, don't blow the whistle.

That'll preach, bro.