Indeed a noble idea, but beware. Weg/Wegry/Wegsleep with English counterparts Go/Drive Out have already cornered the adventure market to the extent that Mooiloop, the Afrikaans stablemate to Getaway had to close down. As Jacko has said he will be involved in establishing more of a DS presence in the Weg/Wegry stable which will take even more of the market.
Also, as Sillystunt, has pointed out distribution is going to be a bugger. A couple of years ago I was involved in an independent startup and while our content was good and the market quite ready, we stumbled across the distribution hurdle. If the big boys don't take you, you're fooked. Citibike is quite right with the figure of 10000 to become viable and the last audited circulation figures of TopBike I saw were around the 8000 mark rather than the figures that are touted about now.
Jan, those figures are anything but new. Check the last ABC period - never less than 10 000, nudging 13 000. Why? Because of the DS content.
In the past, with 160 pages and massive UK content, it only once or twice went past 10 000. Why? Because it was broad, general interest, with a slant towards knees-down action. But that's what 2Wheels was doing too. So nothing new in the market.
The DS content in TopBike was different for many reasons - as most of you know. It was
real adventures by
real people and not sponsored jollies. This is in line with some of the top adventure magazines in the world, ie Outside and, on a local level, Weg. Real adventures cannot, by their very definition, be accompanied by beautiful staged photography. That's something we left for certain parts of the mag. I always thought that it would be obvious to most people what the inherent difference between reader generated adventure material and in-house tests and features would be. Reading some posts I obviously overestimated some peoples knowledge and insight.
The info carried by TopBike was of a practical and useful nature. And there was a clear understanding of the differences between road test, comparative test, feature, narrative, adventure and useful info. Not that this is rocket science, but all good titles adhere to these basic fundamentals of journalism.
Like already said repeatedly, TopBike's content was never its weak point - the lack of advertising was.
Coming back to SteveO's question, I think Sot and SillyStunt have basically summed it up: It's going to be hard.
And then there's that other, small problem - where are you going to source good copy? Do you have journalistic training or experience? That is, after all, why people will buy your intended mag. Otherwise it's just another BSA.
Anyway, my rantings may just sound like that of a sour has been. Do what you want.
Topic: Adventure Magazine (Read 6875 times)
