Why no retrobike magazine ?

[MikeD]

Have you been in WHSmith recently, theres millions of 'em!!!

Indeed. There are far more than will fit in any one branch of WHSmith, which is part of the problem with making a new one

 

[dyna-ti]

Nobody's talking of a full blown magazine ,just a news letter of 4 pages or so,2 pieces of A4 folded,no staples needed.

it can be in retro black and white


They could even become collectable in the future

 

[mazdaman1980]

I work for DMG World Media on several magazines and it would be easy to get up if you have the money, but thats where the problem lies. You need several thousand pounds to start up. Then you need to find a good printer or you can go full digital and build up a circulation like that. Then you have to get the bikes to feature, which is the easy part. Then you have Advertising which again could go either way. Who would advertise, shops, new manufacturers, wheel smiths etc etc but would they see enough opportunity here and would they find it a value to them. You also have the problem if you go digital which as mentioned is the cheaper option of format. Do you go turn page which then is expensive and has to be maintained and then do you launch a seperate web site or do you heavily modify this one.

There is a lot to consider but it is possible but it would be a full time job for two people or more.

 

[Crayons]

I'd be cautious about launching anything quite that niche into the current magaine market – the newsstand is in terminal decline with all the major players looking at web media as a means of survival. The biggest problem with mags is the advertising – great in theory until you try to prize revenue out of the market, especially in this climate. Very few niche magaines can survive on cover sale revenue alone, it really isn't that much and in truth probably wouldn't even cover the origination costs.

That's not to say there's not an alternative. Take a look at http://www.gpweek.com

E-zines have a lot going for them (one of the reasons why so many of the major players are looking so closely at them) – you can still sell the advertising space to make it into a commercial venture (adverts in e-zines can offer click-through links to respective websites), but you remove the big overheads of paper, print & bind, distribution. A big plus is the opportunity for dynamic content, motion, sound etc. And you can offer a pdf download feaure and an archive of back issues.

Some will say 'but you can't charge for it', but that misses the point – advertisers don't care if you sell your mag or give it away, all they're interested in is how many people get to see their advertising – the higher the circulation the more you can charge 'em.

At the end of the day could we, as a community, sustain the sales figures needed to keep a printed publication in circulation – I somehow doubt it. But a Retrobike e-zine could give John an opportunity to generate some solid revenue.

 

[hamster]

The other issue is content. Getting people to write regularly and bring in fresh material is hard.

 

[Jamiedyer]

magazine

Some good ideas coming through and some thought out responses.
It would certainly change this site whether or not it ran through it or seperately. It could have the potential to either flourish and expand the retro scene or kill us off all together.
While we have good numbers contributing and joining the site I think it must be a miniscule percentage of the cycle riding/buying public and very much a tiny niche.
Lets also see Legrandefromage's artwork. But dont go in offering him sandwiches, start the negotiations with digestives

Jamie

 

[JeRkY]

Could reprint different retro adverts from long dead companies each week

 

[Crayons]

Love the retro advert idea – could make it a stipulation that the advertisers can only supply retro-styled artwork

 

[barry2017]

But surely the point of a Retrobike magazine is the stuff is Retro, that is not new?

If it was glossy, full of adverts, 150 pages long and attempted to sell me stuff from Wiggle I wouldn't be interested in it. OTOH, if it was one or two photocopied pages, I think that'd be well worth £15-£20 a year.

I was thinking it'd be more like a little club newsletter than something you could buy in WHSmiths. I never buy any of those glossy magazines, like the majority of modern bikes, I think they're all rather anodyne.

 

[KINFAST]

i agree with a club news letter as i would be far cheaper to make than a mag and will need less items to fill it out, when i was vice chairman in one of our cycling clubs we had a news letter and it was a great way of letting people know who didnt come up to club nights what was happening, we also did competitions and asked lbs for a bit of discount/offers if they brought in the news letter to the shop.
yes the internet is a great tool but how many of you buy mags read it then go back to it a few days later? i.e toilet reading!! who takes the lap top on the toilet????