Ski Mags

"The Older Gentleman" wrote in message
news:1g30vq7.9a6ywnns5e73N%chateau.murrayNOSPAM@ds l.pipex.com...
David Off wrote:

They claim a readership of 2 million in the US.

*Snort*

I'd be very, very surprised. That means they'd need to sell about
400,000 copies per issue.

S&b states it is the highest circulating snowsports title in the UK -
audited circulation for Jan-Dec 2002 was 21,320

Can't see that as a commercial enterprise you could make a living on that
number.

P.

www.craigieburn.co.nz

prg39 wrote:

"The Older Gentleman" wrote in message
news:1g30vq7.9a6ywnns5e73N%chateau.murrayNOSPAM@ds l.pipex.com...
David Off wrote:

They claim a readership of 2 million in the US.

*Snort*

I'd be very, very surprised. That means they'd need to sell about
400,000 copies per issue.

S&b states it is the highest circulating snowsports title in the UK -
audited circulation for Jan-Dec 2002 was 21,320

Can't see that as a commercial enterprise you could make a living on that
number.

Not for that sort of title, no, you can't. Ski Magazine (published by
the now defunct Ocean Publications and market leader in the early to
mid-1980s) managed to sell about 40,000 copies for the Ski Show preview
issue in its heyday.

You can make a decent living out of small (sub-10,000) circulation
publications, but they tend to be very technical and expensive business,
industrial or financial titles, not consumer ones.

Look at it this way - there are (as I understand it) something like
three quarters of a million "recreational" skiers in the UK. That's not
people who ski every season, but people who have skied, do ski, and
enjoy skiing.

And the top selling ski title sells about 20k copies.

Coincidentally, there are about 1 million motorcycles registered in the
UK. Allowing for the fact that many motorcyclists own more than one
bike[1], you can put the number of motorcyclists at a similar figure to
the skiers.

The top selling bike publication (MCN) sells about 140,000 copies per
week. The top selling monthly manages about 90,000.

Conclusion - either skiers don't read ski magazines per se, or they
don't like what's offered to them. I know exactly where my money would
go.

[1] I've got five and a sixth coming next week, but then I'm not a
typical case.

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David Off wrote:

David Off wrote:

There are also a number of free mags available in resorts.

The latest startup is Dark Summer - which is tipped to be a 'UK
Freeride Mag' with a difference. We'll see.


There is also SkiPressMag starting in Europe this winter. This is a UK
edition of an American mag. They claim a readership of 2 million in the
US.

I'm sure they do, but they give it away so the 2m figure might be the
number of mags which are printed and distibuted, I'll bet a fair number
are binned without being read.

I've said it before in a similar thread, the only decent ski magazine,
in English at least, is Powder Magazine. The N American focus may make
it a bit less relevant to Europeans but even so there are usualy one or
2 decent articles and plenty of fantastic photos.

Steve wrote:

There is also SkiPressMag starting in Europe this winter. This is a UK
edition of an American mag. They claim a readership of 2 million in the
US.

I'm sure they do, but they give it away so the 2m figure might be the
number of mags which are printed and distibuted,

No way.

I'll bet a fair number
are binned without being read.

Yup!


I've said it before in a similar thread, the only decent ski magazine,
in English at least, is Powder Magazine. The N American focus may make
it a bit less relevant to Europeans but even so there are usualy one or
2 decent articles and plenty of fantastic photos.

Powder's photography is dam ngood, agreed.

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Steve wrote:
David Off wrote:

David Off wrote:

There are also a number of free mags available in resorts.

The latest startup is Dark Summer - which is tipped to be a 'UK
Freeride Mag' with a difference. We'll see.


There is also SkiPressMag starting in Europe this winter. This is a
UK edition of an American mag. They claim a readership of 2 million
in the US.


I've said it before in a similar thread, the only decent ski magazine,
in English at least, is Powder Magazine.

That may well be true, they have a good website anyway. However my
point was that at least two publications were starting in Europe this
fall: Dark Summer and SkiPressMag.

David Off wrote:

Steve wrote:
David Off wrote:

David Off wrote:

There are also a number of free mags available in resorts.

The latest startup is Dark Summer - which is tipped to be a 'UK
Freeride Mag' with a difference. We'll see.


There is also SkiPressMag starting in Europe this winter. This is a
UK edition of an American mag. They claim a readership of 2 million
in the US.


I've said it before in a similar thread, the only decent ski magazine,
in English at least, is Powder Magazine.

That may well be true, they have a good website anyway. However my
point was that at least two publications were starting in Europe this
fall: Dark Summer and SkiPressMag.

And I'll be very surprised if either lasts more than, say, three seasons
without folding or a change of ownership.....


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"The general trend seems to be closing down rather than starting up. The
problem is most mags rely heavily on advertising revenue, and this is a
market that has taken a pounding recently."

Exactly, and that is a problem. It sounds as though the Daily Mail Ski mag
ignored the opinions of it's impartial ski testers for their reports and
merely gave good write-ups to the companies who advertise most in the mag.
To slam the skis of one of their biggest advertisers would have been
suicide.
"David Off" wrote in message
...
Ace wrote:

I'd suggest you send this, and any other comments, to the editor of
Ski & Board at the Ski Club.

do you know the address? It is not obvious from the Website.

There have been several attempts at
starting new 'popular' ski mags in the last few years, none of which
has been a rousing success, so it may be better to simply add the
features you desire to an existing publication.

The general trend seems to be closing down rather than starting up. The
problem is most mags rely heavily on advertising revenue, and this is a
market that has taken a pounding recently.

There are also a number of free mags available in resorts.

The latest startup is Dark Summer - which is tipped to be a 'UK Freeride
Mag' with a difference. We'll see.

David

ps: ski and board has some interesting articles written by people who
have obviously been skiing at least once in their lives (even if they
don't live up to everyone's standards of being "professionals" - which
to me suggests someone able to down 15 pints in the Printer's Measure),
it is not going to attract the teeny boarder readership though and I
think Ace has made the same point.

ash wrote:

It sounds as though the Daily Mail Ski mag
ignored the opinions of it's impartial ski testers for their reports and
merely gave good write-ups to the companies who advertise most in the mag.

This is the usual reaction of people who actually have no experience of
magazine publishing ;-))


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My info comes from someone VERY close to the testers!!

"The Older Gentleman" wrote in message
news:1g33d0z.39fqx9makg1eN%chateau.murrayNOSPAM@ds l.pipex.com...
ash wrote:

It sounds as though the Daily Mail Ski mag
ignored the opinions of it's impartial ski testers for their reports and
merely gave good write-ups to the companies who advertise most in the
mag.

This is the usual reaction of people who actually have no experience of
magazine publishing ;-))


--
Trophy 1200 750SS CB400F GN250 ST70 YTC#3
GAGARPHOF#30 GHPOTHUF#1 IHABWTJ#1 BOTAFOT#60 ANORAK#06
BOF#30 WUSS#5 "Worse than Timo" - Official

ash wrote:

My info comes from someone VERY close to the testers!!


It's still usually ********.


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