The printed magazine world is under the gun from all corners with a tough economy and competition from the Internet. If you work for one of those magazines, it just has to be stressful wondering who is going to be bought, sold or closed next. It was just announced that Hearst Corporation has sold Cycle World to Bonnier Corporation, owners of Popular Science and Field and Stream … [Read more...]
No Future Motorcycles Will Carry the Buell Name
The January 2011 issue of Motorcyclist magazine is just out and has a very informative interview with Erik Buell where Erik talks about some of the developments during and after the time Buell was shutdown. One point I thought was interesting was that Harley Davidson licensed the Buell name and allowed Erik to sell derivative Buell racebikes, but only until December 21, 2010, a … [Read more...]
Cycle News Shuts Down – The Digital World Claims One More
The creative destruction continues among the print magazines as Cycle News, the long running California based print publication, best known for coverage of motorcycle racing, closed its doors on August 31st. This long running shakeout has been harsh and any printed magazine or newspaper slow to come to grips with the Internet is likely facing a similar fate. Paul Carruthers, … [Read more...]
Cycle World Magazine Possibly for Sale
Hachette Filipacchi has put a number of publications up for sale, and depending on who you believe, Cycle World magazine, may be among them, Media Daily News says yes, AdWeek says Car and Driver, Road & Track and Cycle World may be spared. Cycle World is the largest of the print motorcycle magazines but it's been experiencing declining ad revenue for some time, the same as … [Read more...]
Motorcycle Magazines Having Distributor Problems
A bit of behind the scenes business news you may have missed is the current battle between a couple of major magazine distributors and magazine publishers. Anderson News and Source Interlink distribute something like 50% of the magazines to the newsstands like Wal-Mart and Barnes and Noble for single copy sales. The distributors wanted to raise their delivery price 7 cents per … [Read more...]
Sideburn Flat Track Magazine
Sorting through The Kneeslider's mail this morning (the print stuff, not email) I found an issue of a brand new magazine from England, it's called Sideburn and it's all about the dirty world of go fast, turn left flat trackers. Flipping through the pages I found a display ad for Bratstyle, then I see the feature article on Deus Ex Machina. Well, they had my attention, I figured … [Read more...]