Hey ho..prices go up..thats the way of life and as a business you have to keep moving..but with price rises comes a degree of elevated expectation from your customer…maybe Im alone on this but if I felt the mag content was being watered down in favour of the other viewing meduims then ST would be dropped like a very hot thing..however much I may miss it……Already starting to have suspicions…..
A bit of a balancing act?…..good luck..

There won’t be any watering down in the mag. The mag ie the printed version – is one of many channels we will be publishing on. The content will be the same but it will be published to multiple channels. The point is that what we produce is Mountain Biking Content (The Content). This content will now be published on multiple devices (channels). Print is one channel… Mobile is another… Tablet another… desktop another… But the difference will be that the content will be reformatted to suit each platform. That’s why we produce an ePub version currently as that works best on mobiles. But the content is the same (bar the odd digital supplement).

But you don’t need to worry. Print is not being downgraded in preference of cheaper digital channels. Quite the opposite, hence we are spending an extra £25k/year on print quality alone.

the gratuitious exposure of the naked flesh and egos of the ST staff,

What a load of bilge.

the increasingly small print,

Get your eyes tested….. Ohh, sorry I mean

GET YOUR EYES TESTED

thankyou Mark,

You’re the first person to actually respond to my request, and not just give their opinions of the mag in its current state.

So, I’ll give it a few more issues to see how it goes. 🙂

(but I do wish you’d kept quiet about Caldbeck…)

The SRAM Brochure that was put in this month was a bit much though..
i Mean are there workshops really like that,

Yes the workshops are like that. Clinical.

By the way,have I told you how much I hated the Scram sales pitch?..hang your heads in shame..

Interesting feedback on the Sram piece, I tried to approach the factory trip in a way that didn’t focus on product but rather the people involved.

I think PP may be a little bit aspergic. Possibly.

Definitely some constructive comments in there though 🙄

The printed mag will become more expensive. We are increasing our print costs by £25k/year so there’s no way we can keep it at the current price level. The price increase will be significant but it will only affect the copies sold in shops.

I fear you’ll have to be careful with that. By all means increase the price, but the quality of content will have to go up considerably if you are to justify it. By increasing the cost of the magazine you make a statement indicating that it will be in a higher league than the tripe (WMB, MBUK, etc) and competing with the likes of Rouleur and The Ride Journal. I’m afraid I’ve seen no evidence to suggest ST is anywhere near that quality.

For the record I’m a premier subscriber. I support the website through this subscription. But don’t believe your own hype guys; do the right thing and bin off the ads, increase the content and you’ll win back those that are leaving.

I think Mark suggested that there’s more people ‘joining’ than ‘leaving’. Which is great.

The transition from the once fulfilling experience offered by the magazine when I discovered it several years back, to the frustration I experienced when it eventually slumped to hum-drum tedium, tells me that I suppose the magazine’s probably not of much interest to me anymore, but I’m guessing I don’t fit the right target / channel / whateveritis that they are aiming for now.

(For instance, I don’t own a tablet-thingy. And tend to read bike mags somewhat vaguely for a few minutes while taking a dump.)

Thats cool by me. 8)

Shall I answer your question with a question?

do the right thing and bin off the ads, increase the content and you’ll win back those that are leaving.

As much as I’m loath to get into a ‘debate’ with you, especially after I made your worthy xmas gift thread sticky, I’ll engage..

Bin the ads? Are you seriously suggesting that a viable way forward as a business is to kill of a income stream responsible for a third of our annual turnover? In issue 70 there are 40 pages of ads in a mag that contains a total of 165 pages (I’m including the digital supplement as it also includes ads but if you like there are 132 pages in the printed mag and 35 pages of ads)That level of ads, restricted to no more than a third of the mag is a deliberate policy and always has been.

Also, there is no evidence that people are leaving us in the way you imply. In fact we’ve increased subscriber numbers by 20% in the last year! In the current economic situation that’s bloody incredible! We are already gaining more and more subscribers with every issue. We are not responding in the way we are planning because we are trying to mitigate losses. We are doing this because Singletrack is now predominantly a magazine supported by subcribers and so we are making a move away from a traditional, restrictive and wasteful news agent model of magazine production to one that is aimed at the largest contingent of our readership. To wit… subscribers.

I’ve just become a digital subscriber for the first time.

At £15 for a year (£1.25 a month) it seems ridiculous value, and from what I’ve seen so far the mag looks pretty good.

i’m premier and i also subscribe the the printed mag.

keep that in mind next time i’m due for a banning mods… i pay your wages! 😈

[Moderated due to the word ‘BOOBIES’ – Mod ;-)].

Mark, can I ask something?

By depreciating the news stand and focussing on the subscriber model, you stand to give a lot of “value-added” to subscribers. So far so froody. But without the news stand, how are you going to attract new subscribers? Word of mouth?

😆

that moderation has cheered me up no end, time to put on some dubstep and wrap teh chrimbo presents.

Serious offer time: i buy the mag as a way of supporting the forum… its very rare i actually read the magazine, if there’s anyone around the Reading/swinley area who wants some recent issues of the magazine for their reading pleasure let me know! 😀

New subscriber here. £2 PAYG a month is ridiculously cheap and easy, plus my £2 payment this month has enabled me complete access to the back catalogue.
I read what I like and ignore the rest.

All magazines go through cycles. I think people expect too much sometimes.

Cougar, we get 600,000 unique users a month to this website. Before we start looking to advertise widely on the newstand or wherever we should be looking to market to the audience we already have first. But to be clear, we aren’t pulling out of the newstrade. Singletrack will still be available in newsagents, but we expect to sell progressively fewer and fewer copies there as we convert casual buyers to subscribers.

Plus, part of the relaunch is a whole new way to sell themag through Premier Dealers – or bike shops as they are sometimes called 🙂 You will soon be able to subscribe at your local bike shop using our imminent subs voucher cards.

The website has always been the largest source of new subscribers. In fact subs via the website dwarf the numbers that come via being discovered in a news agent.

I would email the forum list more to drive up subscriptions. Premier can opt out.

Mark > cunning. Thanks for the info, interesting stuff.

It’s always been part of our terms of membership that we won’t spam anyone. There’s a newsletter option in your account settings that you can opt in to. It’s set to ‘off’ by default. We don’t ever want to send an email marketing message unless we know the recipient has expressed the wish to receive it.

But do you not think that non-premier users would want to see previews of premier stuff by email to help them make the decision? Maybe more would opt into that?

Seems like a good way of creating mailing list unsubscribers to me.

Cougar has it 🙂

There’s better ways to reach potential subscribers. 17 have subscribed since this thread was started for example 🙂

Now that’s funny!

Seems like a good way of creating mailing list unsubscribers to me

Not if you opted in to it as I stated. My personal view is that people are more inclined to buy something they can see rather than something they are told will be ace.

Bin the ads? Are you seriously suggesting that a viable way forward as a business is to kill of a income stream responsible for a third of our annual turnover?

TRJ has very few ads in it, as does Rouleur. Presumably their response is to jack the price up to compensate, but I’m happy to pay the extra for consistent excellence and less ads.

Also, there is no evidence that people are leaving us in the way you imply

Have I missed something? What way did I imply that people were leaving? If you read through the last four pages, people have said they’re no longer subscribing or are letting their subscriptions run out and not renewing, so what I’ve done is repeated the anecdotal evidence from posters on this thread. By all means submit the details of subscription take-up and deletion here for greater scrutiny and I’ll happily alter my perception.

As much as I’m loath to get into a ‘debate’ with you, especially after I made your worthy xmas gift thread sticky, I’ll engage..

For the record, I didn’t ask that of you, someone else did. I asked that the thread remained live, and that I would accept a ban if it was deemed necessary.

But then perhaps I should be grateful for your support and simply not question your judgement. As stated in your email correspondence a while ago eh?

shuttup Kev! respec Bullheart.

I have every sympathy for your situation I really do and so I’m going to bow out of a debate with you. I think it best we just don’t communicate at all on a personal level. That doesn’t alter the fact we will support your causes and campaigns where we can.

I subscribe to three magazines: STW, Prospect and Private Eye. The first two are changing significantly, with more web only content.

This I really don’t like.

I read the mags in odd moments – on the train, in the bog, whilst making a tea or coffee, passenger in car coming back from rides, etc. By the time I’ve read them, the mags are tatty, torn and teastained.

A mobile device is not suitable for any of these moments, and so I’m not getting to see the whole content. Hence I can see a time when I will cancel these subs, despite having been on board with both since day 1.
I’d be interested in how many others feel this way.

Private Eye, however, remains unchanged and an interview with Hislop indicates it will remain stoically print only. Thank God.

I have every sympathy for your situation I really do and so I’m going to bow out of a debate with you. I think it best we just don’t communicate at all on a personal level. That doesn’t alter the fact we will support your causes and campaigns where we can.

Keep your sympathy for someone who needs it.

I do not.

I read the mags in odd moments – on the train, in the bog, whilst making a tea or coffee, passenger in car coming back from rides, etc. By the time I’ve read them, the mags are tatty, torn and teastained.

A mobile device is not suitable for any of these moments

That’s where mobile devices are best, surely? My mobile is always in my pocket, while the print mag is somewhere in the living room at the moment.

Ahem… just wanted to say that I think the advertising/editorial ratio is fine. The other MTB mags I read seem to have significantly more advertising, for the amount of editorial they carry.

That’s where mobile devices are best, surely

Not in my clumsy world. I’d break/submerge/drop them.

I think there’s a danger here that some are thinking we are moving from print to digital. We are not. Print is being overhauled and improved too. Digital and print are not mutually exclusive. Infact the investment we are planning to put into the printed mag is the largest chunk of cash in the entire plan. We currently spend around £100k/year on print. I calculate that will likely rise to £125k in 2012. If you love the print mag and are worried it will be forgotten or left out of the good stuff then please don’t worry. That’s far from what we are planning to do 🙂

Mark, that’s great news.

I despair at what’s happened to Prospect over the last few months…

Mark – Resident Grumpy
Cougar has it

There’s better ways to reach potential subscribers. 17 have subscribed since this thread was started for example

Make that 18…

That’s right suckers, I got a ‘P’ next to my name now.

FYI Mark, despite using the forum regularly i had no idea i could get a digital sub (and the added content) for just £15.

I can see another t-shirt design coming out of this

I would really like to see more articles by Dave Anderson on access type issues. Did enjoy his writings and do feel that we all need to be more aware of what the powers-that-be are up to.

Also anything involving history and maps. 🙂 Along with riding a suitably historical route.

Always enjoy reading the overseas trip reports and in particular the more unusual destinations.

Thanks. 😀

I’ve just noticed that my “P” is missing as an old card that was caught up in the great “chainreaction fraud” issue was registered to my account. STW should sue CRC for loss of earnings…

I can see another t-shirt design coming out of this

😀

(Scurries off to create a new slogan even better* than the ‘railway sleepers’ one….)

*If indeed that is even possible.

I can see another t-shirt design coming out of this

I’m afraid Al Spokebloke probably wouldn’t consider the one I have in mind for legal reasons…