Hi,

So new issue dropped through the letter box slit. Felt a bit on the lightish side.

Initial thought, somehow I got retail edition. But no, Premier Edition back says it all.

Quick dive and yep! paper of much lower weight.

Signum Temporis I guess, but I’m still happy having good ‘ole analog edition.

Keep on great job Good People of STW.

Cheers!
I.

Noticeably thinner, I also checked it was the Premier edition.

But there’s the same volume of content so I’m not complaining.

There’s less pages. I also had to check it was the Premier edition. Still a good read though, so not all bad.

There’s a mag? 😉

It’s the svelte edition.

Less pages and the paper weight is noticeably lighter.

I watched The Surfers Path go from a UK version of The Surfers Journal to nothing more than a tissue paper advertising pamphlet. I hope it’s not a sign of things to come.

It’s the svelte edition.

Yep, thinner so you can take it lots of places, more hand positions for longer articles, and it’ll replace all your other magazines.

You can read it right from the door.

Thinner yes, but a quick scan it looks a good one. With all the content I want.

Smells great too.

No complaints here.

Horrid smell, always give a quick spray of Lynx Africa

sparkyrhino

Subscriber
Horrid smell, always give a quick spray of Lynx Africa

You spray your magazines?…

Hadn’t they made a bit of a ‘thing’ about using thicker quality paper stock to justify some of the price and differentiate between usual MTB comics?

Bit disappointed TBH – had to check it was the subscribers issue – maybe time to go digital only

maybe time to go digital only

But noticed last month they never posted the Kindle edition. Just a placeholder that says ‘Sorry! Download is not available yet.’

Hoping that’s not been stopped, ‘cos with my bad eyesight and dim lights in the house the Kindle is how I read it. I skim through the mag and look at the pics only. So I haven’t read issue 128 yet.

Exclusive members only copies with up to 32 extra pages of stories, opinions and reviews.

Well having read it, certainly did not feel like that, as above agree about it was quality paper and photos (personally feel the photo quality has depreciated) and to look at digital.

I suspect the magazine paper quality will save the environment, which is a good thing.

Articles wise, ok but being old I feel it is a retread of things…Cornwall ride 1997, age and effects see Steve Worland articles.

Enjoyed the bike test/ reasons why I choose this bike….

Hi guys, let me explain what we’ve done.
First of all the February issue is traditionally 16 pages fewer at 132 pages (for subscribers) rather than 148. This is because of the lack of demand for ad pages at this time of year. If you have last year’s edition to hand you can check that. I think we ran with 148 pages in the February 2018 issue by mistake. We just forgot to reduce it and then wondered why it was more stressful than usual trying to fill the pages 🙂

Issue 130 will be 148 pages as usual.

The paper on the internal pages has indeed changed. This is a new type of paper that our printer introduced to us in order to save weight of the overall magazine. It’s an 80gm paper that has been produced in a way that makes it feel like 100gm paper. Apparently it’s do do with introducing air into it during the manufacturing process.

The reason we want to save weight is because postage costs have continued to increase, as have paper costs at an accelerating rate over the last few years. This issue weighs in at around 35% less than usual, which, believe it or not stands to save us around £800-£1000 per issue in postage to subscribers. That’s potentially £6k/year to us. The paper is also cheaper because it’s lighter and overall if we decide to continue then we could save around £18k/year off print and postage costs. If that happens then we maximise the chances of the print magazine remaining sustainable going forward.

This is a test issue though and we are evaluating it. Different papers take ink differently and we want to make sure that the results are worth it. We don’t want to sacrifice the content by using a paper that doesn’t show it off as well as possible.

Hope that explains things 🙂

Thanks for the update Mark. Any info on the Kindle download not being available? Something I appreciate having, but last month’s didn’t get posted?

Thank Mark!

Much appreciated. I’m grown up enough to understand the challenges you are facing in current world as a Publisher.

Me as oldschool still appreciate that I can put my hand on actual, paper copy of Mag.

Cheers!
I.

Print is important to us. And we want to make sure we can keep producing it. The challenge for us and any other print business, is doing that in a way that has both as low a carbon footprint as possible and is financially sustainable.

The Kindle version of issue 128 was missed by me. Apologies for that. I’m working on issue 129’s downloads and digital versions today so I’ll make sure I go back and add the Kindle version of 128 for you too.

The Kindle version of issue 128 was missed by me. Apologies for that. I’m working on issue 129’s downloads and digital versions today so I’ll make sure I go back and add the Kindle version of 128 for you too.

Great, thanks.

believe it or not stands to save us around £800-£1000 per issue in postage to subscribers. That’s potentially £6k/year to us

Good stuff. Still feels the same quality and still has the lovely fresh print (of Bel Air?) smell.

Thanks for the info Mark, it’s good to understand the background.

I prefer the thicker paper, but I’d prefer the Singletrack magazine continues sustainably more.

Quite like the paper and the lightness – an improvement for me. Will pack it for a train journey tomorrow

Dont worry about your carbon footprint, its offset by us all riding bikes 🙂

Personally I much prefer the thicker paper. BUT if its a choice between thinner paper and no mag, I’ll take thinner paper every day!

Got to say it – unfortunately this thinner paper doesn’t work as well. A lot of the photos are slightly washed out.. like the colours aren’t as vivid as previous months. Hopefully this can be sorted for the next issue.

Just me then?

Yeah the photos are less clear. Clear photos are really one of the key Singletrack selling points.

Cheers Colin9, I think it’s a pretty important point.

Oh no, I just subscribed, this will be my first issue on sub when it gets delivered. Always thought ST was the higher quality mag over others.

^^It still is mate.👍

It’s tough. The photos don’t work as well. But I’m sure photos with a different balance and light would. That’s just getting used to the medium I’m sure.

As others have mentioned. Rather a greener thinner singletrack than no singletrack

This thread highlights the challenges the industry faces in a nutshell (I also work in publishing). A combination of higher print and postage costs and advertisers utilising digital channels to go to market means that publishers are dealing with a perfect storm. Fair play to Mark and the team, they’re doing an incredible job to keep everything going and we should all be doing as much as we can to support them, both financially and emotionally.

For what it’s worth I thought that the latest issue was up to its usual very high standards

Bizarrely this issue I’ve read more of than I have in ages. The Chris Akrigg article was brilliantly timed and i doff my cap to STW, a big social media announcement by Chris on the Monday and then I have a print magazine with an interview that is bang upto date on the Tuesday.

Keep the mag coming, keep experimenting with the print media until you’re happy, and keep it green.

Steve

When should I receive this issue? I subscribed back on January 29th.