The distance from being read in the crapper and actually being in the crapper is a short one. According to Dealer News, Motorcyclist magazine crossed that span this week. I’m not happy about it. In fact, I’m well pissed-off. Over 100 years of print publication down the tubes. I was a part of that glorious history for 10 years. MC mag was always my favorite. They had Burns, they had Boehm, they had Frank and they had that crazy kid that kept crashing GSXR’s. MC mag was way cooler and funnier than stodgy old corporate-Cycle World. When I first decided to submit motorcycle stories for publication MC mag was the only place I submitted to.
Bonnier bought most of the USA’s larger motorcycle magazines a few years back and instead of finding a way they have shuttered magazine after magazine. They’ve managed to turn the largest motorcycle enthusiast’s print group into a damn Internet blog. What a stunning waste of money. Bonnier is supposed to be the experts. The much-touted single-source vertical integration has become a major horizontal screw-up. Thanks guys. Thanks for screwing up nearly everything I liked about your books.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a blog (you’re reading this one), but a hard copy is forever and we motorcyclists need a permanent record of our existence. Besides, Motorcycle.com does the Internet better than anyone and they have Burns to boot. Vendor sites like Revzilla and Twisted Throttle are doing a great job reviewing what they sell and in-house sites like Indian, Hog and BMW keep us up to date on the latest models. I’m saying we’re covered: The world does not need a rump-Motorcyclist magazine spewing cheesy sponsored content on the Internet. The world needs the real thing.
Bonnier’s press release tries to spin the magazine’s closure in the best possible light citing MC’s huge social media reach. Most of those puffy numbers are a direct result of Brian Hatano’s work years ago and Ari/Zack’s well done YouTube channel. Anyway, as Berk and I have learned, Facebook friends do not equal views. When a page with a million-plus followers puts up an interesting post and gets two comments, I’m telling you the reach is just not there. I get more response from a post about adobe blocks.
Yeah, I’m angry at Bonnier. Not only for firing Jack Lewis and me (in their defense, we weren’t exactly killing it) but also for doggedly sticking with a failed process. Chris Cantle and the new crew were doing a good job with the magazine’s content but the masthead was bloated with salaries and middlemen making it a struggle to pay off the ossified blob smothering their best efforts. You could have given Cantle three guys, an art director and one ad salesman and they would have done just as well, and maybe even turned a profit.
Mixing Cycle World and Motorcyclist diluted both brands and the titles became a slurry of interchangeable writers. Competition between the two formal rivals became cooperation: It didn’t seem to matter who wrote what. The magazines lost their personality and sense of humor. They wrote like they knew they were doomed.
Instead of charging what it costs to produce the magazine like American Iron and other smaller operations, Bonnier stuck with trying to pay for the magazine with advertising and giving the book away free to create a large subscriber base. This stupid-ass method changes the customer base from the reader to the advertiser. And the readers knew it. Charge $29 a year for 12 issues and write to me, damnit!
I don’t know. Maybe nothing would have worked. To me it seems like Bonnier gave up. Instead of raising rates they gave up. Instead of publishing 12 times a year no matter what they gave up. Instead of building reader loyalty with old school give-away items like stuff bags, key fobs and T-shirts they gave up. Readers, just like writers, love to see their stuff in print. That positive interaction was killed when they got rid of the letters to the editor page. If Bonnier group doesn’t care what we think, why should we care what they think?
Nimble, focused magazines that charge what they cost to produce seem to be doing ok for the moment. Their subscriber numbers might be lower but the numbers are real and they make money. It might be as simple as charging more for the product. The hated Cycle World is still publishing today, barely, and what they are doing is not working. Unlike Motorcyclist, it’s not too late for Cycle World. The question is whether Bonnier Corp has the will power to attempt something different and well proven, or give up like they have done so many times in the past.
A good read, Mr. Gresh. I’ve got mixed feelings.
The motorcycle industry has been in a severe downturn since the recession hit and sales dropped to roughly half what they had been, and they’ve never really recovered (sales have stayed at that 50% level for a decade). The industry keeps shooting itself in the foot with bigger, heavier, and more expensive bikes, and for the most part they are sticking with a path to market that infuriates most consumers (dealers, outrageous setup and freight fees, and a continuing consolidation of smaller shops into “superstores”). The only exceptions to the dealer model and the “supersize me” approach are CSC and Janus, and not surprisingly, their sales are growing. I think Enfield will do well with the new 650 Interceptor, which is a sensibly sized and priced motorcycle (again, assuming the dealers don’t screw it up with freight and setup inflation). But to get back on topic, the bottom line is that the industry has contracted severely and the logical outcome is that related industries (like motorcycle-related print media) are contracting as well.
Then there’s the issue of information content and timeliness. There’s no way a print magazine will present “breaking news” and compete with the Internet. For print media, I think the push needs to be on stories that are not time-dependent (in the sense of breaking news). Motorcycle Classics, RoadRUNNER, American Iron, and maybe one or two others have figured this out and they are doing well. The others, not so much. Regarding content, a look at the last few issues of Motorcyclist makes my point. I thought they were terrible. Fortunately for me, my subscription ran out one or two issues ago, and based on what I was seeing, I did not renew.
Then there’s one last issue, and that’s editorial and management competence. You and I have both bumped up against this as freelancers. There’s no nice way to say it, so I’ll just say it: Some of the guys who ran and edited the publications going belly up drank too much of their own bathwater. They’re not as smart as they think they are, and they certainly weren’t smart enough to recognize and adapt to a changing market. Plus, as you and I know well, some of them stiffed their suppliers (the writers). They were slow paying, or they stiffed writers by claiming they thought submittals were unpaid submittals, or they paid stupidly-low fees for articles. Maybe that’s why some of what’s appeared in the ones going under were abysmal (pay peanuts and you’re going to attract monkeys). Show me a company that stiffs its suppliers in any industry and I’ll show you one that’s not long for this world. That’s what we’re seeing now.
Hello?
Burnsey! The Man!
Yeah, what’s the deal? I thought Motorcyclist was bigger than Cycle World for the last year or two? In fact it was Bonnier that put that out a while ago, so why kill the bigger one? Why do lots of the things they’ve been doing over there? Because we’re dealing with a lot of stable geniuses, I fear, in a dysfunctional hierarchy. Anyway, it is sad to see our oldest bike title go tits up, in the wake of so many other titles Bonnier’s sent to Davey Jones’ locker. Here’s hoping Chris Cantle and the kids find a way to carry on, and not become an empty shell site like the other titles. Not that i know that, since I never go to any of them but I’ve heard.
MC was kicking CW’s ass and had been. CW is only 4 issues a year, that’s not enough to sustain interest.
MC isn’t much better @ 6 a year. I’ve forgotten if I have a sub or not.
Anyway, the funnest part is hanging around with Burns and the other guys. Maybe one day Exhaustnotes will be invited along to new product intros.
Did you make it to The Quail for An Evening with Peter Egan?
Me neither. I mean, I love PE as a human being and a writer, but hey man how about rounding up some fresh talent? Where’s the next PE, and the next Kevin Cameron? Maybe the modern world just doesn’t require that kind of writing anymore? As a practical matter, I don’t think you can hire a kid to move to California – like PE and I both did when we got our big breaks – and have them work for peanuts like I did. The great transfer of wealth to the wealthy is to blame for the doldrum in bike sales and the breakdown of social mobility. But I was at my most avid as a consumer of bike and car magazines when I couldn’t afford anything but magazines. So many great writers came out of the great depression…
I never met Mr. Egan, either. I think he is one of the great ones. I always loved his articles. Every one of them.
Crucially, it would also require the person in charge be able to pick the next PE out of a line-up including shit, Shinola, and his own rectum.
I’ve never met Egan. I’m sure I’d like him.
Cameron wasn’t thrilled to see me. I’m not sure he was paying attention.
I love his video series. Whoever did that is great.
Let’s not let the bug splatters to be pulled over our eyes, why this happened is simple. Greed. The profits are significantly higher with a digital format. Killing off a magazine slowly and painfully in the name of the all might dollar seem far-fetched to you? Not to me, seems the new way of doing business is just a plan old fashioned deadly sin that will, sooner or later, come home to roost.
I went and asked the kids on Reddit/r/motorcycles about printed magazines. Here’s what they said: https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/bswv5h/what_would_convince_you_to_buy_a_printed_magazine/
We’re walking a tightrope and a declining industry, changing media habits, etc… don’t suffer corporate bloat or mismanagement gladly. But I also track YouTube and the business model there ain’t that much better; low- and mid-tier channels work their asses off to feed the public’s insatiable need for new content and keep in slim shades of black. Many supplement with Patreon just to keep the lights on.
There’s something bigger, much bigger happening here, the death of the middle class (and the kinds of jobs and industries that it supports) and the return to serfdom.
I’ve got this bad habit of getting to parties just as they’re running out of guacamole and tequila.
I read those comments to your reddit. In a nutshell, nothing we can do will entice younger people to buy magazines. So we should stop trying to appeal to them. The mags that are surviving cater to the older rider who still likes paper.
I figure we have at least 10-20 years before the last of the paper generation dies off. Might as well make hay while the sun sets.
John, thanks for responding. I read your Reddit. Nothing offered in response to your question surprised me; all of the answers were things we pretty much already knew.
I agree that something bigger is going on. I don’t agree that it’s the death of the middle class (that concept is a political construct, in my opinion, playing into the class warfare emerging in our country). We wouldn’t see folks walking around with $1000 cell phones if the middle class was disappearing. But to get back on topic, the bigger thing that has occurred is the market has changed, and the motorcycle industry and portions of the motorcycle print media have not. Are people still paying over list price to buy an 800-lb Harley with a second mortgage? Hell, no. Are there still riders swayed by (to borrow a phrase) bold new graphics? I don’t know any. That was the 1990s. Those days are gone. Are there companies selling sub-$5K motorcycles as quickly as they get them? Yep, and it’s folks in the middle class who are buying them. Are there print magazines in our industry doing well? You bet. They have a better idea and a better product. Motorcycle Classics, American Iron, and RoadRUNNER (as you well know) are three that come to mind. They understand their market and serve it well.
Finally, as to your comment about always arriving just when the Tequila and guacamole are drying up…we keep a plentiful supply of both. Swing by whenever you wish.
Counting $1000 phones as a gauge of the economy is an anecdotal evidence at best. Apple’s top tier iPhone X, for example, represented less than 6% of iPhone users last year.
A more interesting data point is debt. Americans are carrying more debt now than in 2008, and we all know how that turned out.
Also, the United Way is doing some interesting analysis of the working class. They use the term ALICE – Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed – and the numbers are shocking. A lot of states like CA, TX, NC, NY, have over 40% of people fitting this description. These are the kinds of folks that are one medical issue away from bankruptcy.
With this type of economic data, it’s no wonder the middle class are buying their phones on payment plans and if they can splurge on a toy like a motorcycle, are skipping the $15k plus bikes and shopping downstream.
I find myself agreeing with many of the points made here. Society and culture have changed completely with the explosion of digital data. Nothing has value anymore, people are so consumed with rushing towards the grave they have lost sight of actually living the moment they are in. Who gets excited about downloading the new album from an artist that moves your emotions, 3 clicks on your phone and there it is? And you had 5 texts you need to respond to. Point being today’s consumer has no time for details or depth,bullet point it please. In the UK the average age of a motorcycle user is now in the low fifties, that can only end in tears. Computer power gave us huge strides forward but appears to have become a victim of it’s own success. Pick the technology that floats your boat, debadge twenty and asks a fellow enthusiast to name them.
So, we have “reviews”, not tests, bland inoffensive blah blah that leaves you knowing no more about actually living with that image that captured your attention, but then again, we are blessed with PCP so no need to do anything radical like actually buy it.
Going back to my corner now, to anyone tempted to react to views expressed here, I would point out that other realities are available.
Let me know if you need a copy I’ve got mine in totes in the basement
I have been a subscriber to Motorcyclist for as long as I can remember. I used to look forward it arriving in my mail box and would read it from cover to cover on day one. For the last year or more, I don’t know when it arrives. I don’t think I will miss it.
I will buy a copy of Motorcycle Classic today and send in my subscription.
You’ll enjoy it, Tom. Especially the next issue…I’ve got two stories in it!
First the change in format and frequency, and now … this. Inevitable many would say, based on ‘consumer’ trends and preferences, and maybe the economy too. Maybe so. Maybe the era of things you hold on to – to enjoy over and over again, is passing. Embrace the new cycle of impermanence; read it, forget it, click on the next post. But I really hope not. I hope the kids today will reembrace print the way they have vinyl. And I hope when they do new talents will emerge in motojournalism to feed their needs and fire their imaginations as well as the greats of our time have done.
I think Mad for the Crest hit the mark: we are moving away from things you hold on to.
But there’s still a lot of oldsters who hold onto things. That’s who MC should have targeted.
I gave up Motorcyclist many years ago and have stuck with Rider for about 25 years. Through your blog I found American Iron and being a Harley rider I enjoy that a lot.
Like so many other things in the current era, motorcycling seems to fall outside our risk avoiding millennial generation, who are much happier to stay at home (their parents?) and push buttons. Ah me!
“Mixing Cycle World and Motorcyclist diluted both brands and the titles became a slurry of interchangeable writers. Competition between the two formal rivals became cooperation: It didn’t seem to matter who wrote what. The magazines lost their personality and sense of humor. They wrote like they knew they were doomed.”
This is when even I know things were going to hell in hand basket!
The Funny thing is today I just got my new CW with a subscription offer…one year $29.97 and two years $39.97
4 mags @ $30 is a bit high. Now if you got 12 issues for the same money I’d say fair deal.
Unfortunately CW will always be the enemy to me, I bleed Motorcyclist blue.
I attended the Quail Show and went on the Ride with Peter Egan. The whole weekend was great , the ride the meals the show , all of it.
Now why did a couple of guys from Kentucky load 4 bikes in a van and on a trailer and drive 3 plus days to get to Carmel for an event ? Because we’d read about the Quail for years in magazines ! Now with the departure of the printed page , how will we learn of the cool things not happening in our immediate area ?
The internet is a neat tool , but , give me a magazine with photos I can show others to spark dreams.
As an editor/motor journalist enthusiast myself, and a motorsports advertsing agency owner, I can see both sides of the problem. I love and hate the digital online magazines, love becauase they’re beautiful to look at on my big 28-inch Apple HD desktop computer and they are essential free. But I will still always love and buy print magazines which I have stacks of my favorite magazines going back years, piled-up on my kitchen table and in my library which I can pull out and re-read anytime on impulse, might want to re-read a bike test, or when I want someting to browse throught during lunch or my daily bathroom vist.
But revenue wise, all the big print magazines, including car and motorcle magazines, have always jacked up their advertsing prices based on printed copies sold, and that has been their demise. None of their own industry motorcycle, accessory and product competes can afford to buy ads in them. Let alone a small engine tuning shop or CNC parts dealer making custom brake levers. Many big circulation magaines like Cycle World and Motorcyclist are sold on newsstands at airports to a family guy that might wish, but will never buy a motorcycle. Motorcle product compnies can not afford to pay to advertsie their products to those many non active motorcycle readers.
When a 1/2 page print print ad in Motorcyclsit or Cycle World costs $4,000 and you are selling say, a $250 riding jacket or a $20 motorcycle wall calendar, and you have an advertising industry standard 5% of retail to spend on advertising, that’s an ad budget of$17.50 per jacket and $1 per calendar. That means you have to sell 230 jackets or 4,000 Calendars to justify the advertising cost in that magazine. Based on 40 years of marketing experience, a product compamy would be lucky to sell just 25 jackets or calendars from that overpriced print ad. They loose thousands of dollars every time they ran a ad in a motorcle magazine. And it’s the same for the big Motorcycle Manufacturers / Distributors who want to run a 2-page spread, but can justify justify spending $12-20,000 for a print ad that might only sell 10 sportbikes or cruisers. That’s why these companies no longer run advertising print magazines. And what motorcycle enthusiast want to buy a print magazine without motorcycle ads?
Plus the print magazines now have huge high cost corporate management overhead in Presidents, Vice Presidents, Motorcycle Divison Presidents, et all, having nothing to do with the actual production of the magazine. And advertisers like WeatherTech car floor mats and Chewing Tobacco can get huge Group Advertsing Discounts by buying ads in all the corporate magazines like Car & Drive, Road & Track, Cycle World and Motorcyclist that the motorcycle-only industry product companies can’t get.
Where as, a small motorcyle print newpaper like Roadracing World with just 20K readers can stay profitable because they are a family owned business wihtout corporate management overhead and can price their ads for the small industry companies selling Tire Warmers, Brake Levers and Pit Stands.
The motorcycle print magazines have created their own downfall by going from family owned publications, to corporate owned entities with huge management and shareholder overhead, and not downward adjusting their advertsing rates to help their own industy product companies to survive. No matter how good the Editorial Content is from their downsized and underpaid editorial staff, the corporate Motorcycle Magazines are their own worst enemies.
Jim, thanks for the well-reasoned comment. As a guy who’s seen it from the other side, I can tell you they all start by asking for $4000 for that half-page ad. Our strongest negotiation tactic when buying ad space was the willingness to walk away from a deal, and we did that frequently. The rates plummeted. The real problem from the ad buyer’s perspective was that the advertising in print media was ineffective. I used to joke that we should just flush the ad money down the toilet and save the postage.
Hi Joe, yes – print advertsing almsot never pays for itself.
I know about ad negotiaions as well. I’ve never paid full list for any of my clients’ advertising. As you know it’s pretty much normal to get a 6x ad placement at a the lower 12x rate. For a big product company which already has a stronger customer and distributor base with good income already coming in, that’s easy to afford.
But for a smaller Start-Up Company without an established customer base and dealers/distributors aleady moving your product, it’s pretty much not affordable. And as you know, most magazines won’t run your New Product Releases if you are not advertising with them.
And for the major motorcycle manufacturers, if you were selling 20,000 600cc sportbikes a year before the 2008 Economic Downturn, and now just 2,000 bikes a year, there’s no way you can still afford ads in Cycle World and Motorcyclist which still care near their 2008 ad rates, not 50-90% less as the market has fallen. A Distributor has to count on your dealers to sell those 2,000 bikes without any print advertising support, and use your depleated ad budget to keep your Distributorship open and attending important consumer events like the IMS Shows.
But they always say there’s no linkage between editorial and advertising…
I actually found that to be the case for some of the magazines, including Motorcyclist. I’d write a press release for CSC and Motorcyclist (and others) picked it up, and we weren’t advertising anywhere. I think the concept of a downsized, fully-equipped adventure touring motorcycle for $2895 (the introductory price) was just too compelling to ignore. It was real news. Not just bold new graphics.
Interesting stuff, Jim
There’s so much I don’t know about the business end of publishing.
All I have is anger that they destroyed a 100 year-old institution.
When I was a teenager, BSA had the best ads.
i agree totally with joe berk and his middle class comments.
local swap meets have grown in size tremendously. thats middle class. youth dont care about reading a magazine filled with content about motorcycles too expensive or too tech complicated to appeal to them.
Cycle World turned into an 8 dollar coffee table book. Not for me.
I really liked the ride stories in Motorcyclist. I wonder what they are going to do with the few years I have left on subscription.
Motorcycle Consumer News is the one I like best. Trying to be the motorcycle equivalent of Consumer Reports, I think from time to time. I hope they survive.
Too many replies hit the TLDR value. Rider is the only moto-mag I get now. And I haven’t bought a new ‘cycle in a while not for economic or political reasons…. it’s because nothing out there beats my Triumph Tiger 1050. Now put some rum in your Yoo-Hoo and stop whining about the good old days.
Rolling east on the Angeles Crest, the air overcast and pungent with the smell of burnt hillsides. I ease the big K-bike easily through the curves, sharply aware of the risk on this road. After a week I still haven’t adjusted to the lack of guard rails.
At Newcomb’s Ranch I shyly inquire “where is squid’s leap?” A sharp look and a squint, then a laugh and a shaken head. And then the fellow tells me.
Angeles Crest and Mulholland Highway, Newcomb’s Ranch and The Rock Store. The Pacific Crest. Palomar Mountain. Griffith Observatory. All those canyon roads.
There’s no internet and there’s no GPS and I’m three thousand miles from home. But it doesn’t matter. Those icons are on my itinerary because of the magazines. You read ‘em, the magazines, for years and years and they become part of you. You’ve never actually met them, but the writers who put together those magazines are your pals, the guys whose knowledge and wisdom you soak up every month. The arrival of a new issue heralds a whole new set of conversations.
In a world in which so few do, those guys, those writers, they _get_ it.
Alas. The world turns. First slowly, but then swiftly, into something strange.
A hundred and forty characters is enough. The bookstores are gone. No one waits anymore, for anything. And young people are terrified of risk, of any kind, real or imagined.
Give ‘em a trophy and a safe space.
I think I’ll go on a ride tomorrow.
The cause of the demise of motorcycling print journalism in one word: Baldy.
I subscribe to two moto magazines: Road Runner, for ideas about where to go riding. And Motorcycle Consumer News for moto and product reviews that do not pull punches because they don’t have worry about their advertisers. I like the MCN no advertiser format, and get all the ads I need in RR.
Oops, I subscribe to another MC mag – ADVMoto. Dual sport was my first love in motorcycling and I still do some; I like to keep up with what’s happening there.
I get another magazine from AMA, but that’s because I support their lobbying efforts of our behalf. I also support the Motorcycle Riders Foundation for the same reason.