Sport Touring Motorcycle Magazines?

[ShawnKing]

Have you seen all the magazines available for other "niche" markets?

Yup - which shows just how niche sport touring is. I guarantee it's smaller than the market for a vegetarian magazine (I live in Portland, OR and every 2nd person is some variation of a vegetarian. I'm OK with that - more meat for me!). The same can be said for herbs and yes, sadly, ferrets.

I have a passing familiarity with the magazine market and know that to get a (quality) mag off the ground takes one million dollars - *before* a single issue goes to print. A publisher then has to be willing to lose a *minimum* of $30,000/month for at least a year while the mag gets traction in the target community.

And you're talking about a market that can be argued is served, in various ways, by any number of other magazines in the same market. There's only so much advertising to go around.

Believe me, if the publishers of Rider or RoadRunner or any of the other bike mags thought there was a viable market (defined as "would make money") for a specific, dedicated Sport Touring magazine, they would already be publishing it.

Now - if you wanted to test that theory, try it right here. Put together the "FJRForum Sport Touring Magazine" (You'll come up with a better name ). Ask fellow forum members to write articles, take pictures, do ride reports, write reviews. Using Apple's iBooks Author software, you can package the articles up in a format that would allow you to publish it on the iPad/iPhone. With significant effort, you could put out your own Sport Touring magazine and maybe even make some money at it.

I'd be happy to help out with that effort however I can.

 

[patch308]

Uh...go ride...

 

[ShawnKing]

Uh...go ride...

Some of us aren't lucky enough to live in places where we can ride 24/7, 365. We need other things to occupy/entertain/teach/inspire/inform us. "Just" riding doesn't teach you a lot of things.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Uh...go ride...

Some of us aren't lucky enough to live in places where we can ride 24/7, 365. We need other things to occupy/entertain/teach/inspire/inform us. "Just" riding doesn't teach you a lot of things.

It teaches me more than enough.

EDIT- Sorry, being flippant, but still a little bit of truth there of course. Regarding a ST magazine, I would love one that fits my needs...however, I think even on this niche board there are many differences as to what an ST rag should include. Some here are into LD riding, I'm not into that at all...though "they" have influenced me as to what is doable mileage/destination wise in a day and have provided good all day riding tips. Some are into Car Tires????? Some are into 2-3 week trips, whereas others can only manage commuting and weekend trips. Some like sheep and some like goats, and some like dogs.

 

[squeezer]

That Sport-Touring Illustrated cover is hysterical.

I agree with those saying Rider was the closest thing we had to a sport-touring rag. They even had a (semi?) regular section labeled sport-touring. I still like them because they tend to focus on real world riding rather than top speed in the quarter mile or dyno stats. Their focus became a bit broader a year or so ago, though, when the publisher merged them with a cruiser magazine owned by the same company. From my point of view, there is now less content that interests me so I'm not renewing. The publisher's point of view, obviously, is that the economy couldn't support even the cruiser niche and, given that there's more of them than us, it doesn't appear to be in anyone's interest to publish a paper outlet directed our way.

If there was one, I'd probably buy it, but I don't see it as a big problem since there's so much info available on-line for free.

Oh, and FWIW: Market research from 2007 estimated that over half a million households in the U.S. had ferrets as pets.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Do any of you subscribe to Guns&Ammo? I got that magazine for a couple years, but eventually just stopped reading it. It was (is) the same thing over and over again.

A magazine to cover.only ST bikes would run out of new material in the first 6 months. I still get Rider Magazine, and sometimes I blow through that too because I can only read so many ride reports. I like that they span all motorcycle groups as it keeps me informed and I interested...At the same time.

As said before, I think k the ST market is a small group within a small group. Hell, look at the limited number of ST bikes on the market compared to cruisers. We're like red headed step children.

 

[Kevin_Ireland]

Do any of you subscribe to Guns&Ammo? I got that magazine for a couple years, but eventually just stopped reading it. It was (is) the same thing over and over again.

A magazine to cover.only ST bikes would run out of new material in the first 6 months. I still get Rider Magazine, and sometimes I blow through that too because I can only read so many ride reports. I like that they span all motorcycle groups as it keeps me informed and I interested...At the same time.

As said before, I think k the ST market is a small group within a small group. Hell, look at the limited number of ST bikes on the market compared to cruisers. We're like red headed step children.

oster_stupid: :read:

 

[wheatonFJR]

You know, I would buy a magazine like this....maybe a few times a year. A magazine that likes to spoof and make fun of our niche would be a laugh to read. But then again, I have the FJRForum for a lot of that already.

 

[patch308]

Uh...go ride...

Some of us aren't lucky enough to live in places where we can ride 24/7, 365. We need other things to occupy/entertain/teach/inspire/inform us. "Just" riding doesn't teach you a lot of things.

I got between 9 and 11 feet of snow at my place this year (cumulatively of course) but the only months I didn't ride (couldn't get the bike over the ice/packed snow to get out) was January and most of February. For those months I took it upon myself to make (repurpose) a top box out of a military surplus NVG box. I also learned some other maintenance tips and procedures. Then I planned a two week trip around the western US with my girlfriend. When I ran out of motorcycle stuff to do, I found another hobby. I'm not trying to be an ***, I just find that, much like HRZ, most magazines become the same thing over and over and over. The ONLY magazine I read regularly is National Geographic, which has inspired a couple of my trips. What I'm trying to say is that there is a WORLD of info to learn about your bike when you're not on it. And, I've REALLY learned to ride by riding it, not reading a magazine. I'm lucky in the aspect that the guys I ride with are damned phenomenal riders and teach as they go, but EVERY time I get on my bike I try to learn something new about it, me, or the environment we're in...knowledge and experience are two VERY different things.

 

[TwoWhldTerror]

Build it and they will come Nathan. I will do ride reports for ya!

 

[GeorgiaRoller]

We'd all rather be riding!!! But when we're not riding it would be nice to have a Travel, Touring, ST specific type genre rag to look at on rainy days. That's all I'm saying.

If I had the coin and the time I wouldn't be afraid to try to put together something like this, even a good bi-monthly mag, that's only 6 issues a year. While we are a small niche market, we are a very dedicated & passionate biker community. We ride! We log miles! We buy gear! We spend money on gas, lodging and sometimes stupid *** mods because we love it. When you have a bike market that will spend almost a $1000.00 on a aftermarket seat so that they can ride 4,000 miles on a single week long trip...you got yourself a serious motorcyclist audience. So what we lack in overall numbers we more than make up for in riding passion.

It could have a:

- Tech section

- Modification section

- New market accessories section

- Riding apparel section

- Iron Butt specific section

- N. America ride trip destination section

- Rest of the Globe ride trip destination section

- Pictures of ladies in thongs section...just because

- ST bike comparison section

- Local food/Cuisine section (with pictures of course) of eateries along riding routes

- Highlights of local rides per each section of the country

- Nature photography section where readers send in their best pics from rides for a chance of them to be posted in the mag. and a prize givin.

My wheels are turning in my head!!!

 

[wheatonFJR]

We'd all rather be riding!!! But when we're not riding it would be nice to have a Travel, Touring, ST specific type genre rag to look at on rainy days. That's all I'm saying.

Yeah...I agree...that would be GREAT.

 

[beemerdons]

Backroads

Thanks for that link! Looks like some good reading. Back issues are online...

https://digital.turn-page.com/i/64149 +1, Gunny on Backroads Magazine! Go to pages 60-65 of the link to read an interview with Editor/Authors Brian and Shira. Great mag!

 

[scubatech]

Have you seen all the magazines available for other "niche" markets?

Yup - which shows just how niche sport touring is. I guarantee it's smaller than the market for a vegetarian magazine (I live in Portland, OR and every 2nd person is some variation of a vegetarian. I'm OK with that - more meat for me!). The same can be said for herbs and yes, sadly, ferrets.

I have a passing familiarity with the magazine market and know that to get a (quality) mag off the ground takes one million dollars - *before* a single issue goes to print. A publisher then has to be willing to lose a *minimum* of $30,000/month for at least a year while the mag gets traction in the target community.

And you're talking about a market that can be argued is served, in various ways, by any number of other magazines in the same market. There's only so much advertising to go around.

Believe me, if the publishers of Rider or RoadRunner or any of the other bike mags thought there was a viable market (defined as "would make money") for a specific, dedicated Sport Touring magazine, they would already be publishing it.

Wow....that is an amazing amount of start up money! The competition is very tough too it seems. I am always getting adds for a dollar an issue. Very interesting Shawn.

Now - if you wanted to test that theory, try it right here. Put together the "FJRForum Sport Touring Magazine" (You'll come up with a better name ). Ask fellow forum members to write articles, take pictures, do ride reports, write reviews. Using Apple's iBooks Author software, you can package the articles up in a format that would allow you to publish it on the iPad/iPhone. With significant effort, you could put out your own Sport Touring magazine and maybe even make some money at it.

I'd be happy to help out with that effort however I can.

 

[Bounce]

I'm only seeing quoted text above. Am I missing the new content or something?

 

[ShawnKing]

I'm only seeing quoted text above. Am I missing the new content or something?

You'll have to read between the lines to get the bits that he wrote.

 

[ShawnKing]

Wow....that is an amazing amount of start up money!

I was being conservative but it's within the ballpark. There's no doubt that 95% of *all* magazines lose significant amounts of money when they are starting out.

The competition is very tough too it seems. I am always getting adds for a dollar an issue.

I'm not sure I understand what that means. Do you mean you are getting magazines for a buck an issue via subscription? If so, that's the way the market works. Newsstand sales are minimal for most magazines. No magazine that I know of makes money on their newsstand sales.

Subscribers make up most of the buyers but advertisers make up the vast majority of the money earned. Advertising is based on the number of people who read the magazine. So it's in the magazine's best interest to have as many subscribers as possible. Many of them are willing to lose a little (or even a lot) on the subscription price in order to get more subscribers so they can charge more to advertisers.

Here's an example. You can get 12 issues of Motorcyclist magazine for $10 - less than a buck an issue. But a magazine like Motorcycle Consumer News, which doesn't accept advertising, charges $7/issue ($84/year). That might help you grasp how much of a difference advertising makes to the revenues generated by a magazine.

Hope that helps.

 

[scubatech]

I messed up that post, good eye. That,s what I was curious about. Some magazines like Diesel Power have enormous amount of adds, almost more than the text. Interesting stuff.

 

[JT Pedersen]

Have you seen all the magazines available for other "niche" markets?

Yup - which shows just how niche sport touring is.

I'm sure many of you may recall, Rider magazine did a special 'Sport Touring' section in the magazine for a year. It was essentially a magazine within a magazine.

After it went away I had an email exchange with Tuttle (editor), lamenting it's being discontinued. He expressed mild dismay. Seemed they thought there'd be enough demand to continue it (or perhaps spin it off), but there just wasn't.

If you look at the ST segment from a # units perspective, it actually is comparatively small. Wish i could remember the exact source, not too long ago I saw a production report indicating just under 10K units produced. At the time I could not tell if it was US-specific or worldwide. Regardless, 10,000 anything's not a large production run. The small units involved helps explain the long life cycles of machines like the ST, FJR, and Concours. Build 'em, tweak 'em, and sell 'em until the tooling's paid for<g>.