BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
During March, BikeBiz spoke to ten pubishers about their performance over the past 12 months and the modernisation of the publishing business, among other things. As a bit of bonus material, we’ve also got in touch with a further publisher, Peter Eland, who documents his magazine’s fortunes over the past year…
Part one and two of that article can be read by following the links in purple.
Words by publisher of Velovision and Electric Bike Magazine, Peter Eland
"Velo Vision Magazine celebrated ten years of quarterly publication in early 2011 with its Issue 40. This past year has seen the magazine continue to flourish in the specialist and bikes-as-transport fields, with strong repeat advertising and a loyal subscriber base, plus many additional readers on the digital edition. These dgital formats are now available for iPad and iPhone readers via a free app. Also new this year is a revamped website with improved scope for banner ads and promotions, social network links and more.
But the main focus in recent months has been on the launch of Electric Bike, a free-distribution publication aimed at non-cyclist newcomers to the field. The magazine aims to educate and inform its readers about how to choose a good one – with several in-depth reviews featured each issue.
10,000 print copies of the first issue have now been distributed, and the free online edition has been read over 40,000 times. The magazine’s also attracted many hundred paying subscribers from the UK and worldwide.
The magazine and website both feature dealer locator maps, offing a great opportunity for manufacturers or distributors to promote and support their dealer networks.
The main problem so far is that we’ve been inundated with requests to review bikes! Unfortunately we just can’t test everything we’re offered, so reviews prioritise bikes from paid advertisers.
Starting at Issue three we hope to be adding extra pages, and the magazine may well move to bi-monthly publication longer-term. Looks like we’ll shortly have a dedicated iphone/ipad app for the mag too.
