Colorado Kid

According to the trade magazine, Bicycle Retailer. Bicycling Magazine was sold to Hearst for $225 millions. Change should start to be seen in the magazine this Summer or Fall. IMHO, I hope they make this rag better. It's not worth cleaning up after your Dog with.

a1penguin

$225 million?! Other than libraries, who buys this? It's 80% ads and the remaining content isn't particularly useful.

Cyclist0108

I buy it whenever I have to sit in the middle seat of an airplane.

Unlike this place?

Shimagnolo

I once had a subscription only because some online retailer gave it to me for free after I ordered from them.
In my observation, only snow skiing magazines have a more useless content-to-advertising ratio.

Cyclist0108

Someone seems to enjoy pranking me with magazine subscriptions. I've had a year of Stereophile and now Golf Digest. Bicycling! is hardly bottom of the bird-cage by comparison.

Spoonrobot 

I ended up with a gift subscription after renewing my racing license. Read the first issue I got, it was not very good. So the next few I didn't read I just pulled the center staples and used them as drop cloths when cleaning my chain/chain-rings. Then I realized I could just clean over a cheap tupperware. So I just started tossing them directly into the garbage can next to the mailboxes with all my other junk mail.

Hellgate

Me too. Terrible rag... I wish my license didn't include it.

alan s 

cyccommute 

See the little gold shirt over there <--? I don't see any ads. Haven't for the better part of 15 years

alan s 

cyccommute 

Yea but it's for being a member of the Titanium Club. (Titanium ain't yellow)

RubeRad

I recently got a subscription out of the blue as well. Not sure what I bought that got me on the mailing list. But I quickly gave up reading it. I have no interest in new bikes and accessories. Everything I want to learn about cycling I learn here at BF

AlmostGreenGuy

Bicycling Magazine is the magazine you read when you first get into bicycling, and for maybe 6 months afterward. Then you realize that the information you're reading was recycled from an issue 6 months ago. And you get sick of the 8 billion ads.

I used to read Stereophile maybe 25 years ago. Read each issue cover to cover. I loved the articles by J. Gordon Holt. Haven't seen an issue in forever.

pdlamb

I think this is fairly common for a lot of hobby and special interest publications. After you've learned how to fix a flat, listen for cable noise, or surface a piece of wood, it's more a matter of applying the specific knowledge you've accumulated over a few years' reading the publication. Then you can read the ad copy and spot the stretches, and the magazine becomes less interesting.

Of course, there are those who then sell off their bikes, woodworking tools, sailboats, or whatever, and go find a new hobby to dive into and to read about. You can get some killer deals if you know that guy at the right time.

noglider 

I liked Bicycling many years ago. I had a subscription in the 70s and maybe the 80s. I currently pay a high price for a subscription to Bicycle Quarterly, and I think I get my money's worth. It's fun to read, and it's gorgeous.

Crankycrank

Stopped reading this mag awhile ago. Takes about 15 mins. to read cover to cover. The product "tests/reviews" are a joke. Might as well check any Mfrs website for more info. It's so thin it got lost in my junk mail sometimes and had about as much useful information. I like "Cycling Plus" from the UK. Expensive but each issue has more useful info than a years worth of Bicycling.

Skipjacks

I just got a subscription to Bicycling through T Mobile. They gave me a choice of a free magazine and gave me like 20 to choose from. This was the only one that wasn't like Redbook or Cosmo or Salad Making Monthly

For free, it kept me occupied on the commode nicely one time. I read a whole 9 page article on how to better prepare for riding up hills. Short version....ride up hills a lot and eventually you'll get better.

phyko

robertorolfo

Exactly. I think most of the specialty magazine are like that, although I personally think the Brits are a little better at keeping things fresh and fun.

In the end, though, the only hope for sustained interest is really good writing, and unfortunately the quality of writing is dropping off almost as quickly as salaries for journalists (obviously they are correlated).

For me, the only magazine I continually look forward to is the New Yorker.

Dahon.Steve

Buy Cycling magazine was sold for 225 million! The advertisers must pay a mint to be in that magazine or it wouldn't have sold for that much money! It goes to show you what the reader is paying for when they buy a subscription. Nothing but advertisement.

Cyclist0108

Do they print it on their tires?

noglider 

That would present a good value for the money. I haven't had the fortitude to cough up the money for Compass tires yet. I might one day. Maybe when I get a windfall, I'll treat myself.

trailangel

If one of their authors, and I'm not singling out any particular mag, could write a truthful product review, I might buy a magazine once in a while.
All the reviews seem phony..... more like advertisement to buy the product.

mcours2006

I used to get Runner's World magazine, which, if I'm not mistaken, is the same publisher as Bicycling. But after realizing the articles in there recycled themselves year after year, I cancelled. Bicycling magazine is the same thing. I'll browse through them at the library when I take the kids there, but I wouldn't pay for it.

I-Like-To-Bike

Not exactly. Hearst completed its transaction with Rodale to acquire the company’s established health and wellness lifestyle brands—including Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Prevention and Runner’s World—and a book publishing arm. Bicycling Magazine is just one piece of the Rodale organization.
IAW https://nypost.com/2018/01/09/hearst...-random-house/
Hearst will will flip its recently acquired Rodale book division to Penguin Random House.


In addition this article states that "The Hearst purchase price came in well under the original $225 million estimate, sources said, partly a result of Rodale’s shrinking profits."


Edit: For anyone wanting to read an interesting article on the consolidation of magazine titles and the new business model read: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/19/business/media/time-inc-oral-history.html
or https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/b...lory-days.html