MEDIA SPECIAL
Singletrack has embraced digital subscriptions and provide premium content for those signing up
Cyclescheme’s print magazine Cycle Commuter, published by Farrelly Atkinson
advertisers and electric dealers, as well as by direct subscription. Eland told BikeBiz: “The free digital edition of
the magazine attracts up to 60,000 reads per issue. The electric bike industry has been eager to support a specialist magazine covering their products and the title continues to grow. For 2013 the magazine will introduce 'dealer profiles' as an opportunity for specialist dealers to highlight their expertise.” Velo Vision, meanwhile, is now into its 12th year of publication, covering specialist bikes such as tandems, cargo bikes, folders, recumbent and special needs bikes, with around 2,500 print copies per issue, plus 500-odd digital subscribers split across 47 countries. It continues to enjoy strong support from advertisers worldwide in these sectors.
FARRELLY ATKINSON – “We had an exciting
2012, with success in every part of the business and 2013 is already looking good too.” Farrelly Atkinson publishing director Simon Stansfield remains optimistic for the relatively young, yet hugely successful
Road.cc, which has quickly become one of the industry’s favourites for road cycling content. Figures seen by BikeBiz show that the explosive growth continues, with monthly unique users once again doubling year-on-year to over 500,000 and monthly page views per month over 2.2 million. Stanisfield continued: “In 2012 we launched our Buy It Local buttons. These help distributors and brands point consumers towards their local IBD. The idea has been embraced by: Giant, 2Pure, Upgrade, Paligap, Moore Large, Zyro, Trek, Saddleback, Specialized, Hotlines, Merida, Raleigh and Bianchi. Buy It Local is part of our commitment to making on-line publishing work for every sector of the bike business and mirrors our users' commitment to supporting local bike shops, a fact that came out loud and clear in our 2012 user survey.” Another exciting and well adopted
32 BIKEBIZ MARCH
“We relaunched and partnered with four other respected sites to work
together to bring the
market the best coverage... ”
Dave Paterson, The Merged
development has been the Fantasy Cycling game, which has expanded in 2012 to cover more races on both the free and premium versions.
Of this Stansfield said: “For 2013 we've once
again massively uprated the game with new features and functionality. It's already proved a big hit with January seeing more premium sign ups than in the whole of 2012.” The icing on the cake?
Road.cc was for the
Singletrack has undergone a redesign in the past year
third year running voted the bicycle trade’s favourite consumer website in the BikeBiz Awards, as well as claiming a gong for its use of social media in a separate ceremony. Farrelly Atkinson is of course a contract publisher too and continues to produce Cyclescheme's Cycle Commuter magazine, as well as providing content for
Cyclescheme.co.uk, which sees around 200,000 unique users per month. The publisher also produced print and digital content for the likes of Specialized Concept Stores and Trek, among others.
SINGLETRACK – One year on from
Singletrack HQ announcing a shake up of its distribution strategy, the publisher tells BikeBiz it’s in better shape than ever. With subscribers now able to access the magazine in any form they choose for a one off fee, be it print or digital, the readership has continued to grow. Despite print magazines generally declining
in sales, Singletrack still hasn’t got the memo, with subscribers to the relaunched, heavier stock magazine still on the rise. Editor Chipps Chippendale told BikeBiz:
“Meanwhile, in the digital realm, Singletrack launched an iPad edition of the magazine to compliment its existing digital 'replica' magazines. This is designed to work with the new, smaller, digital readers without the viewer having to pinch and zoom to get things legible. The advantage of this new format is that advertisers can also offer bespoke adverts with interactivity, multiple galleries and live links to
Dave Paterson’s ‘The Merged’ BMX-only product website
their websites. “The idea for the printed magazine was to
produce a more expensive, lavish magazine aimed mainly at subscribers. With more subscribers there's less paper wastage, so the cost is partly absorbed by having to throw fewer of them away. The new-look Singletrack got admiring comments from readers and the trade alike. “ Farrelly Atkinson’s Elaine Curtin continues to
manage Singletrack’s online advertising, which saw significant growth over the past 12 months. In the past month (Google Analytics 8th Jan -7th Feb 2013)
Singletrackworld.com had 1,144,506 unique visitors, generating a massive 10,370,318 page impressions in that one month.
THE MERGED – The Merged has quickly become the No.1 BMX product-only website, with editor Dave Paterson recently telling BikeBiz that he’s astounded that in a few short years he’s had to do less and less looking for product news, instead waking to find a full inbox of the latest product prototypes. Paterson said: “Building on our growing online popularity in 2011, we relaunched the site and partnered up with four other well respected websites to work together and collectively bring readers the best news and coverage in BMX. The new site is now updated daily with the latest new and prototype products in the industry. We work very closely with all the brands in the sport with most of the content being sent to us directly, meaning readers get all the product gossip and news faster than anywhere else. In addition to dropping a large amount of exclusive ‘first look’ content, we also took on advertising from BMX companies such as Cult, Fit Bike Co, WeThePeople, Sunday Bikes and many more which was a huge step forward from simple Wordpress blog it was back in 2010. “This year we plan on working with brands on more exclusive product based reviews, tests,
BIKEBIZ.COM
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