GRUPPO MEDIA
To complement the print product, you’ll soon see a
much improved site for the mag
Discerning riders
Behind the scenes it has been a big
year for Rouleur and Privateer, with the formation of Gruppo Media now at the helm. Jonathon Harker speaks with Bruce Sandell and Guy Andrews to find out how the MBO will change things front of house…
THE FIRST issue of Rouleur, dated May 2006, now fetches in the region of £150 on eBay. Not many cycling magazines can claim to be quite as collectable, but then Rouleur (and latterly its sister mag Privateer) did move the proverbial goalposts for the bicycling magazine scene. Now, 40 issues on, the mag is getting its first
redesign and a website worthy of its high-end name, both coming mere months after the management buy out by the newly formed Gruppo Media. In case you were under a rock (or maybe buried under 40 weighty issues of Rouleur) Gruppo Media – set up by Rouleur MD Bruce Sandell and founder/editor Guy Andrews – bought Rapha’s majority share of Rouleur in Q1 2013. Gruppo is backed by three shareholders: John McNeil, Paul Bolwell and Sir Robin Miller. Sandell, MD for Gruppo Media Limited, and
Andrews, editorial director for the firm, explain that getting the right shareholders on board wasn’t just about the money. “It was also about getting the right people to help with the business. We both agreed that we needed someone to ask us difficult questions. We’ve got a young creative team full of ideas, but shareholders have that added perspective. They’re focused on the business and the product.” Paul Bolwell is the most familiar shareholder to the bike business. “Paul’s got some phenomenal experience with
Wiggle. He has been there and experienced it. Even relatively simple, but core learnings, like improving the checkout process on our site – that has been down to him. “It’s flattering that the shareholders wanted to
be involved with us.” While magazines are at Gruppo’s core, related
product has been part of Rouleur’s arsenal virtually from day one – typically high-end, limited edition
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offerings like Stoke-on-Trent-made bone china mugs, screenprints, annuals, among other goods.
“Open a shop one day? Why not?” “The mugs and t-shirts have been extraordinarily popular,” Sandell tells BikeBiz. “That’s spun off into lots of other products…the RichMitch Oakley rider illustrations have been great. The Sky tie-ins have been phenomenally popular too. But we’re keeping a lid on it and quite limited. We’re not looking to milk it.”
The collecting cyclist is core to the brand. “Our
readers are cyclists who are engaged with what they collect. We’re planning to develop more products, but always in small numbers.” So, would there be a shop in the offing for
Rouleur and Privateer? “Why not? Look at Monocle on Great Portland Street.” The Monocle brand is one that often crops up
in conversation with Sandell and Andrews, and no wonder – Monocle was launched in 2007, produces ten ‘book-ish’ issues a year and has keenly built up its brand to offer a range of products and even a radio station. It provides further proof of the success of the kind of approach that Rouleur and Privateer have taken. Every issue of Rouleur has a popular supporting
podcast, put together with The Bike Show’s Jack Thurston. But it all comes back to the mag and “doing the job the internet can’t”. IBDs are very much part of the Rouleur
framework. “The shops that really go for it do well with selling our magazines and we can help – we’d be happy to support retailers, especially those that want to go the extra yard,” the duo tells BikeBiz. They point to long-term stockist Condor Cycles, also Rouleur’s biggest retailer. The shop has big light box POS showcasing the mag. Other retailers do a window display every time a new Rouleur is published.
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