MEDIA SPECIAL
website as a resource widely used for purchasing decisions, as well as news. “Having become an integral part of the bike, kit and accessory buying process for a vast number of UK cyclists,
road.cc provides honest reviews from both male and female cycling staff. Whether it’s via a Google search for a review of the bike they want, or directly on the site,
road.cc drives UK cyclists’ buying decisions every day," added Stansfield. On to the figures and the publisher tells
BikeBiz that last year saw another year of growth, with monthly unique visitors up 53 per cent year-on-year, page views up 38 per cent year-on-year and monthly visits up 46 per cent year-on-year. 2013 also saw
road.cc have a thorough re-
design. The re-design apparently helped the publisher make some improvements to user engagement, in particular on the social media side. Hand in hand with this re-design and increased unique visitor numbers,
road.cc has also seen a massive increase insocial media with Facebook likes to over 44,000 and over 26,000 twitter followers. Stansfield concludes: "2014 is going to
continue this growth trend as January has already seen us record our best month ever with unique visitor numbers of 860, 307. We are confident that one million unique visitors will happen soon."
Having established itself against strong competition in the road cycling world, Bates has faith in the title, which is still realtively young, having come to market only in September of 2012. “The performance of the magazine and the
app over the last 18 months has exceeded all expectations,” added Bates. “We now have over 9,000 print subscribers, plus we’re regularly selling over 14,000 on the UK and OS newsstands. This translates to a 20 per cent increase in total print circulation YoY (first six issues of trading vs. comparable issue YoY) We will be looking to release our first ABC for Jan- Dec 2014.”
Published 13 times per year, Cyclist is
targeted squarely at the middle aged man in lycra, the segment of the market that in recent times seems to have been driving a large chunk of the industry’s sales. And increasingly, this audience is tech savvy. “Complementing the print product is an enhanced HTML5 Apple and Android (phone and tablet) app, offering the same quality of imagery and editorial in a format designed to make the most of the tablet’s and phone’s features. All articles have been redesigned for ease of reading, and the app includes additional elements such as video and 360° rotating pictures,” explains Bates. “We have 17,000 active users on average per issue, and within this number we have over 4,000 regular subscribers to the app.” With a healthy interest in advertising within
the award-winning magazine, the May issue is set to fill a whopping 228 pages. It doesn’t stop with the magazine, however. The publisher is planning to publish three new books in 2014 and going into 2015 will be planning further brand extensions, including on and off the bike events, merchandise, apps, specials and further books. “It’s exciting times ahead and we thank the cycling trade and industry for all of their support,” concludes Bates.
We can report that not all of Singletrack’s staffers sport such illustrious locks, sadly.
According to Singletrack’s publisher Mark
Alker: “There will be a new editorial team heading up the digital mag and website. I’ll be publisher and Chipps will be managing editor with an overseeing eye on things editorial. The website will launch right after Eurobike and the first digital issue will be published at the beginning of October.” Having altered the subscriptions model in
recent years, Singletrack’s package is unique in that it gives members access to all our content on whatever device they have, from print through to mobile - It’s all include in one subscription. What’s more, the publisher has just launched a type of website subscription that gives readers access to all ‘Premier’ content, with the exception of the mag archive, for just £1.49/month. Publisher Mark Alker told BikeBiz:
“There will be a new editorial
team heading up GritCX.”
Mark Alker, Singletrack
“Subscriptions overall have continued to grow and in January we had over 7,000 Premier subscribers. While the High Street continues to be the last place people are choosing to buy magazines our network of Premier Bike Shop dealers has continued to grow and we now have over 60 bike shops proudly claiming to be a Singletrack Premier Dealer, each offering something exclusively special to all our Premier members.” Google Analytics figures seen by BikeBiz show that Singletrack is enjoying around 1.4 million unique visitors a month, who between them rack up some 9.5 million page views.
CYCLIST BikeBiz Award winning Cyclist has been deemed by those in the trade to be the specialist consumer magazine of the year and Dennis, the publisher of the title, is doing plenty to re-enforce its status. Publisher Nicola Bates told BikeBiz that
success has come on the back of lots of hard work from the team to differentiate the title from the competition. “Cyclist uses only exclusive photography, working with some of the country’s best photographers. We seek out undiscovered cycling venues around Europe that readers will want to visit and dream about; we engage debate among the industry’s top experts on topics regarding training and bike design; and we look at the workings of pro teams that aren’t apparent on the TV.”
BIKEBIZ.COM
SINGLETRACK Let’s get the big news out of the way first. This September Singletrack has plans to launch another magazine, this time a digital only title centred around the world of cyclocross. Set to be supported by its own website and forum, GritCX and web platform
Grit.cx is currently in the works, with the URL set to go live toward the end of August.
VELOVISION AND ELECTRIC BIKE MAGAZINE York-based Velo Vision Ltd continues to serve strong niche markets with its international subscription title Velo Vision Magazine for cargo bikes, recumbents, all ability cycling and other specialist designs. Its other title, free-
distribution Electric Bike Magazine, is still fairly unique in the cycling media world with its extensive hand-on reviews of current electric bike models, and this quality content helps it attract consistently strong support from the UK’s electric bike sector.
BIKEBIZ MARCH 41
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