Trencher, poles and Ski Magasine

Tony H

Good luck with the magazine project - I say that as a skier and a journalist.

In the 70s/80s, there used to be three main ski titles in the UK - the Ski Club of Great Britain mag (now called Ski and Board), Skiing UK and the British Ski magazine. Neither of the last two survived once the Daily Mail launched its magazine.

The trouble with all of them is that they are/were filled with articles on heli trips to Greenland, Russia and Kazakstan. They are elitist, not aspirational. Most two-weeks-a-year skiers/boarders are more interested in what ski-ng in Mayrhofen, La Plagne, Cortina, Saas Fee and Whistler etc is like. The back country epics remain out of reach for an awful lot of customers. I would like to read a mag with a more recreational, down to earth content.

Caron-a & AJ,

There are a number of ski mags available in any large Smiths newsagents in the UK.
The main 2 are "Ski & Board" magazine and The Daily Mail ski magazine. There is also one called Fall-line and some others which focus mainly on Boarding.
There are also 2 more which are distrubted through ski clubs or subscription. They are The Skier & Snowboarder magazine and Snow magazine.
My 2 favourites are the "Ski & Board" & Skier & Snowboarder" they seem to have the best cross section of equipment testing, resort reviews, racing etc with great photos too.
Most are released every 6 weeks through the season from about November onwards then have a 4 month break through the summer.
If you are a member of the Ski Club of GB you will recieve your copy of "Ski & Board" free through the post before it is available in the shops.
AB )

AB wrote:Caron-a & AJ,

There are a number of ski mags available in any large Smiths newsagents in the UK.
The main 2 are "Ski & Board" magazine and The Daily Mail ski magazine.

thanks AB

These are the two I've managed to get my hands on. the daily mail one I enjoyed but ski and board is well over my head I'm afraid, as much as I enjoyed reading about back country and heli skiing there wasn't much of any relevance to me as I'm not that good (yet!). :cry:

Caron

I think that you have to have a good balance. You need to show both the average ski experience and that of something special.

An analogy is that most people watch Top Gear for the Astin Martins not the Fiat Pandas.

With all these ski magazines, my view is that you have to be really careful not to step in the advertorial, because they seem full of it. It really should be glaringly apparent that articles are "paid for" advertising, but it's not always so IME.
Subsequently, I would be very wary of buying any gear recommended by a UK ski magazine :(

Tony keep me posted as i would be very interested and good luck.
AB read those mags but i found them not very informative,Thanks anyway.What we need is something like this forum but in magazine format,Something informative with opinions and views,Something DIFFERENT.



AJ Adele

bandit wrote:With all these ski magazines, my view is that you have to be really careful not to step in the advertorial, because they seem full of it. It really should be glaringly apparent that articles are "paid for" advertising, but it's not always so IME.
Subsequently, I would be very wary of buying any gear recommended by a UK ski magazine :(

Well that's how it works - we would love to do a story on your product/service, but you would need to place an advert, And then It would be hard to say something bad about a resort that's just's just given you a free week skiing and the best hotel, Or criticise the ski school who have just given you a days private with thier best instructor, etc.

It's hard to see how an objective ski magizine could be viable with only sales for revenue, but it would be nice.

Trencher

Ahem. There are only 3 revenue streams in publishing:
1. Advertising
2. Subscriptions
3. Distribution

Without advertising, you have no product to put into distribution or sell subs for, unless of course you have an endless pot of gold to keep you funded, which kind of defeats the object of setting the business up in the first place.

However, I do agree that many magazines are FULL of advertising, which suggests that they may be selling it too cheap.

Anyway, enough trade secrets. I look forward to peoples opinions in time......