Trencher, poles and Ski Magasine

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......

I don't object to advertising, or ski magazines being chock full of adverts. What makes me browse and not buy, is the endless circulating stream of the same articles which pretend to be informative, but are adverts. Wait about 3 years and the same articles appear over again, still advertorial, and still not declared as such. It makes me think of the Lonely Planet writer who recently admitted making up entries, and not having visited those destinations.

I don't believe that skiers/boarders are that gullible anymore.

bandit wrote:

I don't object to advertising, or ski magazines being chock full of adverts. What makes me browse and not buy, is the endless circulating stream of the same articles which pretend to be informative, but are adverts. Wait about 3 years and the same articles appear over again, still advertorial, and still not declared as such. It makes me think of the Lonely Planet writer who recently admitted making up entries, and not having visited those destinations.

I don't believe that skiers/boarders are that gullible anymore.  

GPWM

On this same topic, I recently was "immobile" for several weeks ,,so I began to read my old ski magazines (old means in the 60's)!
Then I compared new ski articles from 2009!

Bandit you are so right. Same articles appear over and over! Same type of article also appear,,just change location and title and voila..you have another article!

What is most disturbing is when ski writers evaluating a ski use textually some ski ad text or ski manual text in their article!

Why do you think the same ski resorts appear over and over in ski mags!!!! Because these ski centers have huge marketing budget and "invite" ski writers for an "all expense paid" trip to center! Of course while they are there they are given a "media" package which gives out the information on ski center
I dare any ski reader to find me a ski article which truly gives a "balanced" picture of a ski center! That is providing negative as well has positive aspects of resort!

Tony wish you well on your project! May I suggest you look up "Consumer's Report" as a model for such magazine! It is a hit yet never but never accepts gifts and freebies!

LOTA wrote:

Tony H


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.
 

Well said Lota -i work in the industry and I know that they tend to write about whoever offers them a free holiday. It is a huge bug bear of mine - same as the national press ski sections are all about the companies and suppliers that wine and dine the journalists and give them free accommodation, flights, guides, etc Much of it has little relevance to us recreational skiers. There is a market for independent advice - see the maddog guides they are very impartial www.maddogski.com. for alternative views.

I followed the link in the last post, and it seems to me that when compared to j2ski, there is tons more resort information on this site. The only difference is a few recommendations for bars and restaurants, which can be quite subjective and open to influence. j2ski has an active forum, which can fulfill the "user experience" category quite well.

I would never book a holiday soley on the reviews of a magazine,The people on this forum have given me more insight to resorts than a magazine ever could.But i belive that Tony H could be onto a winner if the mag was as i said before, Based on ordinary peoples un biased opinions and experiences.The WARTS and all of a ski resort


AJ Adele

Snow Finders wrote:

LOTA wrote:

Tony H


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.
 

Well said Lota -i work in the industry and I know that they tend to write about whoever offers them a free holiday. It is a huge bug bear of mine - same as the national press ski sections are all about the companies and suppliers that wine and dine the journalists and give them free accommodation, flights, guides, etc Much of it has little relevance to us recreational skiers. There is a market for independent advice - see the maddog guides they are very impartial www.maddogski.com. for alternative views. 

Precisely my concept.