Bike Mag was the only magazine I subscribed to…and now it is gone…

Bike Mag just released a statement announcing their shut down.

The Big Pause that has stalled the economy as COVID-19 sweeps around the world, has not spared publishing, and last week, Bike Magazine directly felt the pain of the pandemic’s impact.

On Friday, October 2, our parent company, A360 Media, told the staff that Bike would be suspended indefinitely. That includes the print magazine, website and all social channels. The staff has also been furloughed indefinitely. We do not know if Bike will ever return in its current form, or if at all. Bike had just completed its 27th volume, and the team was about to the embark on the 12th running of the Bible of Bike Tests, a testing format Bike’s editors pioneered in mountain biking’s little corner of the media world.

https://www.bikemag.com/news/goodbye-for-now/

I think that COVID is an easy out for this announcement. If anything, people are looking for more outside activities and in house media consumption than ever. YouTube views are up and you can’t find a bike in stock anywhere. Unfortunately, I think this is just another sign of the times. Print magazines and the large media companies that own them are a thing of the past.

What really happened to Bike Mag?

Bike Mag was the only biking magazine that I actually subscribed to. I could find my reviews or anything else I wanted online and through forums. What Bike Mag did for me was the photography and story telling. There is still something special about holding a print photograph in your hand and Bike Mag was the best at it. All you have to do is look at their covers in comparison to other biking related publications to see that. It was their specific part of the niche and it was my favorite.

Unfortunately, while I think their model is great on places like Instagram and Facebook, it is really hard to translate to the online magazine format. Even when you can port it over, you are owned by a large media company with a lot of overhead. Smaller, digital focused brands can compete a lot at a lower cost and they leverage other media outlets like YouTube for revenue generation when print magazines really drug their feet. Video was not their strong point and lot of digital content and advertising is consumed in that fashion these days.

It’s sad to see but it happens in business. The biking industry has gone through a lot of changes over the past decade and this is just another one on the list. I’m sad to see them go and I feel bad for the great employees they had. It is just a change of the times like we have seen in other parts of the industry

Gut feeling…someone will pull a Circuit City on Bike Mag and buy it for pennies on the dollar and then go all digital.

Until then, we sign off, then same way we signed on in 1994: It’s About The Ride.

Bike mag – 10/7/2020

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