Women's Cycling magazine

[Jiffer]

Does it have anything on mountain biking, or is it all road?

Well, I'm trying to figure out the picture on the front cover. It looks like their mountain biking in severe mud ... on road bikes! What do you guys see???

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I see that at the top it lists all the stuff it's supposed to be about, in grey text above the red banner.

But they left out 'grade school'.
Guess they are leaving their possible subjects pretty varied.

They mention "city spotlight" (?) and road/track/cross/mountain riding...but not country biking or even touring.
Those are cross bikes on the cover, am I correct?

well it is good that someone is putting out a women's biking mag. (Helluva time to start a paper magazine in this economy, though.)

[Eden]

That's cyclocross on the cover

From their cover and their blog I'd guess their emphasis will be on women's racing, but they have left it pretty open by listing "lifestyle" in their topics - I'd bet that could cover touring. Not to mention "Road" usually isn't exclusive to road racing - it can indicate anything done on a road bike, like charity rides, touring, etc.
It looks like its structured like Velo News to me. Covering competitive riding/training primarily with some articles on other topics.

[grey]

Call me a snob but the cover doesn't make me want to pick it up and page through it. I've been designing magazines for 10 years, and a glance at their homepage fails to impress.

Further, the content is too scattered - trying too hard to cover everything, which means nothing will be covered very well. There should be two editions: Women's Cycling: Road, which would include touring, and Women's Cycling: Mountain which would include cyclocross. Riders interested in one are rarely interested in the other, and by trying to cover all of it in one book, we might see one page article on each. Not really enough to satisfy anybody.

High school and college? Ummmm.... who cares? They can't afford subscriptions. I was DIRT POOR in college, my ride was 8 years old and I loved my little greybeast to death, but I couldn't even afford new brakes when I needed them. Riders in those age groups probably want to know the same things the rest of us do: what performs, what doesn't, what events are coming up. You can have a feature article about each once a year or so, but a section devoted to both is excessive.

It IS a bad time to be starting a mag - which means it is SO MUCH more important to make sure your best work is out there, to be sure that you will satisfy your readers and make them want to pay $15 for 3 issues, which will ensure advertisers (who pay the bills!) are willing to part with money to put this magazine in the hands of those readers. They need to be able to see a return on investment - I don't see that happening here. I see this as a doctor's office magazine special: Keeps you occupied for 10 minutes, and completely not worth stealing the subscription info for.

I'd love to see cycling magazines devoted to women - but this is not it.

[ehirsch83]

Call me a snob but the cover doesn't make me want to pick it up and page through it. I've been designing magazines for 10 years, and a glance at their homepage fails to impress.

really? the cover is of a Pro Vella Bella cross racer, I think it looks pretty awesome!!

Further, the content is too scattered - trying too hard to cover everything, which means nothing will be covered very well. There should be two editions: Women's Cycling: Road, which would include touring, and Women's Cycling: Mountain which would include cyclocross. Riders interested in one are rarely interested in the other, and by trying to cover all of it in one book, we might see one page article on each. Not really enough to satisfy anybody.
1st) By putting cross in a mtb magazine you would be losing over half of your racers, b/c a vast majority of cross racers are road racers that race cross in their off season. 2nd) like Eden mentioned, it is looking like a similar version of VeloNews. VeloNews is GREAT!(www.velonews.com) and they cover a little of everything, picking up on the highlights of each genre.

High school and college? Ummmm.... who cares? They can't afford subscriptions. I was DIRT POOR in college, my ride was 8 years old and I loved my little greybeast to death, but I couldn't even afford new brakes when I needed them. Riders in those age groups probably want to know the same things the rest of us do: what performs, what doesn't, what events are coming up. You can have a feature article about each once a year or so, but a section devoted to both is excessive.
Again, close minded. Collegiate and high school level racing has a good following. And a lot of those kids have parents who would pay for the magazine. The U23 is the future of cycling, you can't not show some light on the up and coming stars!

It IS a bad time to be starting a mag - which means it is SO MUCH more important to make sure your best work is out there, to be sure that you will satisfy your readers and make them want to pay $15 for 3 issues, which will ensure advertisers (who pay the bills!) are willing to part with money to put this magazine in the hands of those readers. They need to be able to see a return on investment - I don't see that happening here. I see this as a doctor's office magazine special: Keeps you occupied for 10 minutes, and completely not worth stealing the subscription info for.

I'd love to see cycling magazines devoted to women - but this is not it.

For some reason, I am curious as to your involvment in the cycling world. I find this magazine to "maybe" be refreshing to all of the others out there. The blog and the cover show some following to the race scene, which makes me excited to see! I hope it works!

[Irulan]

Call me a snob ...

High school and college? Ummmm.... who cares? They can't afford subscriptions. I was DIRT POOR in college, my ride was 8 years old and I loved my little greybeast to death, but I couldn't even afford new brakes when I needed them. Riders in those age groups probably want to know the same things the rest of us do: what performs, what doesn't, what events are coming up. You can have a feature article about each once a year or so, but a section devoted to both is excessive.

I care, high school and college age women athletes need all the help and support they can get, even if they themselves don't have big bucks to pour into a sport. This is the time in life when women are both developing lifelong habits, and pulled in many different directions. Why not give them all the support and encouragement that they can afford to give?

[lunacycles]

It's a MAGAZINE FOR WOMEN CYCLISTS. This is a small miracle. Forgive its flaws. Support it if you can.

[Roadrunner]

Looks good, but not much use to little old me in Scotland.
I hope the magazine does well.

[smurfalicious]

Call me a snob but the cover doesn't make me want to pick it up and page through it. I've been designing magazines for 10 years, and a glance at their homepage fails to impress.

Hmmm, and how many start ups have you been a part of? Perhaps they're at that tender age where they're still hiring and some writer who had a tiny clue about PhotoShop slapped it together. The thing with start ups is getting yourself out there, making yourself known, and if you have to show up in less than your best outfit sometimes you do. Further, I can't read graphic design so while you might make things purdy and get people to look, it's us writers who keep it going.

Further, the content is too scattered - trying too hard to cover everything, which means nothing will be covered very well. There should be two editions: Women's Cycling: Road, which would include touring, and Women's Cycling: Mountain which would include cyclocross. Riders interested in one are rarely interested in the other, and by trying to cover all of it in one book, we might see one page article on each. Not really enough to satisfy anybody.

Okay yeah they're taking a broad sweep here but there are horse magazines that cover a lot of topics too and they do very well. Perhaps they don't cover ranch roping, or cutting, or hunter over fences every month, but when they do it appeals to those people. And when they cover other topics it's still interesting to their readers because their readers love horses and different aspects of the sport still offer insight to those in different realms. For example, I didn't know there was a sport where you worked cattle horseback with a dog. Now I do and I enjoyed reading about it even though I have no plans of taking my afraid of cows Aussie out and trying it.

As far as one not being into the other, are you serious? The people I know have a stable of bikes complete with road and mountain bikes because they love it all! I have to sit myself down tonight and write a bike priority list because I want a BMX bike, and a cross bike, and a hardtail, and a fully, and a cruiser, and, and, and....

High school and college? Ummmm.... who cares? They can't afford subscriptions. I was DIRT POOR in college, my ride was 8 years old and I loved my little greybeast to death, but I couldn't even afford new brakes when I needed them. Riders in those age groups probably want to know the same things the rest of us do: what performs, what doesn't, what events are coming up. You can have a feature article about each once a year or so, but a section devoted to both is excessive.

A lot of people. The CU Cycling team around here is pretty awesome. They pass my happy but all the time. And the fact is a lot of women hang it up after college so if you're going to cover women's racing, that's a BIG chunk of it.

And uh, I know plenty of college kids and high school kids that can manage a subscription. It's not that much money. My ex's son ages ago wanted nothing more in the world than to get an after school job to buy some Mavic Crossmax wheels and he was 15. Kids do have money, whether it's from baby sitting, lawn mowing, or after school jobs. If you need proof that kids can buy magazines pick up a copy of BMX Plus and read the clearly written by a youngin letters section.

It IS a bad time to be starting a mag - which means it is SO MUCH more important to make sure your best work is out there, to be sure that you will satisfy your readers and make them want to pay $15 for 3 issues, which will ensure advertisers (who pay the bills!) are willing to part with money to put this magazine in the hands of those readers. They need to be able to see a return on investment - I don't see that happening here. I see this as a doctor's office magazine special: Keeps you occupied for 10 minutes, and completely not worth stealing the subscription info for.

I'd love to see cycling magazines devoted to women - but this is not it.

Da'aaaaang Debbie Downer! Yes it could totally esplode and suck, but you have to give them mad props for trying. My boss was the editor of Bicycling for over 10 years and he too thinks it's a bad time but has the utmost hope for them. I do too. If you read the blog, they actually seem to have some decent chops. And all of the girls at work are foaming at the mouth to do some freelance. Huzzah bike money!

[shootingstar]

It's great that someone is courageous enough to start up this magazine.

To ensure its long-time survival ..and the reality that the number regular female cyclists is still not as huge majority, not to exclusively focus on competitive cycling. The long-term market is not huge. One has to think of financial viability of magazine.

It will not dilute the focus, as long as the mt biking, racing, etc. are in discrete sections....can't be that hard. Could still give an overall punchy/get-go feel to the whole mag.

Honest...I don't keep up on women's or men's racing. May occasionally read an article few times a yr. But I am still interesting in reading a range of non-racing articles on cycling-related stuff that women worldwide have and are achieving.

[Geonz]

I got very ambivalent at the picture and then saw that well, at least they were trying to cover *everything* (tho' they missed saying "cross") across the top. Doesn't mean a section about it... just means to me that well, htey acknowledge the marketing existence thereof - and that's a good thing.
I'd be very curious as to the editors' goals. Are they trying to be a women's version of Bicycling magazine? In which case, gag me with a spoon... but hey, at least the blogger that showed up was somebody on "Team Type 1" ... I've gone entirely too green to want to get either the print magazine but even less so the scads of ads I'd get when they sold my name... but I might just follow along online, which doesn't cost them anything.
Oh, but yea, I like to read about more kinds of cycling than my kind of riding, which there isn't really a category for. Simply addicted? A magazine entirelly about any one microniche would be ... oh, possible online, I suppose, but odd...