Excellent to have an opinion from you, Grey.

Magazine website should at least have the tables of contents per issue, to give the reader a taste of the articles if they were to subscribe

Quote Originally Posted by grey View Post
A designer's job is to ensure people want to look at the copy. Yes, the content is what keeps people reading, but as you know, a poor design will not draw anyone into looking at the article. And as much as both editorial and design departments hate sales, we need those a$$hats too. It's a tripod, and you need all three legs to be strong. The design in this case is... ok. It is a great photo, but wow for not thinking out of the box, design wise.

Your first issue should be no different than your opening day at a restaurant: it should be your BEST. You can delay a start date, but once the food is on the plate, if it isn't the best of the best you can offer, people will not be impressed. You will lose customers. Your BEST issue ever needs to be the one out the gate, I don't care if it delays production by six months. Prolong the suspense - but that first issue is what people will base the next one on. It's what the salespeople will tote around with them in trying to land more accounts.

At least the cover doesn't have a gorgeous gal who isn't representative of most women...when they are working hard out on their bikes and sweating it up, if they aren't also flying through the mud, rain or snow. Would be something to display an innovative design cover of a female cyclist cycling through snow on studded tires.

I agree with the available graphics software, something a little more innovative could have been done with the cover design. It is a cover, well several of us here on the forum, could have easily done.

In my opinion, this magazine is making too broad a sweep. It's HARD to cover all of those topics, and be a great thing for everyone. You cited a good example with the horse mags. And well.... not everyone is in a bike shop. AFAIK, most people only make time for one kind of riding. The riders in my group are only road people. I'm the ONLY one with two mountain bikes in the stable (and I need to sell those, I don't have time for both kinds of riding). So that's my world, therefore my POV.

A survey might be needed to ensure that is or is not the case. Surveys should have been taken already, before the start of the mag to begin with. I only hope they did that, because as I said: if you try to please everyone, you will please nobody.

At any rate, I may have come across too harsh, but when I see a start-up, I can't help but see things that may or may not work out well for the product. That's been my job for years. I just hope they will do an honest good job, and not put out a magazine just because it's for women and nobody else has filled that hole yet.
They could consider categories of road racing, mntbiking (competitive) plus randonneuring. One could still write inspiring stories still on touring and commuting but for the latter, I'm trying to figure out what would make the article slant different than articles found in ie. Momentum magazine.

I would consider their blog more fitting on detailed current race result reports that can be posted quickly.

It would be great that the magazine was truly international in scope. We have yet to tap and understand more what is going on elsewhere about women and cycling.