MCN & MCN Sport

As a regular reader of MCN (on subscription) I can echo pretty much exactly how rocker66 and redbankuk feel.

I stopped my subscription of a well known BIKE magazine for similar reasons. I won't go any further as it smacks of ranting.

I decided to spend my money on decent quality bike books instead (one of Kevin's being amongst them). At almost a fiver a shot for most Mags it can make sense.

If this trend in MCN continues I'll most likely stop that as well. Regretfully.

Kev, I appreciate exactly what is going on as far as cut backs in the motorcycle industry is concerned. We too are finding things hard at the moment, as we were discussing in Milan. Just a suggestion though to pass on to the boys and girls at MCN. If they are struggling to sell advertising space and thus filling it with copies of classifieds, is there no way that they can re-format some that is given over to this duplication, consolidate it into a block and maybe re-print some historical article that they have in their archives? I understand that it is not as simple as all that and that ads are small things BUT if they could re-jig things a bit and use at least some of it to give people something to read then it would go down better I suspect. It would cost them nothing to do this, they are not losing revenue, readers understand what is going on but they may appreciate the gesture of not just having the paper padded out with basically non-content. If they actually even came clean and stated what they are doing by re-publishing their test on the 81 T140 and why then it could all be for the good. Just a thought.

I don't get to read MCN too often but as a fellow industry sufferer I do sympathise with them.

Kevin. For me it is the lack of content and/or in depth articles. My memory may play tricks but years (and years)ago it seemed that you could keep reading on and off for a number of days. Not now.....it can be very thin.

I would guess that the loss of ad revenue has staff under pressure but that simply suggests a revised approach......smaller publication, web based ads and sales outlet.......maybe just twice a month or once a month....don't know but it will die if it's not stimulated or appeals to readers and advertisers.

Wonder what the circulation and revenue trend is and what that demands or supports?

"I'll feed back the comments here to them as they're having some meetings soon regarding what MCN will be doing in the future"

... Kev, I know I have mentioned it before and you have been kind enough to take it up with Potsky, the retort being something along the lines of 'when hell freezes over!', but having bought MCN religiously every week for nearly 25 years I do miss not being able to buy it, now that I live in the land of insular thought.

It was wonderful to be able to pay to download the electronic version (Simoncelli tribute) that they recently offered, both because of the nature of that one edition, but also just to be able to view it - the quality was vastly improved on their trial several years ago, as is the hardware and nowadays tablets available to read it on.

I can easily get subscriptions to Fast Bikes, SuperBike, Sport & Leisure (and a whole host of US titles) on my iPad if I choose. But the biggest regular publication in the UK isn't available. If it's not cost effective for them, then one has to question how come it is for all the other publications?

It does suggest that they've really not given it enough thought, especially for ex-pats, those who travel frequently or perhaps those simply on vacation who want to download their fix as something to read during any down time. I also know a number of American's who would like to subscribe too, but the overseas costs of sending a hard copy subscription makes it prohibitively expensive.

As to more specific topic, the quality and tactics of MCN. My personal view is that it is what it is. You know the 'world exclusive' will probably have a fair degree of conjecture. That the next article on the new machine will be sold to you like a worlds first test, but will actually just be some dodgy picture with a half spec. Then there will probably be a short test, but 'we won't know which one is best until we get them all together, but it's looking good'. Then the group test ad nausea. But. And it's a big but (sic). The key thing is that they are 'always' first in the world, almost bar none, to ride a bike. And we are usually over-keen to hear those first impressions. I can only think of the Daytona 675 that BIKE had the genuine scoop over them on. Everything else they seem to be there first. If those things don't interest a specific reader then fair enough, they should subscribe to a good mag like BIKE and just wait for it to drop on their mat. But for the topic obsessed like myself, the availability to consume more fresh info and data is of paramount interest to me. Do I think they have the best publication going? No. But I respect some of the very long-time contributors like Phil West, Trev Franklin and Kev. And they are first with the news, which is probably harder to produce weekly than monthly. So I want it still. Just electronically please - Potter you Rotter! ;-D

I can't argue MCN's case especially strongly as I don't work for them or go to their meetings or anything, I just fill a few pages from the comfort of my own office. Regarding the electronic versions, as I've mentioned Captain S, the lack of that is very frustrating for the switched on editorial staff, it's the digital department which is simply faffing about ineffectively - you could put it down to cost effectiveness studies and all that, but it seems to come down to more basic, can someone be bothered type reasons.
Just maybe the success of the Simoncelli issue is the kick up the arse that was needed, but I wouldn't bank on that.

The idea of re-running old features is a good one, although they won't be in digital form so the original images would have to be dug out, the pages laid out again and so on, so it's not just a case of dropping them in quickly. It would be enough work to have to employ someone specifically to do that, and the problem is staff numbers are reducing - CS mentioned Trevor Franklin, in fact he left MCN very recently and doesn't look like being replaced, so they're down to two bike reviewers now.

The general trend of magazine sales figures is relentlessly down, as with national newspapers, and the advertising revenue which pays for most of their costs has decreased by even more. Meanwhile the internet 'problem' isn't helping - MCN can only publish 'half' reviews on its site while it's free or sales of the print version would be killed, but at this stage most of the public still resists strongly paying subscriptions for web versions. My own response would be to have two websites, one free exactly as it is now and a subscription one which contains the full content of the paper... hedging the bets.

Re doing journalist blogs, there's room for that but it can very quickly become very introverted, while it's interesting now and then, once you know how it all works generally it then becomes repetitive (and the most interesting stories probably aren't repeatable...). Most readers are more interested in the bikes themselves than how the story was gained, or at least when getting the story involved flying out to the venue, riding the bike then flying back. BUt I'll have a look at doing something like that myself to see what the response is, maybe adding a small extra piece at the end of a review about the press launch itself. I'm sure plenty of people would be interested in the Kawasaki lead rider on the Versys 1000 launch, the rather appealing Francesca Gasperi... she rode at such a hot pace half the journalists couldn't keep up!

Insightful Kev, thanks - especially Francesca!

I concur with you that a snippets site and a full subscription site with digital downloads makes perfect sense. Lets hope the Simoncelli issue highlighted positive metrics - if they've got anyone left to work them out?

In the sixties when British motorcycle manufacturing failed to realign itself with the ever changing needs of the consumer (like bikes which didn't leak oil) it saw it's market share dwindle to obsolescence.

It sounds like MCN are apathetic in their acceptance of their own decline without the necessary will to diversify and stabilise if not increase their market share in the newer emerging markets.

The only way to make change successful is to excitingly embrace it's challenges, innovate and pioneer. Because if you don't, someone else surely will. In short be in charge of your own destiny, else someone else will take that privilege away from you.

In an IT sense MCN are acting like Microsoft, at best looking for small pockets of untaped revenue to exploit. By contrast Apple have been busying themselves facilitating the stuff that they know their intended target audience is going to feel passionate about, letting the products and services generate financial success without putting spreadsheets and status quo stability first.

Nobody thought Microsoft would eventually outsell IBM, any more than they thought Apple could outdo Microsoft's profitability. If MCN are arrogant enough to believe that they'll never have circulation crushing competition, then they are surely heading for a face-plant.

A wise man once said that the power of our communication is in how well it is received. Well that's the problem Potski I ain't 'receiving it' and I ain't paying for you to chop down trees! :-D

I've seen this sort of thing tried and in practice there simply aren't enough interesting letters coming in, nor enough articles worth publishing, either because the writing quality isn't good enough or the content is not as interesting as the writers think it is. You do of course get some gems coming in, but sadly these are rare. People would soon start to question too why they're not being paid in order to boost MCN's or any other publication's profits.

Maybe the future is already here.

Could not this very site of Kevin’s be pointing to the future of what may be possible for motorcycle journalism?

Every report of Kevin’s gets almost instant response from members. There’s a wealth of information available from so many contributors with so many points of view. Like so many others I read many bike magazines. Some are much better than others. Kevin’s site adds another dimension. It’s almost like the readers are also writing the articles and topics along with Kevin.

I like that very much.

Regards,

JAG

Just watched a program about newspapers that have folded due to losing paying readers and decreased advertising which is due to companies having their own websites to publicise themselves or have links from other websites.

Traditional organs like MCN have more competition from people who publish their own first hand experiences of products on various social media sites - like this one.

For newspapers to survive they have to acknowledge and use the web more effectively, and raise their standards with more in depth articles to keep (lure) paying customers.

JAG, I wonder how much those pumps would cost, including shipping, if they were made, sold and bought within the same country (ie USA, UK etc).

You say "a magazine made from paper has no future" ... you may be right but folks still enjoy holding a mag, book or newspaper; we know these are all available on hand held devices these days but the good thing about paper is you don't get caught out with dead batteries.

I hasten to add that the last thing i said there is purely hypothetical. It has never, ever happened to me. I'm sure it's never happened to anyone else either. Also hypothetically, the roles may be reversed. It may be 'im indoors who bins the paper. I know. I know. That seems impossible. But it could happen.....

JAG, I wonder how much those pumps would cost, including shipping, if they were made, sold and bought within the same country (ie USA, UK etc).

It’s interesting REDBANKUP that with this pump the American company that makes the pump has both an American factory and a Chinese factory that makes the very same pump.

We sold the American made pump for many, many years. We sometimes still import the American made pump when we cannot get enough of the Chinese pumps.

I do the warranty investigations. On a percentage of the pumps sold the Chinese pumps have far fewer problems. They also us cost less.

If I conclude the warranty claim is valid, the Chinese will accept my findings and I can get the customer a credit in a few days. I don’t have to ship it back to China.

With the American made pump, quite often they want the pump back. They then do their own investigation. Even after I have investigated it with pictures and submitted the report to them of the suspected problem. To get a report back from them it usually takes at least a few months. They almost never issue a credit if they conclude the claim is valid. They fix the pump and send it back. To get the repaired pump back from them still takes a few months. This is too long so we usually, based on my report, issue a customer credit so the customer can get his truck back on the road as quickly as possible. There's a very good chance the owner of the truck has already replaced it so he or she really just wants their money back.

A few months later the repaired pump shows up at our shipping dock. We can’t sell a used pump as new, so we scrap it. The truck owner almost certainly does not want it back.

You probably are thinking why do we send it back to the American company at all? It’s mainly about our RPPM count (return parts per million). If we don’t submit the claim to the manufacturer we take the RPPM hit. If they grant warranty, they take the hit. Nobody wants to take an RPPM hit if they can possibly avoid it.

Bean counters rule.

JAG

Sorry mharbon I'm not sure from your whether you like MCN or not. Could you please make it clearer :)

Rocker, used to buy it avidly, sadly no more :(