I just came back from my LBS with the latest issues of Triathlete and Inside Tri magazines. Triathlete is 192 pages of information. Inside Tri is down to only 74 pages of nothing.
I make sure that I know where all my past Triathlete magazines are. My Inside Tri magazines I tend to throw away afterwards because there really is nothing memorable from Inside Tri. Even “At the Races” seems to be done better now at Triathlete magazine.
What can be done to improve Inside Tri? Or will it die shortly?
The problem is that you are comparing 2 Magazines that have little correct in either.
Triathlete is about 90% advertising, which I know is paramount to the success of mag, but give me a break. Most of their features are concentrated on their advertisers. Really who needed a profile of the founder of Biobuilde (ro something like that)? Even the bikes of the pros featured in the mag are of those manufacturers that currently advertising in the book. A lot of their coaching stuff is very good though.
Inside Tri attempted to be cute and current and put too much emphasis on the pros. When Du Ford took the mag he should have continued the ways of American Tri focussing on AG and on things relevent to the FOP, MOP and even BOP.
My favourite Mag now is Triathlon Magazine Canada (of course I have written for this mag so take what I say with a grain of salt). It is has features on AG’s, folks making a difference and stories on those building the sport from within.
In short, Triathlete good but way too many ads for me (stil like the content most times when not focussed on advertisers), Inside Tri not getting the job done the right way (stop looking for magical fixes …change the size of the mag…why?) and finally for my money Triathlon Magazine Canada…at least until they stop paying me…speaking of which I wonder where my check is?
There is a lot going on here.
Inside Tri got its start as Triathlon Today! founded by a man whomm I have enormous respect for as one of the founding fathers and foremost authorities in the sport. His influence and insights have benefited every triathlete from age grouper to Olympic Triathlete and Ironman winner- literally hands on.
The magazine was started as an alternative to the (then) *Triathlon *and *Triathlete *glossy magazines with a slant toward grass-roots age group coverage, regional correspondents (usually racers themselves) filing race reports and even the selection of an “All American” triathlon team and the administration of the criteria for doing so.
Then the magazine was sold to Velo-Press or whatever that communications company is called. It is now a part of the stable of their specialty sports publications that include Velo-News.
**
Interestingly, when it started, *Triathlon Today! *had a feel very similar too… Slowtwitch. The emerging media of slowtwitch.com and its forum have created a new age of user-generated publication with a new issue out literally every time someone puts up a new post- so every few seconds.
Most print magazines can’t compete with that.
The differentiation with *Triathlete *is a strong and heavy advertiser base and a beautiful glossy format with great photos, some darn good editorial content (along with the usual fluff) and then some solid staple features like the Swimsuit Issue which is excellent.
So much for the history lesson.
Will *Inisde Triathlon *survive? I don’t know. It is up to the advertisers first of all, the readers and the condition of the sport- which is healthy right now.
My inclination is to suggest it will since advertising rates cn be “bundled” together by Inside Communications to include a rate card with advertising rates and volume discounts accross a number of publications. That is important for some advertisers.
My favourite Mag now is Triathlon Magazine Canada
More great tri stuff from Canada!
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Inside tri website is 10xs better than triathletemag.com and they seem to just get the whole online world (making strides with 5430 covg today for ex, or the videos they are posting, like lars’ covg of lifetime). Triathletemag in the paper format is better bang for your buck in that you get more/longer info/features/tips and even tinley.
Frankly I hope both survive because I check the insidetri site everyday, and normally scour the triathletemag when it shows up in the mail. Some people like newsweek, others time (hate both)/ some like the wsj (me), others the nyt. some like runner’s world (fluff to me), others like running times…
Oh and all the criticisms about too much advertising are a joke - i mean look around any popular website or paper mag? This is just the way it goes for formal/popular media these days…If you want a dry/ad-less “journal of triathlon” then you better have mucho dinero, donate enough for a small building, and then convince harvard press to get interested in fast transitions and light weight aero carbon fiber sexy bottle cages.
It’s a fantastic publication. Great, well written articles that aren’t written to sell anything, and a well balanced magazine about everything tri, not just a few things. I was sold after my first issue.
The swim suit edition a “solid staple feature…which is excellent”??? The swimsuit edition of Triathlete mag has absolutley nothing to do with triathlon. Nada…zip! It has everything to do with selling the mag. Until recently Inside Tri stayed above this tired old tactic of using sex to sell magazines. Look to Sports Illustrated for the swimsuit editions. SI is clearly a “men’s magazine.” Both Inside Tri and Triathlete should be above that crap. Triathlete is almost entirely ads and fluff–the only possible exception being Tinley’s column. Inside Tri seems to have attempted to be more than this but I’m not sure it works. Neither magazine has much of anything useful or interesting these days.
As a freelance “contributing editor”/columnist for Boulder-based Inside Tri let me defend it a bit. They strive to have good editorial content. Tim Carlson is a gifted sports writer who happens to write about Tri. Their ad pages are about quality, not quantity, according to them… so that the whole thing doesn’t have that “advertorial” feel. The website is the best triathlon news site out there, which is kind of sad but true, but it’s getting better every week thanks to a devoted staff. I can say for sure if the magazine was given more resources it could do much, much better, but these days the money in ads is on the web.
That being said, Triathlete does a lot of things right. It’s nice to have a little competition out there! Supporting both means having choice and variety, which is always good.
Gotta agree with that whole assessment. One thing I would like though, is for IT to make the videos on their website Mac compatible though I understand that is in the works. It’d be nice to see a lot more of those a la the stuff Flocast is doing in the running world.
As a freelance “contributing editor”/columnist for Boulder-based Inside Tri let me defend it a bit. They strive to have good editorial content. Tim Carlson is a gifted sports writer who happens to write about Tri. Their ad pages are about quality, not quantity, according to them… so that the whole thing doesn’t have that “advertorial” feel. The website is the best triathlon news site out there, which is kind of sad but true, but it’s getting better every week thanks to a devoted staff. I can say for sure if the magazine was given more resources it could do much, much better, but these days the money in ads is on the web.
That being said, Triathlete does a lot of things right. It’s nice to have a little competition out there! Supporting both means having choice and variety, which is always good.
As another IT “contributing editor” I agree. Carlson is the best in the business. The only things I regularly read in Triathlete are Tinley’s column and stuff from Cam Elford, who is a former IT staffer.
I really enjoy the swimsuit edition and look forward to it every year.
I don’t know. I canceled my subscription primarily because I go nothing out of it. There was a “product review” issue and it was nothing but PR reprints from advertisers. I’m one who likes to look at ads, but I don’t like them buried in editorial content, which is what I felt I was getting with IT.
I get much more from Slowtwitch. For example, Dan did an article on 2XU wetsuits. It was a good, balanced review in which he pointed out some of the suits weaknesses and questionable gimmicks while also pointing out its strengths and generally complementing it. When IT did its product review, it had about 2-3 paragraphs on each suit that read like a PR piece…no comparative stats, no review or ratings. Nothing about that piece came across as being anything near to an independent review.
Online, with a reasonably experienced BS detector, you can find all sorts of discussions regarding products, training, lifestyle, nutrition, etc. The only problem with online is that there are many times I just prefer to have hard copy. It is so much more relaxing to sit down on the couch with a magazine than it is to sit at a desk (I do enough of that already) or even at a kitchen table and read a computer screen.
Now, if somebody could figure out how to economically package up Slowtwitch into a hard-copy newsletter or magazine, I’d be the first to subscribe!
Victor
Man I miss Triathlon Today! In college I wrote for them, and got my race fees waived for it. Racing on weekends, sleeping in my car, or bumming a spot on another competitors floor…ahhhhh those were the days…
…Wait a second, I still sleep in my car! Damn!
Stephen J