Triathlete vs. insidetri magazines

I have a subscription to triathlete magazine and I enjoy it alot. Having said that I picked up a copy of inside tri and really didn’t like it… Maybe its me but it just felt like it was very low on content, the reviews didn’t give any useful information, adn the writing wasn’t even engaging… or is it just me?

First, the reviews in both mags suck. Theyre garbage—its like what they do is ask the company to please write us an article on your bike and we’ll print it. Or even lazier, they go to the website and cut and paste from the website to msft Word.

After that, i think both mags offer some good tips here and there. Often triathlete runs articles that dont apply to me right now (like 13 weeks to your first IM—i dont want to do an IM right now)

IMO inside tri, offers better interviews with the pros, is more up to date with stuff—i mean when did Triathlete’s IMH coverage come out? was it out by xmas this yr? They did the who to watch in Kona almost after the race was already done.

I’m going to subscribe to both this year—for the last 2 yrs ive been a triathlete subscriber, and ive had to read my buddies inside tris or spend a couple hours in Borders.

Agreed. Honestly, they both kinda stink. VERY advertiser driven and the content is either complete drivel, or it’s ridiculously technical (like the health articles). As a med student, it mifght make sense to you, but the rest of us can’t really get bogged down in picoliters of amino acids to concentration of magnesiocitricalnitrite in mg/l. I mean, that’s just dumb. Of the two I like InsideTri better, but neither is a showstopper - more just a good way to kill a day to and from work on the train.

I agree with everything said. The reviews are just spec sheets with no real opinion given. I would love to see some reviews like on Bikesport where they actually choose a side.

Once in a while., though they’ll have some good articles about technique drills in the water or 13 weeks to sub 13 IM (which inspired me to do my first IM) or some of the treadmill workouts are good to.

I like to read about the lives of the pros but don’t care as much about the results of olympic distance races in peru or the f1 series.

All in all I look forward to getting it. I can read an entire issue in under 1 hour and usually reread on the toilet for months following.

Ever notice that in these magazines, in what ever month they review any bike, in that same issue there will be a GIANT two page add for that same bike.

Also…in Bicycling - in the 'Buyers Guide" issue, every year for the past 5-6 years what ever bike was on the page 3-4 add (actually last year was page 5-6 due to a car add on 3-4) will be give a great review and made to look like the best bike in its class according to the buyers guide. Usually a Trek or Specialized (neither brand will I ever ride).

if most people can really tell the two magazines apart. I mean, everybody in this thread complaints about the bike reviews in both magazines, but Inside Tri doesn’t do bike reviews. So when you are reading either magazine, do you really know which one you’re reading. Or do they both seem the same to most people?

But I thought that our esteemed slowtwitch editor’s bike review last month was fair and honest. Hey Dan, are you going to write the Triathlete bike reviews from now on?

The delima is that in the publishing industry most magazine revenue comes from advertising. Very little % actually is derived from subscriptions or sales. I learned this from being a part time automotive journalist in a previous life. I know the editor/publisher of a well known snowmobile magazine. Every year the four major manufacturers each drop off two of their models for him to play with all winter. Of course he then writes reviews for the magazine about these. He admits that he thinks some models are good and others are junk, but dares not say anything overly negative for fear of losing the advertising dollar.

I agree that both magazines could use some improving but I still buy both every month because I am a triathlon junkie like pretty much everyone else on this forum. I can’t decide which is “better”. I think it varies from month to month and as for bike reviews, we’ve gone over that before on this forum. Triathlete does the bike reviews (not sure if I’ve ever seen one in Inside Tri) and they are much better since Dan started doing them. He, at least is critical of some of their features. I don’t buy the magazine for bike reviews anyway. They usually have decent race photos and interviews and the odd piece of useful training advice and besides, they’re magazines about triathlon which makes them worth reading :slight_smile:

I agree with you, cerveloguy. Sometimes you can read between the lines, though. If a review simply gives a description and glosses over issues such as ride quality, etc…you might assume that a truly honest review might not be the most favorable. Also I’ve noticed that certain reviewers find other, very subtle ways to let the reader know that they aren’t necessarily endorsing the purchase of said bike.

I would have to agree with you on the review parts for both those mags. Slowtwitch.com seems to be the best review site on the web. However, a mag that doesn’t come too far behind is American Tri (site www.americantri.com) Its just starting up and runs a little late, but it’s worth it.

yeah okay so my mistake, insidetri doesnt do bike reviews. Actually, probably better they didnt, i wouldnt really care anyway, i mean i dont buy bikes like i buy bread, and if i wanted a bike review i’d come on here and ask people who spent their money on one and have been riding it for awhile.

It seems to me that insidetri and Triathlete have a stronghold on the tri mag industry (i know about Americantri, i’ve read it, i liked it). How could Reynolds pull an ad out permanently if triathlete gave a bad review on a fork of theirs? also, if i were a bike maker/component maker, I’d want the mag to print exactly what they thought of it. The reason being----i’ve noticed on here that everyone realizes that the Reviews are total BS. What if i was a bike maker and i made a wonderful bike and everyone loved it (say Cervelo or Softride) and the mag said how great the bike was and was being honest, but they also say that a horrible bike is great too, i mean whats the point, how much weight does the great bikes review have now when Crap gets a great review too.

One other complaint, everyother article on “ask Roch and Huddle” is aimed at the guy thinking about maybe doing his first tri next month, and what should he pack for the race? Thats what a FAQ page is for on trinewbies.com or anyother major triwebsite. I have nothing against newbies, i was one, some people might think i still am one, but come on. how many times do I have to be reminded to bring 2 pairs of goggles, or to not forget my bike when heading off to a tri.

Replace the Bike reviews with bike maintenance or an aero article by Cobb, Replace Roch and Frey with Zinn. I wanna read more articles by the Big Three (allen, molina, scott) Lets pick their brains before they get alzheimers and forget all the wisdon they learned on 8 hour rides. I wanna know more on how pros train, i wanna read Reid or Deboom or Badmann or Bowden talk about some training day they had last month, or something they learned in a 7k swim last monday. More bike fit articles. An article by Slowman with a dissenting viewpoint by someone else. Is sacrificing power for aeroness good or bad. I know slowman’s got his answer and i know the guys from PK racing got theirs–i wanna read the debate. Whats Cobb say?

I bought a ton of older triathlete mags from the late 80’s and early 90’s—back then Triathlete rocked. I’ve learned more from those than i ever have in Triathlete’s since ive been a subsciber 99 to present.

Triathlete is to triathlon what a hot dog stand is to a restaurant. But i’ll still read it, cause i got nothing else to do, and i dont have a lot of options.

Well, I work in the magazine publishing industry (we publish PC Magazine). When some here refer to church and state issues between Editorial and Sales there’s a major wall between them in the most trusted publications out there that review products. So when it comes to ads for Trek and Specialized in Bicycling Mag I really question ad placement for cushy reviews (it’s not happening folks). It’s a serious charge to make, even in this forum. I don’t buy it frankly as these big companies advertise in pubs like that every month. And for the most part they’ll own franchise ad positions (Cover 1, Opposite Table of Contents, etc). There’s no quid pro quo at these magazines. Trek has to advertise in Bicycling Mag…they have the biggest circulation and do the most bike reviews. At the same time, American Tri and Triathlete Mag don’t have on staff bike reviewers. Mostly they use outsiders to review them. Bike reviews are not core to their publications editorial franchise. Frankly I question it when magazines uses “experts” to review products that happen to work in bike/tri shops that carry (or don’t carry) the brands of bikes they are reviewing. There’s a question of bias there, even if the reviewer has the best intentions (and they mostly do I believe). This type of review (and reviewer) happens in 1 particular tri publication every issue (this is a fact as I know reviewers personally). Bottom line is that magazines like this are tough to make a profit on. They pay peanuts for these product reviews (500-1000 bucks) and what you get is fluff for the most part. However I read all 3 tri pubs every issue as I love our sport, and find human interest stories, race reports, training tips, and the advertisements all to be worth spending the time and money.

I prefer both to the three Australian mags that we get. Although being a complete freak I actually get all five. The technical articles in the US mags are so much better than the aussie ones. Although there are a few new writers in the aussie mags that can really write entertaining race reports which are severly lacking in the US mags. Most of the content in aus mags seem to be race reports whereas the most of the US ones seem to be interviews and technical stuff.

I agree with the comments on training articles being focused on newbies. necessary i know, but not exactly difficult to write. The news and results will be outdated as most of it’s can be found on the web.

220 in the UK must have an annual spreadsheet showing which articles they are doing each month and then just rehash the prior year with some new photos. None of it is cutting edge and they look at swim, nike, run as indivdual sports rather than planning training as one sport.

I’m interested in how the pros and top age-groupers train.

The rest of the magazine is a useful addition to tea and cookies.

The best articles I have ever read on this were in Aussie Tri. http://www.oztri.com.au/index_nav.html

season 2001/02 where they got a coach to write about and detail training plans for 3 good age-groupers.

Really interesting reading and you can download the pdf files from the web.

Agreed: All are completely getting their lunch handed to them by Slowtwitch. Most magazine publishers don’t get the web. Therefore what could be a fantastic opportunity to use the web to extend the brand, content, and advertising/revenue opportunities goes completely to waste. Inside Tri has attempted to do the web thing, but their’s is not a quality effort. Dan’s the Man.

I get them both and like them both. The content is different in each and they’re just a couple of the many things I do to keep informed about the sport. Over the course of a year there will be several training articles that are helpful and many that aren’t. Product reviews are interesting but I would not rely on them solely to help me in deciding on a particular item. It would be nice if they didn’t find a product to be good that they would say that, but this is a litiguous society and I’m sure they have to be careful.

Insidetri tends to have more race coverage and it comes out much sooner after a race. Triathlete has more training articles, but they don’t always apply to me. Both have websites with other information not included in the mag.

All in all these mags are very similar to pubications about other sports. Some is good, some not so good, but still better than nothing.

Hey Paul, thanks for the great link! These are just the kind of articles I have been wishing Triathlete and Inside Triathlon would print.