I guess you know. The 2 fastest growing segments of the powersports industry (although not dominant) are scooters and trikes. So Genevieve Schmitt, an award-winning motorcycle magazine editor with more than 20 years of experience working in both the television and print mediums just launched Scooter Riders Now and Trike Riders Now. The “scootering” and “trikering” lifestyles have of course their own specificities, parts, accessories and clothing. Genevieve created each site to encourage interaction, inviting readers to share their riding stories, to send their testimonials on the scooter or trike they ride, the accessories and equipment they use. Genevieve Schmitt, an expert motorcycle rider, (also publisher since 2006 of Women Riders Now) will personally test new models and publish their reviews inviting readers to comment and share their own experience. FYI, her company, Solitude Ranch Communications, provides television and video production services, freelance writing services, and marketing communication services. You can reach her at: gschmitt@womenridersnow.com (by the way, Genevieve was one of the firsts to interview me and shoot me riding for a TV show and it was a long time ago..)
Genevieve Schmitt Launches 2 Online Magazines For Scooters And Trikes.
Published by March 11th, 2009 in Builders, Editorial and Events.7 Responses to “Genevieve Schmitt Launches 2 Online Magazines For Scooters And Trikes.”
- 1 Pingback on Mar 24th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
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Congrats Genevieve. More bikes, more parts, more magazines keep the industry alive. Cyril, you know all the attractive women of the industry! Not surprised.
Cruisers, scooters and trikes are very different markets with a different culture. So, I think its’ right to have a magazine for each segment. It seems that women are more and more in charge in the motorcycle industry.
Woman power!
Mmmmm – this is a great topic – I dont know if this is such a good thing for the industry. I dont know that it matters one way or the other. Its the way the world is turning…
it is interesting to me that the motorcycle marketplace is going to a more fractured place so quickly, It used to be that motorcycle riders clustered around 2 main watercolors – Import & American, then the water coolers became brand driven, breaking up the group into even more chunks, then the group got fractionated even more by geography, by racing, not racing, dirt/ street, drag racing/flat track, chopper/ bobber, bagger/sportbike, old skool/new school etc, etc.. lots of little groups, this is the domain of digital communications – this never could have happened to this extent without the internet.
I think a by-product of this ever-smaller clustering is a greatly diminished overall voice and influence – and increasingly smaller and smaller pockets of community that cannot be supported commercially… the long tail, so to speak. We already have newsgroups and blogs for ever increasginly specific groups, soon we will see groups only for: “ trike riders/american engines/women/northeast/divorced/with children” – Who is going to pay for advertising to the 30 people that visit the site? Who is going to make the accessories to sell to this niche?
I dont see how print magazines can compete in that environment, the numbers dont work and the down-scaling is a killer for their current money making model. Free blogging software allows anyone to start their own community….this is an anathema to a paid-content publishers. Check out MagCloud – anyone can produce their own magazine – copy by copy – and for a reasonable price!
Mostly any “free blog” – is not creating their own content (doing that costs money and takes time), they are for the most part leveraging User Generated Content (like Cyril’s blog) where the show is put-on by the visitors and “commenters” – not by the hosts, who in essence are providing a stimulus, the community provides the response…the show worth watching.
interesting times, indeed… the ultimate question becomes – Whose content is worth paying for?, Whose content is valuable? Would you pay for it, if it wasn’t free anymore?
pretty heavy stuff there, steveb……. but I get it! peace