Cycle World Magazine On The Selling Block

cycleworldmagazineThe recession has made 2009 a terror for most print media owners. Higher distribution costs, declining subscription and newsstand sales, reduced advertising budgets and successful competition from the Web 2 medias (Blogs and Interactive Social Networks), has put many of these magazines in the position where owners are unable or unwilling to continue to fund their titles.

Enthusiast print magazines are the most to suffer of this situation and unfortunately it includes motorcycle magazines. Hachette Media USA, a subsidiary of French Media Group Hachette is aggressively looking for a buyer of several of its enthusiast magazines, including Cycle World. Word of the sale effort of the #1 selling motorcycle magazine in the world appeared yesterday in the Delaney Report, a trade newsletter. Since the beginning of the year, ad pages in Cycle World declined 18%.

8 Responses to “Cycle World Magazine On The Selling Block”


  1. 1 J Mar 28th, 2009 at 9:39 pm

    Wow- startling news… Hope we don’t see it go the way of Cycle Guide and Cycle- I buy it for Peter Egan’s columns alone…. I wonder how elastic newstand pricing is, because it seems to me they could move a LOT more mags at $2 cover….. I imagine that Harley alone accounted for much of that 18% decline- one fewer Sportster ad, lol…..

  2. 2 Nicker Mar 28th, 2009 at 10:26 pm

    Well, since the (mine anyway) April CW issue arrived only as a cover (no binder-staple-holes) without inside pages, with a UPS sticker on it stamped “RECEIVED WITHOUT CONTENTS”……… if that’s CW’s idea of customer service it may be time they went out of business………… 🙁

    -nicker-

  3. 3 FUJI Mar 29th, 2009 at 10:13 am

    Nothing in print is (o)erfect but David Edwards, Kevin Cameron and others take me back and forward into what is going on in the motorcycle world, plus once in a while a column with Dave Despain.
    lets cross our fingers and hope for the best.

  4. 4 burnout Mar 30th, 2009 at 9:11 am

    I still prefer page turning to buttons on a ‘puter!! peace

  5. 5 Geno Mar 30th, 2009 at 11:03 am

    Sad News
    as it’s the Only mag I really READ besides ours

  6. 6 Kenny Price Mar 30th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    just because it is sold doesnt mean it will go away so stop the doom and gloom. it will all be ok in the end.

  7. 7 MCBill Mar 30th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    Kenny’s correct… in fact, with some new $$$ they may do even better… the current economy is NOT a permanent situation folks… home prices here in CA are starting to rise, as are the number of homes sold… CW is still going to be here…

  8. 8 J Mar 31st, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    Kenny and McBill- perhaps you missed the last sentence of the story:

    “Since the beginning of the year, ad pages in Cycle World declined 18%.”

    That’s not a formula for success, my friends- no matter how many foreclosed homes in CA they sell…..

    Big picture- the game is changing.

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Cyril Huze