Skateboarding is much more than footage filmed in a warehouse
Who knew Skateboarder had so many subscriptions? I always forget they are still publishing. What’s that? Right. This post title is from the latest Transworld Skateboarding sales pitch. If you’re selling a product, they want your advertising dollars. Key selling points:
We know that there are a lot of options out there, most of which are new to the game yet claim to be everything skateboarding, but skateboarding is much more than footage filmed in a warehouse, or focus on the so-called core or elitist scene. Skateboarding has moved way beyond those walls, and TWS covers the gamut.
More than footage filmed at a warehouse? Well that’s obviously aimed at the Berrics, and core or elitist probably refers to Thrasher. Transworld appears to have the largest circulation, but they must be hurting a little. Transworld Business recently went to a subscription only format. In five years or so, they’ve gone from a free, healthy sized dedicated publication for the business of skateboarding down to a very thin one that combines surfing and snowboarding too, and requires a paid subscription. It’s only a matter of time before they pick up Kiteboardng too. It’s no secret I’ve got a beef with TWS, even though I used to be a subscriber. Actually, my biggest beef is with the staff at Business. I tried for a couple of years to get into their so-called free buyers guide only to be alternately lied to and completely ignored. They wouldn’t even come clean and tell me that I needed to advertise.
TransWorld SKATEboarding Awards, a franchise event that will also 2010 is here, feature the premiere of the 22nd TWS film, Hallelujah.
So they support skateboarding by hosting an event for the people in their magazine and selling videos. OK, I’m being a little cynical here, obviously. I support skateboarding because I sell skateboards.
So ask yourself, where is my budget best spent: on a selfserving Web site/magazine with a low subscription base, or with media partner that has the print numbers and a Web site that covers everything skateboarding, all while supporting our industry since 1983?
This selfserving web site and former print zine has only been supporting the industry since 1985. We have about a third as many people reading our pages (Unique vistiors in a month) than subscribe to TWS, all on .005% of the budget. Or less? I’m not getting cocky. I’m sure their web traffic dwarfs ours. Read the Skate Publishers Letter 2010. These guys know how to relate to skateboarders. Aside from SKATEboarding, They publish Yachting Magazine and run the Yacht Broker web site. Alright, I’m being pissy. I am formally suggesting that all true skaters should only buy products that advertise in what is obviously the only true skateboarding magazine, Transworld SKATEboarding. TransWorld SKATEboarding has been the largest, most progressive and most respected skateboarding magazine in the world for over 26 years.
P.S. I usually pick up a copy in the airport when I’m flying. Last time I did it was actually a pretty good read.
P.P.S. TWS once appropriated one of my posts without any credit. It was no coincidence, they read the post on S&A and asked me directly for the source contact.
P.P.P.S. I used to work for Times Mirror when they owned Transworld Business.
P.P.P.P.P.S. I relaize the irony in potentially actually helping their advertising sales by making this letter available to a larger audience, but I don’t care because that’s just how much I support skateboarding!
Posted by: kilwag on January 29th, 2010
More posts by kilwag
Categories: Industry Crap, Media Watch, Skate
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I think there should be a skate mag with only non-skate advertising. Then you praise or talk shit about anyone and everything without have to worry about pissing off your advertising clientele.
Fuck Transworld. It’s a total piece of shit and has been for years. Of course, Thrasher is much the same these days. I bought this months issue to get the free DVD and was disgusted by the complete lack of any real content.
And TWS “covers the gamut”? What, they cover slalom? Longboarding? Pool skating? If by gamut they mean street, then I guess they do. Douchebags.
I agree with houseofneil on this, I only magazine diverse out there is CW. Juice is ok too.
TWS and the rest hurt skateboarding by making it one dimensional. They have the draw and avalibility to expose their readers to more then what they are offering. I’m hopeing that they will take the nod from more guttsy publishers and gradually enter storys and editorials into there issues.
I miss Big Brother Magazine
Lowcard.
dang do they even donate money 4 skateparks?… cuz they gotta b makin fuckin bank. and fuck transworld the’ll put a fake pic on a cover they did with alex chalmers in reedsport
CONFIDENTIAL
MEMO TO ALL STAFF OF THE FOLLOWING PUBLICATIONS:
Transworld (Skate, Surf, Snow, Ride BMX, Motocross and Business)
Working Mother, Conceive, Babytalk, Parenting
Fly Fishing in Salt Waters, Field & Stream, Yachting, Cruising World
SUBJECT: New Procedures & Policies
FROM: M. Shugenvagen, Chief Operating Officer
As many of you are aware, 2009 was an acutely difficult year for a number of the titles in the Bonnier Family. The recession, combined with a migration of print advertising to the web had an overwhelming negative impact on our cash-flow projections. Effectively immediately, the following new procedures are to be implemented. We know that these are challenging times but with your help and support, we are confident that we will emerge a stronger company.
1. In an effort to increase maximum production time, all staff will be expected to show up at work at 9:00 am Stockholm time. This equates to 3:00 AM for our East Coast staff and 10:00 pm for the West Coast. You will be expected to leave work only when it reaches 5 pm at your local time zone. Effectively immediately, the 40-hour work week, is now officially a “70-hour” week. We suggest buying additional cases of Red Bull and No-Doze pills.
2. We will be merging the following titles: Transworld Skate, Surf, Snow, Ride BMX and Motocross to form a new publication called Reaction Now.
3. Conceive will be merged Yachting and Fly Fishing in Salty Waters to create a new title called: Seaman.
4. We have terminated all the janitors. All staff of Parenting Magazine with children 5 years and older are required to bring their offspring to work at least three times per week for light cleaning duties.
5. Cruising World will be officially rebranded as a publication for all those skateboard companies marketing “cruisers.” We see a vast potential in this title.
6. As of February 1st, 2010, the cafeteria will substitute horse meat in all servings of meatballs.
On behalf of the management team, we thank you for your efforts in this trying time.
Sincerely,
Marcus
Marcus Shugenvagen – Chief Operating Officer Bonnier Corporation
Actually, when I first started skating in 1988, TWS actually DID cover all types of skating: Pools, slalom, downhill… they even had an article on land luge once. It’s funny how many steps we’ve taken backwards in our search for “progression”…
they all suck IMO….full of lame ads and they pretty much only cover street skating. Skating is so much bigger and more creative than that.
I know it’s all the rage and everything but how many photos of stair rails, and step count ollies can anyone really enjoy ? There’s other things, and places to skate out there, but I don’t see it gettin’ covered. Juice is tiny compared to the others I guess but they get the ‘gamut’, Thrasher has more variety than the other three ‘contenders’ in the list.
JUICE MAG ,HARCORE WITH REAL CONTENT. WHAT THRASHER WAS
BACK IN THE DAY
JUICE FTW !
I miss Slap.
I miss Slap too. I don’t miss slappies though, I still do ‘em
Buy Transworld, eat hotdogs and join the Army, all while seeing the same magazine month after month. I enjoy Skateboarder, but you can read it cover to cover in a single sitting. The Skateboard Mag usually does a good job, but try selling these things. No kid under 20, that I know, has probably ever purchased any of these. Bummer, how religiously did you use to study these way back when? I know I did, just saying.
I used to pour over those things like they were survival guides. Blueprints for the future.
I would read every printed line several times during the month between new issues, I even got in trouble in class all the time for reading Thrasher and not paying attention.
That’s pore kilwag but I know exactly what you mean. I found a copy of the first Skateboarder mag I owned with Greg Weaver on the cover and as I started to look through it began know what to expect on the following page and remembered I must have read it 1000 times looking for something I might have missed. I feel for those kids who had to do that with TWS.
If you guys are bummed on most skateboard publications, I would like to point out Concrete Wave. They cover all of the bases of skateboarding. Although I am sure you guys are well aware of the magazine.
How about SkateThreat, Way Out of Line, and Lapper? member em? Yeah EAST!
I think Garric’s comment is a thinly veiled insult aimed at the median age of the readers here. No matter, Concrete Wave blows chunks. Sure it’s “balanced” but it’s artificially balanced. Slalom coverage is boring no matter how you spin it.
I think I used to practically memorize Skateboarders in the ’70s- why else would I still have a name like Bela Horvath stuck in my head?
Last few issues of CW I grabbed were all downhill, longboard and little else. Nothing wrong with longboards… wish we had hills here, but they DO cover that more than the other ‘types’ of skateboarding. It’s their “feature”.
I think G’s comment is thinly veiled defensiveness, of the twenty somethin variety. Many of them are defensive about the fact that their skating is more “two dimensional”. And actually, it’s the sideways, not the vertical, dimension that it’s often relatively weak in. And given that they do the neato Harrier jet vertical take off and landing stuff best, many of them feel its no fair that some old farts recognizably TURN much better. They don’t mind so much when it’s a “park generation” grom, who is at least spry like them, and whom they could remind is not where they’re at yet two-dimensionally. But when there’s no carping to begin with, the 3 and 2 dimension camps actually tend to respect one anothers’ abilities… but when a magazine turns into a “second party” stroke job for one camp or the other, well, it’s embarrassing to witness. (And yep, I’m talking about ol’ Jake “sticky fingers” Phelps.)
Check out the list of magazines TWS parent company owns
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnier_Corporation
I have bought TW for the covers before but I hate the thing
Thrasher is still quite a bit better than those
other three IMO.
It’s all good.
There’s that. And their video’s aren’t sold-out BS.
(There is not that It’s all good; I was responding to Lasagna… and din’t mean to make videos possessive, for that mater.)
What percentage of skateboarders actually read print skate magazines? My guess would be <1%.
Us old kooks are still reading them…AND we’re tech savvy. Capiche ?
Anyone else ever subscribe to “Freezine” out of Canada in the 1980′s?
I’d think that most skaters that read these mags
don’t subscribe to ‘em. I never did and I used to
read Thrasher and Trans every month. Wonder what
there circulation is?
Its so funny to read these posts. You dudes are old and WAY out of touch with whats happening now…70′s skateboarders and Greg Wearver? Downhill? Thank god the major magazines dont cater to your needs. We’d be seeing “aleeve” ads and adult diaper ads instead of hotdogs. Good luck old farts with your “glory days” mentality.
Gerald you need to learn how to read. Nobody in the comments actually wants to see that sort of thing.
Did I miss a Greg Weaver post? I must have been out riding my skateboard downhill. Or maybe my memory is getting as bad as my bladder control.
WTF has a name like Gerald and chides ANYONE on sounding “old”? haha ok, whatever, tell your girlfriend, Norma, about it.
seams appropriate that gerald uses hot dog ads to define his generation….must love munching on weiners.
Shut up. Who cares. It’s over. The jocks won.
Gerald, you’re wet behind the ears. The rest of you are crusty old pad-dads. I’m an asshole. TWS is tight-pants street-tech. Phelps is a coke-addled fuck-wit. Lowcard is bro-hard.
Print is dead. The web is the future of communication. Define it all by yourself. Find an appropriate site.
Start your own.
I miss Concussion.
SK8 D, when I saw, “instead of hotdogs” I thought he meant, “hotdogger”, almost like, “hotshot”.
Like what what my grandpa’s generation called good surfers.
I honestly never considered it to mean actual hotdog ads because…well, have you seen the new issue of TSM? Thrasher?
Yeah, all those hot dog ads the mag is sprinkled with? Oh, I know, you get 2 measly articles and all the rest of the pages you flip thru are hotdog this and corndog that!
Im so tired of Oscar Meyer and Nathans monopolizing our scene! When will skateboarding see an end to all this hotdoggery?!
gerald, so we are “way out of touch with what’s happening now” eh? Man that sounds like something Neil Rick from the Young Ones would have said. But Gerald, I’ll play. Please to explain how the multitude of ads (most not even skate related), and stale, repetitive content of the major skate mags “cater to your needs”. There seriously is almost nothing of value in there. What do you see in there that we don’t? Remember, we might be old, but that means that we’ve seen skateboard magazines for 30 years, and believe us when we tell you that they gargle balls today.
I thought he was talkin about ball park franks yo. hot dogs, slim jims, red bull, and proactive acne medicine….i don’t see a connection.
ROFL @ “Gargle Balls” Stolen. ;)