Cometh the hour, cometh the appropriate magazine launch. In the week that Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France, Dennis Publishing has announced the launch of Cyclist, a premium monthly road-cycling magazine in print and “enhanced” iPad app format (which we take to mean ‘more engaging than the print version’).
Print and digital issues of Cyclist will appear on Wednesday 19th of September, priced at £5 (now that really is premium).
Apparently, Dennis’s research has shown that, in addition to the huge growth in cycling (British Cycling membership doubled in the last two years to 50,000), modern road cycling enthusiast have become a lot more picky about where they cycle (exotic places), what they look like, and how their bikes perform.
The editor of Cyclist is Pete Muir, who edited Men’s Fitness for 8 years, during which circulation rose by 36% to almost 70,000. In 2010 he was made editorial director of Dennis’ Fitness Division. Muir is himself a passionate road cyclist, having ridden Mont Ventoux and an Etape du Tour for Men’s Fitness. That’s serious passion, no doubt about it. Even walking up Mont Ventoux is a challenge, as we can testify.
Cyclist will be launching with a 50,000 print run and what it claims is a £500,000 marketing budget. £500,000 for a monthly magazine launch? Has someone been on Le Pot Belge, as they say in cycling circles?
Launching straight into the close season, when all that’s going is cyclocross? That looks like a risky plan. But Felix usually has the happy knack of surfing the wave.