Cycle World Forges Ahead
CYCLE WORLD FORGES AHEAD
a progress report
Recent months have seen a great number of words written about motorcycling as a sport, transportation, or just for fun; there has also been a considerable amount of wordage spread around regarding the existence of new magazines and how they are not needed in the “limited” field of motorcycling.
To us here at CYCLE WORLD the word “limited” does not exist. The sport, or business, of cycling is one of the largest in the world. To call a field limited when there are almost one million registered motorcycles in the U.S., and how many more thousands that are ridden solely in competition and therefore not registered for use on the highways, is pure insanity. Since our first issue a short time ago (and we can proudly say “a short time ago” because we do not feel that ten, or twenty, or even fifty years of publishing a magazine automatically means that it is the best), we have received hundreds of letters, and they continue coming in.
Every letter has been from a rider, enthusiast or someone involved in the motorcycle business. Every letter has confirmed what we felt when CYCLE WORLD was founded, and that was simply that cycle enthusiasts wanted a magazine which was truly designed for them. The staff at CYCLE WORLD is made up of motorcycle enthusiasts with a total of over 200 years of active participation and enthusiasm for cycles. And almost as many years of publishing, editing and assembling enthusiasts’ magazines.
CYCLE WORLD was founded amidst tremendous opposition. We have managed to win much of it over to our side, but there is still a great deal of resistance; we are told by too many people that the cycling field is small and limited. The only smallness and limitation in motorcycling is in the stagnant minds of certain people who keep it that way and are not really capable of expanding. We have only to cite such far-sighted, contemporary thinking as displayed by the American Honda Company that is fast expanding the motorcycle fervor into wider and more diversified fields.
We read also that throughout the years motorcycle magazines have sprung up and then disappeared just as fast. We too have seen them come and go, and as enthusiasts, not professional magazine publishers, we can cite why in only a handful of words: Most of them, though sincere efforts, contained little to read, little to learn, did not inform or entertain and were not professionally assembled.
These are the reasons they are no longer around, not because the field was already filled or that there was not enough interest because the field was “limited.”
Finally, it is being said, and all too often, that there is no demand for a new magazine. If this is true, why are thousands of riders buying CYCLE WORLD? If it is true, why are we receiving hundreds of letters telling us that CYCLE WORLD is exactly what they have wanted for years? If it is true, simply, why are we being so gratefully accepted by you riders?
The magic word “circulation” is the business world name for a category in which all magazines, including CYCLE WORLD, are forced to become involved. It is a phrase we are thoroughly disgusted with, but one we cannot ignore.
We say “disgusted” because in the world of magazine publishing, though we are small compared to the giants of the general interest magazines, it has become almost common practice to distort these figures, practically give magazines away with cut-rate subscription prices, and often even lie and cheat, in order to increase that magical figure. All towards one end only. The more people that see an advertiser’s message, the more a magazine is entitled to charge for it.
It is only right, because, as we print more magazines, the costs rise astronomically. All of this has little or nothing to do with the value of the magazine to the reader.
To potential CYCLE WORLD advertisers, circulation means the actual number of people who see their advertisement, and consequently buy their products. To us here at CYCLE WORLD it means simply the number of magazines we sell each month. It is not difficult to determine the value of circulation, knowing these facts. We are distributing 60,000 copies each month, 50,000 of which appear on thousands of newsstands across the country. We now have more than 500 motorcycle shops selling over 6,500 copies per month. When this issue went to press we had over 4,000 subscribers, and they are increasing by the hundreds every week of the month. These figures are our circulation; they reflect the way CYCLE WORLD is being accepted all over the U.S. They are the true facts that indicate our success, and in only three issues.
It has been said also, that these new magazines are trying to set new trends in the industry and to “upgrade” the motorcycle field.
We are not trying to set trends, we are not trying to “up-grade” motorcycling. We are simply publishing a magazine for motorcycle enthusiasts that is intelligently written, technically informative and accurate, newsworthy, critically discerning, entertaining, and professionally assembled with the mature, adult motorcyclist reader in mind. We feel, and our mail supports us, that we are accomplishing our goal. •
Joe Parkhurst
