 Poster: A snowHead
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Used to go into any WHSmith (or most any newsagent chain) and see several ski mags. Even if I didn't buy I used to give them all a darn good flick through. This season all I seem to see is Daily Mail Ski's £9.95 resort guide effort, Time Out's resort guide effort and sometimes the Daily Mail Ski mag itself but I have yet to see (at all anywhere) Fall Line, Ski & Board or Good Ski Guide on any news stand. Are they still going? Meantime, have seen and picked up Snow (for free!) at Ellis Brigham and Snow + Rock and a mate passed me a copy of Dark Summer (again free). Have the free mags killed off the others?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You must have heard that Good Ski Guide is still going, back under the ownership of your namesake. Don't you John Hills get together to discuss these things?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Frank Baldwin of "The Skier" mag was out here last week and handed out lots of copies.
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| Quote: |
Even if I didn't buy I used to give them all a darn good flick through.
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Perhaps this is the root of the problem 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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JohnHill, Brent Cross WH Smith had Ski+Board and Fall Line last time I was in (about a week ago). Fall Line was in a plastic bag with a 3-D piste map of Verbier, and a little Rough Guide book to travelling safely.
Ski mags might not be in stock because they've sold out - December is the peak month - though there does seem to be a general decline in newstand sales. Just as there is with newspapers.
I wonder if US ski magazines are on an upward or downward curve in sales?
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David Goldsmith, there's a couple which do reasonably well, but there are several others which have ditched the copy for adverts, and are on the decline.
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Ian Hopkinson, I'm told it's 6 flickers to every buyer! Anyway, they either need to make them fatter so you can't read it all standing there or seal them up.
David Goldsmith,
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Ski mags might not be in stock because they've sold out - December is the peak month
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thing is I've been looking since September. Can't understand why such a successful sport with approx 1 million following is so badly served by mags. Brent Cross is obviously the epicentre of our sport!
easiski, I'd completely forgotton about that one. Not seen it in years.
Martin Bell, I'll make it my business to look this bloke up... if I can find his mag. Do you Martin Bells all get together in your white suits to talk politics?
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Can only imagine WTFH has bought them all, tee hee 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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There's plenty of every title on the Isle of Wight...
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Sharkymark, unbelieveable, that indicates that they sell well there and there aren't too many flickers like me. Over the autumn I've been to mainline stations, the main airports and all round here in Surrey and been amazed by the lack of ski mags (and snowboard mags for that matter... only seen Document Snowboard) yet there's racks of mags for real minority passtimes.
Used to sometimes see Ski, Skiing and Powder but they've stopped distribution here obviously as well.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Only WHSmith has the full selection: everywhere else just has Ski and Board or DMS&S. Don't forget that over here 90% of the population can't read so flickers are a minority...I just look at the pictures... 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| JohnHill wrote: |
Ian Hopkinson, I'm told it's 6 flickers to every buyer! Anyway, they either need to make them fatter so you can't read it all standing there or seal them up.
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If they seal them, I just open the things up .
They are a complete bag of sh*te anyway. They should pay me to read them. Same applies to most magazines. I only skim them on the off chance that an article or two may be of interest.
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Latchigo, You're a serial de-sealer! You must also be the one who opens crisps in Sainsburys.
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They are a complete bag of sh*te anyway
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I kind of agree - pretty good on gear but poor on resorts, although you do get the odd feature that's worth the read. It's the amount of obviously paid for editorial or ads bang next to editorial that takes their cred away.
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You know it makes sense.
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| JohnHill wrote: |
Latchigo, You're a serial de-sealer! You must also be the one who opens crisps in Sainsburys.
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Not guilty ! Never even go down that aisle. Crisps and sweets used to be a treat when I were a lad.
Now we've a Sainsbury's 'Local', essentials can be purchased just down the road. Other fruit and veg you buy wherever. There is absolutely no need to visit the big stores and get stuck behind people with £300 of stuff in their trollies. There is no need for all this frozen gear and food in boxes.
If you want to buy electrical stuff and clothing they've stores that specialise... in a High Street near you.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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In case anyone's interested I've just had a flick through my copy of Skier (and Snowboarder) and it looks pretty good. Plenty of ads of course, but also appears to be a fair bit of content with articles to suit most people. Lots of nice photos too. Their address is The skier & Snowboarder, PO bOx 386, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 1AQ - and no, I'm not on a comission!! I think you have to subscribe.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Does it have plenty of pictures for us Islanders...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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easiski,
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Plenty of ads of course
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if it wasn't for those you'd be flickin' thin air.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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SMALLZOOKEEPER, that would be like you buying all the skis.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| easiski wrote: |
| Frank Baldwin of "The Skier" mag was out here last week and handed out lots of copies. |
Good old Frank; great to hear "The Skier" is still going!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| JohnHill wrote: |
| Martin Bell, I'll make it my business to look this bloke up... if I can find his mag. Do you Martin Bells all get together in your white suits to talk politics? |
It's funny you should say that; we have had two cases of mistaken identity in the last 6 weeks... But no, I have not met my namesake and I'm sure he wouldn't be much interested in my views of politics.
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Good Ski Guide hahahahaha
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tinkerbell,
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Good Ski Guide hahahahaha
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is that code for something?
Martin Bell,
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"The Skier" is still going!
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but apparently only if you happen to bump into the actual editor in the alps and he hands you one.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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strewth, did she get a free copy as well?
easiski, What more do I want??? I just want to see a ski mag on the shelves before I see Weird Caravan Monthly or Crochet World or Pot Plant Insider. I really can't be ars*d with writing off to some bloke in Kent for a mag that I can't see or touch. How must those advertisers feel? A market of a million skiers and boarders (worth, by the way, approx £1 billion p.a.!) hasn't really got a mag on the shelves worth the £3.50 asking price... if you can find one anywhere that is.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'll buy Fall-Line and anything else that has articles that I want to read. I am interested in kit and resorts and one or two ideas I have picked up recently re resorts, was started by a mag/news paper article. I have kept the article and hope to get around to the off-beat places soon...
I always found the Good ski guide in papaerback a good idea but the web does these things just as well sometimes...
It all depends if the data relates to what you are looking for...so I buy as and when this appplies..
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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JT,
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I always found the Good ski guide in papaerback a good idea
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I think 'The Good Ski Guide' is a magazine 'The Good Skiing Guide' is/was the book 
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T Bar,
Maybe, I have lost my copy and it dates back to 1999 so might be a little out of date but it still has its uses
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You know it makes sense.
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JT, If you are talking about the book I agree though I think the pre 1994 ones were the most useful. 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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T Bar,
Yep, I had one dated '92, had better maps then IMV. I like the resort/accom info best. Things like lifts and runs you can easily cover and update
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Poster: A snowHead
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easiski,
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The trouble is you all look at them and don't buy them!!!
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Absolutely, by the time I've decided whether or not I'm happy to shell out £3.50 I discover that I've read it all. I'm just like most other flickers. A friend of mine in publishing told me an interesting "true" fact about us flickers... evidently in London it's 1:3, the further north you go the worse it gets til you reach Scotland (land of my fathers) where it's 1:12! This explains why Sharkeymark has got loads of ski mags in the Isle of Wight... they actually buy ski mags rather than flick 'em (but then there's not a lot going on outside of Cowes Week). Still, it is up to the publishers of UK ski mags to somehow make them more appealing to buy I guess. Mr Baldwin obviously goes even further by actually visiting his reader in person! Think I will, after all, write to him and see if he'll pop round .
T Bar,
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I think 'The Good Ski Guide' is a magazine 'The Good Skiing Guide' is/was the book
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Correct, although the book now has a the rather grander title of The Great Skiing Guide.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Wear The Fox Hat wrote: |
| SMALLZOOKEEPER, that would be like you buying all the skis. |
That would kinda be like me doing my job, buying skis.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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SMALLZOOKEEPER, I thought you said you sold skis, and worked closely with the manufacturers!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I've just set up a nationwide chain of ski magazine flick shops for the benefit of JohnHill and others. We guarantee to stock all ski magazines.
Entry is £1 per flick-hour. X-ray facilities are available for any magazines in plastic bags.
The chain is called WH Flicks, which stands for 'Wear Hat, Felicity'.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Wear The Fox Hat wrote: |
| SMALLZOOKEEPER, I thought you said you sold skis, and worked closely with the manufacturers! |
So far i've found it difficult running a business selling skiwear, without having to buy the equipment first. Fortunatly, as i work with a few of the manufacturers i am able to have a few products free. This is however not enough to sustain an enterprise such as ours, therefore we have turned our hands to trying to sell footwear correctly in order for our clients to better understand and feel the skis they use.
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Hello, Fall Line and Document magazines here.
We still exist and live on the newsstand in most places geographically, though not in all newsagents by a long stretch. The general trend seems to be that in September and October a few keen newsagents stock the first issues, then once it gets colder the ski and snowboard mags are more widely stocked. You can generally ask for any magazine by name and order it - the big issue with special-interest sports is that most smaller newsagents only take one or two mags and they aren't really keeping track of them unless they don't sell, in which case they drop them from their stocking policy. If they sell out, then all well and good, but they aren't going to increase their order unless badgered. They're looking at the big sellers - a big magazine shop chain will sell more copies of a women's weekly through a few shops than every ski and snowboard magazine sold through every newsagent in the UK in a season...
What we, and every other publisher, can do is direct copies into shops where people are looking for the magazines. If we know that Borders in Norwich, or Forebuoys in Abersoch etc doesn't have stock then we should be able to respond. What we need is the shop name, street and town. I could say 'please subscribe' but placing a regular order with a newsagent is just as good.
If people want to let me know where the mags aren't I can pass on the details to our distributors. After that you'll have go buy them or they won't appear again!
Details of ski shops who stock the mag are on our website www.fall-lineskiing.co.uk
Other ski and snowboard magazines are available, in good BBC reminder style...
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| fallliner wrote: |
| Other ski and snowboard magazines are available, in good BBC reminder style... |
yeah but let's be honest... they aren't as good.
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fallliner, welcome and thanks for posting a response - how many mags do you reckon are sold in the UK? (all titles combined).
It would be good to also hear from Frank Baldwin who, it seems, visits his reader poersonally in the alps and hands them a copy of his mag.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| fallliner wrote: |
Details of ski shops who stock the mag are on our website www.fall-lineskiing.co.uk
Other ski and snowboard magazines are available, in good BBC reminder style... |
Didn't even know about your mag until now! Just subscribed so I will know a lot more about it soon
ScottyDog
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Cheers for the responses: here's a stab at a number of mags sold... Er, about 60k per month in December and Jan - less before that. Across all disciplines. Actually, a newsagent would have to be selling pretty well to sell that many weeklies in a couple of shops, now I come to think of it. It's still small beer compared with, say mountain biking or classic cars or fishing, where a single mag can sell that many. But it's still quite a healthy number in total, given a lot of readers are the keen types who are group leaders and influence quite a few others.
We're always up for hearing stuff you'd like us to write about; we're majoring on gear this season and I'd welcome feedback on what people think of our gear testing.
Can I advertise the subs on this site? I'll pay, if that's what's needed.
Fallliner
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FAQ
