 Poster: A snowHead
|
Their latest press release:
Summit of Success
Daily Mail Ski & Snowboard Magazine Ascends the
Media Mountain with Increased Distribution
Today, the UK’s most established magazine for the ski and snowboard community further enhances its best-selling credentials in the winter sports magazine market. Already outselling its rivals 3:1* on the news stand, the periodical glossy is now significantly increasing its reach after securing additional distribution deals with the UK’s biggest winter and outdoor sports exhibitions.
The November issue, which doubles as the official show guide at the UK’s largest Ski & Snowboard Show in London will now also be distributed at The British Ski & Board Show in Birmingham. The deal negotiated between VOS Media and Global Snow Shows will allow the November issue to reach an additional 65,000 visitors between the two shows. The ‘bumper’ edition has increased in size to 196 pages to accommodate further editorial and advertising for big name brands including Land Rover, North face, Roxy, Mark Warner and Easy Jet.
The February issue of the magazine will also boast an improved circulation when it doubles as the official guide for the Outdoors Show and newly introduced London Bike Show with a further 20,000 copies of the issue being distributed. The shows will take place in London’s ExCeL from the 13th-16th January 2011.
James Nathan, Group Sales Manager for VOS Snowsports said: “For over 20 years the Daily Mail Ski and Snowboard Magazine has delivered a fantastic mix of winter sports editorial, supported by targeted advertising aimed at our engaged and affluent readership. This significant increase in distribution will ensure that our advertisers are even better served going forward.”
The publication which has been in print since 1988 has grown year on year, and now commands a 41% share of the market with a readership of 80,000 and a loyal subscription base of more than 3,000 winter sports enthusiasts.
Despite a 13% downturn in the snow sports industry and a 6% drop in UK magazine sales* the Daily Mail Ski and Snowboard Magazine continues to attract major advertisers to its pages, selling all of the media space for the October issue two weeks ahead of deadline.
Six magazines are published each season from October to March with a cover price of £3.99. each features quality editorial from resort reports, equipment tests, technique tips to all the latest news and views from the slopes. It is supported annually with its sister website www.metrosnow.co.uk which boasts 64,000 subscribers.
The Daily Mail Ski and Snowboard Magazine is distributed by Comag and available in all major retailers including WHSmiths, Sainsburys, Tesco, Waitrose, Snow+Rock as well as many independent and specialist outlets
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 4-09-10 11:46; edited 2 times in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
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?
|
Lordsurfing, we'll send a car as usual.
I'm going to both (because I did something really bad in a previous life) so see you by the free beer area.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
Bode Swiller, Thank you  The usual car will be fine, but please as it's oop Norf will it need to be armoured?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Boredsurfing, no, it won't be an off-the-shelf Bland Rover
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
I stopped buying that mag ages ago...waste of money !
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Swiller, thanks for that.
Springing from Chris Brookes's point, what's the current number of DMS&S copies sold? It's not a massive task, or a massive challenge to an editorial team, to give away magazines (which seems to be the main focus of that press release).
It's interesting that the mag still carries 'Daily Mail' in its title. The VOS Media website 'Who we are' doesn't state (which would be interesting) 'Who owns us'.
Sorry - I'm trying to keep up, in an ever-changing world.
Incidentally, the DMS&S website - confusingly called Metroski.co.uk - is just the sort of site that skiers who use ski-networking (such as this site) wouldn't bother with:
http://www.metrosnow.co.uk/the_magazine/
Finally ... why is the magazine now not called 'Metro Ski and Snowboard'? [that was a branding question, and only branding experts should respond, please]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sounds like they're upping their circulation figures by giving copies away ... not surprised myself given I might consider taking a free copy but certainly wouldn't waste my money by paying for it!
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
So does the free copy of thew mag that you used to recieve as you walk through the door at the ski show count as circulation?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Last year I bought every issue of DMS&S, and every issue of Fall Line, and every issue of DCMT and every issue of S&B.
Add that up. I could have had a last minute holiday for that money. What a chump.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
I signed up to this publication for the season ahead, hope I'm not disappointed!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
| roga wrote: |
| Sounds like they're upping their circulation figures by giving copies away ... not surprised myself given I might consider taking a free copy but certainly wouldn't waste my money by paying for it! |
me too.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's the 'Daily Mail' bit that puts me off. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
| Bob wrote: |
| So does the free copy of the mag that you used to recieve as you walk through the door at the ski show count as circulation? |
Good question. I used to work (1978 to 1994) on a competing ski magazine to DMS&S. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), as I recall, required that publishers prove that giveaway magazines were genuinely going into people's hands. I recollect that DMS&S used to take people's names/addresses when handing out the freebie, but maybe this was to draw up a mailing list.
Hundreds of thousands of Evening Standard newspapers are given away every day in London and - of course - none of this reader identification happens.
Publications certainly have to distinguish between paid and unpaid circulation in their audits.
If paid-for ski magazines are currently challenged for survival (in the face of web publishing) then, I guess, the DMS&S has to prove that it reaches skiers who won't necessarily look at other media - particularly online media.
Then there's the question of how many of our 1 million+ UK skiers are going to ski shows?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
David E Goldsmith, which mag did you work on?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Maybe they think 'Metro Ski' sounds too much like that guy who skied down Angel underground station escalator
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
roga, I was equipment editor, then associate editor, of Ski Survey. We peaked (sic) at about 28,000 (12,000 newstand plus 16,000 SCGB subscriber copies) about the year 1991/2 (from memory).
I believe that UK ski magazine publishing is desperately unprofitable generally (and has been for a very long time) so it would be interesting to see what's about this winter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
Daily Mail Ski Mag 1988 - cut, copy, paste = Daily Mail Ski & Snowboard Mag 1989, 1990, 1991 ......you get the drift.
I stopped my subscription a couple of years back because of the above.
Don't know what other s think, but I think there should be a magazine that covers ski racing, technique, off piste/ski touring and reviews of various resorts - with the most popular resorts for UK skiers getting say a 4-5 page review??? Fall Line covers the ski touring aspect, Ski Racer (?) does the FIS circuit and the DMS&S kinda does the resort views but usually places where the vast majority of mortals will never go. No magazine that I've found yet does all aspects
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
I'm probably exactly the sort of reader that DMS&S count on. I buy it every month - more because its part of the ritual of building up for my annual ski hols than because the mag's particularly intersting. It is remarkably repatative year in, year out, but I just can't stop myself 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
| David E Goldsmith wrote: |
| roga, I was equipment editor, then associate editor, of Ski Survey. We peaked (sic) at about 28,000 (12,000 newstand plus 16,000 SCGB subscriber copies) about the year 1991/2 (from memory). |
Was that when every few months they'd stick Charles & Di on the cover just to p*ss me off? 
| Quote: |
| I believe that UK ski magazine publishing is desperately unprofitable generally (and has been for a very long time) so it would be interesting to see what's about this winter. |
Agreed, frankly it's amazing that the UK has so many ski magazines IMHO.
| boabski wrote: |
| Don't know what other s think, but I think there should be a magazine that covers ski racing, technique, off piste/ski touring and reviews of various resorts - with the most popular resorts for UK skiers getting say a 4-5 page review??? Fall Line covers the ski touring aspect, Ski Racer (?) |
Racer Ready
| Quote: |
| does the FIS circuit and the DMS&S kinda does the resort views but usually places where the vast majority of mortals will never go. No magazine that I've found yet does all aspects |
I agree with that but can any one magazine cater for all parts of the market successfully?
I think the thing about the UK ski market is it's on paper big enough to support a magazine or two but in reality it's so diverse and each segment of the market is small enough to make catering for their needs marginal. For example the interests of the once a year or first time holiday skier can be very different to those (many on here) who make great efforts to take 2/3 or more weeks away on the snow. Most of the mags are based in the south where the obvious choice is to head to the Alps but where does that leave those highly committed enthusiasts in the north of England and Scotland who ski locally every weekend during the season or for that matter those all over the UK regularly training or racing on dry or in domes? Most UK magazines pay lip service at best to the home scene, perhaps understandably preferring to report on their jollies abroad. A further problem occurs when a magazine doesn't even fully cater for it's core market, hence the criticisms of magazines like DMS&S for too often publishing reviews of resorts that are way out of the price range of most of their readers.
Personally for a light and quick read I find some of the free magazines are better than the paid for ones, at least with them you can't dispute that you're not getting what you paid for!
As to my personal tastes I regularly read Fall Line, which makes a reasonable stab at reflecting a more committed view of what goes on as well as grabbing the freebies for a mostly fluffy read, apart from Dark Summer which I actively look for and, although I'm a bit old to be taking air switch off enourmous kickers, does have that difficult to find lifestyle view of skiing (at least abroad and on artificial surfaces in the UK - however it ignores the very active Scottish scene completely which to me is it's major failing!). Other than that I go North American with Powder and Freeskier which, at the very least, have some awesome photography and some decent journalism in them, albeit from an American perspective.
Many people I suspect though just get their fix off the net which must have made a real dent in the circulation of all the magazines we're discussing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As far as I can see, each and every UK ski magazine is nailing its coffin by not getting to grips with web 2.0 and social networking.
At the end of the day (i.e. once the apres bars are getting going) it's about publishing news that skiers want to read, discriminating consumer advice and tips on all aspects of what skiers spend their money on (which is a huge area) ... and that magic commodity that falls from the sky and needs to be measured/monitored/videoed.
Much of this can now be networked by people in the know or on the snow, in websites like this one.
And with video links you have visual content that's ten times more exciting than static photos in expensively printed magazines.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've always quite liked Fall-line though it seemed to go downhill last year with too much common content with Document Snowboard (which when launched was a tidy little mag in its own right).
Although I've picked up DMSS on occasion I've never really gone overboard on it as to me its too narrowly focused on the TO market skier and "sponsored" advice. Have they ever run an article where they just went on a road trip and skied the small places TOs don't touch?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
The only magazines I regularly buy are Private Eye (very poor skiing content) and Time Out on subscription (one ski article per annum in a good year).
I used to go to Old Compton Street in Soho to buy US ski magazines from a newsagent that sold an astonishing array of foreign magazines - but that was back in the 1980s and early 1990s. Still have a stack of them. Used to get Powder on subscription, and once visited their building in California which was fun. The best French ski magazines used to be excellent. Haven't seen one for a while.
When I was heavily involved in ski magazine writing I felt it was essential to keep tabs on all this media, even Japanese ski magazines (the largest of all time, in their heyday, I should think).
Now the web is much more interesting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
fatbob, I haven't bothered re-subscribing to Fall-line
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
A shame that there are no highly regarded skiing publications out there. The net is great for information and all, but I personally think it's better to mix things up with a hard copy in equal measure.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cheers, I'll take a look.
This is going slightly off topic but is anyone here a member of the Ski Club of Great Britain? The site looks like a wealth of information, and a good hub for all things snow related (like snowheads of course ) I'm planning on signing up with them soon.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
-[c0Ka|Ne]-, Yes, but tbh I joined for the discount on a package holiday and haven't really explored the "members only" bit of their site yet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
| Alexandra wrote: |
| "members only" bit |
Couldn't find it. Is it really secretive?
Edit [malfunction]: I thought this was a reference to a 'members only' bit of the DMS&S website. Of course I do know the members section of the SCGB site.
Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Sat 4-09-10 8:28; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
| -[c0Ka|Ne]- wrote: |
Cheers, I'll take a look.
This is going slightly off topic but is anyone here a member of the Ski Club of Great Britain? The site looks like a wealth of information, and a good hub for all things snow related (like snowheads of course ) I'm planning on signing up with them soon. |
I used to be but stopped ages ago as it was not worth it !!
It would be interesting to see in a vote how many Snowheads are members of the SCGB or used to be !!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Chris Brookes, what made you think it wasn't worth it?
I might well start up a new thread with that vote, certainly would be interesting to see who here is/was a member, and here some opinions about it as well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
| -[c0Ka|Ne]- wrote: |
Chris Brookes, what made you think it wasn't worth it?
I might well start up a new thread with that vote, certainly would be interesting to see who here is/was a member, and here some opinions about it as well. |
value for money and they dont care !!
example -
I informed them at the beginning of August that they needed to update a piste map on three resorts as the current one they are using is over 3 years old....they kindly acknowledged my email but did nothing about it !!
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Sun 5-09-10 23:17; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
never benn a member, not ever really interested me enough to enroll.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
| Chris Brookes wrote: |
| -[c0Ka|Ne]- wrote: |
Chris Brookes, what made you think it wasn't worth it?
I might well start up a new thread with that vote, certainly would be interesting to see who here is/was a member, and here some opinions about it as well. |
value for money and they dont care !!
example -
I informed them at the beginning of August that they needed to update a piste map on three resorts as the current one they are using is over 3 years old....they kindly acknowledged my email but did nothing about it !! |
That's quite bad considering they are supposed to be a somekind of snowsports hub for the UK. Judging by all the negative responses, think I'll pass...
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
and they have reps based in the 3 resorts !!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Human reps or the cardboard cutout variety? 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Chris Brookes wrote: |
| -[c0Ka|Ne]- wrote: |
Chris Brookes, what made you think it wasn't worth it?
I might well start up a new thread with that vote, certainly would be interesting to see who here is/was a member, and here some opinions about it as well. |
value for money and they dont care !!
example -
I informed them at the beginning of August that they needed to update a piste map on three resorts as the current one they are using is over 3 years old....they kindly acknowledged my email but did nothing about it !! |
Just a guess, but word has it that they are launching a brand spanking new site (or is it a brand new spanking site?) If it were me and the new site was imminent, I'd make the amends on the new site and not bother update the old one. However, as it isn't me, I bet the change isn't made to the new one either but worth checking.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chris Brookes, blimey, has this situation been eating away at you for all that time? They've caused you much stress and you should now sue for damages.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
