Is there a market for an Irish fitness magazine?

cmyk

...or is the market too small? Anyone want to float any ideas around?

Satanta

There is certainty a market for a good fitness magazine. I wouldnt bother my arse reading the stuff that is on the shelves at the moment.

Edwardius

A monthly PDF/newsletter thing might be a good idea at first. Rachel Crass was running strength+ over in that there america in PDF format (with a subscription), but now I think they're doing a printed run. Costs an absolute ****load apparently.

I think the whole "guest article" thing you've been running on your website was a good idea and would probably feed into this sort of thing. What sort of content did you plan on, interviews etc? You could have a directory of coaches/athletics/sports clubs and get them to talk about what they're all at. Dunno if anyone else is doing it, I'd say go for it!

El Guapo!

If it was a good quality magazine with good quality info then I know I'd buy it.
But I'd say its a tough market. You'd have to drag people away from the likes of "Men's Health Magazine" and other tripe. And even though your magazine will probably be 1000 times better, your still competing with a monster brand which is always hard. Plus they have huge advertising budgets which would be too hard to compete with.
IMO the best bet at the minute for a magazine is to couple together 2 types of Irish magazines that the market is lacking.....a quality mma magazine, and a health and fitness magazine. If you can successfully put these two together into 1 well organised mag and advertise it well in the early stages, you'd be onto a winner.

G86

cmyk wrote: »

...or is the market too small? Anyone want to float any ideas around?

It depends. The first thing I thought was 'yep, definitely'. But then I thought about the number of times I say 'no' to the cashier in Holland an Barrett who tries to sell me 'Healthy' magazine (I think that's what it's called!) everytime I'm in there.

You would definitely need to have info in it that's not readily available to people online already. Things like guest writers/interviews would be brilliant, and more articles that 'involve' the reader such as a gym review piece where you get a few readers to review a few local gyms by actually training there. If you did some kind of contra deal with the highest rated gym you could look at running a reader comp which offered free membership for a month, and then maybe doing a piece which follows that readers training. People like to read about real life stories, so something like that would be great, and if it ran over a few weeks it would entice them to keep buying the mag. You could also have a Q&A type column with a well-known sports personality/trainer in which readers could email in queries about their training/diet.

So I do think there's a market for it, but you need to have a balance of editorial content - where you appeal to the general everyday person who's just starting out, as well as the fitness fanatic/competitor.

Michael 09

cmyk wrote: »

...or is the market too small? Anyone want to float any ideas around?

If you go ahead with it can I be on the cover? I'm still upset about not getting mens health

Brian?

Unfortunately I don't think so. Your average Joe/Jane prefers to get their diet and exercise advice from magazines like Heat.

I'd love to see a decent mag on fitness produced in Ireland, but if you look at whats successful it's far from decent.

LFC5Times

I don't think it would be a runner tbh - I personally wouldn't be interested in spending money on a magazine and I also thing the overall market would be small not to mention a lot of work to get the magazine out there.

I'm sure you could get some gyms to sell it but they would want a cut and I'm sure there would be other gyms who wouldn't want to sell it - just because of the hassle of handing over and holding cash.

cmyk

Cheers for the feedback, I'm really just putting the feelers out at the moment. I'm not sure whether it's a runner at all. It would live and die on the advertising generated rather than sales at the stands. Plenty of ideas, as well as loads more coming down the line for the site...but the market size is the real issue.

Frogdog

Generally speaking, aren't magazines a bit passé when it comes to sourcing information? Particularly with regards to an industry that's constantly evolving and changing (fitness, nutrition etc).

How about an Irish health, nutrition & fitness website or blog? That's where I get all my information from these days. It would have less costs, yet still have room for raising advertising revenue etc.

G86

Frogdog wrote: »

How about an Irish health, nutrition & fitness website or blog? That's where I get all my information from these days. It would have less costs, yet still have room for raising advertising revenue etc.

He already has one - see blog sig.

Frogdog

G86 wrote: »

He already has one - see blog sig.

I've sigs turned off, sorry!

cmyk

Dead Ed wrote: »

A monthly PDF/newsletter thing might be a good idea at first. Rachel Crass was running strength+ over in that there america in PDF format (with a subscription), but now I think they're doing a printed run. Costs an absolute ****load apparently.

Good resource, thanks for that. It's a route I'll probably look at. Personally I find it difficult reading online these days, too many competing distractions, bad on the eyes etc. It is costly, but if it was well supported and consequently supported irish businesses it may work.

SanoVitae

You do realise that Hanley would want to be on the cover every single issue, yeah?

SanoVitae

Personally, I think you're best sticking with your current website and delivering a free E-zine to those who subscribe to it.

Any money would be made from advertising, not from selling the E-zine itself.

You build value to the advertisers by building a huge active list of their exact target market, i.e. people who exercise regularly and buy health foods/supplements/exercise clothing etc.

To build the list, you supply valuable free content to your subscribers. You're already doing this so are on the right track.

cmyk

SanoVitae wrote: »

You do realise that Hanley would want to be on the cover every single issue, yeah?

He's that guy from Westwood with the black mullet isn't he?

jive

In short, no. People interested in fitness will find all the valid information they need to themselves online. People with a passive interest in fitness are those who look at celeb mags with some fat one from Coronation Street who lost 3 stone by using the 'x' diet or by not dieting but doing 'x' activity every day. You will also have to beat the big names like Men's Fitness. The market would be simply too small as a result to make your magazine viable, IMO (I haven't exactly researched it :P this is simply an opinion). If you really want to write about fitness and stuff then I would suggest starting a blog. If it was good you would probably built up a nice cult following I would definitely read an Irish fitness blog if it was any good.

I hate fitness magazines. Every issue is the same just instead of "get big arms using this one simple trick" is replaced by "get ripped abs using. . . ." or "get big pecs by. . . .". There's no magic phucking formula, just dedicate yourself to what you want to do and be consistent. All the information is online. There will never be any ground breaking information in a magazine, some huge secret or even honest interviews (most being interviewed in such a magazine would leave out their steroid use).

Reggy

There will never be any ground breaking information in a magazine, some huge secret or even honest interviews (most being interviewed in such a magazine would leave out their steroid use).

Im not so sure if I agree entirely. It depends on your opinion of 'ground breaking'. I mean guys like the OP obviously have their fingers firmly on the pulse when it comes to research in the fitness and nutrition field. Thing is, people want digestible, honest and well considered nuggets of information, generally because they are not arsed (dont know how) to read the scientific reports themselves. It would be the job of the editor/contributors to do the actual research and give the reader the info in an unbiased and interesting way.

I think the main issue with any mag that gets most of its capital from advertising is that the companies paying the money to put the mag on the shelf might want more than just a fold out add with a catchy slogan. It would be difficult not to sell your soul and go down the route of not just advertising, but promoting certain types of supplements/diets/products etc...

Its important to keep any operation honest but Im not sure if that would sell. Look at the number of posts in this forum each day relating to 'something I read in a magazine', which in fact turns out to be complete horsesh1t.

There is a niche there I think, but whether or not you could even break even with a magazine that doesn't offer '6 week 6 packs' is another question.

cmyk

jive wrote: »

In short, no. People interested in fitness will find all the valid information they need to themselves online.

If that was the case, no magazine or newspaper would exist? Now I realise they've taken quite a hammering due to the above but there's clearly still a demand for the printed word.

Also, there's such a myriad of stuff on the internet now people generally don't know where to begin, which was the very seed for the site. Regular gym-goers/athletes might have enough education on the subject to decipher, but for those who have no idea where to start it's pretty overwhelming.

Hi-carb/Lo-carb/Lo-Fat/HIIT/LSD/metabolic training/circuits/kettlebells and so on.

cmyk

SanoVitae wrote: »

Personally, I think you're best sticking with your current website and delivering a free E-zine to those who subscribe to it.

You're possibly very right.

Hanley

SanoVitae wrote: »

You do realise that Hanley would want to be on the cover every single issue, yeah?

I'd take 2 out of 3.

RE: the magazine, anyone else suggesting it, probably not. Yourself... hmmm maybe!

Transform

cmyk wrote: »

If that was the case, no magazine or newspaper would exist? Now I realise they've taken quite a hammering due to the above but there's clearly still a demand for the printed word.

Also, there's such a myriad of stuff on the internet now people generally don't know where to begin, which was the very seed for the site. Regular gym-goers/athletes might have enough education on the subject to decipher, but for those who have no idea where to start it's pretty overwhelming.

Hi-carb/Lo-carb/Lo-Fat/HIIT/LSD/metabolic training/circuits/kettlebells and so on.

the hardgainer magazine was successful for a number of years but subscription only

Michael 09

Hanley wrote: »

SanoVitae wrote: »

You do realise that Hanley would want to be on the cover every single issue, yeah?

I'd take 2 out of 3.

RE: the magazine, anyone else suggesting it, probably not. Yourself... hmmm maybe!

I think if you read back over the thread I CLEARLY called shotgun on the cover.

Hanley

Michael 09 wrote: »

I think if you read back over the thread I CLEARLY called shotgun on the cover.

Shotgun gun rules only apply in lieu of my veto.

Michael 09

Hanley wrote: »

Michael 09 wrote: »

I think if you read back over the thread I CLEARLY called shotgun on the cover.

Shotgun gun rules only apply in lieu of my veto.

I disagree. Surely we can settle this with some sort of dance off?

cmyk

Transform wrote: »

the hardgainer magazine was successful for a number of years but subscription only

Yep, good idea, was it subscription only from the start, or did it switch to that? And was subs only internationally or in the states too?

cmyk

Michael 09 wrote: »

I disagree. Surely we can settle this with some sort of dance off?

Do it!...but the front cover will be the least difficult part!

SanoVitae

cmyk wrote: »

Yep, good idea, was it subscription only from the start, or did it switch to that? And was subs only internationally or in the states too?

It was subsciption only if I remember correctly - Stuart McRobert is based in Cyprus. You could mail him for a free trial copy, which was cool.

I believe the Internet killed it off though - he stopped publishing it in 2004. The magazine was how I find out about the likes of Dr Ken and Brooks D Kubik. Now each have their own individual sites.

You might want to check out Dr Ken's site - you need to donate to access all the articles and videos - might be something you could look into -> http://www.trainhardwithdrken.com/

Gandalph

I stopped reading magazines due to the crap I found myself looking at, I particularly remem this one;

1 - "95% of people who play football once a week are generally more content with their life" (ok I see no quarrels with this)

2 - "Due to a microbacterium in the soil" (wait what?)

3 - "That is soaked into your skin and goes into your brain" (uhm ok......)

But if you are going to go ahead and release one good luck and dont forget to put "HOW TO GET 6PACK IN 2 DAYS!!!!!" on the cover

Zamboni

Used to buy Menshealth etc. back around the early naughties when I was more dumb than I am now.
I stopped buying because the advertising increased to the point there was very little reading in it at all.
The content was probaby muck but I knew feck all at that stage so it didn't matter.
Even if you produce a quality mag, you will need advertisers to bring in income and that in itself will put off purchasers.
And even if you produce a quality mag, how do you differentiate your product with the myriad of dogsh1t on the shelves in Eason's?
Unfortunately I think print publishing is a dying game but if you think you can make it work, I wish you all the best and I'll buy a copy (especially if you put me on the front, I'll be happy with the November issue).

jive

cmyk wrote: »

If that was the case, no magazine or newspaper would exist? Now I realise they've taken quite a hammering due to the above but there's clearly still a demand for the printed word.

Not really. Most large fitness magazines were probably established before the internet and information was so readily available; also these magazines (at least the ones I've seen) are full of advertisements and generally try to convey that they are the ones who know all the secrets when in reality there are no secrets - but if it'll keep dumbasses reading.... There's still a demand for it but it is a much smaller demand; narrow that demand solely down to Irish readers and it's even smaller again. There is no money to be made in make an Irish fitness magazine although there will be some demand for it, but not enough.

In the words of Nelson from the Simpsons "Ha ha! Your medium is dying".

cmyk

jive wrote: »

Not really. Most large fitness magazines were probably established before the internet and information was so readily available

Though I do agree with your overall point, couldn't you say that about any magazine? If I buy mini magazine that shows me how to overhaul an engine, there'll be guides on the internet for that, same with any niche magazine.

In terms of print advertising trying to sell you products, yes absolutely, but do you think this isn't happening on the web? In fact I think it's even more rampant. I just did a little experiment to highlight my point I googled the term 'how to lose weight' on the first page alone, this is a mixture of those landing pages...

- flat belly solution - 5 foods that will keep you in the 'fat burning zone'
- scarsdale medical diet (from first glance ultra lo-calorie diet)
- Youtube video (product called proactol)
- 5 foods that fight abdominal fat
- 50 (yes 5-0) ways to lose weight with readers digest

Barry.Oglesby

Irish Runner would be a comparable mag. It's still very successful despite the myriad of running sites on the web. It has a very loyal readership.

Gandalph

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Irish Runner would be a comparable mag. It's still very successful despite the myriad of running sites on the web. It has a very loyal readership.

As a reader of Irish runner I can say this is a community thing, you know the people you are reading about mostly. The athletic community in Ireland is pretty friendly and close knit.

Noboddy knows paul from down the road who lost 10 lbs in 2 days...if you get my point. A fitness magazine wouldnt be the same.

JayRoc

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Irish Runner would be a comparable mag. It's still very successful despite the myriad of running sites on the web. It has a very loyal readership.

Irish Fighter is still kicking too, I'd imagine you could expect a circulation around the same level as these two once you were established.
Not sure if that'd be enough to justify it, though

jive

cmyk wrote: »

Though I do agree with your overall point, couldn't you say that about any magazine? If I buy mini magazine that shows me how to overhaul an engine, there'll be guides on the internet for that, same with any niche magazine.

In terms of print advertising trying to sell you products, yes absolutely, but do you think this isn't happening on the web? In fact I think it's even more rampant. I just did a little experiment to highlight my point I googled the term 'how to lose weight' on the first page alone, this is a mixture of those landing pages...

You could say the same about any magazine really I just think that the target audience for a fitness magazine probably googles fitness and the likes due to the majority probably being males in the tech savvy ages of 18-40 :P Like for celeb mags for example (incoming sweeping generalisation), most girls I know use the internet solely for facebook and college, they could just use TMZ. Maybe people prefer to have a hard copy or something I don't know I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. Other magazines will have changing people / updated info but for the most part fitness remains exactly the same and any additional information is usually negligible; if it wasn't it would probably make the papers :P

Yeah the internet is packed to the brim with advertising (unless you know the right sites to use; most of which will still have some advertising). The difference there is that's how they make their money, with magazines you actually pay to get access to the information which is why I don't like how many advertisements there are (obviously advertisements are necessary, but the extent in which some magazines have advertisements are ridiculous - more adverts than actual information).

Maybe it's just me though as I can't remember the last time I bought a magazine and if I was looking for something to read up on it probably wouldn't be fitness from a magazine due to the amount of crap most of them spout; that being said I know what I need to know so I guess for average Joe perhaps they would pick up a fitness magazine; I just don't think the market would be big enough to make it viable- it's probably too niche.

The Guvnor

I think magazines are great - people still like to read things the old fashioned way as opposed to online.

I think the biggest issue for a new magazine would be what can you realistically get from each page you sell for advertising.

The Beef which is a specialised magazine and not bad if this is your thing - gets probably a maximum of £175 per page and lower in most cases.

Print advertising is struggling and all advertisers are now negotiating really hard to get price reductions which are given.

If you can price the advertising correctly it will be a big plus but then you need to make sure the articles are not overtaken by page after page of advertising etc.

If you can find somewhere that is amenable to doing a trial run on the magazine - go for it - lots of printers with spare capacity at the minute or 'shock horror' get it printed overseas.

If the articles are good it can develop and focus on Ireland but with an eye to the UK as well.

Best of luck.

Nordieboy

I agree with what was said re: its community base. Helps hugely with people picking it up for features on people they know. Not too much training tips/techiques that are revolutionary in it, so it speaks to everyone.

Barry.Oglesby

Gandalph wrote: »

As a reader of Irish runner I can say this is a community thing, you know the people you are reading about mostly. The athletic community in Ireland is pretty friendly and close knit.

Noboddy knows paul from down the road who lost 10 lbs in 2 days...if you get my point. A fitness magazine wouldnt be the same.

With Fitness, I think there is a community thing there more than there was before, ironically because of the internet. People are more connected with people from other gyms and like to compare notes. I think a lifestyle magazine would be good and sell well.

hinault

I have a couple of clients who're magazine publishers and let me tell you the magazine publishing industry is under huge pressure at the moment.

Advertising budgets have been slashed therefore many potential clients are looking at the most efficient way to market at present.
Magazine publishing as a means to market is becoming less appealing as time goes by.
The cost associated with the magazine industry are knife edge : publishing requires advertising revenue, subscription revenue.
Costs include printing, editorial costs, distribution costs, as well as paying the overheads for the publisher like employee costs, heat and light etc.

The industries associated with magazine publishing such as printing and distribution are also under severe pressure.

During the Celtic Tiger there was plenty of capacity for magazine publishing but with the demise of the CT, the industry is in severe decline.
And issues like the editorial content have now come back in focus where readers demand "bang for their buck" - so publishers have to spend a bit more on editorial content to try to retain subscriptions/sales.
This further squeezes margins.

However i do think that if a product is good and is well put together, that it can withstand whatever economic circumstances prevail.

cmyk

hinault wrote: »

I have a couple of clients who're magazine publishers and let me tell you the magazine publishing industry is under huge pressure at the moment.

Absolutely agree...in certain areas more than others though.

hinault wrote: »

Magazine publishing as a means to market is becoming less appealing as time goes by.

My belief is that this will eventually come full circle and back to the print medium, not to the extent it was, but to a certain degree.

hinault wrote: »

The industries associated with magazine publishing such as printing and distribution are also under severe pressure.

And consequently costs of same have come down.

hinault wrote: »

However i do think that if a product is good and is well put together, that it can withstand whatever economic circumstances prevail.

So do I, but it will be extremely difficult to get the 'tone' right from the start, to encompass the whole community.

hinault

cmyk wrote: »

Absolutely agree...in certain areas more than others though.

I'm afraid not. Sales across all consumer magazine genres is down.
ABC figures produced by Neilsen show this.
The fall is more pronounced for certain titles, I agree.
But in overall consumer magazine industry, consumer capacity is down.

cmyk wrote: »

My belief is that this will eventually come full circle and back to the print medium, not to the extent it was, but to a certain degree.

I think that there will always be demand for the print format. Personally I prefer a hardcopy format than an electronic format.
But capacity for hardcopy format is diminishing.

There is a school of thought that the perhaps consumer magazine titles run complimentary electronic format to the hardcopy format.

cmyk wrote: »

And consequently costs of same have come down.

Costs such as printing and distribution have decreased but in many cases these decreases haven't managed to offset the falls in sales/subscription revenues in publishing.

You've got to remember that printers print for a range of publications and distributors distribute for a range of publications.
Unlike the publisher, the printer and distributor can allocate costs across a number of clients.
The publisher doesn't have that luxury : if the publisher revenue is falling,
attempting to squeeze the printer/distributor to offset the revenue decline only makes life more difficult and the printer/distributor is not there to subvent falling publisher revenues.

cmyk wrote: »

So do I, but it will be extremely difficult to get the 'tone' right from the start, to encompass the whole community.

I think market research is vital.
If you're think of publishing a magazine, you need to know your market in terms of costs and revenues.

Donnaronan

Hi ya,

I found this very interesting- i too am looking for a thesis topic and deferred last year as I was looking too much at topics that I thought would be atttrative to emplyers as opposed to something I personally am passionate about.. I have studied marketing for a few years- im into the final part of the masters.. and its my opportunity to apply it to sport/fitness/health and nutrition/ attitudes to outdoor and physical activities in Ireland etc this is where my area of interest lies..Im looking to research the advertising behind health and fitness.. are people being confused by the vast amount of contradictory information that is out there... Which should we believe? what works? Is there enough research being done into what people want from gyms/sports centres etc? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated... Do ye think this would form a basis for a good thesis topic?? If anyone has any other ideas that surround this I would be delighted to hear them.. Personally, I would like to eventually work in the area of health and fitness- I would love my thesis to be constructive and support the development of the fitness industry in Ireland.. Should I compare it to another country like canada? and how they approach it?? Ideas please.. Thanks

Hanley

What a bump... Guess GYM Magazine proves there may be a market after all.

drdeadlift

^ a good read too

The Guvnor

Seen it online is it in Easons?

Hanley

The Guvnor wrote: »

Seen it online is it in Easons?

You'd get it in Easons. Think thre's an online version coming soon too.

The Guvnor

Online for a mag seems wrong to me..

I still have a nokia 6310i which might explain things! LoL

WHIP IT!

The Guvnor wrote: »

Online for a mag seems wrong to me..

I still have a nokia 6310i which might explain things! LoL

"Hi, is that the editor?? Yeah, tried swattin a fly with your stupid magazine today and destroyed my iPad..."

The Guvnor

LMAO!