Clare Cook

Will mountain bikers benefit being in the Yorkshire Dales?

IN the ongoing debate about whether or not mountain bikers would be better if the northern area of the Howgills joins the Lake District National Park or the Yorkshire Dales National Park, we have received this reponse from the Yorkshire side!

 Here Mark Allum sets out some of the interesting developments that have taken place for mountain bikers and the development of bridleways:

There have been a significant number of initiatives with regard to cycling and mountain biking over the last few years. Some have been at a strategic level but the list below should give you a flavour of the more practical projects.


Infrastructure

Rights of way. The National Park Authority has delegated responsibility for rights of way within the National Park, and maintaining the network is a priority programme for the Authority.


Pennine Bridleway. We are currently close to completing the Pennine Bridleway National Trail through the National Park which is a 52 mile section. This has involved a number of significant new creations and repair projects.  This leaves the National Park at Hell Gill, but the continuation from there to the Fat Lamb pub is also complete. Natural England is looking to extend this into Kirkby Stephen. In addition to the main route we will be looking to promote a series of mountain bike loop routes.

Small things.  We have also tried to address a number of small infrastructure issues such as providing bike parking (lockers, stands etc). A local supplier was used as a source for Sheffield type cycle stands and securing rings.  The latter are far more discreet and can be simply attached to a wall, often looking like an original feature.  This makes them particularly useful in an area like the National Park with large numbers of listed buildings and strong planning controls.  These stands and rings were then distributed free to local shops, businesses and accommodation providers who were then responsible for fitting them.  This has been highly successful with over a 100 sites now supplied with cycle securing devices.  Cycle lockers were provided at Grassington and Hawes.  We have also provided taps to fill water bottles/Camelbaks at out toilet facilities.


Promotion

Nearly all our promotion work has included not just in the National Park, but also the surrounding towns and the Nidderdale ANOB.


Mapping. 1:40 000 scale maps.  This is a series of four maps covering the Dales and Nidderdale designed for walkers and mountain bikers in particular, with all rights of way shown.  A grading exercise was carried out on the bridleway and green lane network using the CTC grading scale.  These routes were then highlighted in ski run colours on the maps.  Some routes were deliberately excluded were there are very significant management or erosion issues..


Leaflets. We have produced leaflets on cycling in the area which are then distributed nationally through tourist information centres.


Website.  www.mtbthedales.org.uk is our major promotion tool providing a full range of information on businesses, routes, and news on the area. The aim is for it to both inspire new people to visit the area, and for regular visitors to find out what new is happening.


Shows. Attendance at a number of shows including the York Cycle Show, OpPad in the Netherlands and The Outdoors Show at Birmingham over a number of years. We have also supported a number of journalist visits from the Netherlands and Germany specifically to showcase the outdoor opportunities available.


Business development

We look to promote cycle businesses through the cycling websites as well as our own, and work with Cumbria Tourism and Welcome to Yorkshire to ensure information at this level also acts to promote businesses.


Cycle accommodation. We have looked to develop cycle friendly accommodation and have supplied a number of providers with tools, bike wash facilities, maps and promotional material.
 

Over the last five years there has been considerable cycle business development which has often attracted significant grant support. Dales Mountain Biking has developed the Dales Bike Centre at Fremington offering a shop, accommodation, café and cycle hire in addition to their range of courses. Kudu Bikes has become well established in Hawes, as has Off the Rails in Settle. More recently bike shops have opened in Settle and Grassington.

 

Work experience from trained journalists a must

AT this time of year, quite literally thousands of wide eyed and bushy tailed graduates pour out onto the World of Work.

And this wonderfully sincere reflection from Alison Gow just had to have a mention.

It is true that so many graduates want to go off and fulfill their dreams of journalism - despite the fact that in its structured form it is so clearly falling apart.

I too fear that, without the necessary 'first job', it is so difficult for wannabe journalists to cut their teeth. As notorious as it was, that first job in the local rag was where you learnt it all! It was the essential springboard for so many - even the likes of Kate Aidie who I had the pleasure of interviewing way back when (I even wore my best suit).

While I am a staunch advocate of blogging and freelancing - the fragmented news world we all have become empowered by - I think it is a lot to ask for 20somethings to take it on. There must be more we can do to help? Should every blogger who has 'been there done that' be offering a bit of work shadowing.

Could every blogger/retiree/ freelancer offer a bit more work experience?

So I think we should reflect on starting a website where volunteers from the journo world, who have some experience, offer to have someone shadow or write on their websites for a week or two. It would be invaluable. It would also fill that yawning gap of who to learn from.

If there are millions of us out here blogging, who already have experience as a journo in mainstream, then it is up to us to pass on the torch - the essence of journalism

Media Management: a case book approach

AS course leader for BA Hons Media Management I am always on the look out for a good course text book and I have really enjoyed the latest offering from George Sylive et al.

This text works so well not least because it is bang up to date, but for anyone in the lecturing industry they will know how invaluable it is to have real life case studies that can be used as prompts to help students think independently.

It is worth noting that this brings together some key aspects of management from a human resource point of you - as such it is unusually biased towards HRM issues: I will be recommending this to students for their human resource module.

The book does offer two chapters that look at marketing, and one that grapples with wider issues of global media and making money from fragmented media.

Media Management: A case book approach George Sylvie Jan LeBlanc Wicks, C Ann Hollifield Stephen Lacy Ardyth Broadrick Sohn.

Jamie Oliver - why couldn't I get a slice of it?

A COOKING magazine that has been successful taking on what already might seem a saturated market: Jamie Oliver.

It goes to show how buoyant this sector is - and more importantly how much we still love a celebraty endorsement.

According to Guardian Media, Jamie Oliver's magazine is on a real bread roll - with plans to double its print run.

Anyone who has read this offering will realise it is a new hybrid: thick heavy pages of advertorial coupled with a few recipes but ultimately a rather sickening 'this is more about me and my brand, and I know you love me and my brand'.

The irony here is this - much as I am cynical about the product I even wanted to subscribe. As such, I dutifully bought my first issue in London several months ago and filled in the coupon, and sent it off with my details (there was a 20% offer off on some of the cookware). Did I get a response? No. Did I get my subscription? NO. The sad fact is that if every operation of a magazine is not running smoothly it is a sad testimount to customer satisfaction and putting the reader at the heart of the magazine.

Jamie Oliver's bi-monthly magazine Jamie is to almost double its print run and go on sale in supermarkets for the first time.

The magazine, which was launched six months ago, is to increase its run from 140,000 printed copies to 260,000 when the fourth edition goes on sale a week today, Thursday 25 June, and will also be sold by the major supermarkets Asda, Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsburys and Somerfield, for the first time. For the first three issues the magazine was sold exclusively in WH Smiths only.

Paul Dring, the magazine's managing editor, said the title is not likely to undergo any major editorial changes. Jamie will continue to be printed on matt paper from sustainable managed forests, which Dring added is "very much appreciated by our readers". The cover price will remain at £3.99.

He said the first full six-month audited ABC sales figures for Jamie, to be published in August for the first half of 2009, are expected to be "excellent".

Digital magazines - timing is everything

MAGAZINES on demand is being shuttered.

It's a sad fact that timing with innovation has to be pivotal.

John Menzies Digital, the division behind digital magazine supplier Magazines On Demand, has been closed by parent company Menzies Distribution because of a lack of demand.

"Digital magazines have not proved as popular as we had hoped and in this difficult economic climate it was not possible for us to continue trading," said a statement on the website.

The service, which allowed customers to download 140 magazine titles, had established a partnership with WHSmith, which allowed downloads via the retailer's website, and recently signed a deal with Telegraph.co.uk to distribute e-editions of NatMags.

Quite honestly, I find the whole thing quite baffling - of overcomplicated at all. Is it the simple fact that magazines are bought in print for their craft, and feel. It can't be portability or we would all be tree free. It can't be the content because its proven we don't care where we get our celebrity fix from...


Essential reading

The future of digital magazines
Firms in the same space as Menzies Digital remain confident that there is demand for digital editions from both consumers and publishers.

"We are extremely confident that digital editions can be harnessed as a value adding or stand alone proposition, with international publishers reaching wider communities, and smaller publishers promoting their online presence," Ben Edwards, marketing manager of PageSuite, which supplies online digital editions for the Express and Daily Star, told Journalism.co.uk.
 
"Digital editions are increasingly interactive, with rich media video, audio and flash animation content. PageSuite's new search tool, easy to use interface and instant global downloads increase readership and ultimately, publishers' revenue."

In April, Clegg said 85,000 paid-for downloads of Menzies Digital titles had been made so far and sales were growing by 20-30 per cent a week.

According to Stephenson, more than 1.5 million titles on Yudu are opened every month by readers.

"It's a good market and there's an opportunity to have someone pose a good challenge to Zinio [Menzies Digital's main competitor]," he said.

"The decision just reflects on John Menzies' priorities. The company has many other issues and things to focus on."

Magazines fight for shelf life - but the sales aren't there

MAGAZINES - especially celebrity ones - go together with summer holidays like barbecues and bangers.

When holidaymakers head out to the beaches and bars, there's nothing more indulgent than spending a few hours catching up on the oos and aghhs of celebrity life.

So as well as the fight for the biggest covermounts (a traditional tactic in the magazine point of sale stakes) it seems that the flip flops are drawn on who is on sale first.

Celebrity weekly Hello! has signed a distribution deal with Daily Mail owner Associated Newspapers so it will appear in newsagents on Monday, a day before arch rival OK! – owned by Richard Desmond alongside the Daily and Sunday Express - and its other competitors, including Bauer’s Heat and IPC’s Now!.

Publishing director Charlotte Stockting tells the Observer it should boost Hello!’s 420,000 weekly sale by 20,000-30,000 copies.

Hello! will be available to buy a day before OK! and its other competitors, including Heat and Now!, giving it a narrow advantage over rivals. "It is like being in pole position in a Grand Prix," Stockting says. "You can't win the race from the back of the grid. Every publisher in the UK always wanted to be on sale on a Monday, but because wholesalers closed at 10am on Sundays it's never happened before. We have persuaded them to stay open longer."

The partnership is also about advertising.

The alliance is likely to involve working together with the Mail on exclusives. "The Mail will promote Hello! and we will promote You magazine. We will be acting like we are part of the same group," she says.

"Our readers are both middle England, they both shop at Marks & Spencer. If Hello! readers aren't buying the Mail they should be, and vice versa. Guy Zitter [the Mail's commercial director] and I share exactly that ambition."

A Mail executive confirms: "We will run ads for them - some of which they will pay for. You'll see an ad for Hello! this Sunday and probably on Monday. They'll promote You or Live [another Mail on Sunday magazine] from time to time."

But it would seem that timing it would seem is as important as the battles over exclusives, celeb loyality, endorsements and price.

Ironically though WH Smith, Britain’s biggest magazine retailer, has announced that it has seen a fall of 8% in magazine sales over the past year. So in one way it’s no wonder the PPA has cancelled this year’s Magazine Week promotion, which was scheduled for September.

However, you can understand the reaction of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, which told Retail Newsagent it was  ‘astonished that at a time when we need to push magazine sales  … that they have dropped it’.

WHSmith said: ‘The magazine market continues to be challenging, particularly for monthly magazines and partworks where we are traditionally strong.’

Surely it is a time for the battle ground to move? So many young people were on my plane to Egypt with their ipods and game players that it seems only logical that the electronic versions of magazines could have had some play this year. E-readers and Kindles aside, the apps on iphone and digital deals were enough to make it an option for sure?

A full break down of the WHSmith trade round up is here

Thanks to magforum for the tip off.

Post recession UK - integrate social networts to survive

A WEBONAIR by Experian covering the post-recession UK advised small businesses to be brave and incorporate social media onto their retail websites.
It was a chance to talk about the report out in May and the fact that social network sites overtook traffic to retail sites in January.

The key for retailers and small businesses is to bring social networking onto their sites and bring user generated content for all to see.

Small businesses are the most at risk (10-100 employees) across the country in the recession and consumers are increasingly disloyal.
Users are highlighting a focus of green issues and businesses must really work the trust loyalty lever/recommndations from friends to get a competitive edge.
Robin Goad, from Hitwise, said online behaviour is still different in the regions in terms of what sites and brands they search for. Liverpool people for example were looking 3 or 4% people searching for local news and education as well as sport. local specific content.
In the retail sector how they search for brands and how it reflects the retail strength in those areas is important.
Looking at green behvaiour, people are increasingly looking for recycling and especially mobile phone recycling and this reflects the financial incentive to do phone recycling: green issues coincide with wanting to save money.

making opportunities

It is essential for businesses to do what consumers want in your local area and make sure you are meeting those needs.

Online it is important to note that social networks and media,  bbc and newspapers, has been growing faster in terms of traffic than retail sites. The recession has brought into focus the transactional versus online sites - social networks overtook retail in january this year.

It shows that people are getting very used to user generated content.

How people react to twitter, videos on youtube and transactional sites eg user reviews and recommendations is really important. What this means is that social networking and retail need to covertly integrate.

People don't want to be sold to?

Social networking is increasingly being brought into commercial sites so that people can talk and the business can brin customers in. If the consumer is used to netowrking then they need the opportunity to do that on the retail site.

A company that can harness the traffic from media sites such as twitter or facebook will have the advantage.
Integrating social media and user generated into their own sites has been successful for example with
screwfix. This is a very successful site at building an online forum where people talk about plumbing and painting.
It is also about sorting product results, so highly rated by consumers are featured better. Consumers would much rather hear what people want not the spin from the company.

Post recession UK is a time to be brave.

SEO: a four step guide to writing and winning

SEO should be incorporated into the way journalists write stories, says Branded3.
There is a practical four step guide that takes into account speed being key, which can all help magazines and media organisations be successful.
The Mirror is a case in point: it was within three of the top search results for Peter Andre's divorce story with no sponsored links.
How?
speed.

Whoever publishes first gets 'query deserves freshness'Google search terms. Google thinks they have published it first. In reality, it is essential for media organisations to ping Google on the instance they publish - anything like the blog ping that wordpress uses - and you can achieve a full post index within a minute.

One key strategy for companies is trend watching: pic out hot topics and write about them - which is a really good tactic for getting on the search engine and optimising it. That way you will get on digg and other search sites to drive traffic.

Patrick Altoft from Branded3 says SEO should be integrated into the process from the start.
Seo and social media should be a central part of your content strategy:

one: research - find out what people are talking about online already and how to tap into it

two: creation of the content

three: optimise team to look again at SEO, google news is important but only crawls page once so if wrong title in the headline then needs editing - they may not spider it twice (usually takes 12 hours to happen again) write headline has to be written before you click publish

four: promoting, thinking digg and stumbleupon. social media and other promotion sites - someone who is paid to write the article does not have the same incentive unles they are paid per page impression. instead of them moving onto a new story they should have time to promote the one they have already written.

keys: build a promotion method of promoting content which should include RS, twitter, email subscriptions and google news.
The first 30 minutes is crucial

Magazines: celebrity sector needs to work harder for readers

THE celebrity magazine market needs to be on its guard - as people become more agnostic to where they get celeb news online.
Robin Goad, from Hitwise, has today said that The Telegraph is the most successful news site at generating readers from general searches.
And he told the Digital Editors Network that people simply do not care which brand gives them celebrity stories - so the market is wide open.
It is the clearest indication yet that celebrity magazine titles are in for a rough ride when it comes to keeping their readers online.
The Telegraph picked up more traffic than the Daily Mail or any other like The Sun for celebrity.
It is clear that people are less brand loyal when it comes to celebrity stories.
HItwise said 7.62% of traffic picked up by the Telegraph was from Google on celebrity.
people less brand loyal for celebrity online

What are people searching for? Celebrity made up 24.1% of all Google searches - the biggest single sector. Search topics are sending traffic to Google news, which proves that people are agnostic as to where they get their celebrity news from.

Twitter is also a key playing field for driving traffic.
Twitter sends 54% of its traffic to other entertainment or lifestyle sites or social networks. Compare that to 39% of traffic from Facebook and the fact that Google drives traffic more to commerce and business sites.
Hitwise stats prove that celebrity magazines need to be hugely active on these hip sites (which have exploded since this January in the UK with celebrity endorsements from Stephen Fry as well as the Ross scandal).
The Guardian is top for driving traffic via Twitter due to personality journos like @jemimakiss, @charlesarthur.
And the twitter feed with interaction and that retweets stuff is more successful because poeple find it appealing when it is viral.

There is also evidence to suggest that magazines that want to be 'more' online in terms of community and generating users as more than just passive readers can become commercially viable. Martin Lewis form the money saving expert is a clear example. 
In the fourth quarter of last year he was the most searched for person: martin lewis, money saving exert, higher than Barack Obama and Diana Vickers.
He is the prime example of someome taking user generated content and making money off it, said Robin Goad, Hitwise.
What he has done is taken all the ideas that people have and made money off it - filtering it to give people what they want.

How have Telegraph used digg so effectively?
They have simply made loyal Telegraph readers use it by making it easy - so stories move up digg. In this way you are makng your core audience big up your content so that people in America will use it and find it.
They have also matched their content to taylor consumer demand eg more celeb
The Telegraph is actively trying to pick up traffic from the celebrity sector - so dumbing down on line and spreading their wings... by using pics and video more.

There are plenty of lessons for magazines...

Are magazines doomed, too?

WHETHER or not magazines are going to be in trouble in the future is clearly of immediate importance. However a recent post by Jeff Jarvis claiming they are in trouble makes several contentious points.

it’s harder to create a blockbuster and consumer magazines depend on the blockbuster economy

This is the first flaw in the argument. Chris Anderson's theory of the Long Tail puts a very convincing argument that magazines, by default, do not rely on the blockbuster economy of lowest common denominator and actually can benefit from niche markets.

That is not to say that there are not constraints in terms of mass production and costs. However free titles are proving more and more that a clearly defined notion of a niche reader is what advertisers want - and magazines more than ever appeal to this economic theory.

Large publishing houses are also realising that their push to diversify can complement their print products. If they can achieve community, this is the most important part. That would lead us to believe Jeff's original thesis:

They have the unique value of slickness and focus that their publishers always brag about. And, I reasoned, magazines already were communities and so they should be perfectly positioned for the community-based internet. Magazines are collections of people who are interested in the same stuff. The challenge for an editor is to figure out ways to enable them to share with each other, to become a platform for that community.

So to conclude, Jeff says: "The death of Portfolio doesn’t yet presage the doom of magazines. It marks the doom of magazine launches."

But I can't agree with that either. What about Love? Quite apart from saying that there won't be launches, I would argue there will be a higher turn over of launches. As communities move and shift online, socially and in print - then their sister products (and that is what every media product is right now) will have to merge and shift with it. And larger publishing houses will be constantly merging and developing to make sure their titles are in touch with readers to be ' the collection of people' they need to reach.