The first issue of The Ride Journal as PDF

November 11, 2009 4:03 PM

The Ride Journal is a lovely mag by/about/for cyclists of all types: bmxers, fixed gear riders, road racers, tricyclists, casual riders... you name it! It's a beautiful publication--great photography, nice paper, good personal stories. However, it's a print mag. As their 3rd issue is being mailed out, they've made their first avaiable for download as a 26MB PDF.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy (5 comments total)

Wow, a really nice layout, but a tough time to start a new print magazine! IMO, the way forward is not going to be simply publishing a PDF version of the print mag, but to really define a new path forward with an immersive online layout of the mag. Especially once we start getting our magazine subscriptions as podcasts downloaded to our mac tablets next year! :-P
posted by snoehp at 4:08 PM on November 11, 2009

snoehp, the first issue was, if I remember correctly, a print run of however many people pre-ordered. I even recall mine being numbered (though don't quote me--I recently moved and it's still not unpacked). Once that issue was seen by people (it truly is gorgeous and on lovely print stock) their second issue was in huge demand. I don't imagine they're printing many more than are pre-ordered but I can't say for sure.

It's definitely not the kind of magazine that gets thrown away.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 4:16 PM on November 11, 2009

Or, the much earlier Journal of Ride Theory as free PDF files.
posted by eccnineten at 6:22 PM on November 11, 2009

This looks pretty cool to me. At (I'm guessing) $25 it looks like some good reading/bike porn/coffee table material. I can see how it wouldn't quite work in a browser.

Regarding the death of print media, some stuff just isn't going to die and this might be a survivor. I'm thinking about mags like Surfer/Surfing, Thrasher, BMX Plus etc.

There is just something really cool about waiting for something to come in the mail.
posted by snsranch at 7:37 PM on November 11, 2009

Ride is not alone in the boutique cycling "journal" market. Rouleur and more recently
Embrocation are both using a similar model of producing collectable issues, although neither of them has distributed a whole issue as a PDF, AFAIK.

I own one issue of Rouleur, and while the photography is excellent and the articles interesting, it's hard to part with $20+ per copy.
posted by strange chain at 9:52 AM on November 13, 2009