Just recently we spotted long time surf rag Surfer seems to have scaled down its number of issues per year. Perusing Surfer’s subscription pages and it seems they’ll only be producing x2 issues per year now – sad times.
There used to be a sense of anticipation, waiting for each spangly new issue of your fave surfing publication landing on the mat, back in the day, before the bitesize, ‘give it all to me now’ internet culture of the modern era. Surf mags were a way to find out what was going on in the world of pro surfing, but more importantly get a shot of rounded surf stoke born of articles covering a wider breadth of knowledge and topics.
Unfortunately it’s not cheap producing a physical product like a surf mag. It’s labour intensive with fairly big overheads. Overheads which have to checked off and paid for. With most mags, regardless of subject matter, direct sales advertising revenue is relied upon which is a pretty archaic business model. And with dwindling marketing budgets from headline surf brands, who’ve lost market share, gone bankrupt altogether or simply faded into insignificance ad revenue is much harder to source.
Articles themselves also cost money. The need to recoup spent cash is a real thing for any content creator. It’s therefore understandable that routes to market, as it were, are sought with efficiency in mind. Having spent oodles of cash nailing the story waiting around for each new issue of magazine X to land and showcase your work isn’t as cost effective or efficient as dropping a video edit of said adventure straight after the trip. This keeps your investors/sponsors sweet and more likely to shell out for additional surf trips in the future.
There’s still a place for magazines though. Whilst a video clip delivers a 360-degree version of the action images in a mag, combined with thought provoking text, can inspire further (or even more so). Being able to analyse that snapshot moment time of surfer A busting insane air, getting deeply pitted or gouging hard is much more saliva inducing than a brief glimpse of the same moves in video form. Image is more likely to stick with the reader whereas two to four minute clips come and go in a flashy blur.
Some surf mags do hit the nail on the head and resonate. NCW’s very own head honcho Mark commented recently about Newquay based Real Surfing Magazine and how it resembled a 70s biker ‘zine. RSM has a big following due to the editor/owner’s dogged vision of what surfing is: slightly retro, plenty of nods to the past, real world conditions, real world riders and plenty of interaction with its readership. Steve Halpin also refuses advertising revenue from brands that are prepared to stump up. Instead he self funds RSM and can therefore publish exactly what he feels. It’s quite refreshing…
Also thinking man’s surf Bible The Surfer’s Path recently relaunched with a more grass roots approach and less reliance of ad revenue, although still some. This also backs up the argument there’s a want for mags of substance.
For those that appreciate holding something tangible surf magazines have their place, and will continue to do so. It’s certainly hard work for those who create them but niche topics, like surfing, do better than they should. Print isn’t quite dead yet it’s just more labour of love than it used to be.