I had heard noises that Uni Magazine was no longer financially viable after the USA discontinued its subscription relationship with the magazine. For a couple of years there, the USA was giving its members Uni Magazine since its own magazine (now electronic only) wasn’t coming out at the time. But the cost to continue this would have required a massive increase in USA dues. With the loss of that major “block” subscriber, it may have become an impossible situation to keep publishing.
If this is true, we must all remove our hats, hang our heads and observe a moment of silence for the loss of another unicycling publication.
…Unless you paid for a subscription and only received one or two issues! Then I can’t blame you for being unhappy. Perhaps Mike still has plans to make you whole, but I haven’t heard anything.
As for me, I’m not sure if I should stop feeling guilty for all the articles I should have written for the magazine, such as the one on the history of MUni with interviews of the major pioneers, or feel worse because now they won’t have a good place to live anyway?
:(:(
BTW I’m the soon-to-be-replaced USA Webmaster. A new site has been in development for quite a while now, and it’s only a matter of time before we switch over to that one. I haven’t made any updates to the USA site since the officers changed after U Games.
The Unicycling Society of America “publishes” a quarterly newsletter, in the form of a PDF. Though it’s now in full color, it doesn’t exist on paper so it’s not the same thing as an actual magazine you can pass around to people. You can print it, of course, but it’s still not the same thing. Does anyone know if the French unicycle magazine Switch is still being published?
I’ll try to ask Arthur on MSN, but in the last months we didn’t had a single issue!
I’ll get really pissed if I loose all my money. It was a kind of investment, I needed that kind of material to work with local media and sponsors… Hopefully mike will show up and explain what’s happening… He’s a nice guy…
Its very sad if they are not producing any more uni magazines, they were great to read, every issue I have got great value out of. It is very slack that Mike hasn’t replied, even if he is going through a tough time.
Well after talking to Mike at Unicon 15 alot over the weeks and Paying in full I have not had ONE Uni Mag. That’s No mag’s and money lossed.
IF only He was still in New Zealand I would phone the POLICE!
He is Just a THIEF
Mike is no thief, he did really much for the community, but I understand the anger of all who gave money for nothing.
we should not give a judgement before we know the story.
but we all need really a few words whats going on
Mike’s not a thief, and I’m sure he has no intention of keeping people’s money indefinitely. If he’s guilty of anything it’s being possibly too optimistic about the viability of publishing such a well-produced magazine for such a small potential audience.
He started doing it in his spare time, but people moaned that there was too long between issues. So he made the extremely brave (possibly foolhardy in hindsight) decision to give up his “proper” job and work on Uni mag full time. I suspect (although I haven’t spoken to Mike for a year or so) that it just never sold enough copies to make a decent profit (or perhaps even to break even), which is not his fault.
On the other hand, I think the lack of feedback is not good. I don’t think any reasonable person would have minded if Mike had said “look, it’s not working out as a full-time job, but I’ll carry on doing a couple of copies a year like before” or even “sorry, it didn’t work out, I’m suspending production”, but the secrecy and silence is not doing him any favours, and winding a lot of people up.
Come on Mike, let us know what’s going on mate. Nobody blames you if it didn’t work out - in fact we’re very greatful that you gave it a go when nobody else had the balls to do it. The issues you published were superb, and a credit to your production skills. We know you put a huge amount of effort (and possibly money) into the mag. Just keep people up to date and everybody will be happier. Keeping quiet just makes you look like the villain, which I personally am sure is not the case.
Well He maybe not a thief But I have e-mail He 3 times a No reply
He talked about up coming issues and come to “Brake Bleed Worshop” (at Unicon 15) photo’s for the Mag
Not to reply to e-mails or to write some thing on His Web site about the End or delay in Uni mag 12 coming out is Very Poor.
As for taking Money for the Mag at Unicon and Having Issue 12 Late?
is almost a Thief
If it went really bad for him, it’s possible that he went bankrupt and no longer has access to the internet. We simply don’t know how bad it could be. Let’s not judge until someone can get in touch.
It’s a shame, I started riding in April and got my first mag straight away. It was really good and I’ve read it more than a few times, so I’m sad that that’s the only one I’ll ever have.
Have a look through and see what sort of format and style they go for. One of the bonuses with a digital publication like that is that you can have embedded videos, links etc. inside it. Honestly I think that would work perfectly for unicycling - featured riders and their youtubes, tutorial videos etc… Much cheaper to make too. Heck right now Philip Schleihauf is riding all the way across Canada with a bunch of cyclists to raise awareness of child soldiers in Africa. That’s just begging to have a writeup done!
Seriously, as appose to my previous post. I feel Mike certainly put every effort into making the UNI mag great. The magazines received were high quality in content, with a professional look and feel. I don’t know why the magazines are no longer being circulated, but expect nobody is more disappointed than Mike.
As for the missing magazines, and no word. I don’t know. I assume there became a point that losses simply needed to be cut, and perhaps legally anything Mike say’s could be held against him.
Whatever happened, I hope Mike recovers well from this unicycle adventure.
This is a very good idea . During the recession, the company I worked for went bankrupt because of the cost of our magazines and events. Simply put, advertising dollars didn’t match production cost, and the number subscriptions you need to come up with a subscriber funded print magazine is very high. Plus there’s a lot of labour involved.
I think an online magazine is a good way to go. They are interactive and cost effective. Its possible to make special printed issue as budget’s and events warrent it, say after a Unicon. It’s also concievable that the old subscription base could and should be transferred over. How that would work financially I don’t know, as I’m rather distant from what happened.
If I understand MuniAddict’s correctly, KH and Josh from UDC have been told by Mike that the mag will not be published anymore. And our subscription money is history.
So he collected a bunch of money with the promise to deliver a product, but he didn’t deliver, and kept/spent the money.
<cough>thief</cough>
What would happen if the CEO of Time magazine did that? Class-action lawsuit probably. I’m not saying that needs to happen here, I’m just pointing out that Mike is being treated somewhat special here.
Maybe that’s just an example of how tight this community is. We’re still hopeful for some kind of resolution from Mike. At a minimum, some kind of communication.
I’ve got a wife and three kids depending on me to earn and manage our money. Spending $70 for 6 magazine border-lined on insanity. $70 for one issue and a “free” purple backpack for my 6 year old daughter’s stuffed animals to wear IS insanity. Sorry if I’m a little miffed.
I’d be fine with a Uni mag that wasn’t all glossy and color. I’m not going to frame it, just read it. I’d be fine with an online version. I don’t care if it’s not laid out perfectly… again, I just want to read the info.
If nothing else, I’d even settle with getting past issues.
Dr D, generally the business model is advertising based. Because an online magazine has almost nothing in terms of overheads (at least compared to print) a few full page ads is normally enough to cover costs. More is a bonus. Generally speaking there is no signup fee and so “subscribing” normally just means entering your email in a field so the site can send reminders of new issues.
We could probably manage one about every two months? Unfortunately I have no spare time, but I’m sure someone could manage it.
I’m saying that while I was the editor of an online French Uni Magazine (Le Girafon Federe) published on pdf. For lots of reasons at that point it made more sense to have it online, especially since it was the magazine of the French Federation.
I actually would be interested in really getting involved in a new/continuation of a Paper Uni Magazine.
Real magazines are much nicer to read, but for a sport this small with people all over the world I think it makes more sense to go digital. Uni magazine, having no real competition, had saturated the market about as much as a unicycle magazine could, but it’s gone under. Paintball is a far, far bigger market, but all their magazines went under as well - and most of those had top end production values and were well designed and put together. How could a new Uni be financially viable? I’m just trying to be a realist!
Personally I’d say start with a digital mag, and if it takes off and is getting enough advertising and you’re sure you could keep it going, move to a physical mag. That, or as has been suggested just do one or two physical mags per year and the rest digital. That way people get the best of both worlds without so much risk on the publisher’s part. Ideally do proper online magazines and take advantage of strengths like the ability to embed video and interactive content to lessen the blow of it not being print based.
I’ve worked for 3 years for a newspaper until recently and then decided to do something else, I have an idea of the implications.
I realize it’s not easy but I don’t think I’d be interested in being involved in a online mag (already did that)… just want to do something I would want to read. But for sure i would make sure it can survive…
I’m not saying yet i’m doing it, just i’d want to…
I would phone the POLICE!
