Slim down the hog

Easyriders magazine has a special place in my heart. No, I don’t own a chopper or even pretend to know the difference between a hard or soft tail. It was here—on the cover of this best-selling motorcycle periodical where I saw my first naked lady at the landmark age of seven years old. She was a dark-haired vixen in textbook form doing her best to sell the bike. I was waiting for my mother at the local Pharmasave at the time and I can clearly recall: a) liking it—and b) wondering if this was wrong for a 7yr old to look at.

22 years later, Easyriders was reintroduced into my life via our resident press operator and Harley Davidson enthusiast. She pointed out to me with dissatisfaction that her favourite magazine recently made drastic and noticeable changes. To the average reader, these details could go unnoticed—but trying to slip this change past a production expert with 20 years of experience is much like trying to slip Baby Duck past a Sommelier. In one issue, the magazine was transformed from a perfect-bound, glossy book to a saddle-stitched, semi-gloss publication. That’s like downgrading from GQ to AutoTrader status.

Even so, opting for a lighter cover stock to reduce costs isn’t a novel idea. But what really got me was the increase in price per issue. Less for more.

In the publisher’s defense, I didn’t actually evaluate both issues to compare editorial quality vs. ads vs. quantity—but one can draw assumptions based on the changes to their production materials and newsstand price point. A lot has been written and blogged about the hardship in newspapers but it will equally interesting to monitor what happens with magazines.

Thinking back to that wonderful day, was it the glossy thick cover that got my attention as a curious 7yr old? With the new changes Easyrider runs the risk of alienating the younger demographic. We’ll have to wait and see…