From one foot in the grave to Bonnier Motorcycle Group.
That’s the route 51-year-old Cycle World Magazine has taken on a two-year ride that’s seen three owners, a 15-title swap, and its rebirth as the flagship of a portfolio that dominates motorcycle media in the U.S.
“There are much larger motorcycle markets in the world, but from a media standpoint, we’re still the largest single-country media group,” said Andrew Leisner, vice president and group publisher.
The group has 52 employees at its 29,000-square-foot office in the Irvine Spectrum, where it produces 10 magazines with a combined print readership of 871,123. Last year, it generated $26.2 million in revenue from ad sales and circulation—more than half the total for the category nationally—and a “strong net profit margin,” according to Leisner, who’s settling into his new duties as group publisher after a “whirlwind two years.”
“I went from finding out that the company I led is being sold to ending up leading the most powerful motorcycle media group in the world,” he said.
Leisner was Western advertising manager at Cycle World from 1997 to 2001, leaving the publication to pursue other challenges, including a stint as a vice president of a sanctioning body for professional motorcycle sports. Then-owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. Inc. brought him back to the publication in 2010. The magazine and the entire motorcycle industry were still absorbing the blows of the economic downturn, when sales fell by more than half from a prerecession peak.
“When people are having trouble making their mortgage payment, the last thing they’ll do is go out and buy a motorcycle,” he said. “In most of the world, motorcycles are used as a primary, efficient mode of transportation. Not in America—they are toys here, with an average price close to $10,000.”
Marketing budgets plummeted along with bike sales.
“Everybody was looking to get more impressions, more reach via digital for less money than what they spent on print advertising,” Leisner said.
Hearst Corp. bought Hachette in May 2011.
“It’s the world’s largest publishing company, historic, really progressive—we were really excited,” he said. “That lasted about six hours—the day we closed, they called me and told me they weren’t keeping us.”
Cycle World was profitable, but its 250,000 circulation paled in comparison to Hearst titles like Elle Magazine, with more than 1 million subscribers.
Bonnier Corp., the $5 billion U.S. arm of Swedish Bonnier AB, bought Cycle World on undisclosed terms several months after the Hearst buy.
Leisner worried his position might be eliminated, but his concerns soon dissipated. His boss, Bonnier Corp. Executive Vice President Eric Zinczenko, informed him the company was interested in “doubling down in motorcycling,” and was looking to swap six surf and skateboard titles for nine motorcycle publications from San Clemente-based Grind Media (see related story, page 1).
The deal went through in May, putting longtime rival Motorcyclist and a number of popular niche titles in Bonnier Motorcycle Group’s fold.
“Motorcyclist and Cycle World have always been major competitors,” Leisner said. “We’ve been always battling each other on newsstands and for advertising dollars. Here we had an opportunity to acquire those properties.”
The group eliminated print versions of three smaller titles acquired from Grind Media—ATV Rider, Super Street Bike and Street Chopper, which combined for circulation of less than 70,000. The magazines continue as digital publications.
Some advertisers worried that Bonnier would fold Motorcyclist, but Leisner said that was never on the table. He said there’s room in the market for the two titles, both of which have broad appeal in the motorcycle category. Those chunks of readership, along with the roster of smaller titles, mean the group has more to offer advertisers looking for wide reach.
The group also aims to bolster its standing in various niches of the motorcycle market by “looking hard at what the DNA of each brand was and clearly defining [its] editorial direction” to zero in on different audiences of enthusiasts.
“A motorcycle is not just a motorcycle,” Leisner said. “We have Harleys, sport bikes, dirt bikes, so many subcultures. You can’t give a Street Chopper reader Hot Bike content, it will turn them off. Cycle World always covered them all, but with big, broad strokes. With these nine additional brands, we were able to pinpoint and focus on the specific market. So if someone came to us and said, ‘I have a product for adventure bikes,’ we have 42 million page views monthly, and we can pinpoint that adventure bike enthusiast throughout our network and target them for a more efficient (media) spend.”
Print advertising revenue has “stabilized somewhat” and accounts for 50% of the group’s total revenue, while its newsstand sales bring in 22%. Digital advertising revenue makes up another 15%.
Motorcycle riding events, nine of them scheduled for 2014, represent a small but growing source of revenue: 4%.Video syndication is growing, as well, Leisner said.
The group also is focusing on licensing its brands internationally, especially in regions where the motorcycle lifestyle has been well established for generations. So far, it contributes editorial content to Cycle World’s Brazilian and Malaysian editions. Advertising is sold locally.
“We have this growing middle class in Southeast Asia that grew up riding motorcycles, but now they can afford aspirational sport bikes, Harleys,” he said. “They are purchasing motorcycles not just as a mode of transportation but as a luxury good.”
The challenge of the future, Leisner said, is determining “where people are going to be consuming motorcycle content and monetizing on that.”
“We always have the audience. [Enthusiasts] live, breathe, eat this sport,” he said. “They have a $10,000 toy that’s expensive to insure, doesn’t stand up by itself, it becomes your life, all you’re thinking is when will be the next time you get to ride. However, the media landscape is changing so rapidly, we have to be two steps ahead, we can’t react to change, we have to see them coming and change the way we deliver the content.”
