BoxRec

In recent times the Boxing News seems to have been taken over by relatively young people with a keen interest in boxing. I don't particularly have a problem with that. But what it does do is create a 'young' environment. Young people are enthralled with the latest technological gadgets and methods of communication ,with facebook and twitter being worldwide phenomenons and means by which the Boxing News can engage with a wider audience. The sections on physical fitness and online comments from around the world are further examples of this modern theme.
The magazine however is losing sales as I understand and previously on this forum people with a greater knowledge than me claim that this simply reflects the current trend within which there is a belief that reading newspapers, magazines and books are simply old customs which are dying out. If that really was the case then why are there so many new magazines appearing, why are there still books being published and why do we see so many people still reading newspapers.
They are searching for a new editor. That person needs to have a clear idea of where the magazine part of the business is going. If the aim is to recover lost sales then they have to establish who the target audience is. To my mind the current issue reveals all the problems. We have a guy featured on the profile page near the end who I've never heard of and frankly have no interest in. They have a feature on the new Al Haymon - who in this country is the slightest bit interested. There is another feature on 2 guys from America which to be honest I simply skipped over -because I wasn't interested. We've about 500 active boxers in this country and numerous trainers, managers and young promoters who could quite easily have had a few words said about them- but no, lets focus on nobodys from abroad.
This is THE PROBLEM. Get back to being a British boxing magazine for British fans. By all means cover the big fights and fighters from abroad but remember your core readership.
If they continue on their current route it would not surprise me to see the magazine section going under. I continually raise issues on here about the Boxing News because I care passionatley about it and hate to see whats happening. The people who would buy the magazine are not youngsters in general. They are the traditionalists who like to sit with their paper in the morning. It might not be fashionable but that is where the potential buyers are and they're being switched off and the evidence is there for all to see.

I agree James and I also think that you should throw your hat in the ring; I was gutted when someone posted that BN was advertising to an editor and no knowledge of boxing was required - it's scandalous.

I've been getting " boxing news " since 1981!!, boy I've seen some
changes, not all for the better, so I think your spot on guy's !!.

I think that the 'fitness' and training tips pages don't belong in BN and take up valuable space. This is a boxing newspaper, not a fitness mag.

However I think as a whole the paper has modernised well. I don't mind all the Twitter quotes etc. I think that's the changing face of media.

It's good that the paper can be downloaded, not sure what sales are on these.

Old fashioned print media is a fading force in most markets if not all I would assume.

dalcumly wrote:If that really was the case then why are there so many new magazines appearing, why are there still books being published and why do we see so many people still reading newspapers.

Fella, while i respect your enthusiasm, this is one of those occasions where I have to apologise in advance if I sound patronising, as you're simply not as clued in to the industry challenges compared to the professionals. The statement above illustrates this all too well, as it's based on personal observation rather than hard facts, and ignores industry realities. This gives you an idea of the bloodbath that is the magazine industry these days:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/a ... sales-2014
While it's even worse in the newspaper industry to be frank.
I think the BN team have done a great job in incredibly challenging conditions - the reality is that whatever sector you're operating in you need to try and grow your readership base rather than 'circleing the wagons' and just trying to look after your existing, dwindling readers; BN is no different.

I've had the Boxing News since 1987 (Don Curry v Mike McCallum preview). I have to be honest and say I far preferred the old black and white paper edition; it was the 'trade paper' and was for real fans (not 'casuals'). I understand the world has changed but can there be a part of the world that stays the same?

palooka wrote:I've had the Boxing News since 1987 (Don Curry v Mike McCallum preview). I have to be honest and say I far preferred the old black and white paper edition; it was the 'trade paper' and was for real fans (not 'casuals'). I understand the world has changed but can there be a part of the world that stays the same?

I won't go into too much detail, but there are some many factors at play that people aren't aware of ranging from rising paper costs through to the challenges of being 'listed' in the right areas. The rise of the supermarket and corresponding decline of the local newsagent created pressure on all publishers to try and get their title listed in Tesco, Sainsbury etc as more and more magazine purchases were being made through those channels, but there simply isn't enough 'real estate' to include every magazine, so publishers have to lobby the giants in a bid to ensure they have visibility.
I don't want to read too much into anecdotal evidence, but when I was back at Christmas I struggled to find BN and BM, even in Smiths, which is normally the proverbial safe bet. That worried me greatly.

Oh well, Boxing News is finished, as is the entire newspaper industry, might as well give up then. The fact is that thousands of boxing fans have given up on the Boxing News because of the modern ideas. I realise about increasing costs, but the answer surely is to sell more. Advertising and marketing in the appropriate areas is fundamental . Where is the Boxing News advertised? I honestly don't know.
The content is the most crucial factor. Potential buyers want to read about local people ie British boxing people, they want to read stories about local lads, Burns in the sports shop, Saunders in his caravan , Seawright and McAuley travelling all over the UK, Paul Graham's expenses in promoting shows in remote locations, etc etc etc.
The recent survey will achieve very little. It's like a church minister trying to increase attendances by asking those already in the church what would make the services more interesting. The survey has to be aimed at Boxing fans who don't buy the Boxing News , or who used to buy it. Why not ask allegedly subscribers to complete the survey, they are obviously boxing fans. Why not survey former subscribers.

Regardless which magazine you pluck out as an example, whether it's about cars or women with big knockers - the print trade has dried up enormously.

When was the last time anyone bought a grot mag ? and hunting through hedges near a trucker's cafe doesn't count !

My point is, whether it's porn, football, gaming, fast cars, boxing - there are 200 websites to every 3 magazines now... and soon it will be 400 to 1.

Television is going the exact same way. It will dramatically different in 3 years from now.

dalcumly wrote:]The fact is that thousands of boxing fans have given up on the Boxing News because of the modern ideas. I realise about increasing costs, but the answer surely is to sell more. Advertising and marketing in the appropriate areas is fundamental . Where is the Boxing News advertised? I honestly don't know.
The content is the most crucial factor. Potential buyers want to read about local people ie British boxing people, they want to read stories about local lads, Burns in the sports shop, Saunders in his caravan , Seawright and McAuley travelling all over the UK, Paul Graham's expenses in promoting shows in remote locations, etc etc etc.
The recent survey will achieve very little. It's like a church minister trying to increase attendances by asking those already in the church what would make the services more interesting. The survey has to be aimed at Boxing fans who don't buy the Boxing News , or who used to buy it. Why not ask allegedly subscribers to complete the survey, they are obviously boxing fans. Why not survey former subscribers.

Where do I start?
1) It's simply not true to say it's a fact that thousands of boxing fans have given up on BN because of the modern ideas. You have absolutely no basis for this belief bar your own sentiments and the anecdotal ones of a few of your friends.
2) Where is BN advertised? What do you think its brand extensions such as podcasts and Facebook page are if not platforms to advertise and market the BN brand? It's reaching more than 1 million through Facebook - no traditional advertising campaign can compare with that.
3) You're right that content is the most important factor, but again what proof do you have for your claim?
4) In terms of the survey, there's definitely a degree of truth in what you're saying, but the practical challenges are huge - Fwank would never allow direct engagement with his subscriber base, while tracking down former subscribers and persuading them to participate in such a survey could be a costly exercise where the return on investment argument just isn't there.
Most importantly, you can't marginalise the 'forces at work' - the older readership is quite literally dying out, while the younger generation consume content in different ways. Historically, BN was competing with BM or The Ring - now it's also competing with forums such as this, twitter, facebook, podcasts, websites such as fightnews.com etc.

I can't stress enough this is not a BN-specific issue. I've been fortunate enough to work with hundreds of talented professionals who care deeply about their craft, whether they've been working in sports magazines, auto or gaming, and the reality is that all of them are facing the same struggle.
I'm sure many of you are experts in your own profession who get frustrated when mates or others who don't understand exactly what you do give their opinion on your work. Publishing, like a few other professions that are in the public eye, tends to attract opinions from those who have well-meaning intentions, but little grasp of the practicalities of how it works as a business. This is a case in point. Trust me when I say that if Tris or anyone else had been brave enough to sanction a return to the old black and white news-zine look and focused purely on the hardcore, older readership, BN would have been forced to shut its doors a long time ago.

G0mez wrote:Regardless which magazine you pluck out as an example, whether it's about cars or women with big knockers - the print trade has dried up enormously.

When was the last time anyone bought a grot mag ? and hunting through hedges near a trucker's cafe doesn't count !

My point is, whether it's porn, football, gaming, fast cars, boxing - there are 200 websites to every 3 magazines now... and soon it will be 400 to 1.

Television is going the exact same way. It will dramatically different in 3 years from now.

Exactly right Gomez. I'm currently working with a company that includes a couple of TV execs, and their new venture is all based on how the TV industry is being restructured as people fundamentally want to be able to choose what content they want, to watch it at a time of their convenience and on the device they'd prefer.
People don't seem to realise we are living in a digital revolution that is remodelling so many traditional businesses, whether that's in travel, hospitality, music, broadcasting, publishing or retail. Living in denial of that change only guarantees business failure.

There will always be a few of us dinosaurs.

palooka wrote:There will always be a few of us dinosaurs.

You still prefer the old fashioned copy of Escort ?

Deserter wrote: Exactly right Gomez. I'm currently working with a company that includes a couple of TV execs, and their new venture is all based on how the TV industry is being restructured as people fundamentally want to be able to choose what content they want, to watch it at a time of their convenience and on the device they'd prefer.
People don't seem to realise we are living in a digital revolution that is remodelling so many traditional businesses, whether that's in travel, hospitality, music, broadcasting, publishing or retail. Living in denial of that change only guarantees business failure.

Exactly. There will be smart TV's, phones and tablets - all will have apps or some sort of android platform and content will be streamed to those on demand. Peripherals like dishes, cable boxes and sky boxes will soon be redundant. No need to "record" stuff, it will be all there in the cloud.

Only live sports and live audience tv shows will remain from all the programmed array of content on your tv planner.

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is the new standard, with Android lollipop, windows 10 all supporting it out of the box. What does that mean ? well typically the films you watch are H.264 ...and now H.265 is coming which maintains the same quality but squashes file sizes down by up to 60%+ in 4k videos for example.

The increase in mobile and broadband speed , combined with better (yet smaller) video files means that TV over the web is already better than over the air, and its set to leave it for dust - plus its completely flexible, so you can switch devices, pause and resume without ever "recording" anything.

You'll probably beam everything from your mobile to your nearest big screen.

I used to get BN from the mid 80's when it was a A4 sized paper and was in black and white, except for the title on the front cover which was red. It was far better but saying that the boxing world was completely different. Boy I had a few articles printed and could not wait to get my copy on a Thursday or Friday just to flick through to see if any of my contributions had made it. I think it changed when Boxing Monthly came along, they were a colour outfit with glossy pages. BM was quite good and again I had that on order each month. I think Harry Mullan ran the outfit back in the 80's until Claude Abrahms took over, not sure if he still runs the mag though. I remember the size of the 'News' changed and went to double the size which destroyed the romance for me. The history had changed and not for the better. The weekly edition also disappeared from news agents, as I remember even now you never see a copy on the stands anymore.

I think though in general the old romantics such as me didnt want to the world to change but it has and so as most newspapers and magz, Jeez, even Gas Mask Monthly isnt as good as it was. And there is no Tit-Bits no more.

I was a subscriber of Boxing News for years. I have every copy I ever bought. Some 20 years worth. Almost 18 years worth of Ring magazine also. I stopped buying Ring when Dela Hoya bought. Quality had slipped but after Oscar took charge I could not see past the total biased shown towards his stable.

Boxing News I stopped buying for other reasons. It was not the content but more to do with boxing itself. It is not the same anymore. Biased judging, promoters holding titles for their stable, catchweight fights, day before weighins, Mayweather, total avoidance of the best fighters (Rigo) and the fact that the fans are continually robbed of quality fights. We hated Don't King but he put on stacked cards. Nowadays stacked cards means house fighters against no hopers. When we have to pay for a glorified British level fight such as Belew v Cleverly then the wheels have definitely come off the sport. The heavyweight division is dead, Mayweather can pick and choose who he can fight for 30 million, Cotton who is the linear man at middleweight would shit a brick if forced to fight GGG, Rigo is unexciting so nobody has to fight him and his name never allowed to be mentioned by any other fighter in his weight class. Sorry Boxing News its not you its the game that is wrong at the moment.

I apologise if wrong but is boxing news a weekly mag???? I cant understand this I know boxing changes alot from month to month. But when ive been out in the shops and see boxing news for sale I pick it up and see the thinnest magazine ive ever felt for 3 quid odd. It immediatly gets put down. If there was a boxing mag out every month even if it wasnt bang up to date, as long as it had some decent write ups id buy it and be willing to pay more. Just my opinion on magazines in general.

I started buying it last year. Enjoy every copy.

Although a lifelong boxing fan only the last few years has it become my top sport meaning time spent watching old fights on YouTube, reading this forum, listening to a couple of podcasts and also buying Boxing News.

So I'm new to the discussion. But the weekly format keeps it timely, the roundups of the previous weekends boxing are excellent, and I enjoy the additional material. I'm a bit old school as I get the papers delivered each weekend and will never convert to e-books, but I thought tris and team were doing a good job, and looking forward to another year of reading.

G0mez wrote:

palooka wrote:There will always be a few of us dinosaurs.

You still prefer the old fashioned copy of Escort ?

To be honest, yes - I only need one hand.

Remember something. Most of those on this forum are younger and fully in tune with all the modern technological methods of communication. The very people I would entice back to Boxing News will not be on this forum or anything like it. It would be interesting to know the age profile of the 80,000 who attended the Groves v Froch fight. I don't know the answer but I would be genuinely interested, because if they were mostly under 30 and all with their iphones out and at the ready then maybe I have lost it.

It would be really intriguing to learn how many BNation subscribers take the Boxing News.

I acknowledge the comments of Deserter and I'm sure they are valid, but if I may say, very defeatist. They remind me of what has been termed in political circles the 'Metropolitan elite ' . The group of politicians and journalists based in London and the South East who believe they know what the rest of the country thinks, and needs.

I don't know about others but I couldn't physically read an entire newspaper/magazine on a computer screen or ipad. I could read for about 2/3 minutes and look at the pretty pictures but that's it. Is this an age thing or can people read for hours from a screen ???

I'm obviously not in agreement with most on this forum , but I STILL believe that with the right leadership sales of Boxing News could improve significantly and buck the trend.If Newsquest and the future Editor don't also believe this then as I said - it's goo night Vienna.

If people are still buying boxing News now when all the news is available faster elsewhere it shows that some people prefer it to apps and websites.

(I buy Boxing News and subscribe to allegedly and enjoy BoxRec).

I've been a subscriber for a good few years now and I like the current format, I look forward to it arriving on a thursday. As people have noted every magazines sales are down. Nuts mens magazine ceased to exist last year and that was at 1 stage selling ridiculous numbers. I see another lads mag loaded has had a massive revamp lately with no nudity and a much more sophisticated read, i'd be interested to see if the numbers have changed much with the change just to see if change can make a difference.

its all sadly an indication of this day and age. I used to subscribe to BN regularly but now only buy one if im getting on a plane (3 times a year max)

I can get all the info I want on line, BN features are now 'old hat' unfortunately, simply due to the power of the internet. High street pubs are closing due to cheap booze in supermarkets, milkmen are few and far between due to the supermarkets, the postal business has been saved by ebay/amazon etc..so that's a plus. shops in towns up and down the country are struggling due to online sales of absolutely everything now.....where do you look if you want to buy a fridge?...... comet.....??... oh no, its closed down due to online sales, pc world and currys have had to combine to survive. HMV are struggling due to online music, streaming etc..they now sell ipads etc, speakers and tablets.....all to survive. I used to buy a paper each day....now I use the sky news app on my phone.

This is the age of online purchasing, ebay, amazon, charity shops, youtube......etc etc...

BN is about to die without question, there is only one thing that can save it..and that's to go completely online. They need a website with an attraction for starters, boxrec has the boxers records, absolutely valuable for all fight fans around the world. BN needs an online forum, fight records, a downloadable magazine each week/fortnight that you can click to download via wifi and then watch/read on your tablet/smartphone while youre on the plane.

the www is the only way to be completely current. BN has to realise this, take a 6 month 'time out', get some keen forward thinkers onboard, recruit the interest of promoters etc, employ a kugan cassius type figure, and get a decent website sorted plus weekly/fortnightly electronic magazine.

Just my thoughts.

and in reply to my post.......if BN sorted its act out, and charged £1 a week/fortnight for decent online access, interviews, facts and figures etc......I WOULD subscribe. but it would need to be good. Its actually a potentially rewarding and very exciting business opportunity.

dalcumly wrote:Remember something. Most of those on this forum are younger and fully in tune with all the modern technological methods of communication. The very people I would entice back to Boxing News will not be on this forum or anything like it

I acknowledge the comments of Deserter and I'm sure they are valid, but if I may say, very defeatist. They remind me of what has been termed in political circles the 'Metropolitan elite ' . The group of politicians and journalists based in London and the South East who believe they know what the rest of the country thinks, and needs.

Fella, I think you'd be surprised, as there are quite a few of us 40-somethings on the forum. In terms of that demographic you're seeking to entice back though, they're literally dying off, so that's not a sustainable strategy.
I should point out that I still prefer reading in print and love newspapers and magazines with a passion, but I can't live in denial about the realities of the era we live in. It's sadly nothing to do with the 'Metropolitan Elite' - if that was the case ask yourself why regional newspapers are dropping like flies? As I've stated previously, the facts and figures are all there for you in terms of declining print consumption. It may be an unpalatable truth, but it is the truth.

Im a subscriber have been for years, was only thinking today about cancelling it. I used to read every sat morning over brekky,then onwards upstairs reading whilst having my morning dump! Used to read it over a weekend..this weeks issue i got deld on thurs,only read a few pages. Its not the same,as someone said earlier the features are poor..i.dont care about some twobob manager from texas. Too much emphasis on abroad,i want british news,features about british fight figures..like it used to be. It started declining when they got rid of eric armit,then the old timers part..