by The Editors on January 8, 2009
Sometimes when we get so jaded that we start thinking magazine covers are just photos on the backside of a spread ad, it’s nice to read some local coverage to remember how stoked people are when they make the cover.
Here’s what O’Neill surfer Jesse Hines, 29, had to say about his January Surfer magazine cover in the North Carolina’s Outer Banks Sentinel.
It’s the Surfer magazine cover shot, however, that is huge. . . . “It’s a miracle just to get a photo in there,” Hines said. “They just happened to like the image, it’s just chance. . . “They look at millions and millions of photos from all over the world [for each issue],” he added. . . .”I used to look at surf mags and dream of it [surfing],” he said.
Nothing like a hometown paper to put everything in perspective.
[Link: Outer Banks Sentinel]
by The Editors on January 8, 2009
Slapmagazine.com Editor-In-Cheif Mark Whiteley gets interviewed on Club Mumble. The big question: now that Slap is out of the paper printing business are they still going to do any old-media projects? Mark says they might:
We’re talking about a few ideas, from something like you mention to a best-of issue from all the stuff that goes on the site every six months to little ‘zine-type projects when we do trips with companies for them to distribute with product to all kinds of little ideas. I think we’ll do something in the next few months to get the ball rolling, it mainly depends on money right now as as everybody knows, money is a little tight these days. But yep, there shall be ink!
One other questions we might have asked: how’s that online advertising thing going?
[Link: Club Mumble]
by The Editors on January 7, 2009
According to a story in the Vail Trail Marty Odom, the a Sharpshooter photographer (who was not working and used his own camera) who got the photo of the bare-assed skier may get fired.
“I was out on my own with my own camera, so I didn’t think it was a big deal,” Odom said. “I thought it was going to be the photo of the New Year.” . . . However, when he arrived at work on Monday, he was told that he was suspended until further notice. . . . “We all know what that means,” said Odom, who has been working for Sharpshooters since the beginning of the season. “I guess it embarrassed Vail Resorts, and they called (my) shop.”
Not a bad price to pay for getting the shot that was seen around the world (it was even featured in the monologue of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night [10:26 into the show]). And no, Marty is not sorry he shot it.
[Link: Vail Trail via Deadspin]
by The Editors on January 6, 2009
Think iPhones aren’t changing the face of action sports media? Check this: Surfline is reporting that the the Surfline iPhone app developed by Oakley has been downloaded 200,000 times in only six weeks.
With only a few short weeks on iTunes, the global surf report iPhone application has been downloaded across the world with the top country’s being United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and France rounding out the top 5. . . . Surfline CEO Jonno Wells says, “This application has given surfers the ability to check surf reports for their favorite beaches on the go. We are very excited about the early numbers we are seeing with this application and look forward to continuing to provide information to surfers at their fingertips.
No one should underestimate the power of the iPhone.
[Link: Surfline.com]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
With a publication as smooth and clean as The Skateboard Mag you’d think that everything would be all digital and tech. Apparently not, according to a Kevin Wilkins post on Bob Kronbauer’s Clubmumble.com.
For each new issue of The Skateboard Mag our map goes up on this chalkboard. It’s in my basement, 36 floors beneath the surface, in Lincoln, Nebraska . . . First, with my knuckles, I erase inside all the old squares. Then I draw in new arrows and labels. I think I learned this on-the-wall method from Grant. After that we usually go back and forth a few times, adjusting what pages go where. There’s a similar set-up in our Solana Beach office, but they use grease pencils on glass and erase it with some kind of huffer’s delight.
Sometimes a little analog action can dull the sharp edges of the digital world and put a little soul back into this whole media dealio. Not that we would know anything about that.
[Link: Clubmumble]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
ASG goes all existential on us with their newly re-designed Surfer Mag site. Yes, we know it is today, we were just hoping to see some content. . . maybe it’s all below the fold. [Note: this has been fixed since the post went up, but it is still a complete waste of space on their homepage.]
[Link: Surfer Mag]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
ASG parent company Source Interlink’s owner (and Tony Hawk supporter) Ron Burkle has just announced that his Yucaipa Cos owns an 8.5 percent stake in Barnes & Nobel, according to a story on Bloomberg.com.
Burkle intends to monitor Barnes & Noble’s performance and consider the option to discuss strategic opportunities with the company’s board or executives, according to a regulatory filing today. The stake makes Burkle, 56, the fourth-largest shareholder of Barnes & Noble, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.
Wonder if one of those strategic opportunities will be cutting all competing magazine titles (TransWorld, Storm Mountain Publishing, etc. . . ) from the magazine racks in the bookseller’s stores? Burkle definitely knows how to leverage his assets so you never know.
[Link: Bloomberg.com]
by The Editors on January 4, 2009
It’s been a long time coming but it looks like ESPN has finally begun to treat action sports as a part of their sporting news mix and not just some kind of fringe “X” thing out on a site by itself. Starting today EXPN is gone and in its place is ESPN Action Sports at http://espn.go.com/action/.
The new, nicely uncluttered subsection of the ESPN.com site is reportedly much more Google friendly and will be bringing “shitloads of traffic, bro.” It was supposed to have its own promo on the homepage of ESPN.com but we couldn’t find any and the new section doesn’t currently have an RSS feed (it should be up by the end of the week according to inside sources). A link to the Action Sports page is, however, listed under the ALL SPORTS menu in the main navigation of the ESPN site (three spots from the bottom of the list behind Rugby and just ahead of “bassmaster.”) Apparently the nav is ranked by importance to the average ESPN.com visitor.
While we don’t exactly consider “rally” an action sport, the new index does give each of the sports their own sub-sub homepage which will technically allow visitors to deep link straight to the content they’re interested in. Still, this “segregated part of the whole sports world” idea does result in a page with a couple snowboard stories right next to a big promo for the Gridiron Playoff Challenge.
Guess some things will never change.
[Link: ESPN.com/action]
by The Editors on December 31, 2008
It is time to take a look back at the most viewed stories of the last half of 2008 (we went online July 1, 200). The posts listed below are ranked by the number of pageviews each received. Follow the jump for the complete rundown:
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on December 30, 2008
Fuel TV is finally living up to its potential with the recently release news that the cable channel will be broadcasting the 2009 Mavericks contest live on the Internet and in HD.
We’re excited about working with Mavericks to create a truly historic event—the first live webcast of a surfing event in HD over the Internet,” said Gene Pao, Fuel TV Vice President of New Media and International Development. “The quality of the viewing experience will really be unmatched anywhere online in the action sports world. This demonstrates that Mavericks is a true leader in bringing the best possible action sports experience to fans, and Fuel TV is proud to be a part of it.
The event goes off with only 24 hours notice sometime between January 1 and March 31, 2009. This should be good: especially since we threw the box in on cable months ago.
[Link: Fuel TV/Maverickssurf]
Sometimes when we get so jaded that we start thinking magazine covers are just photos on the backside of a spread ad, it’s nice to read some local coverage to remember how stoked people are when they make the cover.
