Buying Into The Buyers Guide
There’s always been a level of speculation amongst the snowboarding populace as to whether or not snowboarding buyers guides were bought off by advertisers. You look at the Transworld Good Wood test and when the boards all had white top sheets there seemed to be a more level playing field, now that the white caps have been removed and graphics are allowed it seems that the bigger advertisers are the ones consistently garnering the top accolades. While others look like a company directory with a blurb about the company, some gear shots, and then their ad on the page next to them it’s no wonder this speculation exists. Recently an email was sent to me by one of my sources who felt that one of these magazines had over stepped their bounds by asking for revenue other than advertising.
Below is the bulk of the email in question and the attached PDF for you to judge:
We just finished up our buyers guide formats for Snowboard & Freeskier Magazines so I wanted to send some info your way. Our buyers guides offer tremendous value as they remain on newsstands for a total of 7 months (8/30/11-3/31/12). That means one ad buy can get (insert company name) products seen all season long. Our core shop distribution program offers more added value as that acts as a very specific form of targeted marketing. We distribute our magazine for free at the core shop retail level. That means that we are putting our publications directly in the consumers hands you are trying to speak to. Below are 2 PDF files that will explain how each buyers guide will be laid out:
Please let me know if you have any questions. As far as pricing goes, don’t worry about our printed rates. Let me know if you have any interest in any of this & I can work on some special pricing with you.
Where’s the journalistic integrity to provide the best information about a product when the company has their hand and wallet in the magazines back pocket? How can something be a definitive guide when it’s paid reviews? There’s more questions than answers at this point by the above mentioned email. But the big question is would you trust a magazine to guide you knowing that any company with the right amount of cash could buy their way in?
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This is hardly surprising. Snowboard mags are quite useless anyway. I remember when I started riding, I bought a couple thinking they would have articles to help me learn. Not even close. Stupid ads, even more stupid interviews, and virtually no info to educate, instruct, or inform. I learned nothing about riding, products, or even personalities. It was all some phony “lifestyle” set up.
I used to believe there was some integrity in the Good Wood tests, but not since they removed the cover sheets. Think – why would they do that? What would motivate such a change? I think you saw the answer above.
you’ll rarely see a small usa company in the good wood contest, simply because now they want 3 of each shape/size you wish to submit, just to hope for a chance to see one sentence written about your product. And well, yea, magazines are funded by advertisement, we all knew about this, but its great to see it up front.
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“It was all some phony “lifestyle” set up.”
Well-said, and it’s not just SB but even many that aren’t apparently similar (think: women’s magazines like cosmo, along with the swill like Maxim for the fellas, etc.) they’re basically a pseudo-”independent” forum through which capitalists can deliver highly-targeted advertising.
“don’t worry about our printed rates”… maybe the rumor that Snowboard Mag is giving away free advertisments is true.
[...] thoughts on and one that he chose to hone in on after a conversation where I talked about my post Buying Into The Buyers Guide. When it comes to the snowboard world there’s truly not a lot of controversy one can stir up [...]
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to say the magazine is distributed for free to core shops…so consumers can get a free buyer’s guide throught out most of the season. In turn, you have to pay something to show off your product at whatever level. Seems like pretty decent exposure, so with that being said, I don’t see any big deal. You pay to make catalogs, you pay to adviretise, you pay to feature your riders in videos,it’s just another thing to pay for.
Doug, they’ve always asked for 3 sizes per model. Used to be if you weren’t at SIA, then they wouldn’t bother speaking to you. If you have 13+men/unisex models then you can send in more models. It was blank tops, black bases until 2007, that was the year burton got blanked so the next year it was graphics. Plus in 2008 it started being run by High Cascade. I don’t throw out the goodwood test as bullshit, I think a lot of the boards are deserving. However, rarely do I like the winning boards, not my riding style.
I’m pretty sure that free distribution is one copy per shop. I remember us always getting one as a shop copy but never any to hand out.
I am not sure, but E’s comment seems spot-on. I have never viewed any buyers guide as helping me make a decision (beyond basic specs). But for a newer company (like mine!) this is actually a good way to buy a bit of exposure.
I do however feel like the “GoodWood” test is no longer valid. Basically, they took a fairly well designed experiment (despite the subjective nature of the respondents opinions), and then removed the double-blind. In the sciences, we’d call bullshit on this sort of obvious flaw in the first 10 seconds. I haven’t looked at Good Wood in a while, and one day found they had stopped the White-top practice, I figured the whole thing became a popularity contest and stopped paying attention to it at all.
We’re doing the SB Guide this year, and it’s basically because the deal was a good one, and I like their format – you pick 6 products to showcase per page, do a few bullet points, and point the reader to the web for more info. Not a bad deal really if you don’t try to think of it as a “buy this” guide and more of a “here’s some stuff available to buy” guide. At least SB doesn’t claim to have some sort of special crystal ball telling them what boards are best.
And sorry – I should have clarified; I’m a bit tired. I am in the Snow*Boarder* guide, not the “Snow*BOARD*, PPP” guide.
CC definitely get what you’re saying and Snowboarders does work that way and should be more of a company guide than a gear guide as it really just showcases the company and what they have available.
In other realms, such as music equipment, buyer’s guides are completely about just informing the consumer about the equipment available sans review.
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[...] far too lazy and feeble minded to click the link Kill provided here's the direct link from my site The Angry Snowboarder Blog Archive Buying Into The Buyers Guide [...]