BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Factory Media is to close its print productions, including cycling titles Dirt and Ride UK, the publisher has announced.
Citing a major restructuring, Factory will turn its focus to digital, with £1.1 million to be invested in "new talent and content", specifically within video production, as well as a strategic investment in unboundlife.com – a social fitness hub.
Though all key editorial staff are to be retained, Factory has said some job losses associated with print publishing will be lost.
In a sign of things to come, in March last year the publisher sold DIG BMX magazine back to its founder Will Smyth.
UPDATE: Factory Media has been in touch with BikeBiz to confirm that it is only the print side of the business which is ceasing. A spokesperson said: "All titles will remain online and continue to produce editorial content, just on a much larger scale. Dirt and Ride (and all others) are still alive and well."
Darryl Newton, CEO of Factory Media, said: “Last year saw a leap of over 200 per cent in our branded-content production activities, with digital ad revenues up by 25 per cent. Although moving on from our heritage as a magazine publisher is an emotional shift, it also represents a significant opportunity to create even more content for a significantly larger online audience without the barriers of accessibility and affordability. All titles will remain online and continue to produce editorial content.
“Our social-media reach peaks at 340 million a month, and our owned audience exceeds 6 million online lifestyle sports fans."
In other publishing news, BikeBiz recently held a series of interviews with the industry’s key publishers, which you can find here.
