BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Future Publishing of Bath has acquired the Australia-based international website Cyclingnews.com from Knapp Communications Pty Ltd.
Future recently bought the GPS-enabled Bikely.com to roll into its Bikeradar.com website.
Last year Future poached Cyclingnews.com staffers John Stevenson and Dr Jeff Jones, the current journo world cycling champion.
Stevenson, a former tech ed on MBUK, had been working for Knapp in Australia and was technical editor of Cyclingnews.com. Jones was based in Belgium and was the main editor at Cyclingnews.com. Both now work for Future in Bath.
Cyclingnews.com launched in 1995 and provides rider diaries, results and commentary on road racing, with lighter-touch forays into other disciplines.
The site is a biggy, with 500,000 unique users per month, and rising.
Once Cyclingnews.com is linked to Bikely.com and Bikeradar.com, Future estimates it will attract 800,000 unique users per month across all three sites.
Future started as a computer games magazine publisher but bought MBUK from Chris Turner and Tym Manley in 1991. The company now publishes four monthly bike magazines: Mountain Biking UK, What Mountain Bike, Cycling Plus and Procycling. Future also holds the licence to publish the UK’s Official Tour de France guide.
Simon Wear, Chief Operating Officer for Future UK and who has worked in sales on the bike titles, said:
“The quality of the site content of Cyclingnews.com, and the growth story behind it, is testament to the great work of the founder, Gerard Knapp and the whole Cyclingnews.com team. It is an incredible achievement to have built such a strong community.
“The acquisition of Cyclingnews.com and the launch of Bikeradar.com go hand-in-hand, giving Future immediate access to a large, engaged global audience of enthusiasts. Together, the sites significantly advance our online plans for cycling. With purchases like the route planner, Bikely, we are further developing our digital offering. We have a great opportunity to lead the market across all platforms in this sector."
* world’s premier roadie website?
Listen to the Cyclingnews.com vs Velonews.com discussion on The Spokesmen podcast.
