tri mags which and why ?

peter kern

So who reads a tri mag on this forum?

which one?

why ?

How much do they influence your thinking and buying behavior ?

Do you see a connection that articles very often come as a by product to an paid advertisement in the mag ?

Does that bother you or not ?

ta

BTH

None, because its all crap and full of ads.

Oryx

So who reads a tri mag on this forum?

Guilty

which one?

Triathlete Europe.

why ?

Took a discount sub to see what it was like.

How much do they influence your thinking and buying behavior ?

My lack of money influences my buying behaviour in the first instance. I would use an article for information gathering, but not for a definitive decision. This forum influences me more than any TE articles. Sometimes there are little gems of wisdom in the magazine. Not often though, Ive found.

Do you see a connection that articles very often come as a by product to an paid advertisement in the mag ?

The only thing Ive seen is that they promote particular athletes and races all the time, moreso than products. But then I aint buying much at the moment. (see above)

Does that bother you or not ?

When you can see a particular agenda at work (pro or anti WTC, the same people and places mentioned again and again) its irritating. Makes you feel like youre being marketed to rather than informed.

To be honest, like I said above, most of the knowledge Ive gained about tri has been from asking numpty questions here and reading threads and logs, and going to races and doing the bleedin things. The magazine articles have been interesting, and its good to see what is going on out there. But its been obvious from the first issue I got, that in the case of TE anyway, there is a particular slant or bias in their content.

Ive picked up Triathlon magazine once or twice off a friends coffee table, and it seemed good. Heard of 220 but never read it yet.

Fazz

Cant say much more other than I agree with all the above.

Found 220 too full of Ads and lacking quality.

Like Oryx, I too have a sub for Triathlete Europe.
I find it pretty good for articles and the likes.

I wouldn't pay too much heed to the ads and prefer base that on personal research etc but it can start the ball rolling alright.


There was a particularly good one a couple months ago with some of the best coaches and mini interviews/approaches from each which was good.

couerdelion

So who reads a tri mag on this forum?
Yep

which one?
Travel quite a bit so always buying mags. Usually pick up 220 and Triahtlon Plus Have a subscription to TE but probably won't renew as it comes over a week after it's in the shops. Nothing more frustrating than a late sub.

why ?
Dunno. I keep promosing myself that I won't buy them anymore as it's usually the same regurgitated info and biased reviews, but I end up in Easons paying money over.

How much do they influence your thinking and buying behavior ?
Not at all. I would rather ask for an opinion on a forum than trust a magazine review.
Do you see a connection that articles very often come as a by product to an paid advertisement in the mag ?
Yes. I've never seen a bad review for a product ever.

Does that bother you or not ?
It's all just filler for the mag. there is useful information each month in all the magazines but there's so much **** that sometimes it's difficult to find. I like the Joe Beer articles in 220 and I used to like TE but that seems to be getting dumbed down further each month.

peter kern

There was a particularly good one a couple months ago with some of the best coaches and mini interviews/approaches from each which was good.[/QUOTE]

was that the one with 5 coaches if so I have so no idea how the 5th one made it in there.
his elite athletes apart from shoemaker are to Egyptians i have seen once or so in the result list.

Izoard

TE for me as well - good intentions in the beginning, but it now serves as an excellent source of exotic races for the bucket list...

kingQuez

I used to buy 220 triathlon when there was something interesting in it. When I was just getting into triathlon there were usually interesting features (eg. reviews of races in the uk, features on training for your first race etc.). Nothing groundbreaking, but relevant for me at the time.

They also used to have dvds from time to time (windsor triathlon, "rides" of south cali, videos of swim drills etc.) that had a lot of info in them, but that I would never have bought otherwise. Without being a member of a club (at the time), I got a lot of the info there. The food recipes used to be great too, I dropped a lot of the crap I was eating and replaced it with a bit of experimenting with real ingredients.

I'm not really a kit junkie (the mag has influenced my choice of races in the past, but not what kit i've ever bought), but its always fun to flick through the collections of crap you can buy too

I'm not sure whether the focus of the mag has changed now, but I dont buy it anymore as there's rarely stuff in it that interests me.

griffin100

I used to buy 220 religiously when I started tri for about two years, but it's dreadfully repetitive. Even my 6 year old who likes flicking through and looking at the photos asked me why every issue looked the same.

It's now sitting in a pile in the bathroom where it constitutes emergency reading

catweazle

On another note the next door neighbour is a cycling nut and drops over his weekly editions of Cycling Week to me. Its very poor - seems to be the same stuff every week, it might improve when I get the Giro editions off him but certainly they havent enough current news for a weekly edition if you ask me

littlemsfickle

So who reads a tri mag on this forum?
Moi.

which one?
Meh, I'm not loyal to any particular one. If I see an interesting cover story I'll pick it up. I've read 220 triathlon and tri europe when I received a free copy.

why ?
Makes for more interesting reading over a coffee than Hello.

How much do they influence your thinking and buying behavior ?
I have yet to buy any piece of kit I read about in a magazine.

Do you see a connection that articles very often come as a by product to an paid advertisement in the mag ?
Not really no. Perhaps I'm just not particularly perceptive though and their subtlety is lost on me.

Does that bother you or not?
What bothers me is that at least a third of the thickness of the magazine can be attributed to pages of ads which makes me feel like I'm being ripped off.

ta
You're welcome.

TriWazza

peter kern wrote: »

There was a particularly good one a couple months ago with some of the best coaches and mini interviews/approaches from each which was good.

was that the one with 5 coaches if so I have so no idea how the 5th one made it in there.
his elite athletes apart from shoemaker are to Egyptians i have seen once or so in the result list.[/QUOTE]

Enjoyed this article too and like yourself couldn't understand the inclusion of the last coach except for the US angle. Obviously triathlete sells a lot in the US and they needed to include a US based coach.

Triathlete and TE are head and shoulders above the rest of the pack!

mh_cork

Have read Triathlon Plus, 220 and Triathlon Europe.

Triathlon Plus, 220 are poor and aimed at complete beginners. Really basic advice and same articles over and over again. For example every 3 months, we get the "What do you need for you first tri" article. Really poor coverage of races also. For example, one of them had only two pages on IM Wales and 90% of it was 1 picture of the swim-start. Hardly a mention of the bike or the run, other to mention that the bike course was hilly (useless)!

Triathlon Europe has training plans and some of the articles from some coaches are interesting (even if you dont necessarily agree with their approach). But it suffers from being largely a re-print of a US mag.

By the way, if you have an iPad / iPhone, Triathlon Europe and Triathlon Plus are available on the Newsstand for around 30 euro for the year. Half the price of the mag in Easons, but you wont get any extras.

peter kern

Thanks I did not even know about triathlon plus
So which one attracts the most advanced athletes then ?
How come nobody has mentioned Lava? I hear it has just been sold .