New Honda to be Unveiled
Print is Dead II
The assembled mainstream bike press are in Louisiana today for the annual Honda dealer show. Many persons expect Honda to unveil their new Superbike weapon and give some indication of what platform they will race in AMA Superbike next year. The public will see it tomorrow. Honda has a special press section on their web site which will have photos up soon... but nobody in pressdom has the right password to get in.
More evidence that Print is Dead (tm): The very well done UK magazine Motorcycle Racer, printed on coated stock, four-color, with awesome stories and art direction, folded last week, or so says expert photog Tom Hnatiw who shot photos for the mag. Publishers and editors of MR have nothing to look back on in disgust: they did it the way it should be done, at the quality level required... it's just that in today's publishing and communicating environment, magazines are a tough sell with readers and advertisers.
That is not stopping The World, who are rumored to be ready to launch a bad ass site some time in the near future. They will no doubt learn, just like Cycle News did, that giving your product away for free on the Internet will erode your readership like hard rain on a sand hill.
Of course if The World does ramp up to the on-line world, it'll probably mean they'll get a new word processing program (writers at CW still use X-write circa 1991), and Kevin Cameron's nine year old Mac will be replaced. It died after Daytona and KC has been sending in his stuff via pony friggin' express.
The John Kocinski versus Bell Helmets legal battle is heating up. More on this later today.
City Bike classified of the month: 38 years of motorcycle magazines, stored in plastic boxes. 415. 868.2214
There's a great editorial in this week's Cycle News on why the AMA should hire two or three series announcers for the Superbike series and get all the promoters to commit to them. No more Doh-cati references or telling spectators that the "drivers" are ready to take to the track. Bob Applegate, Rich Chambers and Bill Spencer head my list of guys they should hire. The editorial is not yet on-line.
The big Sotheby's and Ducati ride slash auction is this weekend. More info is available from the Ducati USA site.
