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roga


Posts: 1123
Joined: Feb 2006
Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 23.22hrs on Fri 10 Mar 06
I have some questions that someone here might be able to answer... at least I hope so smiling smiley

Way back in the early 80s soon after I first started skiing I bought various UK based ski magazines, some regularly. There were a few to choose from back then, some having been around for years, some appearing then disappearing after a short while.

In the late 80s and 90s I stopped buying them and my involvement in skiing tailed off for a few years. Now I'm back into skiing and have bought copies of Fall-Line Skiing and bought/seen the odd copy of other such as Ski & Snowboard (Daily Mail), Ski and Board magazine (Ski Club of Great Britain) and Skier & Snowboarder (only seen the first issue of that so don't know if it's carried on).

My question though is related to the past - what happened to the old magazines, did most of them just die out?

I remember the Daily mail publishing a yearly Ski magazine Ski Special, which I guess was the precursor to their current Ski & Snowboard magazine and the SCGB published Ski Survey which again must be the forerunner of Ski and Board magazine. However, there were others and I've dug up the following from my old collection:

Ski Magazine (one of the longer running magazines - by March 1980 it was on volume 4 Issue 6 so I guess it was first published in 1976)
Skiing UK (first published in 1985 and published in Scotland - this was one of the better glossies as I recall and had a decent amount of interesting stuff on the Scottish scene at the time)
The Skier (first published early to mid 80s)
Ski International (Glossy newspaper format freebie IIRC first issue published in January 1981)
Inside Edge (initially a b/w newsprint freebie published in Scotland which did have a real edge as I recall and was a great read, however it later changed hands and became a far, far blander glossy format A4 freebie)

So, does anyone remember any of these and anyone know what happened to them?

Are/were there any magazines that I haven't mentioned published?

Also, of the current crop which do you think is the best and are there any that you feel cover the Scottish scene adequately?



Edited 2 times. Last edit at 23.57hrs Fri 10 Mar 06 by roga.
SussexSnow


Posts: 406
Joined: Sep 2003
Last Visited: 06:43
18th Apr 2019
Re: Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 14.43hrs on Tue 14 Mar 06
Snowboard UK gives decent coverage of the dry slope scene. Even did a photo shoot of someone hucking a 5ft drop in the Pennines on real snow.

Onboard is a fascinating publishing phenomena. UK mag but published in different countries in different languages, Swedish, German, French. Very Euro so not so much UK coverage but good and stylish

All the board mags are driven by cover-mounted DVDs. I guess Document is a cross over version covering boards and sticks


roga


Posts: 1123
Joined: Feb 2006
Re: Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 18.02hrs on Tue 14 Mar 06
Yes, the boarding magazines always seem pretty groovy when I've browsed them and have some great photography in them.

If anything I get the impression the modern Ski mags have learnt a few tricks from them and are far better as a result.

I had a proper look at Ski and Board magazine (from the S.C.G.B.) the other day and it's actually extremely good with some great articles (and superb photos) covering equipment, the scene in general as well as trips to out of the way places and some history of WW1 in the Alps too - interesting mix I thought and vastly better than their old magazine in the 80s which I thought was absolutely dire to be honest and terribly London/SE England/expensive resort 'what ho chaps' centered.
andrewr


Posts: 237
Joined: Feb 2006
Last Visited: 15:13
30th Mar 2021
Re: Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 19.18hrs on Tue 14 Mar 06
I used to get fall-line skiing on subscription. Its seems to have changed its format slightly this year, but its still a good mag. They had a feature a few months ago about Scottish Skiing, and have a section about the UK scene and competion winners etc.
roga


Posts: 1123
Joined: Feb 2006
Re: Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 12.05hrs on Wed 15 Mar 06
andrewr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I used to get fall-line skiing on subscription.
> Its seems to have changed its format slightly this
> year, but its still a good mag. They had a feature
> a few months ago about Scottish Skiing, and have a
> section about the UK scene and competion winners
> etc.

Yes, I think all the magazines today are a higher standard than they used to be, especially visually. Fall-line has some great articles although I find it a little more disjointed and 'bitty' than Ski and Board, although I admit I'm basing my comments on only seeing a few recent issues.

The news section (and the inclusion of information on the UK Scene) is excellent though although I missed the feature about Scottish skiing - what was it like?
andrewr


Posts: 237
Joined: Feb 2006
Last Visited: 15:13
30th Mar 2021
Re: Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 13.11hrs on Wed 15 Mar 06
It was quite a good feature they seemed to enjoy themselves at the lecht and nevis range (dont think they made it to the gorm, cant find the issue). good pics of some of the guys doing some freestyle, from what i remember.
FearLiathMor


Posts: 7
Joined: Mar 2006
Last Visited: 17:12
28th Dec 2014
Re: Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 17.47hrs on Wed 22 Mar 06
Ah! Inside Edge! yes, quite radical for its time. I well remember their front cover with pics of skiing at Cairngorm in October (?1979), also some Edinburgh nutter in full ski gear and helmet lashed to a Mini's roof, ostensibly to practice for the Flying K. Alas, it's long gone. Skiing UK was OK for a time too but I recall was a bit short on content.
My kids now buy Fallline Skiing, which has some useful articles and features, however, it's a wee bit Anglo-centric for my taste, fine if the Tamworth snowdome is your bag.
Frank Baldwin


Guest
Re: Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 11.12hrs on Sat 25 Nov 06
I took over as editor of The Skier (and later purchsased the title) 16 years ago. The Snowboarder was added a couple of years later. Also around this time we took over Ski Magazine and incorporated it into the title and took on the editor and fashion editor of Skiing UK (which ceased publication).
Ironically one of the reasons we took over these titles was because advertisers and readers complained there were too many ski mags in the UK which diluted the market.
But since then several more have entered the market and others have come and almost as switfly disappeared.
About five years ago we changed format from glossy A4 to a larger A3 format. There were two reasons for this. Firstly our readership surveys showed that people thought 'all ski magazines looked the same' which caused confusion and secondly it enabled us to use good ski photos even bigger - the readership surveys showed that many people bought ski mags for the pics.
We also now do a poster size pic on the centre spread which we are told readers like to take out and use once they have finished reading the mag.
Back in the good old days The Skier had the highest paid for ABC figure of any UK ski mag - 25,000+ which has never been topped.
Since then so many other mags have flooded the market with 'freebies' that we have also reacted to this and as well as newsagent copies we now have a large 'free' distribution (anything between 30-40,000) available from as many places we can find where skiers and snowboarders congregate - artificial slopes, ski shops, shows etc. We even have some in bars in the Alps during the season.
'The Snowboarder' was added to the title to reflect the numbetr of skiers who told us they were trying snowboarding as another way of enjoying their annual holiday in the mountains and so we are not aimred at 'harcore' snowboarders who already have their own mags.
Frank Baldwin


Guest
Re: Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 11.15hrs on Sat 25 Nov 06
I took over as editor of The Skier (and later purchsased the title) 16 years ago. The Snowboarder was added a couple of years later. Also around this time we took over Ski Magazine and incorporated it into the title and took on the editor and fashion editor of Skiing UK (which ceased publication).
Ironically one of the reasons we took over these titles was because advertisers and readers complained there were too many ski mags in the UK which diluted the market.
But since then several more have entered the market and others have come and almost as switfly disappeared.
About five years ago we changed format from glossy A4 to a larger A3 format. There were two reasons for this. Firstly our readership surveys showed that people thought 'all ski magazines looked the same' which caused confusion and secondly it enabled us to use good ski photos even bigger - the readership surveys showed that many people bought ski mags for the pics.
We also now do a poster size pic on the centre spread which we are told readers like to take out and use once they have finished reading the mag.
Back in the good old days The Skier had the highest paid for ABC figure of any UK ski mag - 25,000+ which has never been topped.
Since then so many other mags have flooded the market with 'freebies' that we have also reacted to this and as well as newsagent copies we now have a large 'free' distribution (anything between 30-40,000) available from as many places we can find where skiers and snowboarders congregate - artificial slopes, ski shops, shows etc. We even have some in bars in the Alps during the season.
'The Snowboarder' was added to the title to reflect the number of skiers who told us they were trying snowboarding as another way of enjoying their annual holiday in the mountains and so we are not aimed at 'hardcore' snowboarders who already have their own mags.
johnDUB


Posts: 445
Joined: Jan 2008
Last Visited: 12:29
28th Feb 2013
Re: Ski Magazines of the past and present
Date Posted: 10.17hrs on Fri 1 Feb 08
Magazines used to cost me a fortune when I first got into it.
Daily Mail, Ski, Skiing (american)

Had a fling with mail ordering Powder from usa. That was good, but hit and miss at coming, even though it came from germany for the uk.

So I bought a few Fall Lines then, a couple of Daily Mails, but they are so repetitive.

Bought first one yesterday of 08 season. Fall Line, subscribed too as if in Chesterfield your not, A football , B fishing or C, a Nuts reader, Ski mags are like rockin horse poo.
Fall Line seems to fill the gap for now. Main thing is it as scottish stuff in, so am happy.

You bet your moms tidy ass it is!
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