When you’re so far ahead of the competition that you have only yourself to compete with, you start looking to beat your previous year’s performance, and that is exactly what we’ve done thus far in 2016. This past May readership numbers handily surpassed last year’s June, by over 3,000 unique individuals at that. Sure, we had a heck of a scoop about the upcoming 2017 Yamaha WaveRunner that is guaranteed to turn the top-of-the-line performance enthusiast world on its ear (and quickly were asked to retract the entire story because we like not being on Yamaha’s $#%& list), as well as tossing in some industry-leading race recaps, photo galleries and product reviews, but that’s been our modus operandi for three years now.

May was also particularly special as we also welcomed some new advertisers who’ve come to learn that joining The Watercraft Journal gets them more exposure to more potential and return customers than anywhere else. For those still considering working with The Watercraft Journal, consider the fact that in the last five months, Sea-Doo averaged over 5 individual articles each and every month, RIVA Racing averaged just a little below that. How’d you like to see your company get that level of exposure? Sounds pretty dang great, doesn’t it? But here’s the kicker:

You need to be ready to work with a fast-paced daily magazine; simply cutting us a check is nice, but you’re not going to get the return on your investment if you’re unwilling to help us put your brand in front of our readers. We can only write so much. If you’re not energized to promote, educate or entertain, we simply can’t do it for you; we’re not your marketing agency, we’re the outlet that puts you in front of the largest reading audience in the personal watercraft industry. Now we get it, you might not be able to afford a marketing strategist or a college kid who can tackle your various social media outlets (by the way, chances are Snapchat and Instagram aren’t going to be your best plans of attack).

Even if you’re a small shop producing a handful of products, there’s still ways that a program with The Watercraft Journal is going to drive new customers to your store. Allow us to review your latest invention, we can develop a unique biography on you or your company, publish an insider look at your facility or much, much more. We’re working with Dean’s Team, an established entity in the PWC racing world that recently opened its doors to the public, by creating articles putting their ECU tunes to the ultimate test or showing how easy it is to increase both horsepower and fuel mileage in a single afternoon. Our job is to educate and entertain its readers and introduce them to the best brands and products within our sport. Isn’t it time that we help direct them to you?

May 2016

Don’t Take Our Word For It
It’s easy to peruse this article and just hear a bunch of gloating. In all seriousness, that is not our intent, but rather, to educate those companies still unclear whether advertising on The Watercraft Journal is right for them – and illustrate to our current advertisers that they’ve made a sound investment. Our steady growth is proof enough that we’re the magazine most sought out, most read and most shared than any other entity in our industry. And why is that? Because the continual stream of new and engaging articles never ceases at The Watercraft Journal – there’s always a reason to come back several times a day.

April 2016
Total number unique readers: 24,971*
Total number of articles read: 54,308
Percentage of new readers: 64.4%

May 2016
Total number unique readers: 28,672*
Total number of articles read: 57,120
Percentage of new readers: 69.7%

*This number is considered equal to an individual sale of a single copy of a magazine.

There’s Always a Reason to Come Back
Have you noticed that there just aren’t very many outlets for PWC news and entertaining content? So have we, and its this vacuum of quality content that drives us each and every day to raise our game. Our industry deserves more than what is being put out and that is why we are proud to work with such amazing companies to develop and publish informative and pertinent articles that not only educate, but instruct and inform. We know, we’ve said those words a lot lately, but they have meaning. We strive to produce better quality content, faster and more consistently that any other media outlet, and we know that is shows. Heck, reading everything in this article and you’ll know it too.

News articles published in April: 24
Feature articles published in April: 13
Total feature word count: 10,831 words*

News articles published in May: 22
Feature articles published in May: 15
Total feature word count: 11,530 words*

*When this number is translated to print publication standards equals a 138-page magazine. Please note that this number does not include an average of two uniquely-written news articles published daily.

Death of a Sales Rack
Face it kiddies, print is dead – at least when considering our industry. Newsstand sales evaporated when Personal Watercraft Illustrated and Watercraft World dried up. The last few remaining print titles are either so exclusionary (ie. crude, controversial, or too regionally focused) that no news rack will carry them, or their written in Japanese. So that’s why The Watercraft Journal has an obligation to put its content out in the digital atmosphere as best as possible, putting its efforts into utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and weekly newsletters as best as possible. Because hyperlinks to a paper article don’t really work too well, do they?

May Facebook likes: 15,778
Top Five countries: United States, South Africa, Brazil, Philippines, Australia

Take It For a Test Drive
We get it, trying something new can be scary especially if just hearing the word “advertising” makes your skin crawl. That’s why it’s good to know that The Watercraft Journal not only has ad rates that can fit your budget, but we can develop an editorial calendar that meets your expectations and fits within your allotted budget. It’s part of being flexible and being willing to work together with the advertiser, not just collect a paycheck. Let us make 2016 the year you break all of your previous sales records, requiring you to hire more staff, move to a larger building and become the fixture in the industry that you know you want to be. email kevin.shaw@shawgroupmedia.com about advertising today and lets put the single-most popular PWC magazine to work for your company.