“Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”, is a modernized translation of from the original verse “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley,” taken from To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough by poet Robert Burns, yet still holds true today. As much as we planned and schemed for July, providence and luck changed our course, needing us to be light on our feet. Cancelled road trips, poor weather and conflicting schedules made the middle month tough for us to provide our readership the content we had planned, but without knowing so and by the looks of things, it truly didn’t matter.
The Watercraft Journal has continued in its efforts to expand its readership into two branches of the sport: classic and standup with technical articles, news and announcements of new products. Sure, there’s been no loss for those more mainstream enthusiasts looking to enjoy the most out of their time on the water, but we wanted to make an effort to welcome those who might not otherwise consider The Watercraft Journal for such content. Additionally, we’ve continued in publishing two new original videos to our YouTube channel each month (not just rehashing old footage from events that happened 20 years ago).
Lastly, we are the only outlet continually striving to provide its readers the freshest, most comprehensive race and event coverage from across the industry. It’s no easy task, and while we acknowledge that racing might not be everybody’s cup of tea, we do know that nobody else has nor will step up to the challenge of doing so – so we will. Full recaps, galleries full of dozens upon dozens of high resolution images and even up-to-date results (when possible) are published first and often exclusively at The Watercraft Journal. Combined with in-depth product reviews of the latest in industry-related products, interviews, and much, much more, and you’ve got the world’s most popular PWC magazine. Bar none.
July 2017
Welcome To The Party, Pal
We’re watching a change in our readership. Interestingly, this change – which by all intents and purposes should radically alter our total monthly readership, hasn’t – has been from mainly desktop and laptop computers to smart phones and tablets. This means that we’re maintaining the same amount of monthly day-in, day-out readers, but those who stop in for a quick peek at the latest news, reviews and more, and bounce back out. It’s not a bad thing, it’s simply a change in behavior as recording via the shifting metric. So what does that mean? It means that we still have the interesting, compelling and entertaining content that thousands of enthusiast want, they just are using different means to see it.
July 2017
Total number readers: 39,373*
Total number of articles read: 67,390
Percentage of new readers: 70.5%
*This number is considered equal to an individual sale of a single copy of a magazine.
Yippie-Ki-Yay
There’s a lot happening in the way of media these days. Did you know that Discovery Channel just bought TEN (The Enthusiast Network), publisher of Hot Rod Magazine, Motor Trend, and others? Did you also know that nearly 90-percent of all those magazines are in the red, meaning they operate at a loss? So why buy them, you ask? Because TEN also has a very vibrant subscription-based video production channel, producing dozens of half hour and full hour programs each and every month. So what does the acquisition mean for the everyday Joe who likes reading about muscle cars and hot rods? The future seems uncertain. For the watercraft enthusiast, we’ve seen the tide change from monthly printed magazines to daily digital content, but we see the need to change too. People aren’t spending the time to sit down and read a multi-page technical article (like they should). Rather, they pop-in and bounce-out as they glance at their phones. Nevertheless, we still see a value in the written word and continue to produce when others fail.
News articles published in June 2017: 25
Feature articles published in June 2017: 12
Total feature word count: 9,106 words*
News articles published in July 2017: 22
Feature articles published in July 2017: 14
Total feature word count: 11,884 words*
*When this number is translated to print publication standards equals a 112-page magazine. Please note that this number does not include an average of two uniquely-written news articles published daily.
Does It Sound Like I’m Ordering a Pizza?
The Watercraft Journal is striving to offer the personal watercraft enthusiast a diverse variety of content – sure, we offer the same industry leading event coverage, product evaluations, hands-on watercraft reviews, and more – but now we’re dishing out double doses of uniquely-created YouTube videos, as well as providing you with access to PWCTrader’s search engine of used and pre-owned personal watercraft as well as our own T-shirts and decals in our all-new store. If that’s not enough, we’re constantly flooding your Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram feeds, and your inbox with our weekly newsletters. If you’re not already following us, subscribed to our channels, or otherwise, you’re purposely ignoring us.
July Facebook likes: 23,312
Top Five countries: United States, Australia, France, Canada, Japan
July YouTube subscriptions: 675
Now I Have a Machine Gun. Ho-ho-ho.
As we said before, there’s a big change coming on the horizon. Frankly put, The Watercraft Journal‘s zero-subscription, free-to-all digital format radically upset the turnip truck. We promptly stamped out what print magazines were left. Those digital outlets that attempted to keep pace soon fell away – be it for a lack of professionalism, endurance or simply ability to consistently generate quality content. Yet, even at as we are considered the cutting edge of personal watercraft publishing, we’re looking beyond ourselves and seeing what we need to do to keep up with trends that have yet to hit our shores. And that is smart business thinking. If you’re a forward-thinking company we suggest you do the same – or better yet, partner with us, and we’ll do the hard work for you! Companies who partner with The Watercraft Journal and actively engage in an aggressive media campaign, find almost instantaneous results. Those who join but do little to nothing might see some marginal success, but nothing like the former. To help you reach a broader audience of would-be customers and spread the word about your brand, product and services, The Watercraft Journal must be a resource, a tool in building your brand. If you’re ready for that, email [email protected] about advertising your company in the single-most popular PWC magazine today.
