This might not be the right venue to discuss it, but it’s been a relevant point for a while: professional racing no longer dictates the current of the industry. In tracing the behavior of nearly half a million annual readers, we’ve noticed that racing coverage, albeit popular, pales in appeal, attraction and retentive interest than nearly anything else we publish. Case in point: because of extraneous circumstances, we weren’t able to provide coverage from the second round of Pro Watercross racing two weeks ago, and we witnessed no undulation in readership. When a review of a gas can can eclipse that of our IJSBA World Finals coverage, we know for certainty that racing is no longer the “taste maker” in our industry. Consumer interest is.
In fact, that is why The Watercraft Journal excels over those few remaining publications who focus so tightly on racing coverage. The wide appeal simply isn’t there. The recent upswings in riding groups, social media organizations and those peddling lifestyle over competition are seeing marked growth over racing venues and starting lines. Sure, we’ll never argue that a leisurely 3-hour cruise is nowhere near as exciting or captivating as standing on the shore watching a full lineup of Pro Open standups roar off of the line, but that’s not the point we’re arguing. When it comes to producing a publication with significant and widespread appeal to the largest audience of personal watercraft enthusiasts it’s a matter of “the less helmets, the better.”
Yet, here’s where things get sticky: performance enthusiasts love to know what the latest go-fast performance parts used by the professional racers are. They want all of the performance of a Pro Limited or GP Runabout without the actual talent or fitness to properly compete on them. We’ve ridden side-by-side with 50-year-olds touting the very best parts from RIVA Racing or Dean’s Team, who by at intents and purposes couldn’t cut a buoy if $100 bill dangled in the balance. While racers will sneer at this prospect, this fact is no different than millions of motorcycle, UTV and automobile enthusiasts. The point is to be able to balance that line and provide readers the information they crave, and companies with the clients they need.
May 2017
May 2016
On The Road to Half a Million Annual Readers
While projections are often always wrong, most well-informed projections (based upon recorded trending and consistent experience) are usually directionally sound. In following the steady growth of The Watercraft Journal over the past five months, as well as our previous 3 years of publishing, maintain that we will reach half a million unique readers this year alone. That is a number never before achieved by any personal watercraft (PWC) publication. Be it a digital or printed publication. More importantly, when a digital magazine within this industry continues to draw in new and return readership every single month since launching its launch in 2013, it’s uncanny. More and more PWC enthusiasts are coming to The Watercraft Journal, and why? Because we provide this industry a level of professional and consist publishing unlike any other.
May 2016
Total number unique readers: 28,672*
Total number of articles read: 57,120
Percentage of new readers: 69.7%
May 2017
Total number unique readers: 35,809*
Total number of articles read: 65,270
Percentage of new readers: 63.8%
*This number is considered equal to an individual sale of a single copy of a magazine.
Quantity In & Quality Out
While there’s certainly something to be said for raw, natural talent, it’s ability, commitment and professionalism that elevates The Watercraft Journal above the rest. There is no more reliable source for top quality, professionally-written magazine content in our industry, particularly one that produces said content each and every single weekday. Regurgitation, cut-and-paste and blatant plagiarism are the trades of our competition, and it’s a sorry state of affairs when we are compared to such persons. Nevertheless, we pride ourselves on delivering on our promises, satisfying the requests and needs of our advertising partners, and providing our readers with the most satisfying and entertaining content available today.
News articles published in April 2017: 27
Feature articles published in April 2017: 10
Total feature word count: 9,478 words*
News articles published in April 2017: 24
Feature articles published in April 2017: 13
Total feature word count: 12,889 words*
*When this number is translated to print publication standards equals a 118-page magazine. Please note that this number does not include an average of two uniquely-written news articles published daily.
Always Active & Ever Present
The Watercraft Journal doesn’t require any sort of download, or paid subscriptions or even a password to log in and access our industry-leading content. That’s right! We’re 100-percent free to you! And in addition to publishing our content across more social media outlets – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and weekly newsletters – we also are actively producing quality video content unique to our written articles on our YouTube channel. That’s right, we not only maintain the most active PWC magazine in the world, but also its own YouTube channel wherein new videos are uploaded every 5-6 weeks. If they’ve got a computer, a laptop, tablet, smartphone or Apple Watch, they can read The Watercraft Journal
May Facebook likes: 22,701
Top Five countries: United States, Australia, France, United Kingdom, Japan
Looks Like I Picked The Wrong Week…
We’re not going to go so far as to say you must be sniffing glue to not be advertising on The Watercraft Journal already, but we are going to question how you expect to reach the most potential customers without access to our half million readers. Don’t be satisfied with buying a few digital ads on a forum or a luckluster Facebook campaign, begin a program with The Watercraft Journal and start an active relationship with a media outlet that is working together with you to get your company out in front of more eyes than anywhere else in the personal watercraft industry. And we both know that there are still plenty of people that you’d like to reach. So again, if looking to grow your clientele, reach a broader audience of would-be customers and spread the word about your brand, product and services, let The Watercraft Journal be your resource and email kevin.shaw@shawgroupmedia.com about advertising your company in the single-most popular PWC magazine today.
