2r Magazine

2r magazine

I’m delighted to announce that 2r, a new monthly digital magazine about pro cycling is available to download for all Apple iPad users. For free.

It will be available on other platforms in due course.

Why the satisfaction? Well I’ll be making regular contributions and you can now read my first article there. The magazine’s got a range of features and full-screen photos.

Each month I’ll be taking a step back from the day-to-day scandals to take a broader look at pro cycling and its interaction with business, politics and sports governance.

This month’s INRNG article looks at the awarding of World Tour licences to teams. Now there’s plenty to make sponsors think twice about backing a team, from the obvious fear of doping scandals to more sophisticated matters like whether pro cycling’s audience demographic is suitable for the sponsor’s brand. But the UCI’s licensing process can be scary for sponsors, team owners and riders alike with the points system, rules and timing adding a lot of risk to the equation. Just ask Katusha why the process can be a Russian roulette.

Follow these sources to get more information and you want to leave any feedback and suggestions on the article, let me know below.

website: 2Rmag.com
twitter: @2Rmag
facebook: 2Rmag

Download 2r

76 thoughts on “2r Magazine”

  1. I could spend minutes, hours, days or even weeks trying to figure it out, or I can simply ask – what is the name 2r referencing?
    Inrng readers will love this concept! I just asked my wife to bring the Ipad mini so we can download the app. Reading the excerpt from the Lemond interview made me impatient 🙂

    Thanks

      • Actually, I would say there was an audience of zero before it came out, and it increased to iPad. You haven’t been able to read a Kimmage interview for a year for example. And now it will increase further to other platforms. Even the BBC starts any new development only in iOS and then moves to other platforms. And I don’t exactly have the resources of the BBC.

        Of course I would welcome anybody to start their own cycling magazine and fund it, I think the more content that becomes available – especially if it’s good – the better. And if people can figure out how to launch from the get-go on the various formats and optimized streaming bitrates of Android without losing your shirt, that would be fantastic.

        But aside from the technical issues, before people say “just put it on a website” you have to figure out: how do you fund it long-term? How do you fund somebody writing for 2 weeks on an article, how do you fund a professional video crew? There are tons of models for this, 2r’s is by no means the only one, but it is one, and one where I figured I could do it for the long-term. But in a world where even the up-scale cycling magazines just pay 200 GBP/1000 words for articles (just do the math what type of factory work you need to put out to make a living), nothing will work if you can’t fund quality content.

        • It really isn’t that difficult to do Gerard, and it isn’t expensive either, you don’t need to be the BBC to produce a digital magazine for all of the current formats with a modest budget. Not sure where you are getting your info from.
          I am really pleased to see someone doing what you are doing and wish you every success, I would love to take a look but my iPad isn’t supported even though it’s less than 2 years old.
          The comments above you really should listen to if you want it to be a success.

        • Anonymous/Gerard Vroomen
          As it happens I am a developer and a producer and a content development expert and I have 3 apps in the app store including a digital magazine (individual i) which I produced in its entirety at a cost of nothing.

          That’s £0.00 just in case you thought you miss-read.

          that I’ll pay it again it cost nothing except my time.
          It’s a test magazine I did 18 months ago as I wanted to see what would be involved and how long it would take etc.
          I created all the content for the magazine myself with a little help from Toyota (thanks guys) and its as good if not better than anything out there, including yours. So I think I can say been there – done that – bought the tee shirt 18 months ago.
          So my reply to Anonymous is – Do try and keep up.

          Of course I won’t produce it for nothing for anyone else even for the designer of my bike frame, much as I might like to we all have to eat, and if I wanted to put it across all the available platforms including Android it would cost a little more, but not much.

          Digital magazine apps are very cheap to produce and publish, and anyone who tells you different doesn’t know what they are talking about. Content on the other hand espically video rights for sporting events are a different story, but producing your own content including video content is very cheap.

          So if it’s costing you your shirt you maybe want to look at who’s doing what and why.

          If you don’t believe any of this then send me over some of your content and I will produce a test app for you took at, take me a couple of weeks max.

  5. I don’t own any apple devices whatsoever (not even quicktime player or itunes). Any way to read this online? Or do I have to wait for you to create a pdf?

    • I don’t own one either. It’s coming on other platforms but don’t think the PDF would work as the magazine is designed for an electronic device rather than paper, which PDF replicates.

      I’ve only submitted a piece here so I don’t know when the other pieces are coming.

      • +2

        Will not own an Apple device except my iPod (two generations old and it rarely gets used anymore). It strikes me as kind of lazy for the mag to not have at least 3 platforms (IOS, Android, Windoze) available since the extra effort is marginal at best. Oh well, business does what it thinks is best regardless of the alienation factor …

        • “The extra effort is marginally at best”? To launch on Android? Not even the BBC launches on Android from the start because of the complications. Read this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/android_update

          “Kind of lazy”? What I think is lazy is to sit behind your computer and call me lazy, instead of saying to yourself “I can do this better” and getting off your ass and launching a cycling magazine on at least three platforms yourself.

          I love getting feedback, both positive and negative, but to be this dismissive on the first day of a new venture that is free to the public is, well, lazy.

          • Gerard

            I can tell you are getting slammed on a day when perhaps you expected better. To be frank, I did not expect your app or mag to be free – generally speaking I pay for the content I want to read (dead trees or electronic). I would pay for the INRNG as well. Also, I am well aware of the technical complications of Android.

            Perhaps my lazy comment was a bit over the line but yours reeks … good luck with your venture. To paraphrase you, my world is no different with the introduction of your magazine – I cannot read it so it exists in a vacuum to me.

            But I will take your advice and “get off my ass” and pay someone else for content I can use.

          • Note that the BBCs’ issues with Android were not really technical. Rather they were down to the BBC (irrationally) believing that Apple iOS devices were secure, and Android were not.

            The BBC could have made iPlayer accessible to Android overnight, once they introduced the HTML5 version for iPad. All the exact same technology exists on Android. The BBC simply chose not to, based on dumb rationales and decisions, which they refuse to revisit.

    • It is free for now, but I wouldn’t count on it.
      Otherwise I don’t see any reason behind not offering the content on the WWW. Hope I’m wrong, but can only speculate without an iPad.

      Now, I hate this position that I’m in. I know there’s information out there I’m interested in, but can’t get to it.
      And in the 21st century!!!

      • Well, you can charge for website access to, though in the comments Gerard seems to suggest it will remain free. The decision to release it exclusively as an app, with no website and/or PDF versions, seems a bit bizarre on the face of it.

    • The app will unfortunately reduce its availability. At this point, not making it as an app will reduce the availability to zero, as I haven’t figured out how to fund it that way. Of course you’re right that you can have a paywall on your www, pdfs can do video, etc. That’s all true. But the question is not what is technically possible, but what advertisers are willing to advertise in/on.

      I’m not saying I have the right answer, frankly I am not sure anybody has yet. It’s a struggle for almost all publications (maybe with the exception of the WSJ). Time will tell. But I do appreciate your feedback (and as I mentioned to you elsewhere, I do actually like the openness of www, but again, I just don’t see right now how to sustain that long-term).

      • Gerard,

        I’m sure you’ll figure out how to widen the availability eventually (e.g. free app with advertising and paywalled WWW?). It’s great you’re doing this, and I wish it all the best even if I can’t access it for now.

        Thanks!

        Paul

  7. I hope your content will also be available here because I refuse to support the innuendo and smears which deface the UCI_Overlord and Kimmage Twitter timelines.

      • It’s great that this is free and no doubt your contribution is as informed and interesting as usual INRG. Gerald Vroomen always has interesting opinions too which I might not agree with but are well put together and thought provoking.

        But another thumbs down here for the involvement of UCI_Overlord. Untruths dressed up as snark and disingenuous pot-stirring = zero credibility.

        Nevertheless, good luck with the venture.

  8. I had given up on the dead tree cycling press long ago. Poor investigative journalism and pages of trivia, plus expensive.

    Had a quick look at 2r .Congratulations on the content and contributors, look forward to a read

  10. Looks like owners of the original iPad are out of luck since only the more recent devices can download the app. 2r may want to rethink this. (sent from my iPad)

  14. Don’t have any of those gizmos but great news anyway! I hope the owners of the thing are PAYING the journalists involved. This is one reason we happily pay the extreme price for Rouleur magazine, the ONLY cycling-related publication I pay money for. With the obvious exception of Inner Ring, most of the free stuff out there is worth what you pay for it and written by hacks who give their work away free in far too many cases….or are just waiting to be hired as PR flack by one of the advertisers

    • Yes, this is actually one of the reasons I started this. When talking about “why didn’t the cycling media uncover this” or “write about that”, I kept hearing they don’t have the budget to really send somebody out long-term to pursue a story. That’s why you see Kimmage have his career at the Sunday Times, not at a cycling magazine. And when you do the math, it’s of course because distribution, paper, etc is expensive and not super-efficient, in a niche sport.

      With an iPad magazine, Apple takes 30% but if the magazine is free, that’s 30% of nothing. And I can assure you I am not waiting to be hired as PR flack!!

  15. Why on earth should a magazine appear in a way that it can only be read by people with very specific devices? Is it pseudo-exclusivity for PR reasons or simple technical incompetence? I’ll wait to see if this is worth reading until I can actually read it, but I’m already negatively biased now.

    • The why is pretty simple. Make a budget for putting this content straight on the internet. Now see if the revenue covers your cost. If you’re going to spend this much on quality content, and if you want to make that content available for free, then advertising has to support the cost. If it was really that easy to achieve that, it probably would have been done already. So unfortunately (and I truly do think it’s unfortunate), I think this route is the way, but we will definitely strive to make it available on as many platforms as possible.

      • Gerard,
        I’m intrigued by the launch of 2r – congratulations on a bold move. I’ve looked on the website and can’t find who the owners are or where they might be contacted. Could you suggest one?

      • Jesus what a pack of whiney bitches on here, some of you talk like you are paying $30 an issue for this. Gerard well done so far. Email me and I will share my 5cents on monetizing content.

  16. I find it unbelievable that people are complaining about how this is distributed.
    Do the math. Printing magazines costs money. Distribution is much more limited geographically and numerically. Tablets allow people to easily access publications and iPads are an incredibly popular form of tablet. While it is only available on ipad, “It will be available on other platforms in due course”.

  17. WOW this blows my mind how people are so upity about this. What’s with the sense of entitlement.

    Worst case scenario is that you are in exactly the same situation as before the magazine started and you cant view it.

    • You articulated a similar reaction to mine, Anonymous.

      While I am also frustrated that I can’t access the content yet I’m certainly not going to flame Gerard & co for doing something new and appealling. But the world is overpopulated with mouthy whiners and armchair experts and far too few doers.

      If you don’t like Kimmage’s views then don’t read his articles. But I bet you will, because regardless of whether you agree with his PoV, he’s a damned fine journalist. It’s Gerard’s game so he sets the agenda, and I bet he knows what he wants to do better than we know what we want.

      Chapeau to those making 2r happen, I’ll join you as soon as I can.

  18. It’s not normal that a journalist needs two weeks to do an interview – my editor would freak out if that was the case. The media business doesn’t have space for such luxury birds anymore

  19. Oh, and another thing; I don’t understand how Kimmage can interview Lemond. In my opinion there’s a conflict of interest here as they’re both members of the somewhat farcical CCN movement. It is pure Kimmage in the sense that he’s more of an agitator than a journalist but it is just not the right way to do it

  21. Congratulations Gerard! and of course thanks to Inrng for collaborating. Very good stuff inside. Highly recommended. Totally baffled on the negative comments.

  24. Thanks Gerard for the initiave and Inring for the support. Wonderful.

    The angst you (particularly Gerard) are getting in some of the comments above is frankly astonishing. FWIW, I fully support your approach to the provision of 2r, actually I’m humbled that you can do this and make it free.

    To the whingeing fools; give yourselves an uppercut.

  25. Amazing to read all these “help-you-left-us-out” reactions here, people just don’t know the vast array of technical platforms and it’s limitations I guess. I have first hand experience in developing apps for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile and know how hard it is to stay focussed on your original concept and not let it’s functionality’s be cut down to simply putting a pdf in a reader or porting a website to an app. Kudos to Gerard for taking this route AND for the promise to making it available to other platforms as well!!

    Besides this tech stuff: I can only compliment you on launching this new magazine, it gives a voice to those who tell us about the inside of cycling, not the closed omerta kept polished outside. Can’t wait to read more!

  26. I’ve read/watched most of the content of 2r and would like to compliment Gerard for a great effort and inrng for contributing. Very nicely done in terms of layout, media use and content!!!

    For all you paranoid androids – this magazine will make you want to come over to the dark side 😉

  28. @Gerard Vroomen — Thanks for such a great first issue and keep up the good work! It’s been a pleasure to read through it and should you decide to start charging for it, I’d gladly buy a subscription.

    BTW, please pay no attention to the whining Luddites who are upset that you’re not handwriting each copy on parchment with a quill pen and delivering it by carrier pigeon. It’s crazy that people are complaining about a free product that didn’t even exist a week ago.

  29. Why only iOS 6.0 ?
    If you’re going to initially roll-out on Apple, then iOS 5.0 would allow a whole host of people with iPad 1’s, iPhone 3’s, etc

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