All sorts of crazy things in the news these days. Editor Zapata Espinoza has been dropped from Mountain Bike Magazine (of which there will only be four issues in 2004); Dave House is still trying to get his new cycling magazines up and running, but it looks like he's going to spend a lot of time in court before a new magazine is born-the House saga continues; a CNN reporter mows down a cyclist in New York City and promptly speeds away from the scene of the crime; and Titec dumps most of its American staff.
ZAP GETS THE BOOTM Rodale (the publisher of such magazines as Mountain Bike, Bicycling and Backpacker) dropped longtime Mountain Bike Editor Zapata Espinoza from their roster on August 12. Espinoza wasn't the only casualty. Rodale also dismissed Dave Pryor, Mountain Bike's senior art director and Doug Donaldson, Bicycling's associate editor.
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While the news shocked most in the bike industry, you could argue that the writing was on the wall months ago when Rodale dropped Mountain Bike from the newsstand and made it a freebie promotional product. (Buy a subscription to Bicycling, get eight free copies of Mountain Bike each year.)
And then there's the issue of overhead at the house of Rodale. While Espinoza was listed as Mountain Bike's Editor, the reality was that Zap and the magazine's West-Coast-based writers have always been just that-writers. The work of actually designing, laying out (and to some degree, planning) the magazine has always been in the hands of other people, higher up in the Rodale food chain. Steve Madden, a former Sports Illustrated senior editor, for example, was recently installed as the new Editor-in-Chief at Bicycling and Mountain Bike-he's the guy that calls the shots.
This personnel-heavy magazine model is a very different beast from lean operations like Mountain Bike Action, Dirt Rag and Bike-where the magazines are created, start-to-finish, by a small group of editors. Mountain Bike's expensive overhead may have been justifiable during mountain biking's salad days, but in these lean times, feeding that many mouths is another proposition altogether.
In short, the dismissal is not totally shocking, but a little puzzling all the same. Why would Rodale dump one of the most recognized personalities from their editorial roster? Mountain Bike and Bicycling Publisher Nicholas Freedman summed up his company's reasoning in an interview with Bicycle Retailer: "I think the world of Zap and his talents. But for us to accomplish what we wanted to do, Steve was the right guy for that job. Zap should be credited for taking Mountain Bike to its position as leader in the market. Madden will be credited with taking us to a different place with a different voice." Freedman also revealed to Bicycle Retailer that Rodale will relaunch Mountain Bike next spring as a newsstand quarterly.
THE SAGA OF DAVE CONTINUES A few weeks ago I reported that Mountain Biking magazine publisher and all-around industry gadfly, Dave House, had vacated his position at Challenge Publications to start three new consumer cycling magazines-TwentySix, a magazine for mountain bikers; Decline for hardcore gravity types, and a road magazine entitled Road Biking. Well, a lot of strange things have happened since.
Round One: On July 28, Challenge Publications (the publisher of Mountain Biking and Flow magazines) announced that they were seeking a court injunction against Dave House. Ed Schnepf (the top man at Challenge) was charging that House and several former Mountain Biking staffers had stolen company property and were using said property to launch their new magazines. Said Schnepf: "I wish Dave luck in starting his own magazine, but I wish he would return the considerable amount of stolen Challenge property taken to achieve his goal. By his actions, Dave House intentionally sought to cripple Challenge and interfere in its business relations within the biking industry. Challenge is prosecuting him and those who support his illegal activities through theft or collusion to the full extent of the law."
The allegedly stolen goods were said to include confidential business records, camera equipment, 12 to 16 bicycles, three tool kits valued at $1,000 apiece, the Mountain Biking/Challenge van (later returned) and editorial material that was supposed to be used in the October issue of Mountain Biking.
Round Two: On July 30, the Superior Court of Los Angeles ordered House to return the allegedly stolen business records and to cease work on Road Biking (a new roadie magazine that House had been working on with Schnepf, prior to leaving Challenge). Schnepf was jubilant in a Challenge Publications press release: "Justice has prevailed. It appears Dave House's attempt to cripple Challenge by stealing our critical business records may have backfired. The court order is the first step in proving Dave's new house of glass is built on quicksand."
While Schnepf was busy sounding triumphant and shaking a metaphorical fist at the sky, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Farrell set a preliminary hearing for September 24, 2003, to review additional allegations in the lawsuit filed by Challenge-essentially, the theft of bikes, tools, camera equipment and editorial work already in progress. Challenges lawsuit specifically named the former staffers involved with House-Editor Ralph Hauser, Senior Editor Scott Hart and Technical Editor Mark Jordan.
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