Cog Magazine

Cog magazine has been a marker of the seasons around the shop for the last little while. I am lucky in that on most occasions I am the first person(in Atlanta) to get to have a physical copy in my hands whenever it comes out. This is because I'm at my shop a lot, and none of the other shops carry the magazine. From what I can remember we've carried it from it's first issue. This month the featured frame builder was Bilenky who built the bike I ride every day. Cog magazine, is obviously a labor of love, and the editors and writers on their front are no more likely to be getting rich quick than the wrenches at your local shop.

From the very beginning and to this day we offer the magazine free to our customers. Just the other day I saw on one of the many blogs we follow a reminder that Cog magazine should be free! This got me thinking again about something that had come across my mind early on, and it is a logical conclusion that they mention this because some shops must be charging for the magazine.

First the issue that I had all ready reconciled myself to accepting. That being that my bike shop would pay(yes we have to pay for it) for a magazine that I would then give away that would have advertisement in it.

I am not in the publication business and I've never been a paper boy, nor have I ever run a newsstand. But as a general rule of business you sell things that you buy if you want to make money. However the idea that we could draw in customers with the exposure created by being a carrier of the publication peaked our interest and we gave it a try and bought a box. Sure enough we had some new customers come by and pick up the magazine with a few other purchases large and small.

Sure enough as well we have had and still have people come in and ask for the magazine and not buy anything. I'm not talking regulars here(who know who they are, and who know that they don't have to buy something that day). I'm talking people whose regular bike shop isn't us, stopping by only for the free copy.

Giving a free copy to anybody walking though the door may be a good business model for Milwaukee Bikes. Who has a full page ad in the magazine and wants you to read it to see their ad. But me paying to essentially give away a competitors advertisement to non paying customers? This does little for us as a small business, so off they go without a copy.

And so this was the state of affairs. But now we have the logical progression of bike shops charging for the magazine. It's hard for me not to say, if they paid for it, then they have the right to sell it(unless they have a specific contract not to). In all honesty this I believe Cog magazine will have to address directly in the near future. If this gray area persists, I see little other option then for small shops to begin charging for the magazine. For my two cents I would like to see them go fully one way or the other. Either a for sale publication, or a free publication paid for by advertisement free for anyone who will pick it up.