now that RW has bought RT

Shrinking businesses face consolidation. Witness the U.S. auto industry today, and the U.S. steel industry in the 80's. Rodale absorbed RW and shred it's staff and budget. Now Rodale swallows up RT. Which failed magazine is next, T&FN ? I doubt Rodale would be interested, since T&FN is in the specialized market, i.e. they have no major advertisers, no credible and no acknowledged staff, and a circulation of less that 10,000. AT&F ? No, it's a shoe catalog, with a few cheesy pro bono articles.

Your post is entirely incorrect. Both RW and RT had very strong years economically.

no credible staff? yes just throw away 50+ years of stats just like that. bizarre.

...that RW bought out RT. If they are smart, they'll run them independently, as they seem to have different target markets (RW the popular, mass market audience, RT the more dedicated, serious runner). I hope RT sticks around, and stays similar to what it is now. I like their regular columns a little more, and find their shoe reviews more helpful than RW. I'm interested to see how it shakes out.

I will say this much, RT definitely had the better cover shot of Carrie Tollefson last month...hands down.

RT disappears in less than 12 months. Mark it!

Most shoe reviews are almost worthless, I have never heard a bad shoe review and not all shoes are good

Then why hasn't TFN gotten http://www.tilastopaja.net/ to recognize my WR ?

Rodale decimated and dismantled RW. Anyone with brains enough to obtain a social security number has already switched jobs to Walmart. They have a minimal staff, pay the rock bottom subsistence T&FN-rate for articles ($100) and pictures ($50 inside, $125 for cover). As a result the quality has hit rock bottom. The internet/web has killed RW and RT. T&FN influence has been insignificant for the last decade and their prescence in the sport has all but evaporated, except the back issues are excellent nostalgic library shelf material.

RW has already vanished. It's COSMOPOLITAN now, all about lifestyle, health, gossip, trends.

Hmm, GM bought Jaguar (or was it Volvo) and yet both are still in existence as separate companies, producing product geared toward different markets. Couldn't that be the RW/RT business model?

Very true. Although I do enjoy my RT, I guess those days are over. I was down right religious about T&FN, but the internet and has made it irrelevant.

Why read about a meet 1-2 mo after it happened? Unless I was a current athlete and wanted to see my name printed in their rankings, I don't see where it's relevant at all.

Of course RW is relevant for newbies, but that's it. Maybe they'll keep RT for more advanced runners. Lets hope they dont crush it.

If you live in L.A. have you noticed that there are no more cars made by Jaguar, Volvo, and Saab on the road, and fewer by BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, VM. 20 years ago they were in abundance, maybe one out of five were these brands. Not anymore, now it's Honda, Toyota, Lexus, and Subaru, and assorted American SUVs and pickup trucks.

No, because unless Jaguar has been putting out crappy minivans and gas-guzzling SUVs, that's a terrible analogy.The more accurate business model is the large record company/movie studio/publishing house buying the independent but letting it release product under its own label. In this scenario RW editor-in-chief dictates which articles RT gets to publish, thus eliminating any possible crossover competition. RT remain a niche publication, only gaining in circulation as RW does - not ever gaining in circulation to RWs detriment.

Carzzz wrote:

Hmm, GM bought Jaguar (or was it Volvo) and yet both are still in existence as separate companies, producing product geared toward different markets. Couldn't that be the RW/RT business model?

Shadow, I don't know where you got these RW monetary figures you quote, but they're nowhere near being true. I mean....they're light years away from the truth.

Your business model works only if the internet dies tomorow. RW and RT has no control over the print magazine market, nor do they have control of the web magazine market.

Web magazines also suffer from an oversupply of choices, 2nd'ary news (breaking news based on someone else's breaking news), tired browser gimmicks, poor quality video clips, snapshot photos, pilfered articles, etc. The running and t&f websites will face the same business failure as RW and RT in due course.

Letsrun should create a magazine.

Letsrun provides an open internet forum, and not much else. Other websites provide freeware web service such as blogs, RSS news links, amateur picture galleries, and sports statistics. A print news magazine requires correspondents to produce original journalism, or the budget to acquire such materils. A print product magazine requires original product evaluations.

You can get the rates from any magazine via email, or call them. RW pays little for editorial articles, and stopped paying for editorial pictures after Rodale slaughtered the staff. They use a studio photos for the cover. Any competition pics they have are from unpaid, uncompensated amateurs. TFN uses amatuers and coaches and pays $100 per article, $125 for a cover photo, $50 for inside photo.