“There was a period where publishers thought they might be able to compete toe-to-toe with social media and the internet,” says Like The Wind Publisher Simon Freeman. “I’m not trying to compete on numbers. I’m not even going to have that conversation.”
I’ve just finished working on FIPP’s Centenary magazine and we covered a select group of magazines that have made it into the 100+ club, still publishing in print beyond their 100th year. Surviving beyond your centenary is quite an achievement. But possibly more impressive is the story of an indie magazine launched long after the golden-age of print and growing into its second decade.
Like The Wind (LTW) is a running magazine launched in 2014, a ‘collectible’ inspired by high-spec publications like Rouleur, The Ride Journal and Monocle. At the time, Publisher Simon Freeman and his wife Julie saw that there wasn’t an equivalent in the running space and set out to fill the gap.
Beginning as a side hustle, the magazine is now on a path to growth, making the most of parallel changes in the running industry and the market for independent magazines. Both are ‘having a moment’ Simon told me on The Publisher Podcast, explaining how the addressable market for a coffee-table-style running magazine has exploded.
Being in the right place at the right time has always been a factor in magazine success, but LTW has leveraged their timing perfectly to develop what, to me, is the perfect blueprint for indie magazine success.
Premium pricing
Print publishing is increasingly a premium play and LTW has been positioned at that end of the magazine market since day one.
Simon is very clear that he doesn’t see every runner as a potential reader. “There are millions of casual runners who I don’t think would pick up a copy of Like The Wind. They’d be like, ‘Nah, it’s not really, for me.’ But we don’t need millions,” he explains.
Instead, Simon is laser focused on readers who see running, not as a way to exercise, but as a lifestyle. “It’s their main passion. They’re not just thinking about themselves and their own 10K time. They’re interested in seeing the world through the lens of running.”
For this group who are spending £250 on a pair of running shoes, LTW’s £12 cover price is not a problem. “They’re not massively cost conscious. It’s everything they are. They’re willing to invest.”
Longform storytelling
Similarly, Simon has a very clear idea of how those people will read his magazine. “My vision is that [they] will go for their run on a Sunday, come back, have a shower, grab a cup of coffee, sit down in an armchair and read two or three stories in Like The Wind.”
Simon is comfortable with LTW’s place in his audience’s media diet. “I’m not imagining for a second that somebody is not going to be on social media, watching the telly, listening to the radio, consuming podcasts. There are only certain times of the day when people want to sit down and read a 3,000 word piece.”
But, he says, for people who see running as a lifestyle and who want to read longform stories, LTW is there for them with beautifully produced deep dives into the culture, history and social issues of running.
Value not volume
The chase to match internet scale has been the downfall of many newsstand magazines; the costs associated with trying to compete on audience reach are crippling.
LTW’s first print run was 1,000 copies, and the magazine carried no advertising for the first six issues, mainly because Simon didn’t want to get bogged down in conversations about circulation figures. “That becomes super unimpressive when somebody can buy 100 million impressions on Facebook,” he says.
Even now, with every issue carrying sponsorship, the pitch is not about scale but about being part of the running ecosystem and supporting long form storytelling in the running world. Simon says, “It’s being part of in-person events. Paying writers and photographers and illustrators in the running space…supporting journalism that talks about social issues through the lens of running.”
Beyond a passion project
One of the biggest challenges for anyone in the creator economy – newsletters, podcasts, independent print – is switching focus from creative to commercial. “One of the things we’ve not done brilliantly is marketing the magazine,” Simon admits.
Addressing this, he has doubled the size of the LTW team with a focus on the business side.“We’ve got the same core team that makes the magazine. We’ve added people to help us to grow.”
Part of that will be developing a proper understanding of the magazine’s readers. For Like The Wind’s 10th anniversary, Simon was astonished to discover how many readers had bought every issue. “We thought we could handwrite some thank-you notes, but there were far too many,” he recalls.
It’s also developing new distribution channels. Currently, more than 90% of copies are sold through subscriptions or single copy sales on LTW’s website. To bolster that, Simon has plans to put the magazine into 100 specialist running shops in Europe and the US.
Making connections
While Simon doesn’t want to compete with Facebook’s scale, he is happy to take advantage of it. “If somebody says to me they want to reach millions of runners, I’m like, ‘Well, you better go to Facebook’. We then end up trying to find runners [there], ironically.”
And he thinks – maybe hopes – that people are turning to print as an antidote to online overwhelm. “It feels as though social media of 10 years ago is unrecognisable from what it is today. They still want entertainment, they just don’t necessarily want it to be on a social media channel.”
The foundation for success in premium print is tapping into readers’ passion for the subject matter. Forging authentic, intimate connections with audiences keeps them coming back and Simon illustrates that connection beautifully with an anecdote about meeting a runner in a coffee shop during the London Marathon.
“There was a fella standing next to me who was obviously a runner. We ordered our coffee and fell into conversation. I had copies with me – you always have copies with you – and I gave him one. I got an email a week later, saying ‘The magazine is absolutely beautiful. I’ve subscribed’. That to me is everything, how he said it made him feel. We’re doing a good job, and that’s what counts.”
Simon was interviewed as part of our report, Inside the Print Revival, looking at why magazines are making headlines again long after their predicted demise. Download the report for free here.
