CMG Shutting Down

IMHO it sucks to lose such a fine Canadian publication, but I can understand the pressure on Courtney.
 
That sucks. Some of my happiest days were working with Rob in the early days of CMG.

Hell of a year for Courtney, but she needs to do what's best for her and the girls.
 
thats too bad :(

Now we're left with Motocycle.com and other regurgitated news sites/magazines. (my personal opinion)
 
kiwi said:
thats too bad :(

Now we're left with Motocycle.com and other regurgitated news sites/magazines. (my personal opinion)
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IMO Motorcyclist is doing a hell of a job with a tiny team. Zack and Ari are top notch. But yeah it sucks to be losing options all the time. I feel like MCN (Motorcycle Consumer News) is close to the end as well - their new editor-in-chief is awful.
 
kiwi said:
thats too bad :(

Now we're left with Motocycle.com and other regurgitated news sites/magazines. (my personal opinion)
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Ugh, verticalscope. I'll give them credit, they do seem to be successfully making crap tons of money in a market where many are struggling.
 
Sad to hear, but given their model not surprising.

As Courtney pointed out "digital and print publishing companies are struggling to keep afloat in the ever-murkier space between content and advertising".

BB
 
GreyGhost said:
Ugh, verticalscope. I'll give them credit, they do seem to be successfully making crap tons of money in a market where many are struggling.
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For the most part Verticalscope buys established forums that are thriving, plasters them stem to stern with advertising to generate profits and starts charging "supporting vendor" fees for people who want to advertise in the threads, and then they sit back and reaps the benefits while others do the work. Adding insult to injury, then they often pay little to no attention to the staff (or their needs/wants) that actually make the place tick. So, others do all the work for free and they just collect the $$$$ - all they do is provide the server space.

I speak from many years of experience as an admin on one of their largest forums.

Be glad GTAM isn't a VS site. If Paul ever decides to sell I can only hope he asks the membership if there's someone who'd like to take it over and keep it the community based site it is before handing it over to the wolves there.
 
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PrivatePilot said:
Be glad GTAM isn't a VS site. If Paul ever decides to sell I can only hope he asks the membership if there's someone who'd like to take it over and keep it the community based site it is before handing it over to the wolves there.
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We have already been approached once by Verticalscope. The answer was a firm no! ;)
 
cutekill said:
We have already been approached once by Verticalscope. The answer was a firm no! ;)
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Glad to hear, but don't be surprised if they come knocking again. ;)
 
Tough go for any publication these days. The motorcycle industry has declining sales across the board. I can't imagine trying to get advertising support to pay the bills.
 
Roadghost said:
Tough go for any publication these days. The motorcycle industry has declining sales across the board. I can't imagine trying to get advertising support to pay the bills.
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A big issue here may be the ad blockers we run in our browser, so I've disabled mine for sites like CMG.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 
Rotten_Ronnie said:
A big issue here may be the ad blockers we run in our browser, so I've disabled mine for sites like CMG.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
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I have no problem with passive advertising (linked business cards at the top and sides of a screen). The real problem is the screen hijackers, the deliberately intrusive ads that use Flash Player to infiltrate your computer and lock the screen among other diabolically creative ads. It's ruining things for the good advertisers who just want to be visible. I have often used those linked ads to good vendors, but these days you're forced to throw the baby out with the bath water because of several bad apples. I think more and better enforcement of these predatory advertisers is needed.
 
Roadghost said:
I have no problem with passive advertising (linked business cards at the top and sides of a screen). The real problem is the screen hijackers, the deliberately intrusive ads that use Flash Player to infiltrate your computer and lock the screen among other diabolically creative ads. It's ruining things for the good advertisers who just want to be visible. I have often used those linked ads to good vendors, but these days you're forced to throw the baby out with the bath water because of several bad apples. I think more and better enforcement of these predatory advertisers is needed.
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I love the sites that do that on a mobile so you can't even browse the content. Fail!
 
And the ones that bring up a pop-up window with a "close" button one pixel in size. And the ones that bring up links to questionable (non work / family safe) content.

I turned off the ad-blocker for CMG a month or so ago to see what would happen, and ended up turning it right back on again.
 
I belong to another forum that had no ads and was 100% member supported. Due to its popularity it became too much for the owner to handle. Between monitoring posts, updating programs, cutting off commercial posts and malware his family life was suffering.

He had no choice but to sell out to a dot com company but the heart has gone out of the forum.

I don't think the public realizes how much costly, boring hard work is involved in running a forum.
 
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