The past two and a half years working alongside the PinkBike business have been some of the best for our business, our employees, and also for me personally. I enjoyed the freedom we had, the growth we saw, the challenges we overcame, and seeing our employees do some of their best work ever.
Personally I was excited by the Outside acquisition and the things we can do with their investment and belief in us. But from the hundreds of emails and messages Iāve received it seems that not everyone is so positive about this. That can be expected, but what makes me despair are some the emails Iāve received from our own members and some of the chat in our Slack group.
I wish I could answer each and every one of those messages, however I felt it would be best to aggregate the common questions and interesting ones I hadnāt thought of before into one email that would reach you all.
So, here goes:
Are we migrating to the Outside+ membership?
We havenāt spoken about this yet but what I can envision happening, and what Iāll be advocating for, is a simple VeloClub membership option (the way it currently stands), and then if people see value in the Outside+ membership they can upgrade and get both.
Will VeloNews and CyclingTips be consolidated into one?
Outside is acutely aware that people buy in to brands, not raw content, so this gives me confidence that we wonāt be making any rash changes. Note that publishers own competing titles all the time.
Will there be a paywall?
I donāt believe in the exclusive content model, such as what VeloNews is doing. We experimented with this and all it does is piss people off. It also doesnāt achieve the business outcomes we want.
That said, if we ever went down this road I do see merit in a metered paywall approach. That is, like the New York Times uses: visit the site x number of times for free, and after that you need to subscribe. Yes, there are lots of ways around this, but thatās actually the point. Itās an elegant solution that I wonāt go into detail on here.
Giving away content for free is a relatively new phenomenon that needs to change. Because itās free to consume on the internet doesnāt mean itās free to create, and every single one of you as a VeloClub member recognises this and supports this notion.
Iām not saying weāll create a paywall anytime soon. Regardless, our content will always be included in our membership.
Does Lance Armstrong now own CT?
I donāt see it like this. Lance is a partner in a fund called Next Ventures which invested in Outside early on. You can see the publicly available information on Outsideās investors here. I have no idea if Lance invested any of his own money into this fund, but Lance isnāt going to be influential in our editorial direction.
Itās ironic that Lance has worked his way back into cycling, but judging by the millions of people who listen to his podcast he has far more influence over there than he does here.
UPDATE: Lance Armstrong does not own any shares personally only Next Ventures does, and only a very small percentage.
One member said: "Iām just struggling with the fact that now a tiny fraction of the ad revenue I generate when clicking on stuff at CT will end up in his pockets. Wondering how you guys are feeling about it.ā
It doesnāt really work like this. We donāt receive ad revenue by people clicking on banners, and even if this were the case it wouldnāt be funnelled to Lance. Again, I donāt know if Lance actually has any of his own money invested, but what I do know is that he is a managing partner in a fund. Like any fund, he will see a commission when there is a liquidity event (public listing, private sale, etc.) Or he could lose all of his investorsā money. Lance will never know who I am, but I think weāre both aligned on this one: I donāt want him to lose his investorsā money on this one either!
Of course if youāve [ever caught an Uber, you might want to rethink your objection to Lanceās involvement (or your use of this car sharing service)!
Will there be changes?
I can guarantee there will be changes. Iād be lying otherwise. However, this isnāt the first time weāve done this. The business sold to BikeExchange in 2016, and then to PinkBike in 2019. Each time this has happened weāve gotten better. There have been uncomfortable transition periods where our audience was up in arms saying that weād sold out and that they hated the changes weāve implemented, but people always calm down when they see that weāre on the path of providing a better service.
I wish I could say what the future changes might be, but we havenāt gotten that far yet. For the past few years Iāve had to curb my ambitions to focus on our business fundamentals, but now we are in a new growth phase where we can do some exciting things Iāve wanted to do for a long time.
The litmus test for my thinking above is simply looking at VeloNews. Iāve been following them closely for years and have some insight into what theyāve gone through behind the scenes. I can say with certainty they are doing much better work for their audience now than they have since their glory days, and I trust weāll follow the same trajectory.
Whether itās tomorrow or in five years time, when you come to the website itāll be the same journalists creating content about cycling in the same manner and with the same beliefs as always, and weāll be working tirelessly to ensure this keeps improving for you.
What will change?
First off I want to point out there are lots of things we have in the works that will be coming to fruition soon. These were put onto motion long before Outside ever came onto the scene. Any changes weāre going through with Outside at the moment and probably for the next 6-12 months are purely internal (finance, operations, HR, IT, etc). As small and nimble as we are at CT, any changes will be well-considered and wonāt happen quickly.
So when you see a new homepage layout coming this week, or a new forum being launched, know that this has nothing to do with Outside! Weāve been working on many things for the past six months that werenāt influenced by anything thatās happening now.
My membership primarily went to supporting CyclingTips and now itās owned by venture capitalists. How do you explain or justify this?
The misunderstanding here is the thinking that CyclingTips no longer has any financial responsibilities and we have an open chequebook. The CyclingTips business will always need to maintain a healthy balance sheet to keep existing (thatās my job). Profits at this stage of the business are still being reinvested into more journalists, important initiatives like womenās cycling coverage, and so much more, in an effort to build a better service for you. This is my #1 responsibility. The moment CyclingTips becomes a distressed business because weāre unprofitable and canāt sustain ourselves is the moment weāll cease to exist (or shortly after).
Before the Outside acquisition we were primarily owned by private equity (and they were fantastic to work with). Before that, BikeExchange was primarily owned by investors. Before that, I was funding this myself and that was not sustainable if we wanted to grow. I have no doubt that we would not be in business anymore if I hadnāt made these steps to secure our future.
My membership went to CyclingTips to support your independence, honesty, and trustworthiness and itās what differentiated you from the rest. Now it feels like youāre no longer independent.
These values are something that were instilled into CyclingTips from the day we started. Itās embedded in our culture and belief system. I donāt see that changing for as long as Iām around, and hopefully endure for long after.
What happens if Iām an Outside+ member and VeloClub member? Do I get a refund on one of them?
Excellent question, and a scenario I didnāt anticipate. Iāll look into this and get back to you.
How can I cancel my membership?
Weāre sorry to see you go, but also grateful for your support and patronage thus far. This acquisition might change the equation for some of you, and I understand that. You can cancel your membership by heading to cyclingtips.com, clicking on the red/black icon that floats on the bottom right of your screen, and selecting āmanage subscriptionā where you can cancel.
Iād like to thank the majority of you for keeping an open mind, for the hundreds of positive messages of support, and most of all for being here with us on this journey.
Finally, just know that we love CyclingTips as much as you do. Weāre not exactly sure what changes are ahead, but weāll be doing everything to make sure we stay true to the vision that led you to be a part of us.
Since I wrote this email 2.5 months ago nothing has changed. Thereās still lots weāre working through (mainly how VN and CT compliment each other rather than cover the same types of stories). We have some very cool projects coming up that were in the pipeline before Outside and thatās not changing.
Not once has Outside anyone from said, āhey - can you spruik Lanceās podcastā or anything of the like. But unfortunately this is the lens that we seen through now, and I canāt change that. We work exactly like we did 6 months ago, and 10 years ago.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
