VeloNews.com - the descent of a website into uselessness

Four+ years ago, I saw my first copy of VeloNews on the news stand at Belmont Cycleworks. It was full of shiny pictures of the pro peleton, all the high-end bike porn I could consume. I was in love.

I ordered my first subscription to the magazine almost immediately.

I grew to like many things about it. With each new issue, the first thing I do is open the magazine and find the 2-3 double-page photo spreads of pro cycling races from all over the world, from Europe to Australia, North America to Africa. They'll always have at least one great photo from the dean of pro cycling photographers - Graham Watson. And they have good writers. I saw the magazine as produced by people who loved the sport. It's the only paper periodical I chose to continue, having cancelled nearly all other magazine subscriptions.

Almost immediately, I also discovered velonews.com. It appeared to me to be a really well done site! Plus, the magazine content and the live content was nicely differentiated. There was real-time news on the site, and the magazine stuck with in-depth stories I could sit and consume over 20 minutes. Even better, just at the time I was starting Acquia, I discovered that the site was built with Drupal! I was in love. (I actually reached out to the webmaster - Kevin Hankens - to complement him. In the end, I decided he was so good at Drupal development I lured him away from VeloNews to come work at Acquia.)

Then, in February, 2008, Inside Communications - the publisher of VeloNews and other endurance magazines - was acquired by Falconhead Capital. As an entrepreneur, I appreciate the desire of business owners to have a profitable exit. So, kudos to them. But it turned out to be the beginning of a downhill slide for the rest of us.

VeloNews became part of Falconhead's portfolio company Competitor Group, which Falconhead was effectively assembling into the dominant endurance sports publication empire. Competitor Group started to run VeloNews as part of that empire - not as a magazine run by people who love pro cycling. Read "With attention to cost control, profit maximization, and finding operational synergies across all the publications in the portfolio.."

So, a year after the deal, the magazine VeloNews gets a visual makeover. As part of it, the advertising content goes up, the editorial content goes down, some of the content starts to feel like it's product-placement by advertisers, and the number of issues got cut. Well, ok - it's print media, and I know this industry is challenged. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. But, my affection started diminishing as the size and scope of the magazine started diminishing.

Then, a month ago VeloNews,com launched a new website. And it's a total letdown. It's boring. And though the home page seems to have most of the same sections, when you get to the secondary pages, it's totally obvious they cheaped-out on the website tech. (I went looking under the covers and -- sigh, it's WordPress. Which explains pretty much everything.) Not only is the tech sadly inadequate for the task, the content seems to be getting less and less interesting - just at the same time the magazine is going downhill, too.

And at the very same time, CyclingNews.com also put up a new site. Cyclingnews has always been my second choice - after VN. It has lots of news-y stuff, and is highly tuned into the European circuit. But it's old site was kludgy, didn't have a good RSS fees, and was too tough to consume. But it, too, was acquired a year or two ago, and...

Just at the time the VN site starts turning into the Lanterne Rouge, CyclingNews' new site leaps off the front of the peleton. The information content is dense, yet it's fast to navigate, graphically interesting -- and all of a sudden - my loyalties switched. Almost in a single day.

So, there it is. I've switched to cyclingnews as my online go-to. My print subscription still has a 12 more months to run before it expires, but when it does, if it continues on as it is now, I'll not renew it, and do without. About the only thing I'll miss is the 2-page bike race photos.

My love affair with VeloNews has officially come to an end. Maybe I deserve it; after all, I hired away Kevin. But I know about companies; Kevin's leaving would be a symptom of the changes being implemented by Competitor Group - not a cause.

This love is at an end, and I'm as heartbroken as someone can be who still loves a partner who has changed, and is leaving the relationship.