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money for something

not everyone involved in the upper echelons of cycling has the ideal perspective on the velocipedinal landscape, though not necessarily to the detriment of all that surrounds them. but it does occasionally give slight cause for concern as to their judgment. in 2008, while waiting for a cross-channel ferry at calais, two gentlemen who held high profile positions in the cycling realm, advised me that it would be only a matter of time until thewashingmachinepost became the subject of a small-scale bidding war. one of the two was subsequently the result of a clandestine, but nonetheless embarrassing disgrace and has sunk without trace. the other is still active, but in a more corporate role that mostly keeps his profile out of the public eye.

i cannot deny that i was particularly enamoured by this attention, but principled enough to think that i would be inclined to keep the post to myself. i have never considered this to be a commercial project; i still enjoy writing, and look upon the post as a means of keeping the grey matter intact for as long as possible. unless someone was happy to hand over a pleasingly substantial amount of money, and content to keep me in the writing seat, i figured i'd be unlikely to acquiesce. but in truth, i thought the two of them were living in cloud cuckoo land; that has proved to be the case, as no-one has even hinted that they'd be interested. meaning i can still do and say whatever i want (within limits).

however, i'm only one bloke sitting in a leather armchair, making it up as i go along, with no commercial aspirations; i already have a day job. thewashingmachinepost is just good fun.

but amongst all that has arisen as a result of the interwebs, the concept that something should be available for nothing has become almost the default setting. granted some of those apparent freebies are not quite as free as they appear; the banks are all keen for us to download their free apps, allowing us to allegedly take charge of our finances. but in fact all they're doing is getting the customer to do the work previously carried out by bank staff, allowing the opportunity to downsize without radically altering the provided service. the same goes for many other agencies, particularly those operated by governments and local councils. has anyone ever received a communication from their council agreeing to refund a portion of their council tax, now that you're handling many administration tasks formerly carried out by council staff?

and then there's the daily newspapers. oddly enough, there's a conundrum at work here which isn't entirely explicable. it has been obvious for many years, that newspaper circulations have been continually dropping, citing an inexorable change in the way that contemporary society consumes the news. in many cases, newspapers have gone digital, and several still maintain free access to their websites, fervently hoping that advertising on those platforms will account for the economic disparity. but according to print media and tv, social media juggernauts such as facebook, google and youtube, are hoovering up the bulk of advertising revenue, leaving only crumbs for the traditional media, even where they have invested heavily in digital. so, somewhere along the line, it appears there may be a disconnect.

perhaps those a tad more convinced of the loyalty of their readers have installed a paywall, requiring a subscription fee to read the content secured on the other side. for many, this is but an irritation; there's nothing worse than reading a social media post which includes a hyperlink to an article behind just such a paywall. there are ways and means of obfuscating these hurdles, but none are as reliable as actually paying the subscription fee.

the pelotonese are hardly immune from such matters. cycling websites such as the escape collective, velo, and cyclingnews.com all come with some sort of paywall, yet sister site to cyclingnews, that of cycling weekly continues to allow free access to the reporting and features available on the site. and up until recently, rouleur, owned by matteo cassini has echoed that philosophy. however, one industry insider once told me that he thought the numbers associated with the comic probably didn't add up; the only reason the magazine was still around was a lack of desire to close down a publication that has existed for over 130 years. and currently, owned by future publishing, they probably have the wherewithal to sustain that for at least a few of the coming years.

rouleur on the other hand, was the subject of a subscription drive during the editorship of ian cleverly, a period in which they closed down their mountain bike equivalent, privateer. though we'd all like to think that cycling has become a more mainstream sport, you need only check the sports sections of print newspapers and their digital equivalents to see just how many acress are given over to golf, cricket, golf, formula one and soccer to realise what a tiny sport cycling really is, in the public perception. the magazine currently claims 25,000 sales of each issue, including digital, while the comic reputedly sells 22,000 every week.

not entirely unexpectedly, rouleur appears to be feeling the pinch. cassini issued an e-mail last week, announcing that the magazine's digital content will heretofore be placed behind a paywall, with subscriptions beginning at £4 per month. in the grand scheme of things, that's not an unreasonable amount of money to access quality reporting, but for me, the attraction of rouleur was always the writing, the photography and the glorious and addictive aroma of ink on paper. and with no disrespect to ed pickering, the current editor, the magazine's heyday (according to my opinion) was under the editorship of guy andrews. it then had real character; not for nothing have i kept a number of pristine copies of those early issues when under the ownership of rapha. for me, digital is not where it's at; the heft and sound of the magazine when it hit the door mat, and that amazing smell on opening the packet served solely as welcome anticipation of the often monochrome photography, and glorious, if a tad eccentric writing.

luddite? who me?

sunday 13 july 2025

membership benefits

the guardian newspaper is one of the few quality national newspapers to offer free access to its website, a facility that provides more than the contents of each daily print edition, along with access to previous articles. that, you would imagine, would seem like an enticement for financial ruin; why purchase a daily copy at a cost £3.20, adding an extra £1 on saturdays? including subscriptions, the guardian's daily sales (as of 2021) were 105,000, so, in the grand scheme of things, it's doing not too badly. and there are many of us who spend the bulk of our day sat in front of a computer screen, who welcome the opportunity to switch-off and read something tactile and tangible. personally, i enjoy the fact that someone has taken the time and trouble to edit the colossal amount of information arising every day and place it in some sort of logical order. i'm happy to pay for that, though i can but admit that the daily cost is rapidly nearing my economic limit (total the above and realise i spend just over £20 per week on newspapers).

however, access the guardian's website, and you will more than likely be met by a pop-up alerting you to the economic pressures faced by newspapers today and inviting you to support the guardian's independent journalism by a favoured £12 per month, admittedly considerably less than i currently spend per week. however, i would refer my reader to the above desire to remain screen free, when reading the daily news.

social media has devastated both print and online media by hoovering up the majority of advertising dollars, traditionally the means by which print subsidises its ever-rising costs. online advertising, however, no matter your views on the subject, responds to a different financial model. where a newspaper advert requires an upfront payment, irrespective of reach or response, the majority of online adverts are dellivered by servers belonging to other than the publisher, and often priced per clickthrough. the onus is then placed upon the advertiser to convert those clicks into sales, but the publisher receives only the minimal payments offered for each click.

and you do have to wonder about that model, particularly if you happen to be in the habit of regularly watching youtube videos. assuming you don't subscribe to youtube premium, those adverts have an annoying habit of interrupting the video at random points, often to the level of irritation; but does anyone actually click on them? while printing pages of our local newspaper the other morning, to keep myself entertained, i chose to listen to a kenny burrell album featuring drummer art blakey. but every few minutes, i'd to click the skip now button to dismiss the advert and continue with the album. since i have chosen to listen to this particular recording, would i opt to find out more about grammarly or donate to a donkey sanctuary instead?

i note that tnt sports came in for more criticism earlier this week for having removed the ad-free option from their live coverage of the tour de france, and perhaps justifiably so. i have already published several rants about warner brothers/discovery increasing the monthly subscription from £6.99 to £30.99, an increase that you'd imagine would offset the need to acquire even greater income from advertisers. for several years, i have watched entire cyclocross seasons advert free, and would scarcely welcome the intrusion after having paid over the odds in the belief that it offered immunity from advertising. and i repeat; if having paid to watch a bicycle race, why would i be inclined to augment my viewing by acknowledging any specific advert?

so perhaps there is continued value in print advertising, despite, to paraphrase lord leverhulme, "fifty percent of my advertising is ineffective; if only i knew which 50%". it appears that cycling uk still think so; in thursday's guardian was placed a full-page, colour advertisement for the national cycling organisation, enticing readers to join from only £3 per month. according to the newspaper's rate card, a full-page advert costs from £18,000, though a colour advert is a tad more expensive (i'm guessing at around £24,000). if i'm correct, that means cycling uk needs to garner at least 666 new members to break even. i'll be honest, i've no idea if that's a likely proposition, though i'm hoping that the forecasters at cycling uk have metrics that support their expenditure. admittedly, guardian readers are anecdotally well-disposed towards environmental issues, and therefore more likely to cycle than readers of other newspapers, but are there still ditherers amongst that readership who have yet to commit? and if so, are there 666 of them?

and does the guardian advertise in cycling uk's bi-monthly magazine?

friday 11 july 2025

the escape - the tour, the cyclist and me. pippa york and david walsh. mudlark publishing hardback. 344pp. £22

one of my friends at college was apt to make judgments of those he met and, oddly, never change that first opinion no matter how matters subsequently progressed. thankfully, he seemed to be reasonably accurate in his first appraisals, meaning life was still bearable for all as time rolled on. but occasionally he was somewhat wide of the mark; those who turned out to be a great deal more amenable than originally judged, could still be given short shrift or ignored altogether. and often controversially, he remained good friends with those who certainly did not have his best interests at heart.

personally, i embrace the concept of change; there are those who seemed highly unlikely to become good friends on first meetings, are now amongst those with whom i'm likely still to spend time. others turned out not to be who i thought they were. i think the latter approach is more applicable to the majority, but whatever your own means of assessment, it's still highly likely that you won't truly know what goes on behind the individual you meet and talk with on a regular basis.

strangely, we seem less likely to make pertinent evaluation of those we regard as our heroes, often blinded by the way they are portrayed, since it's not always the case that you get to meet those you admire. we can gauge the personality of some via interviews in print, or those broadcast by means of television or podcast, suspending the knowledge that, in the case of cyclists, they are representing themselves and the team and sponsors for whom they ride. many of the top professionals have been given media training, to ensure they come across in the manner dictated by the team. that's not to say the majority of professional cyclists aren't decent, friendly individuals, if sometimes a tad eccentric, but it might be folly to base judgment on a 30 second interview prior to or following a tour de france stage.

mentioned in this book co-authored by pippa york (formerly robert millar) and times sports journalist, david walsh, is keith bingham's post stage interview with the 1985 robert millar following a dismal tour stage. bingham makes every effort to draw relevant comment from a despondent millar, while the latter lives up to his dour reputation by offering as few words as possible. at the time, millar's apparent personality traits were put down to his glasgow upbringing, a reputation rightly or wrongly shared by many glaswegians. there are those of us, particularly if actually born in glasgow (my hand is up), who (not so) secretly admired millar's stance for no reason other than it personified a scots characteristic which seemed cool, but in fact was, for the majority, quite far from the truth.

but neither bingham, nor any of millar's large fanbase, had the faintest idea why robert behaved that way, nor what was taking place in his life. because, truth be told, it was none of our business; and also because very few top professional cyclists are in the sport for reasons of popularity and being asked often trite questions after riding 150km over several pyrenean mountain tops. not for nothing is the oft repeated advice not to meet your heroes.

'the escape' is a stunning insight into the life of one of britain's finest cyclists, for many a long year, the only uk rider to have worn one of the tour's jerseys on the podium in paris, and reaching the highest position in the general classification (fourth in 1984). at the time of writing, walsh and york had jointly reported on three tours de france, she for cyclingnews and walsh for the times and sunday times. sharing a car and staying at the same hotels, their conversations included not only that which unfolded before them, but the secret life of robert millar en route to becoming philippa york.

it's an authorial strategy that could easily have failed; i confess it took a few chapters before i stopped thinking it to be a mistake. let's just say it's not the format i had expected. however, it turned out to verge on genius.

perhaps it's another scottish trait? i once attended an evening with graeme obree, who began by saying absolutely nothing was off the table. though pippa refrains from using those exact words, that is the end result. it is a complete revelation to learn that millar's gender dysphoria began while at school.

"And the girls? [...] He doesn't want to play with the girls over there. He wants to be one of them."

and if i might refer back to my college friend, walsh turned out to be not the sort of reporter i had been led to believe was the case. it transpires that, in this case, he is the perfect interlocutor, not shying away from asking the awkward questions ("Given the dysphoria, and the stuff that was unresolved in your head, could you really have had a marriage that worked?") and since they are both working on the tour as journalists, there's not only discussion of pippa's past, but pertinent observations on which of the three weeks they are entrenched ("Roglic says the speed at which Pogacar went makes no sense to him. They didn't mention the word 'doping'. They didn't need to.")

there is no grandstanding by either, and no false modesty. we learn more about pippa than any of us would likely reveal about ourselves, but we also learn of robert millar's career, races won and lost, opinions of team-mates and directeurs sportifs; much of what you'd expect from a book at least in part, written by a former top professional. you won't suddenly become pippa's friend, nor you hers, but you will be able to base any latent hero worship on far greater knowledge and admiration than you had when beginning chapter one.

wednesday 9 july 2025