TOUGH TIMES TO BE SELLING FLEX

[alexxx]

Bodybuilding is such an olympic sport

Yeah much better than the rest of so called "sports"!

[MCWAY]

as i gift i've got a 5 year sub. to FLEX.  as soon as pecker took over, the mag kinda sucked.  all they did was have arnold features,  like 2 training features, no new great research reports, etc.


but over the past year or so, its gotten much better.  particularily, the part when a writer goes to a gym and records the actual workout and compiling a compilation of the best bodyparts etc.  no other mag does that. 

the pics are the best, but they could probably do away with the team FLEX bs and post some scientific stuff.  but overall, i think they are doing a good job. 

MD is good, but it has so much useless shit in there.  Besides, who ever said you can ONLY have/read 1 bbing mag?

That would probably be the so-called "hardcore, us-against-the-world, rebel-without-a-cause" types who feel that the evil Weider empire, embodied by FLEX magazine, is bent on keeping bodybuilding (or, at least, their favorite bodybuilder) down. Only Steve Blechman and MD, now freed from the oppresive chains of Twinlab (once owned by his own kinfolk), can "save" bodybuilding" from the clutches of the dreaded Weiders.

[MCWAY]

Bodybuilding is such an olympic sport

Ummmm...read what I posted again. Bodybuilding got Olympic recognition in 1998. It didn't become an Olympic sport. For that to have occured (and I'm going strictly from memory), an IOC review board would have had to take up the matter, to allow bodybuilding to participate as a "demonstration" event. After that, another IOC board would have convened to vote on whether bodybuilding should be made an official Olympic sport.

Getting Olympic recognition simply meant that bodybuilding was being considered. But, before the rest of the process could be entertained, the old IOC chairman retired and his successor kicked bodybuilding out.

[buffbodz]

This is for all you delusional Flex guys who think your rag is thriving.

According to ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation)  Year end numbers for Flex magazine show a total circulation decline of 9.6%.  This is represents  a 7.3% drop in news stand sales and a 13.4% drop in subscriptions. 

To make matters worse, I have it from a reliable source in the magazine distribution biz (my uncle) that the word on the street is that the numbers due out in August - which will reflect first quarter 06 circulation - will show a 15% drop in news stand sales.

The asking price for the combo of M&F and Flex is reportedly $200 Million, with Flex representing 40 - 50 mill.  That equates to about 13 times gross.  Even for a thriving company 13 times gross is hard to get.  You sell a company when it is doing well, not in the toilet. 

I hope whoever is interested in buying these mags does more due diligence than just having their accountant look over the books.  A fair price for Flex in its current state would be 7 -8 million, at best.  Hopfully, someone with the kind of heart Joe Weider had will step up and buy these mags for what they are really worth and do what it takes to bring back the dignity Pecker destroyed.

It's happening to almost anything you can get on the internet.  Why wait 2 months for contest results when you can get them the same night of the show.  Same for boxing mags.  The store I used to get them at, Stop & Shop, doesn't even carry them anymore.  The entire magazine rack is about 1/2 the size it was 2 years ago.  Same thing for supplements, clothes for fat people who don't want people seeing them go in the Big Size store.  Newspaper subscriptions are down, I just got a telemarketer selling the Providence Journal for 10 bucks a month, used to be 10 a week!  It's the internet, I tell you.

[MB]

I think there's still a market for magazines.  The turn off is the current format.  Too many ads flood the magazine and it balloons to 300 pages of a mess.  If you took all the ads out of Flex, condensed it to just content, then added 1/5 of the ads back and lumped them in the back of the magazine, people would love that format.  But, that's wishful thinking, since the reliance on advertising money is out of control.   

[YoMamaBeenLurking]

I think there's still a market for magazines.  The turn off is the current format.  Too many ads flood the magazine and it balloons to 300 pages of a mess.  If you took all the ads out of Flex, condensed it to just content, then added 1/5 of the ads back and lumped them in the back of the magazine, people would love that format.  But, that's wishful thinking, since the reliance on advertising money is out of control.  

Are you kidding?  Advertising is predominantly how magazines make money dude.  What's so out of control about a business staying afloat and trying to make a profit?  Without Ads there would not be a Flex magazine in the first place.

[240 is Back]

I would be interested in someone going back to 1986 and comparing FLEX (or whatever it was back then) to today's version.

Total number of pages vs. total number of ad pages.  %

[HUGEPECS]

I was so fcuking pissed the other day. After I got this copy of flex, after browsing through the magazine, it seems like half the mags is some fucking never ending ADS. I ALMOST NEVER BUY FLEX LIKE I USED TO ANYMORE

[The True Adonis]

The quality of pictures suck too.

I look at the pictures in the old magazines, and see great artistic images.

In the magazines today, there is none of that to be found.....Well that could be due to the fact that nobody posesses that kind of physique anymore with a small waist and balanced proportions and conditoning. 

All the pictures in the magazines today are silly gym shots with nothing to them.  I haven`t seen a memorable photo in a magazine in years.

[240 is Back]

they charge 6 bucks an issue.
they have more ads than content ads.
their material is old.

it's like paying $59.99 a month to watch ESPN classic, then putting up with 30 minutes of commercials every hour. 

[LurkyLurker]

Grow up Shari.....

Lead the way and I'll follow, John.

[The True Adonis]

Has Flex, MD and the rest forgotten what good photos are?

[IceCold]

Has Flex, MD and the rest forgotten what good photos are?

what the fuck is that?

[timfogarty]

what the f**k is that?

that is John Grimek, who founded Muscular Development.    Sometimes it seem the MD staff has forgotten that.

[snarky]

First of all, if you are going to participate in an intelligent debate, stating something so stupid as MD going from 40,000 copies to 20,000 copies, year to date, is about as close to a melt down as one can get. If you are going to grind your axe, don't be so obvious.

Next, "As Ron posted, latest supp industry numbers had Flex at 120,000 and MD at 20,000.  Last year, Flex was around 150,000."  That is total bullshit, my friend.   Where is Ron getting his numbers?  Doesn't Pecker let you guys read the ABC report?  The June 19th, 2006 issue of New Single Copy stated that circulation numbers for Flex magazine, reported by the ABC, stated that for the 2nd half of 2005 that total circulation numbers for Flex magazine was only 112,000 not 150,000. (The ABC numbers were actually 111,640. NSC just rounded up).

That 111,640, like I said earlier, according to ABC, year end total circulation numbers for Flex magazine declined 9.6%!  This represents a 7.3% drop in news stand sales and a 13.4% drop in subscriptions!  Next time get your facts straight...

I suppose it's easy for you to claim that MD has picked up Flex readers since MD since you won't actually get audited by the ABC.

[MB]

Are you kidding?  Advertising is predominantly how magazines make money dude.  What's so out of control about a business staying afloat and trying to make a profit?  Without Ads there would not be a Flex magazine in the first place.

The ads are out of control because they make up half the magazine.  There's a balance between putting ads in the magazine to make profit and putting too many in and chasing off customers.  Flex was better 15 years ago when there weren't so many ads. 

[YoMamaBeenLurking]

The ads are out of control because they make up half the magazine.  There's a balance between putting ads in the magazine to make profit and putting too many in and chasing off customers.  Flex was better 15 years ago when there weren't so many ads. 

This guy sums it up pretty good, makes sense to me...

paper, printing, salaries, postal, photo shoots, writers, payment to be on the newsstand, etc. etc. etc.  most magazines launched don't even make it past the first year, let alone see a profit until year 4 or 5.  publishing is no cheap endeavor and when you're printing and shipping hundreds of thousands of magazines every month, multiple titles etc.  the cost to do business adds up very fast. 

ad prices in the category are actually not much higher than they were 5 years ago.  the difference now is that there is a higher volume of ads being sold than before (MDs case, thus the 400 plus page magazines).  to sit here and proclaim that any magazine is out of line for trying to make a profit (this is a business they are in after all) is completely ASSinine.  if you're upset with any publication having too many ads, then you obviously do not understand how they run their business.  the goal is a 50/50 ad to edit split for most magazines.  count the ad pages in md, flex, whatever and then compare that number to their edit pages.  you will find that most of the time you are looking at 50/50 or close.

[Crusher]

This guy sums it up pretty good, makes sense to me...

Agree, totally....