"This is going to be really big: the best of all mountain bike worlds will be brought together in BIKE in future." This means that the magazines "Freeride" and "EMTB" will be discontinued. Their September issues will be the last that readers of the two magazines will get their hands on.

The publisher Delius Klasing has announced that "bike" will be even thicker. In future, 164 pages will not only contain content for touring and cross-country bikers, but also for the gravity community and e-mountain bikers.

The reason for this is not of an economic nature, as one might think. When asked by Ride, the publisher explained: "Ideological boundaries among mountain bikers are becoming more permeable, but the overlaps in terms of topics are becoming ever greater. We are therefore pooling our energies and investing in the strong BIKE brand, both in the print product and, of course, in the digital area of the brand."

Consolidation of two magazines is an investment

The consolidation of the magazines - i.e. the discontinuation of two of the three titles - is an important investment, explains Managing Director Tim Ramms in writing. "It is obvious that merging three printed magazines in today's world also entails certain savings in magazine production, but this played a subordinate role in our decision-making process."

That is astonishing. Editorial media products generally live from selling advertisements. The discontinuation of two magazines means that a publisher can sell fewer advertisements because it has fewer pages available. It's like a chain store closing branches. It reduces its sales area and has fewer locations where it can sell its products. This makes sense if it sells too little in its stores. In this way, the company reduces costs and concentrates income on fewer points of sale. The same thing happens when a publisher only publishes one mountain bike magazine instead of three.

In spite of this, it is only speculation that Delius Klasing is discontinuing "Freeride" and "EMTB" because their separate publication is no longer worthwhile for the publisher. However, it is also a fact that print media in general are under pressure and have to keep cutting their costs in order to remain viable.

In this context, it is also worth noting that the publishing house Delius Klasing was taken over by the Klambt media group in 2022, which primarily publishes puzzle and celebrity magazines (aka gossip magazines). It is not known whether the parent company has requested that Delius Klasing reduce its portfolio.

No job cuts

Tim Ramms from Delius Klasing assures that the discontinuation of the two magazines will not result in any job cuts: "The existing editorial team in Munich will remain complete." It helps that "Freeride" was only published four times a year and "EMTB" six times a year, while "bike" was published every month. In addition, "bike" wants to "massively strengthen" its online offering, promises Ramms, "all existing capacities are needed for this."

Subscribers to "Freeride" or "EMTB" will receive two issues of "bike" free of charge and have a special right of termination. If they do nothing, their subscription will be converted into one for "bike" after the two free issues.