Peter McGough's "When Enough Is Enough"

[Curt James]

I haven't picked up a mag in the last 5 years...but when I did read mags, I was a fanatic.
I've been listening to heavy muscle radio and have heard what Dave has been saying about how the mags are shrinking. I think we all knew that was coming...but for guys that grew up with mags, it's a little sad. End of an era.

Definitely.



That was my first issue of MMI. It was like a phonebook. That was 1977.

Then about two years later this issue came out...



It was paper thin. Something about the cost of paper. Incredibly sad issue.

MuscleMag eventually bounced back to a tremendous page count before its ultimate demise.

But MD is a shadow of its former self. I was standing in the aisle dumbfounded.

[Curt James]

(eyes you suspiciously)

[PeterCas]

Definitely.



That was my first issue of MMI. It was like a phonebook. That was 1977.

Then about two years later this issue came out...



It was paper thin. Something about the cost of paper. Incredibly sad issue.

MuscleMag eventually bounced back to a tremendous page count before its ultimate demise.

But MD is a shadow of its former self. I was standing in the aisle dumbfounded.

Damn. That's a bit before my time, Curt. Thanks for posting those.

I have to say- if it were not for this website, I would be completely out of touch with bbing and that would suck. If I go to MD's site or Flex...it's the same crap all the time. Bunch of training videos on MD and the content on Flex just does not do it for me. You see an article by McGough from time to time on MD...but it's usually just a blurb. Nothing substantial.

I have to refer back to something I just heard Dave say on the more recent edition of HMR- he mentioned how during the mag era...content was key and how now, people basically just want to see a a few pics. I think he's probably right but it really sucks because I enjoyed reading the contest coverage articles in the magazines. Now we have most of the coverage wrapped up in a 5 minute video clip (which is cool) but it's not just not the same as reading it in print.

[Curt James]

Damn. That's a bit before my time, Curt. Thanks for posting those.
(snip)

http://vintagemusclemags.com/ has scans of a ton of covers from most every muscle mag there's been. They also have magazines available for purchase on their list.

I've picked up old mags on eBay in the past. Nostalgia is a good thing. :-)

[gilbrt]

The last time I subscribed to Flex I was paying $.99 or $1.99 per issue online. I subbed to MuscleMag and they took my money but then replaced the issues with a Crossfit magazine. And tonight I paged through an issue of MD at the newsstand in the local grocery store and was surprised to see how the magazine had shrunk. Is it smaller in size as well as being, what, half or a third of the previous size. I remember MD being a phonebook. This was a tiny digest thing but still on sale for $6.99.

Gtfo. Is it available online for a buck? Because I'm not dropping seven bucks for that abbreviated, truncated, stripped down version of a bodybuilding magazine. No way.

We pay $14.95 for MD here and it's one month later then the USA

[gilbrt]

Didn't Dave say on HMR that contest coverage may not be a big focus of RX going forward or am I misunderstood.??

[Musclepapa John]

Interesting perspective Curt. So you are stating a good reporter/journalist may "manufacture" their positions based upon who is writing the checks. Wasn't my takeaway from journalism school, but as Peter might state everything was better during his heyday.

He's a reporter. He's a journalist. He's a human being who is employed.

So, whether his change of heart is genuine because, hey, a guy can change his mind... or manufactured due to his new cubicle, I don't really care.

I love your work. I'm glad you're here.

But pointing out McGough's apparent inconsistencies seems like a waste of time. What does it accomplish? What's your goal? Your desire to somehow set the record straight? :-/

[Musclepapa John]

Didn't Dave say on HMR that contest coverage may not be a big focus of RX going forward or am I misunderstood.??

Those doing contest coverage have to rethink how they monetize it. No longer is it considered automatic that by providing the most comprehensive show coverage that its convertible to advertising dollars from direct sponsorship of coverage or from being able to claim your website received a million hits or a certain number of page impressions.

The women's titles and their websites along with the men's fitness mags for years now have focused more on specific training and nutrition information with either sponsored athletes of the mags advertisers or high profile IFBB pros or mainstream media celebrities. These titles like FitnessRxWomen, FitnessRxMen, Muscle & Fitness, Muscle & Fitness Hers & Oxygen are likewise owned by the companies that have traditionally done show coverage including MD & Flex. As a result when Blechman's FitnessRx does a Return On Investment analysis at FitnessRxWomen versus MD it can be telling. FitnessRxWomen has a fraction of the expense of MD as the women providing Q&As, training tips, hair & makeup videos, etc typically do it from home themselves and send in with the editor shadow writing most every article to accompany that content. They do a good job with demographic and market analysis building there social media following which for years Muscle & Fitness Hers was the template for.

Then look at the bloated financial mess by comparison of Blechman's MD. Ron Harris is paid to do much of the writing and the sponsored athletes don't produce any of the weekly content that is required of the women at FitRx, women who btw are typically not high paid sponsored athletes as with MD. They want videos from the sponsored athletes they send a videographer to them for maybe a week of shooting with expenses including $500-1000per day to the videographer, airfare, $75/day in food, drink, etc, rental car, all expenses paid. Show coverage is the same multiplying expenses paid not only for videographer, but high dollar photographer, online editor, senior editor (when he attends), David Baye play by play & video interviewer, photo tagger on site and tagger working remotely, the publisher and wife on occasion too. That's a lot of expense and often times without a sponsor for show coverage.

At the Arnold Columbus in 2013 I was contracting for that assignment with them and staff was approximately twenty-five people. Surely it was well over one hundred thousand dollars in expense.
While one may say that's a good investment them and Flex are competing with the NPC News Online for the same content with the same photographs and NPC News uses primarily an all volunteer staff.
Adina, the MD editor is a small town school teacher that loves to travel and is motivated to go around the country and world to not only cover the shows for the magazine, but see the world on Blechman's dime. Baye had planned on doing many of the international contests after the Olympia, but it ended up Adina went to most of them alone I'm sure it was related to the expense of sending a guy like David who essentially only provides play by play and interviews. With interviews he does't even operate the camera set up on a tripod as for instance John Hansen does for RxMuscle. David plays the celebrity sort who has to have a videographer with him, which means he is more expensive.

All this again to say its not a guarantee that contest coverage is profitable. Plus, you have to demonstrate in a competitive market that you can do it in a cost effective manner. How a Peter McGough can help direct a magazine and website operation or a school teacher for that matter to make this a profitable business venture when both may be good writers, but neither are proficient with use of a still or video camera and know little to nothing about SEO and internet technologies is beyond me.

[Musclepapa John]

OH and I feel free to write this inside baseball here as I've stated pretty much the same thing to them all in email including Mr. B without response.
In fact though its the truth relative to the business end of things and ignoring it won't change how the history or epitaph will read if the egos and/or ignorance of "great writers" are allowed to run these titles that struggle in the Information Age into the grave.

[davidcua]

Those doing contest coverage have to rethink how they monetize it. No longer is it considered automatic that by providing the most comprehensive show coverage that its convertible to advertising dollars from direct sponsorship of coverage or from being able to claim your website received a million hits or a certain number of page impressions.

The women's titles and their websites along with the men's fitness mags for years now have focused more on specific training and nutrition information with either sponsored athletes of the mags advertisers or high profile IFBB pros or mainstream media celebrities. These titles like FitnessRxWomen, FitnessRxMen, Muscle & Fitness, Muscle & Fitness Hers & Oxygen are likewise owned by the companies that have traditionally done show coverage including MD & Flex. As a result when Blechman's FitnessRx does a Return On Investment analysis at FitnessRxWomen versus MD it can be telling. FitnessRxWomen has a fraction of the expense of MD as the women providing Q&As, training tips, hair & makeup videos, etc typically do it from home themselves and send in with the editor shadow writing most every article to accompany that content. They do a good job with demographic and market analysis building there social media following which for years Muscle & Fitness Hers was the template for.

Then look at the bloated financial mess by comparison of Blechman's MD. Ron Harris is paid to do much of the writing and the sponsored athletes don't produce any of the weekly content that is required of the women at FitRx, women who btw are typically not high paid sponsored athletes as with MD. They want videos from the sponsored athletes they send a videographer to them for maybe a week of shooting with expenses including $500-1000per day to the videographer, airfare, $75/day in food, drink, etc, rental car, all expenses paid. Show coverage is the same multiplying expenses paid not only for videographer, but high dollar photographer, online editor, senior editor (when he attends), David Baye play by play & video interviewer, photo tagger on site and tagger working remotely, the publisher and wife on occasion too. That's a lot of expense and often times without a sponsor for show coverage.

At the Arnold Columbus in 2013 I was contracting for that assignment with them and staff was approximately twenty-five people. Surely it was well over one hundred thousand dollars in expense.
While one may say that's a good investment them and Flex are competing with the NPC News Online for the same content with the same photographs and NPC News uses primarily an all volunteer staff.
Adina, the MD editor is a small town school teacher that loves to travel and is motivated to go around the country and world to not only cover the shows for the magazine, but see the world on Blechman's dime. Baye had planned on doing many of the international contests after the Olympia, but it ended up Adina went to most of them alone I'm sure it was related to the expense of sending a guy like David who essentially only provides play by play and interviews. With interviews he does't even operate the camera set up on a tripod as for instance John Hansen does for RxMuscle. David plays the celebrity sort who has to have a videographer with him, which means he is more expensive.

All this again to say its not a guarantee that contest coverage is profitable. Plus, you have to demonstrate in a competitive market that you can do it in a cost effective manner. How a Peter McGough can help direct a magazine and website operation or a school teacher for that matter to make this a profitable business venture when both may be good writers, but neither are proficient with use of a still or video camera and know little to nothing about SEO and internet technologies is beyond me.

The only thing indispensable for a good contest coverage is : The presence of Chris Aceto in the coverage. Brings fun, knowledge, accuracy, debonair. Bref, he is the best! La crème de la crème

[Musclepapa John]

The only thing indispensable for a good contest coverage is : The presence of Chris Aceto in the coverage. Brings fun, knowledge, accuracy, debonair. Bref, he is the best! La crème de la crème

Dave Palumbo might not totally agree

MD has done extra ordinarily well with their contest coverage view counts after Flex departed from the competition and they started putting up unwatermarked images during the play by play in real time. With that trend I've tried to be forward thinking and then even for local contests will load all the images in near real time with my watermark to my social media accounts. Thus, before prejudging that may take a couple of hours is complete I've typically got a 1000+ images loaded and contestants are backstage already logged into my account checking out their images. I may be selling the images too in my galleries that load in full resolution later, but I monetize primarily with photoshoots before and after the show and get a good supply of them from those who follow me on social media.
So in a sense the drive to get the most views on their forum will backfire as many more photographers will do as I do and make it difficult a year or two from now for sites like MD, etc to get any value out of show coverage unless they start paying for exclusives, etc, which ain't gonna happen. They have all but given up on all Florida contests unless they have an IFFB mens open or 212 component.

[davidcua]

Dave Palumbo might not totally agree

MD has done extra ordinarily well with their contest coverage view counts after Flex departed from the competition and they started putting up unwatermarked images during the play by play in real time. With that trend I've tried to be forward thinking and then even for local contests will load all the images in near real time with my watermark to my social media accounts. Thus, before prejudging that may take a couple of hours is complete I've typically got a 1000+ images loaded and contestants are backstage already logged into my account checking out their images. I may be selling the images too in my galleries that load in full resolution later, but I monetize primarily with photoshoots before and after the show and get a good supply of them from those who follow me on social media.
So in a sense the drive to get the most views on their forum will backfire as many more photographers will do as I do and make it difficult a year or two from now for sites like MD, etc to get any value out of show coverage unless they start paying for exclusives, etc, which ain't gonna happen. They have all but given up on all Florida contests unless they have an IFFB mens open or 212 component.

Well I really do like Dave, but Chris Aceto is the main reason i watch interviews or listen to a show or Radio. Just a big big fan of him.

As for your work, you seem to have greatly evolve into the digital world. Pretty good at what you do ! I wish you the best in your future coverage and other endeavor !

[Musclepapa John]

Well I really do like Dave, but Chris Aceto is the main reason i watch interviews or listen to a show or Radio. Just a big big fan of him.

Personality driven content is valuable, but I believe the forum views increase dramatically simply with the photos in real time in the play by play thread. Adina at MD seemed to prefer cutting out Shawn Ray, in place of David Baye as the non-celebrity of David was more than made up for by his adding the cellphone images. Basically everyone is primarily going to the site where they can get the photos first. Analysis has proven to be secondary. No way David & Adina's play by play is better than that by Dave and Chris.

[PeterCas]

Didn't Dave say on HMR that contest coverage may not be a big focus of RX going forward or am I misunderstood.??

I was curious about that too. I took it as- Dave saying that it's expensive to cover shows and that unless more sponsers are willing to contribute...it would be difficult to justify flying his team from state to state or country to country to cover all the shows. It's really a shame because RX Muscle does an awesome job with contest coverage among other things.

Not only has Dave given a lot back to the sport when you look at all the free advice he's provided over the years but he's also done a lot with this website. That being said- the guy has to make money.

I don't know...maybe I misunderstood?

Would love to hear Curt's two cents on this one.

[Joe Pietaro]

I find this thread quite interesting, as I have worked for FLEX/Muscle & Fitness and later Muscular Development/FitnessRX For Men and have my own title - MuscleSport Magazine - since 2008.

I've been in the sportswriting and bodybuilding/fitness industries for a decade as a writer/editor/publisher and personally know many of the names that have been mentioned here.

@MusclePapa John - I hear you loud & clear on a shitload of the points that you made.