TRAIL May 2002

What do you think?

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Orange Alex Ford
10/04/2002 at 20:42
Trail has a "New Look" this month...

very nice new layout...clear, plain, simple. Easy of the eye. I like the Trail mail and Trail talk at the back...good idea! Some of this months routes look good. And there are some nice pictures too (the one on the contents page of Loch Coruisk is fantastic!)

However...there's not a lot worth reading this month is there? OK, a certain promising-award-winning-journo has a couple of pages that are a good read but what's that "Adventure Special" about?

Did the editorial team have a month of very few ideas a while back? Hence the use of a few nice stock photo's with a brief paragraph about a miscellaneous activity?

It seems that Trail have had a look at OTH's format and tried to copy it...but without anything interesting to say (unlike OTH).

Even the Mountain Guide feature this month is probably the most boring mountain in the Lakes! (High Street...say no more!)

I feel kind of cheated...I'd like my £2.95 back...it's certainly not worth the cover price this month. When is OTH available in Smiths?
Ben Hedley
10/04/2002 at 20:44
already out mate. i bought it yesterday.

trail looks good. havent had time to read it properly yet though
Orange Alex Ford
10/04/2002 at 20:46
Thank God! Guess what I'll be buying tomorrow!
Dan G
10/04/2002 at 21:43
Dunno. Don't buy either. Might shelf-hang in Smiths for a few minutes tomorrow though
Dan G
10/04/2002 at 22:34
Jon Doran
11/04/2002 at 09:33
High Street is a fantastic mountain - okay, it's not littered with knife-edge ridges, but it's well constructed for searing views, long summer days, picnics, inventive route finding. Walking the length of the range is a great day out. Just try and dump a car at either end...

Dan, are you speachless for once? ;-)

While we're on the magazine front, TGO's current editorial quotes an unnamed web editor. I'm not sure if it's me or not, I did have a chat with Cameron at the show, but for the record, I certainly don't think TGO has the 'strongest content of any outdoors magazine in the country', though it's true to say that the look of the thing is curiously 1950s and undermines the whole feel of the magazine. They have a special 'Heartbeat' filter which they use for all photos for an authentic 'distressed' look. I'm not knocking TGO btw, it knows its audience and caters for it, but it is looking dated and its redesign is well overdue.

OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

Hedgehope Aztec
11/04/2002 at 09:44
It's a shame the Angry Corrie didn't have a stand next to TGO's at the Outdoor show!

I like High Street, the route over Yoke, Ill Bell and Froswick is superb and Angle Tarn to the North West is one of the best wild camp sites in the Lakes.
joan collins
11/04/2002 at 10:07
Journalists, eh? Taking your off the record chat, and cynically exploiting some trivial out of context aside to boost their limp sales.

Talking of distortion, I'm not sure "I'm not knocking TGO" is really an appropriate summary of the preceding paragraph.

Anyway, Chris Townsend is fab. I couldn't write two pages just on socks (Dec, I think) if you held a gun to my head.

But here's some good news. OM has been scientifically proved to contain less toss than www.guardian.co.uk. Though more than the totally toss-free www.himonkey.net.

Check out www.cynicalbastards.com/wankometer/ for proof. (You may wish to wave the HTML stick over that one.)
Rob Sutherland
11/04/2002 at 10:16
Speaking of The Angry Corrie - I have just discovered that my new house is just around the corner from them! I must be moving up in the world, I shall be drinking in the local with hardened Journalists :-)
Jon Doran
11/04/2002 at 10:25
Chris Townsend is fab, no question.

OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

Hedgehope Aztec
11/04/2002 at 10:30
Hardened in concrete if McNeish had his way.

I've just used the wankometer on bikemagic! and guess what! :-)
Jon Doran
11/04/2002 at 10:41
Maybe I was 'knocking' TGO... But as a nameless magazine editor showed me a load of mock-ups of their new look and let me in on some of the details of which contributors were likely to be, erm, downsized, I had a feeling that he agreed with me.

Chris Townsend definitely knows his stuff, but let's be honest, the layout and presentation of his reviews has always been terrible. Ultimately bad design undermines content because it looks unprofessional and, like it or not, we live in a world where we're bombarded with information and make snap, sub-conscious judgements about what is and isn't valuable. How it's presented is one significant factor in that mix.

Anyway, fwiw, I thought the re-designed pages he showed me looked good though I'm not so keen on the new logo.

OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

Hedgehope Aztec
11/04/2002 at 11:06
I only have one beef about the reviews in TGO. That Chris Townsend knows his stuff, there is no argument, but he has (like all of us) certain personal likes and dislikes which are apparent in his reviews. I'd rather see the 'Trail' model of reviewing with more than one reviewer. Speaking of Trail, They actually gave some of the rucksacks marks under 3 in this months gear test.
Dan G
11/04/2002 at 12:07
Wowser!
Si
11/04/2002 at 13:15
What! This, I gotta see!! I'm off to buy a copy in a mo.

Don't read TGO much, think I know where I can borrow a copy to have a leaf through though, so I might just do that.

Read AT for the forst time last month. Fantastic. Go buy. New issue out in a few days (I think).

Si(C)
Dan G
11/04/2002 at 13:25
AT. Shows how it should be done.

Wish you could get the best bits of all mags in rolled into one, that would be fanatastic.

Oh, hold on, that would be Outside then

;-)
Ben Hedley
11/04/2002 at 16:20
mbr and OM are the only 2 mags you need.

with the occational exception of oth, trail, doc snowboard and fhm
Ninja Marmot
11/04/2002 at 16:27
Woo Hoo!!

I just put our homepage into the Wankometer and it got a wank factor of zero!

(maybe because we use words like 'stonking)

Hee hee
Ninja Marmot
11/04/2002 at 16:30
Arrrghhhhhh SHEEPmagic scored 0.77 - still low, but not zero!!!!
Lloyd Bower
11/04/2002 at 18:00
Agree with the new general comments on the new look 'Trail'.

Not much worth reading at all, and even the routes doesn't section doesn't offer too much this month, Ben Starav apart. And no bike route either.

Can't say I'd recommend OTH either, I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't already have it on subscription.

Never really bought TGO, though occassionally have a glance through it in Smiths.

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