There are days when one thinks: “It would have been better not to have gotten up this morning.”. An idea that has been on my mind since Morri sent me a link regarding the definitive closure of Cycle World. For some, just another magazine; for others a source of wisdom with more than six decades of history and where legendary names in journalism, such as Alan Catchcart, Ben Purvis either Kevin Cameron They have broadcast live the most exciting episodes in the world of motorcycles.
The closure of Cycle World and the end of an era
It may even sound melodramatic, but it is an almost irrefutable truth if we analyze the closure of the legendary American publication from an objective point of view. That Octane, the business group that acquired the publication in 2020, has decided to close it down, not only represents the closure of “one more website” specialized in the world of motors. Rather, it becomes the symptom of a chronic disease over time where “the internet has killed knowledge”.
Although these days we have at our disposal almost any information related to the last three thousand years of history, the curious thing about the subject is that stupidity at its finest has become part of the general tone. And this is the result of giving a voice to people who have no fucking idea of what they preach, via a YouTube channel or one of the many social networks to which we have access.
Does this mean we should censor people’s freedom of expression? Not at all. What it makes evident is that motor fans have gone from reading rigorous detailed articles, in the handwriting of renowned professionals, to consuming hours and hours of low-quality audiovisual content that is far removed from the standards that were once used in motor journalism.
What it’s like to feel like a truly lucky person
I make this statement with the peace of mind of having lived through the era of paper magazines, where Cycle World became an undisputed benchmark in the sector for decades. As far as national journalism is concerned, since I was a child, I devoured at all hours the chronicles that guys who loved their work, like César Agüi, Mariano Urdín, Jose María Torres Acero, Luis Lópezetc., were published weekly or monthly for now defunct TOP editions such as La Moto.
Then the Internet arrived, and the massification of websites and the business was screwed. At least for those of us who are lovers of two wheels. And precisely he went to hell for reducing this noble profession to a single requirement: profitability. Without the latter everything, absolutely everything, is called into question. Rightly or wrongly, but it is true and the most accurate and ready proof we have on the matter is precisely the aforementioned closure of Cycle World.
Before the latter, its owners did the same with the rest of the digital media that subsisted under its umbrella: Motorcyclist, Dirt Rider, Motorcycle Cruiser, UTV Driver, ATV Rider and Cycle Volta They have passed on to a better life. It is curious that after acquiring all of them, just five years before closing, Octane claimed to be “investing in these publications so that motorsports enthusiasts continue to have access to robust, independent online editorial coverage that fuels their passion.”
Undoubtedly the market rules, so do the trends and in the midst of so much modernism, an almost unstoppable evolution and the revered (by some) new technologies, more than one of us is left with the consolation of accumulating a wide collection of paper magazines with which to appease the boredom that floods us in these moments of profound changes and galloping uncertainty.
That said, we can only sympathize with all those colleagues who, these days, were part of the Cycle World staff and the rest of the publications that have recently closed indefinitely. More than one will end up remembering them (and their elaborate articles), at some point when, guided by “the wise advice of the Youtuber of the moment” You end up buying what, a priori, seemed like the motorcycle of your dreams and which on the surface is nothing more than another soulless junk with which to go unnoticed by the vast majority.
