CyclingNews.com has been purchased by Future Publishing for £2.2million giving Future immediate access to over 10 years worth of news, reviews, images and articles which will no doubt be dumped into the databases for future's 'all in one' cycling site, Bike Radar that will launch sometime soon (maybe - they're been saying that for a few months already).
The acquisition also buys Future a lot of readers, it;s not clear what will happen to cyclingnews.com, but I expect it get a new design (maybe one that doesn't look like a textual jumble sale?) with news items appearing on both this site and Bike Radar. Looks like Future are finally putting some effort into the whole online publishing thing... maybe.
(If anyone wants to buy my ideas for my new sites that would be nice, as they're great, but I don't reckon I'll have the time or resources to actually see the project though, shame)
Update: just as I finished writing Cycling News published more on the acquisition
Update 2: Bike Radar's just launched too, a bit of an information overload on some of the pages and the forum seems hard to read, but not bad for a faceless corporation ;).
The People Comment: (9 responses)
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Simonhttp://www.simonbarnes.net
15:17 04 Jul
I never read cycling news as it's so badly laid out. Mind you it'll probably still look rubbish once future do something with it. I bet you could make it ace but I doubt anyone will listen to you.
matthttp://mattmagic.com
15:25 04 Jul
I don't work with Future anymore.
To be fair, Bike Radar looks quite nice (basically a prettier Bikemagic), but yeah, I never read the words on CN because it's in "Times" and hard to read, I just look at the photographs.
Tomhttp://tom.levell.eu
15:31 04 Jul
I quite like cyclingnews layout. It could do with a better search and archive function though.
Does anyone else do it better?
Velonews is horribly laid out.
matthttp://mattmagic.com
15:35 04 Jul
Velo news is rubbish! Always seems to be behind the news curve and as you say, the layout's terrible.
Simonhttp://www.simonbarnes.net
15:52 04 Jul
> Does anyone else do it better?
Dunno, I tend to just ignore them all and rely on Cycling Weekly for my news.
matthttp://mattmagic.com
15:55 04 Jul
EW old technology.
I don't think I've bought CW since about 1987
Simonhttp://www.simonbarnes.net
15:59 04 Jul
Well until the online providers stop doing such an awful job of presenting news then I'll continue being old fashioned :)
matthttp://mattmagic.com
16:36 04 Jul
Fair point, I only look for pictures, then I make up stories.
TBH I find reading about bicycles pretty dull.
I only get MBUK coz it's free.
Raoul
18:25 04 Jul
Lets hope they leave cycling News alone it's really rather good it's saved me bying the comic for years now.
Bike Radar looks like a disaster, Cyclingnews is far easier to navigate, although that's probably because Im used to it.