British sailing journalist Justin Chisholm has launched a digital magazine about boat racing.
The new magazine, called Sail Racing Magazine, launched this month through the iTunes app store after two years of planning.
According to Chisholm, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users are already topping six hundred per week of the mobile version of the title.
A browser-based version is also available for those readers wanting to access the new title on PC’s, laptops and Macs.
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Chisholm said: ‘I wanted to create something that would deliver content that is based around expert commentary and analysis of the sailboat racing world.
‘People are used to getting instant sailing news from a plethora of sailing websites these days, but there are fewer and fewer places for racing sailors to read longer, more in-depth articles that really get to the heart of the topic in question.
‘With traditional print magazines struggling to survive, it was the arrival of hardware like the iPhone and then the iPad that made Sail Racing Magazine a viable proposition.
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‘When I saw major mainstream publications like The Times newspaper, Wired magazine and other big names investing in their own apps, I knew the time was right to launch.”
Chisholm claims to have recruited a line-up of big-name sailing writers as regular columnists, including America’s Cup expert Bob Fisher, Olympic sailing correspondent Andy Rice, Olympic Coaches Morgan Reeser and Mark Rushall and professional sailor and media expert Mark Covell.
Chisholm says he has met with an enthusiastic response from advertisers.
‘Our business plan didn’t feature any paying advertisers for the January issue but, after a few days of pitching the concept at METS in Amsterdam at the end of 2010, we were delighted to find that several companies liked the idea so much that they signed up on the spot,’he said.
The launch of the magazine will be followed up with release of the February edition, for which readers will have to pay £3.99 to download or view online.
‘The overwhelming feedback we have received from readers who downloaded the January issue is that they appreciate the quality and exclusive nature of the content we are providing and are happy to pay a small fee to carry on receiving it,’Chisholm said.
‘Our ultimate goal with Sail Racing Magazine is to see it recognised as the very best sailboat racing publication on the market.”
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