UKC

"It appears that people want to give the magazine their money but Vertical is going to some lengths to hide from its potential customers!

In this light Sarkozy’s strong win in the French general election should, perhaps, come as no great surprise. You don’t have to be an extreme Thatcherite to realise this is not how you run a business and treat your customers.

The ironic thing is that besides this logistics incompetence, there is so little else wrong with the magazine."

writes Toby Archer.

Read the full review here:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=461

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Like Toby I also wrote a fairly glowing review last summer (http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=221)& have posted the odd note about its late appearance. I did contact the editor by email once (maybe around the time of N° 2) who explained it was due to problems in getting the translations done in time but it would be sorted, obviously it hasn't.

More recently Neil Brodie (English language sub editor) offered to explain to me why the problems continue & I've been meaning to email him but as yet haven't, I guess its a bit delicate if he wanted to explain by email rather than over the web in a thread here on UKC

Mick - have you contacted Neil ? would seem courteous to allow him to respond

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I should also add that, not only does Toby get emails asking about Vertical, but UKC editorial team receives about 2 per month. Initially we forwarded them to Vertical but I suspect we haven't been bothering so much lately.

Alan

In reply to Doug:

Yes have emailed Neil.

Thanks Doug.

Mick

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:


A small point and a bit OT but I keep seeing comments like this and they are beginning to annoy me!

I know that blatant Sarkozy boosters like the BBC keep on pedalling this line about Sarkozy achieving a 'convincing' win in the French elections but the actually figures don't seem to support such a claim. The final split was 47% for Royal and 53% for Sarkozy, hardly a landslide, and the more detailed figures are even more revealing.

The only age group that gave Sarkozy a majority was the over 50's who accounted for 52% of his voters, with 58% of pensioners and the retired voting for him. (Who of course having benefited from decades of 'socialist' polices when working, will be unaffected by any 'Thatcherite' policies he introduces whilst potentially benefiting from any tax cuts and so on which he might implement).

Sarkozy obtained only 40% of the vote among 18-24 year olds and just 42% of employees voted for him with 58% voting for Royal.

In reply to Doug: I got the impression from some emails with Neil that this obviously something that they as the editorial team don't have a lot of control over. Presumably printing and distribution is part of larger company and the problems are there. I'm sure subscriber though would appreciate an explanation of the situation.

In reply to TobyA:

I've only bought one copy of Vertical. Its coverage is a bit outside what I'm really interested in, so I'm not likely to buy it often. However, for a translated magazine, I have to say the editorial standards are outstandingly high - they obviously employ people who have more than a passing facility with the language, unlike the very dismal efforts in most of the British mags. Unfortunately, the free mags, like Gravity, take this editorial inadequacy to new depths...

In reply to TobyA:

I subscribed from issue one, and have had all issues so far - great mag. great service too - Stephanie in Switzerland wrote directly to query card details to prevent a delay! maybe this is the best way of getting the mag, as well as supporting them in the early times of the mag as it appears to be alot of work fro small sales at the moment. it is the most inspiring mag i've ever read, pure mountain porn.

subscribe and be inspired (i dont work for them honest)

In reply to Squidward Tenticles: I would disagree that a 53-47 split isn't significant in modern advanced democratic societies (cf. recent US general elections) - particularly when considering the excellent French turnout - but your other points are very fair and it's a very snappy little piece of psephology (I had to look that up to work out the spelling!).

Ultimately the Sarkozy line was more a cheap joke in a review of a climbing mag rather than serious political science.

At least is seems I got my French spelling a bit better than last time!

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Toby's comparison with his mate, Mike, would be fair enough, except for the fact that we don't have the media equivalent of a Sea King helicopter flying in to rescue us when things get out of hand!

That aside I thought Toby's comment was very fair. He seems to enjoy the magazine when it eventually arrives, but is frustrated by the delays and the difficulties in distribution. There are several reasons for the delays. Bringing a magazine out in 4 languages is not easy for a start, the team putting it together is very small, getting the whole show on the road was an expensive business and the budget that we're working on at the moment is very tight. I can ensure you all that if every UKclimbing user subscribed (and offered a subscription to their mother-in-law) the problems would be solved in a matter of weeks. 18 quid for a year - you know it's a good deal.

Toby's comments about the info pages being a bit 'lite' are valid, but then again this section is not meant to be exhaustive. People looking for climbing news these days log onto the net and have everything they could possibly hope for in seconds. There is no point in even trying to compete. Vertical can hopefully broaden your horizons a little and give you a taste of an area that you would never have thought of sticking into the search motor.

Ditto for the Eurobloc feature. It's not meant to give you the numbers (buy the local guidebook and support the people who do all the hard work), just to give you fresh ideas of places to go (Reunion Island in n°6 by the way - how many of you have been there?). Vertical is not aimed at dedicated boulderers. In fact it's not really aimed at dedicated anybody (way over-rated adjective in any case). It is for people who like to do it all. Or at least read about it all.

And that is perhaps the key point of the mag. James Olsen describes it as "pure mountain porn" and he's making a fair point. But people that buy classic fleshy pornography don't have partners that look like Pamela Anderson or the Chippendales. In a similar vein you don't have to climb VI,8a,A5+,WI7,M10 to enjoy Vertical.

As for editorial oversights, only one in 3 issues - open your eyes Toby!

In reply to Neil Brodie:

.......no comment.

In reply to Neil Brodie:


Don't set me a challenge as when I get the next one I'll read it with my little page marker stickers and note each one I find!

Obviously the content and flow of the articles are good enough then that I didn't remember if I had spotted mistake. Anyway - I stand by the assertion that the readability is very high, particularly considering that many of the articles are translated. In comparison the recent Alpine supplement that came with Climb magazine had sentences that just didn't make sense, and even photo captions with mistakes in them. Good advice and good pictures but from an editing point of view, a bit of a disaster.

In reply to Neil Brodie:


Neil,

It's good to see you coming onto this site to explain to loyal readers (myself included) what's been going wrong and when it might be sorted. Thanks.

You mention "difficulties in distribution" - I know this has been an issue for plenty of other people. None of the climbing wall shops in London stock Vertical (as far as I know. And this despite Mile End having a massive Vertical poster at their wall!). The shop where you launched the mag (Snow and Rock in Covent Garden) doesn't stock it (much to the bemusement of one of their duty managers I chatted to there). In fact, the only place I can find it in London is Borders on Charing Cross Rd. It would be good to see the magazine in the more 'normal' locations - surely it can't be that difficult to ship a job lot to each of the 3 climbing walls, and 2 main outdoor shops in Covent Garden?!

I hope this doesn't come across as harsh. Anyway, I really enjoy the magazine when I get my grubby mitts on it - especially No. 5, which I personally thought was a cut above the rest of them.

Good luck, and thanks,

Adam