On the 31 of Agustust world´s biggest and best cyclingmagazine presents a international version of their magazin for the Ipad. Tour is known for it´s objective and extensive testing of bikes, accessoiries and components. Available in the app store for 3,99 (euro)

Original text:
TOUR mit englischer Ausgabe fürs iPad

Ab sofort bedienen die TOUR-Redakteure auch die internationalen Rennrad-Freunde mit den News der Szene. Mit TOUR Quarterly erscheint erstmals Europas führendes Rennrad-Magazin als internationale Ausgabe fürs iPad.

Bereits Anfang der 90er Jahre hat die TOUR-Redaktion damit begonnen, aufwendige Testverfahren und spezielle Prüfstände zu entwickeln, um Rennräder und Komponenten fundiert und nachvollziehbar beurteilen zu können. Damit hat das Magazin internationale Maßstäbe gesetzt. Die Ergebnisse der Tests und Prüfverfahren haben wesentlich dazu beigetragen, dass moderne Rennräder von den Herstellern nicht nur als faszinierende Sportgeräte sondern auch als sichere und zuverlässige Fortbewegungsmittel konstruiert werden.


In TOUR Quarterly werden künftig regelmäßig die wichtigsten Themen, Tests und Reportagen aus drei Heften in einer englischsprachigen Ausgabe fürs iPad zusammengefasst. Angereichert wird die multimediale TOUR-Ausgabe für die internationale Radsport-Szene mit zusätzlichen Bildergalerien und Videos.

TOUR Quarterly wird vierteljährlich erscheinen. Die erste Ausgabe gibt’s ab dem 31. August für 3,99 Euro im App-Store.

Hello all,

if I may, I'd like to add a few comments. TOUR isn't the world's largest bike mag, though it is the largest road bike magazine in Europe. TOUR is well known for their tests, which frequently include wind tunnel tests on aero bikes and the like. They also have very exact weights, which is clearly a plus for weight weenies. As to the question of who is "best" or "worst", I'll leave that judgement to others.

Until now, TOUR only came out in German. As XLR8R mentioned, they are now bringing out an English issue as an iPad app four times a year. Each TOUR Quarterly will combine the best tests, articles etc. from three print issues of TOUR. The links to TOUR in English and German are:
www.tour-qtr.com
www.tour-magazin.de

The press release in English is included below:

"TOUR in English as an iPad app

For over three decades, TOUR Magazine, published by Delius Klasing Verlag, has been regarded as a competent and authoritative voice in the road bike scene. Especially the highly sophisticated test processes utilized by the editorial staff to grade bicycles and their components have set international standards. Starting now, TOUR will be available to international racing bike aficionados with all the news from the scene, comprehensive tests and reports in English. Europe’s leading road bike magazine is launching TOUR Quarterly on August 31st as an international edition for the iPad.

Bielefeld/Munich, August 25th 2011. Approximately twenty years ago, TOUR began developing state of the art test stands and a highly sophisticated test regimen. The goal was to be able to obtain, evaluate and grade data pertaining to road bicycles and components in a reliable and reproducible manner. In doing so, the magazine set international standards. The results of these tests and inspection procedures have contributed significantly to the ongoing optimization of road bikes. Thus, today’s road bikes aren’t simply constructed as fascinating pieces of sports equipment, but also as safe and reliable means of transportation.

TOUR Quarterly will sum up, in English, the best topics, tests and reports from three print issues of TOUR in an iPad app. This app, aimed at the international road bike scene, will be further enhanced with picture galleries and videos.

As the name implies, TOUR Quarterly will be published four times a year. The first edition will be available August 31st for a price of €3.99 from the iTunes App Store."


Greets

langguy

fantastic news.

will a app be available for the android market?

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Current Rides:

2010 SWorks SL3/DI2

Langguy - do you have an association with Tour magazine or the bike-media in some way? That was an interesting first post. Welcome to Weight Weenies.

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Exp001

it would be nice, if Tour was available in English. But as iPad application? Why not standard PDF? I do not really understand this. Are there so many iPads sold in the world, that they want to sell Tour through them?
Sadly nothing for me.

I will wait to see how it develops before passing judgement. In the publication field, PDFs are fantastic but they are limited for potentials of interactive experience and advertising. With an ipad (or other OS) application, there are numerous benefits:

-From a reader's perspective: linking articles, ability to share articles, ability to keep and access past articles quickly.
-From an advertisers perspective: ability to provide adverts that have motion, bonus features (live links to their website, contests) and possibly video.
-From a publisher's perspective: ability to link articles and features with hover-popups, inserts and more.
-From an editor's perspective (with their Marketing Department hover over their shoulders) : the ability to track which articles are being read most, which links are being followed through, effective ad placement vs. ad placements that reduce readership and so forth. Essentially a healthy and background-active mechanism to create better content and user experience in the future.

(Personally as a designer I love, love, love, love, LOVE print over digital, and always will, but I'm just writing on the perspective of the media industry)

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Exp001

Will they do an iPhone app?

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WW Velocipedist Gargantuan

Hey folks,

thanks for all your input, I'll respond in chronological order.

@ spartan: As far as I know, nothing for Android is planned, but I'll pass it along.

@ prendrefeu: Many thanks for your welcome. If you really wanna know, langguy = language guy. I'm the translator of TOUR Quarterly, and I also write (in German) for Trekkingbike, see www.trekkingbike.com. I first got interested in "racing bikes" back in Austin in the 1970's. Though I'm not the ultimate weight weenie, I do still have stuff like a 1982 Campagnolo Super Record derailleur with titanium pivot bolts lying around.

@ Martin1977: TOUR Quarterly is just starting out, so we'll see how things develop. TOUR actually offers PDFs in German on its website, some are free and some cost money. Offering TOUR Quarterly or articles thereof as PDFs would be a logical second step. I ain't the decider, but the more people that ask for PDFs, the likelier it is to happen. You could get some buddies to demand PDFs as well.

@ prendrefeu: I also love print, but since TOUR doesn't have distribution channels in the UK + US, and printing in two languages would have been prohibitively expensive, digital was the way to go.

@ rustychain: As with Android, I don't think anything's planned for iPhones at the moment. I'll pass it on.

Since we're just starting out, the big thing for us at TOUR is simply to get the news out that TOUR Quarterly in English exists and that it has a bunch of interesting tests and other stuff in it. Nobody else does in-depth tests like TOUR does. I'm obviously not entirely objective, but one of the things I like is that if a bike or a component sucks, TOUR QTR says so - it's not another of those "everything is great" mags. So perhaps I've whetted somebody's curiosity.

BTW, all input about TOUR Quarterly, positive and negative, is welcome!

Greets

langguy

pdf english version would be interesting, i'd probably subscribe if the price wasn't too steep

but i'd guess the issue with pdf distribution is the ease with which copies could be made and put online for access without any payment, secured pdf is possible, but even then it's relatively easy to create freely readable copies

unless tour could fund an english version solely by advertising revenue there's probably not a great business case

imho the best option would be to publish in kindle format, there are free readers available for many platforms (browser, pc, mac, iphone, blackberry, android), and amazon manages all the distribution and payment processing for you

Kindle versions do not have photos, illustrations.
Kindle is very text heavy, imagery light (if at all).

It is not a very good format for a magazine publication.
A novel, yes. A magazine, no.

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Exp001

Great...stick around...there is a countless number of post's here on WW's were someone asks for a translation of one of tour's tests

BTW

sorry, but that's wrong, kindle supports photos, illustrations perfectly well

if a content creator chooses not to include graphics that's their choice, but it's not the kindle format stopping them

of course there are other e-publishing formats with multi-platform support too, but starting ipad-only seems like a fashion decision not a business one, if you translate/repurpose content for a more accessible format then you have a much larger potential market

That's a modern image from 2011? It looks like 1997, frankly.

It supports it, but it sucks at it. Your example shows this. Thank you, it was helpful.
Look up the reviews for various Kindle magazine subscriptions. Read the reviews. Notice how there is a consistency in very low ratings? Notice the number of reviews mentioning the poor image quality, lack of images, and so forth? Do you think those magazines aren't capable of producing images, when their PDF, iPad and Android versions are very visually appealing? Perhaps it could be the platform, hmmmm????
See what kind of magazines are offering Kindle versions: are they text heavy magazines, or image heavy?

Kindle... great, beautiful 'paper-like' screen technology. In grey scale.
Magazines have been color for a few decades now, why produce content in a visual presentation that looks like Nixon just got re-elected?

Further: market share. Kindle isn't at the top of the list in market. It may be "#1 Selling" but that's simply a measure of people reading books. Take a look at their numbers decreasing as the iPad and other tablets have been coming to market. Take a look at their numbers "being saved" when the price was reduced... at some point it will be better to just 'give it away' to keep their market share up. Why bother having a non-Kindle owner use a Kindle-specific reader when a PDF will be better, more image friendly? Why bother developing for Kindle, a tablet which was designed for replication of text on paper, when you can develop for the iPad or Android-based tablet which will have greater market share, more capabilities, and a greater audience regardless of what tablet they own?

Kindles are great for reading books. Ever notice how the advertising campaigns for Kindle don't really emphasize anything more than that? Perhaps a mention of a magazine here, mention of web browsing there, but not underlined. Wanna know why? Because that's not the primary purpose of the Kindle. It is for reading books.

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Exp001

Fashion sells, son. That IS a business decision.

Also, see the following for reference of a business perspective:

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Exp001

so you start with saying kindle doesn't support photo, illustrations, i post a quickie example showing that this was wrong, so now you change your position to say it's a quality issue, based upon a heavily compressed screenshot

well, you are wrong again, image quality can be fine, again it's creator choice not a format limitation

your market share argument is crazy, kindle format is readable on kindle, iphone, ipad, android, pc, mac, i.e. far bigger than ipad and android together

the cost of repurposing is a major factor, especially for specialist publications, using a widely readable format is sound business sense

as i originally said, i'd be fine with pdf, but the people who own the content then have to accept the likelihood of widespread piracy