road.cc publisher steps up to adopt ‘no-fly’ rule for bike launches

F-At Digital, encompassing road.cc, ebiketips and off.road.cc, has decided to adopt a no-fly policy for future overseas bike launches.

Listing a number of reasons for banning its journalists flying to cover launches, F-At has specified the environmental cost as well as the difficulty of producing unique content where journalists from a number of outlets have been gathered together in one place. The publisher also went on to note the pressure of having a member of an already stretched tech team out of the office for days to produce one or two stories.

Writing on road.cc, Tony Farrelly said: “From now on road.cc and its sister sites are adopting a no fly rule for bike (or any other product) launches – if we’ve got to fly there we’re not going. Plus we’ll be very choosy indeed about attending any others that don’t involve flying but do involve multiple days away from slaving over a hot laptop in rainy Blighty.

“We still want to cover the launch, but we’ll have to do it remotely.”

Farrelly went on to note that the policy is a natural evolution of an old policy, where the publisher has become more picky about the launches it attends and – presenting a new recipe for bike launches – draws on learnings during Covid lockdowns:

“1. Send bikes out under embargo to publications ahead of time, carving them out of each country’s marketing allocation – the UK does still have a marketing allocation doesn’t it?
2. Stream the product presentation, brands did that very effectively during Covid. Either livestream the whole thing or stream a pre-recorded vid and then have a livestream Q&A after.
3. Offer one to one online convos with a member/members of the team responsible for the new bike.
4. On launch day we all publish our stories, vids etc.
5. If anyone goes early they don’t get a bike next time.”

The firm also noted that a sizeable number of the UK’s bike press is based in a relatively small area, in the Bath-Bristol corridor, and there would be logistical and environmental sense in potentially holding a launch event and small team in that area: “As well as road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips central Bath is home to CyclingNews, Cycling Weekly and GCN. BikeRadar, Cycling Plus and MBUK are a few minutes away in Bristol (another good alternative location), while Cyclist is an hour and 20mins away by train. Between us that’s not just the entire UK road cycling audience, but also a sizeable chunk of the English speaking cycling world.

“It seems to us that launches only take the form they do out of habit. Now is the time to break that habit. At least for us it is. Hopefully others in the cycling media and the cycling industry will see that it’s time for a change too. I’m pretty sure they know it is.

Speaking to Cycling Industry News, road.cc editor Jack Sexty told us about the industry feedback to the policy so far: “Feedback from the bike industry, our readers and friends in the media has been overwhelmingly positive so far.

“After politely turning down an upcoming bike launch abroad from a large brand as per our no-fly policy, we’ve been assured the brand respects our position and is happy to work with us according to our preferences instead. While this might be more difficult to negotiate for smaller publications with less reach and influence than road.cc, hopefully it can be the start of the bike industry thinking about how launching new product could be done differently.”

Arguably, should the policy be mirrored by more media outlets, such a stance might benefit the shows, who may market themselves as a cost efficient and relatively sustainable way to get multiple products in front of the industry and press. While CIN is among those standing on the sidelines of this debate as a B2B mag, we certainly see the wisdom in not doing things the same way as they have always been done for the sake of tradition. In 2024, with tight budgets, small teams and concerns about the environment rightly rising, F-At’s no-fly policy seems prescient.

And the topic of the bike industry getting its sustainability house in order is not going to go away. Indeed, CIN’s latest issue (#2 2024) contains an interview (page 10) with sustainability expert Erik Bronsvoort who tackles the subject. Doing things differently does seem to be an unavoidable outcome.