Well, 2019... where do we stand today?

I started the Emerald magazine to provide an outlet for up and coming riders to promote themselves and reach out for sponsorship. We could see first hand, when our Wayne Hamilton was at the short circuits, that getting anything in print was almost impossible. Coming from a media background in Wales, I knew that something needed to be done for change to happen. So over a few evenings discussing and deliberating we decided to just go ahead and start our very own publication. Even writing those words down, and reading them, seeing them, still seems unbelievable.

Now, because Emerald opened us up to such a wider circle than just our racing class, I can Hand-On-Heart tell you that I met countless good, decent and dedicated people.

So, I let the publication go five years ago. We had a solid run of sales for six years, good relationships with advertisers and riders coming to us first with their news. This was my goal achieved. It was bliss. We had a tight-nit team. Sales were good and we were making a difference.
I can say that I enjoyed the experience but desperately needed some time out. Wayne had won the Manx but 24hours later, he was dead. I closed the doors and focused-in on my haulage company, my young grieving family and my devastated husband.

I’ve been asked on countless occasions to bring the magazine back. It’s a consideration. Certainly not in print format but by using another platform, it could happen.

Being the editor was a job where the buck stopped here. It was a big undertaking. With all the business and accounting aspects, coordinating corespondents and photographers and keeping the magazine true to its core values was exhilarating and exhausting, and unknown to most, I did this all for free. All the money from the magazine went back to the sport by sponsoring club events, sponsoring the races north and south and of course the upcoming riders.

Giving-up the magazine felt like I was letting everyone down. I knew that we were able to provide coverage and an outlet for free to riders who needed to thank sponsors and family for helping them. We were also an  ideal outlet for clubs to promote and specifically target the attending crowds. Again, for free.

At the end of the day family comes first. My family needed me and I needed them. I’ve used the time away from the sport to reflect on the good days, and had time to heal from countless abusive emails and aggressive people who thought they could treat and talk to me like shit. And let me tell you, I’ve been in the haulage world for over twenty years, there’s not much I haven’t heard! Self preservation kicked in and I took a large side-step away from the racing.

And this is where I am now.

My racing friends have reached out to me. For this I am grateful.

I attended my first race event in five years at the Tandragee 100 last week. It was nice meeting old acquaintances and a lot of the anxiety I felt was lessened. I can’t promise that I’ll bring Emerald back but at least I’m able to hold my head up high knowing that I succeeded in producing a wonderful media outlet for all the right reasons.

Well, as the last issue was such a success and the shops were well and truly phoning the office line continuously to order extra copies, its certainly time to ponder if the dying medium of print really is dying?

With emphasis on ipads, iphones, mobile apps and down loadable sources of information, will someone enlighten me and tell me why, oh why, oh why... are we selling out 5000 copies of the magazine each and every month?!

Having recently posting (snail mail) and politely accepting an invitation to the biggest publishing expo in London, I wonder what exactly the flight and tube train will lead me into.... will the stalls all sparkling and shining examples of 'new tech' and 'innovative' insightful lead me to believe that there is a whole 'new world' of untapped customers all trying to get our information but failing to? 

I wonder if the corporate world will lure me into the fold with statistical data analysed to the carbon-dated bone and able to provide me with a total genetic breakdown and make-up of each and every one of my customers? I think not - but its every marketer's wet dream.


In the meantime, I will continue, with the proven, track record proven that it - way that we do it now... a monthly magazine - with an annual over the quiet season, and our ethos of including everyone that counts. After all, with the phone lines almost jammed and subscriptions on the up - does this audience just prefer a hand held glossy paper copy?