24th July 2016 MCN | Bauer Media | EMAP | Cyril Quantrill ◄PREVIOUS STORY NEXT STORY► 
Motorcycle News was founded by Cyril Quantrill (1916 - 2005). Quantrill had worked for the British magazine Motor Cycling, aka "The Green 'Un"; one of the longest established motorcycling magazines in the world. Motor Cycling, courtesy of Temple Press, was founded in 1910. He started as a commissionaire, then worked in the ad department and later became a junior road tester. That was in 1938. Shortly before WW2, Quantrill volunteered as a police special and briefly became a full time police officer before joining the army where he served as a despatch rider. Later in the hostilities, he saw active service in the Middle East, notably Tobruk (Libya) and Baghdad (then the Kingdom of Iraq). Post war, he returned to journalism and worked again for Motor Cycling. Meanwhile, a rival British magazine, The Motor Cycle (aka the Blue 'Un) had been working a near identical journalistic seam since 1903. The publisher was Iliffe. In 1959, Motor Cycling became Motor Cycling with Scooter Weekly. Three years later, in 1962, the publication switched from a magazine format to a paper. In 1967 it merged with the aforementioned The Motor Cycle which had kept its magazine format throughout. 
Cyril Quantrill had long been dissatisfied with both Motor Cycling and The Motor Cycle. In 1955 he established Motorcycle News with the emphasis much more on motorcycle sport. The venture was underfunded. Nevertheless, it's said that 3,000 copies were printed on the first run. Cyril Quantrill to EMAP By 1956, EMAP (East Midlands Allied Press) took an interest and bought the title for £100. In 1961, now underpinned by considerable investment, the circulation grew to around 67,000 copies. Quantrill, however, was restless and resigned and eventually retired to Bexhill-on-Sea. In 1962, Quantrill's Motorcycle News "enjoyed" one of its many revamps and became abbreviated to MCN, and soon The Motor Cycle and Motor Cycling merged to become Motor Cycle (Incorporating Motor Cycling). That in turn became the newspaper Motor Cycle Weekly which lasted until 1983 where it ended its days as a magazine. 
Since then, with its regular Wednesday paper edition, MCN has dominated the UK powered two-wheeler market (to use the modern jargon). At its height, the circulation was somewhere around 200,000 copies per week. If you grew up in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, this was always the first place to look for new bike road tests and reviews or, more importantly to many, bike adverts. Biking sport, however, has always been a major feature in the publication because, to borrow a quote from a former editor: "That's where the news is." In more recent years, with the rise of desktop publishing and the explosion of the internet, MCN has been fighting a rearguard action against the numerous hopefuls helping themselves to a greater slice of the cake. Emap consumer titles sold to Bauer In 2008, EMAP sold Motorcycle News (and pretty much the whole consumer division portfolio) to German publisher Bauer. It's hard to see how Bauer has done much for the brand. Certainly, the paper has (arguably) become tired and stale in recent years and has had more facelifts than Donatella Versace. And, like Donatella Versace, the results haven't always matched the intended master plan. In 2010, the publication was flogging around 106,000 copies per week. Still not bad, but there's always been a sizeable wage bill at the publication coupled with other high production costs, and advertising revenue has been inexorably falling. By 2013, the audited circulation figure has been quoted at 83,000, plus change. Two years on, that's down to just 76,000 copies. Where it will be in the next few years is anyone's guess, but it doesn't look promising—and there is a critical mass beyond which the publication simply won't be viable (and note that Bauer fairly recently unloaded three biking titles, one of which was the online Australian Motorcycle News) 
▲ Motorcycle News has the largest UK online presence in the biking world, but its print sales are on the floor and headed for the basement. Trouble is, monetising digital content is still very tricky, and there's no sign of a paywall being introduced. MCN currently enjoys a large online presence in the biking sector. News-wise, it's the dominant player (in the UK at least). However, because it's also fielding a weekly paper, it needs to tread a fine line between maintaining its (paid for) paper circulation whilst publishing sufficient stories of depth and quality on its online platform. In this regard it's not been entirely successful, and the online publication often appears to do little but regurgitate press releases with minimal comment or analysis (if any). The publication hasn't by any means totally lost its direction or authority. It's still one of the most accurate sources for biking news. But if we ever once read the stories and accepted them at face value, we don't anymore. Things have changed. Being the lynchpin of the Bauer motorcycle roadshow, MCN is propped by considerable promotional support from other Bauer titles such as Bike Magazine, Classic Bike, Ride Magazine, and Performance Bikes, none of which boast a significant web presence. In return, MCN acts as an umbrella online presence for its stablemates, all based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. Digital editions and Android and iOS apps  The newspaper edition currently costs £2.30. Each year, 51 issues are published. However, in terms of pagination the paper often isn't half of what it used to be, and each year it seems harder to read the tiny printed price adjacent to the masthead (incipient old age might have something to do with that, but you also get the suspicion that money is simply too tight to mention). A paid for digital edition is available.
Most bikers/riders are now freeloading on the open-access online offering which includes abbreviated road tests, product reviews (or, at least, sidelong glances), a shop, limited race coverage, bike ads, insurance offers and the usual backboard of junk advertising. It has to be said that Motorcycle News has always been pretty "professional", whatever that means to you. But in a bid to preserve its ad revenues, it often plays it a little too safe for our tastes and plods along with seeming indifference. There are still many great stories out there waiting to be examined, reported and published. We've certainly seen dozens slip past the dozing sentries and vanish into obscurity. That said, modern information overload has made it all to easy to be looking the wrong way at the wrong time. Long may the publication continue even though its heyday is rapidly in retreat. www.motorcyclenews.co.uk ◄PREVIOUS STORY NEXT STORY► | 
