Just an update, Escapecollective.com continues to impress and seems worth every penny. Just when almost everything else imploded. BTW, has anyone else noticed that the “Cycling” pub in Canada is really stepping up their game?
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“Just an update, Escapecollective.com continues to impress and seems worth every penny.”
Hmm. I dunno if that’s a uniformly held opinion. EC is definitely “ok”. From my perspective, “impress” may be a bit over the top. It’s fine. It’s doing its thing as it had before. I could use a little less Spin Cycle, a little more racing coverage, and i could really use A LOT less of this in the comments:
“THIS is the killer offpiste cycling coverage i paid for.”
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Serious question - what is missing that you’d like to see? I feel like they’ve leaned VERY heavily toward racing coverage. Go look at the front page on any given day and it’s 80% racing.
I agree less Spin Cycle but it’s not a big deal. It probably isn’t taking many resources away from other content.
Otherwise I think it’s killer offpiste cycling coverage.
Definitely worth the money to me anyway.
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Well, have to respectfully disagree. Love the Spin Cycle.
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I’d generally agree, it’s decent but I don’t know if I’ll renew or not. There’s some content I enjoy, and a lot I have no interest in. I also wish they wouldn’t spam my inbox so much.
But, I actually quite enjoy the Spin Cycle. I don’t envy Jonny having to come up with something interesting all year round! Doesn’t feel like it needs to be biweekly, maybe weekly or even biweekly would be better 
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Just Unsubsribe….one click and the issue is solved. 
ETA - Unsubscribe from the newsletters, not Escape. 
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It’s not that I don’t want to hear anything from them at all given I’ve paid them a wedge to access their content. I just don’t want multiple emails a week (or even per day) and the email preferences only reference Spin Cycle and a weekly newsletter in the available settings. But they send extra emails advertising merch, Rupe’s ride, or a new article about UCI Overlord…
Obviously not the biggest problem, and I did unsubscribe. But that may mean I read the site less and so resubbing next year isn’t a given for me, even though I support the ideal of independent journalism with zero advertising.
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I’d suggest emailing them with these thoughts. I think it would be great if they offer some level of control over topics we get emails on.
I don’t care about racing. But I want all the tech and general stories instead. If I could tweak the emails to follow that, it would be great.
ETA: I made a suggestion over in Discord
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Yep, customisation would be great. They’ve only been around a couple of months and might be a little distracted in July so hopefully we can get it on their list. Personally, I want to see tech and road racing but would hide MTB and escape
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Drop in the discord and let them know in the #suggestions section
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Also, I think race recaps/coverage by Kit Nicholson is really a cut above almost everyone else. the facts, the insights, a bit of humor, and nicely curated videos. Very impressive, no one else is doing anything quite like it.
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Oddly enough, i must say that Velonews (now Velo) is actually producing some solid content recently. I subscribe to both Outside and Escape.
@Pbase - you’re right, there is a lot of good racing coverage on EC. I do find it’s just really short. While i can appreciate the desire to differentiate themselves with articles about the soigneurs, the supporting background of racing, or even the Yates’ dog, it’s just (for me) too much of the alt-media on cycling. I’m missing the actual racing coverage with more in-depth analysis and insights of the front of the race (and less about the back and sides of the race). More of Kit’s breakdowns, please. Know what i mean?
I feel like there’s a lack of this coverage anywhere - the best truly remains INRNG, to a certain extent.
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Inrng is the king/queen for race previews and insights behind the racing. So knowledgeable and clearly does it all for the love of the sport without taking a € of advertising nor trying to turn themselves into a personality. One of a tiny number of sites I visit daily
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I’m finding that I have to log in each visit to the site. Is it the same for everyone or just a me issue?
It’s off putting as I don’t have username & password pre populated. Am on iPhone safari.
One login per device and done for me.
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I recommend a password manager. Even the iCloud keychain should work fine. I’m using Lastpass.
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So either they weren’t that successful or they overextended themselves. I’m not going to suggest possible reasons as last time I suggested some basic ways to spend less money unnecessarily I was strongly rebuked. But hey, what do I know?
This is where we need a laughing face emoji button
Not clear what you think that e-mail form Rome suggests…that they are in danger of going under?
First, I think @Pbase was referring to CyclingTips in his comment, which was essentially the predecessor of Escape. But all accounts, they were indeed profitable and sustainable on their own.
So, this is a bit of an apples / oranges comparison…CT had years worth of subscribers, carefully built over time. Escape is less than a year old and is essentially a startup. The costs for just getting the wheel moving are going to be substantially higher than a decade+ old, established media group. So (likely) fewer subscribers and higher operational costs (at least initially).
Next, Escape has always been upfront that their current subscriber base is not sufficient to ensure long-term viability. And as they approach their one-year anniversary, that means subscriber churn. Many who originally singed up are going to ignore their resubscription options and let their membership expire. Others will downgrade to the Reader level. Either way, Escape is almost certainly going to see a subscriber drop come next march…so they need to get ahead of it.