What do you do in the summer?
Man, if I had a quarter for every time I heard that.
Granted, one of my responsibilities here at Harris Publishing is to serve as the editor of SnoWest, a snowmobile publication. So I can understand how some might think I just sit around all summer with nothing to do. Quite the contrary, however. Summer is my busiest time of the year-minus the travel. We start working on our fall issues of SnoWest in June, sometimes late May. So my summers are pretty much taken care of.
Now late spring-after the snow has melted-is another story. While I'm plenty busy in the summer, it's the late spring that has me cleaning my desk to within an inch of its life as well as looking forward to being outside more than in my office. It doesn't take me long to get restless in the office.
I have to admit, though, I can't help but wonder if some-or a lot-of you have been asking my boss that same question: "What does Lane do in the summer?" because now I have another project to work on-Dirt Toys Magazine.
While some may think more work is punishment, you'd have a hard time convincing me that publishing a magazine covering ATVs, side-by-sides and the occasional dirt bike story is more work. This is A OK with me. Now not only do I get paid to snowmobile in the winter, I get to ride ATVs and UTVs even more. I don't have to make any excuses for slipping out of the office for a ride. I just say something like, "I'll be working in my outside office today (and tomorrow)."
We've been talking about putting together an ATV magazine for years, even before the explosion in the popularity of UTVs. We know that many readers of SnoWest also own and ride ATVs and UTVs. In fact, in our last SnoWest readership survey, more than half-55 percent-of you said you own an ATV and another 10 percent own a UTV. When asked how many of you participate in the sport of ATV/UTV riding, that number jumps to 67 percent. That's pretty significant.
And if you're a regular on SnoWest.com, you might remember a poll question I put on the main page earlier this summer. I asked, "What is your FAVORITE summer activity?" Nearly 27 percent of the respondents said riding ATVs and UTVs. The only category that ranked higher was camping and I might be going out on a limb here, but my guess is that most of you who love to go camping are taking your ATVs and/or UTVs along. That just seems natural to me.
So here we are with Dirt Toys. You'll see a lot of similarities between Dirt Toys and SnoWest magazines. We have a pretty good formula going in SnoWest, one we think will easily transfer to Dirt Toys. We'll cover the latest models in both the ATV and side-by-side markets, talk about fun and new aftermarket upgrades, cover rallies and other events and visit (and then write about) great places to ride your ATV and side-by-side. Think of Dirt Toys as a summer version of SnoWest. It's going to be a great ride.
Perhaps one of the best things about Dirt Toys is that the magazine is a free bonus to SnoWest subscribers.
We'll do our best to cover the dirt part of the year as well as we cover the snowy part of the year.
Now if I could do something about those pesky deadlines that keep me in the office.
