Three months after it winked out of existence, at least in print, the respected Cycle News brand is back…sort of.

As we reported back in September, the esteemed weekly print magazine ended its 45-year history just a week after its long-time editor Paul Carruthers was laid off. But on November 19, 2010, Motorsport Aftermarket Group (MAG) purchased the Cycle News brand, fired up the website (that had been limping along) and brought Carruthers back to continue his 25-year career with the magazine. Will it appear again in print? We have no idea, but we doubt it.

MAG is a privately held (it’s unlisted on any stock exchange) holding company for some of the best-known brands in the motorcycle aftermarket—Performance Machine, Vance and Hines and Progressive Suspension are three of the 10 brands owned. However, Cycle News is the first media property purchased as far as I can tell. An aftermarket parts company owning the onetime, most-respected voice in the industry could pay huge dividends, even if it simply means cheap ad space

We here at MD are happy to see the re-invigoration of Cycle News, as, like many of our readers, we grew up depending on the race results and industry news to stay abreast of what was going on in our sport of choice. But the CN of its halcyon days is different from the website it has become. Though it represents a lot of hard work by talented, connected people, it’s not quite the large, well-staffed organization it was. Still, MAG CEO Brian Etter says that “we will work diligently to take it to the next level.” What that “next level” is isn’t really clear, but we’re confident CN’s staff will work hard to get there, whatever it is.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.