A new trade magazine has been rolled out for longboard retailers and suppliers, and the publishers say it is coasting along well so far.

Thornhill-based AXS Longboard Retailer magazine was launched with a winter 2011 edition, targeting more than 1,600 skateboard shops and their suppliers, said the quarterly magazine's publisher Michael Brooke. He said there are also a number of trade shows where the 5,000 copies of the magazine will be distributed, as well as through a California distribution warehouse.


He said only about 10 per cent, or 500 magazines, are distributed within Canada. Brooke explained while "Canada is a significant market for skateboarding", the magazine is intended for a global market.

The website, www.axslongboardretailer.com, launched in January and has been growing by about 25% in unique views each month since, according to AXS co-publisher Rick Tetz in Vancouver.

He said the brand started with an effort "no one else has done — organically going in and checking every skateboard company and every skateboard shop in the world" to build a database. If a visitor types in their city on the website, a listing of all the skateshops within their area will pop up.

The content on the website is actually funneled through another publication that both publishers both work on, Concrete Wave, a consumer skateboarding enthusiast magazine. Along with that content, shops around the world can register and write their own articles. "We hope they put up reasonable content," explained Tetz. "We will give them the benefit of the doubt."

The site also uses a "robot" that grabs web content about longboards, giving all the proper credits, added Tetz. 

As for the magazine, "As soon as [content] gets published in print, it goes right over to the website. But everything in this magazine is unique," said Brooke. The publisher himself wrote much of the content for the first issue.

An ad in the first edition of AXS shows a young girl with a board tucked under her arm, giving 'the finger' to the viewer. While that might be pushing the line for a consumer magazine, Brooke thinks industry insiders will see the humour.

Full-page ads in AXS Longboard magazine are $995, while website banner ad rates can be found here.

While Brooke is fairly satisfied with the first edition of the print product, "There's still a lot to do to make this thing sing," he said. "My expectations for the next one is to blow this one out the water.

"The next one is always the best one."