Rude Health Media writes: It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s miserable, it’s another bloody Monday. Bleary eyed and a little down on yourself after the weekend you walk to the tube cursing that you don’t want to feel like this again.
This time, this week you really need a healthy start, you need to eat well, do some exercise and get a few good nights’ sleep. You need to rejuvenate by that crucial meeting or date you have on Thursday. You need some great health advice to help you plan but you don’t want to fiddle with your phone to download the latest digital version of Men’s Health, there’s no newsagent nearby to pick up a bulky copy and you don’t want to spend nearly £5 when there’s free advice online anyway so you’ll wait till you get to work.
But what about the interminable 30 minutes on the tube? Then just outside the train station you are handed a vibrant, light magazine with a great design, it seems to be a mag on men’s health and it seems to be free….. introducing Vigour MAG.
Rude Health Media today (Monday June 3) launch a pilot of Vigour MAG, the first freemium outdoor and health magazine, aimed primarily at men, (though it will appeal to women as well) that promises to offer seminal health advice on training, nutrition, travel and gear as well as illuminating modern health issues, telling great stories of adventure and challenging readers to take up an event and shock themselves by doing it.
The pilot issue, which has an initial print run of 100,000 copies through Wyndeham Press, is being handed out during commuter time on Monday morning on a new distribution route by Contact Field Marketing, who have the experience of distributing Sport magazine on a Friday, to include most high footfall central tube and mainline rail stations.
Aimed at 20-45 mainly men, commuters, educated, articulate, time poor, some play team sport, some go to a gym, some run, cycle, do triathlon, – many would like to get outside and know more. And everyone wants a better lifestyle even if they don’t want to change their lives. Vigour MAG is for people who want to maximise their lives outside work and have the money to spend on doing that.
The stats are all there -
• A quarter of UK adults were classified as obese in 2010
• Last year 120,000 runners balloted for 50,000 London marathon places.
• Nearly 2 million Brits are cycling in a £3billion a year industry.
• People doing outdoor challenges has quadrupled in last four years.
• Most popular day for gym and exercise is Monday, when Vigour MAG will always be distributed.
The founder of Rude Health Media and Vigour MAG editor is the journalist Charlie Norton, whose previous career at the Telegraph and freelancing for various nationals, bring the magazine a cast of talent. The launch issue has a sensational line up including ex-England rugby captain Lewis Moody’s tales of frostbite in the Yukon, Bear Grylls on getting out of the comfort pit, Sir Bradley Wiggins’ fridge secrets, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s toughest workouts and Andy Murray’s meanest gym machine. Vigour MAG also introduces the natural movement master, Erwan Le Corre and the England rugby player James Haskell as columnists. It features recipes from chefs David Thompson and Tom Aikens, photography from Martin Hartley and Giulio Di Sturco as well as the top journalistic talent of Ed Conway and Rebecca Newman.
Charlie Norton said, “It’s been quite a tortuous challenge launching a pilot in a recession, a bit like a gruelling ultra-marathon in a snow storm, particularly as we are a start up company with a small team. But I really feel there’s a big market there for the first widespread free health magazine which does not insult men that life is all about six packs. Shortlist Media have been an inspiration in this marketplace. Now Vigour MAG will be worth picking up as it costs nothing and your life should be better for it.
“We should appeal to a broad spectrum from those who are training for an Ironman at the weekend to those just wanting to feel human by the end of the week and not pass out on the footie pitch.
“We would plan to start monthly and then go weekly with a number somewhere between 300,000-500,000 when we are confidently up and running and we have built partnerships with the appropriate advertisers.”
“Of course we don’t believe print is the only future which is why we will also have a free digital edition you can access on our website www.vigourmag.co.uk and on facebook and twitter.”
Norton added, “I really believe this magazine will appeal to a lot of people and be a great commercial success judging by the interest from advertisers in a regular Vigour MAG. This is why we’ve made the unprecedented move of launching a pilot of 100,000 copies around London to show what can be done and we hope we can find the right investors to keep the adventure going.”
If you don’t get your hands on a free copy, you can download a free digital edition at www.vigourmag.co.uk from Monday June 3.
