Idea

Currently, running is documented in large part in digital form. Videos, images and words in various formats, usually stored for brief periods of time and all optimised for smaller screens. Scrolling through my father’s memorabilia from his time racing marathons, I felt a lot of envy. Each race was accompanied with a physical diploma. carefully crafted with a thorough sense of thought into each detail. Clearly, the pieces were to be kept around. Furthermore, he had newspapers sections or entire publications from the race weekend, full of inspiring stories and now retro vibes and fits. Amazing.

Currently, a lot of the conversation is about what is “cool” or the next thing. However, running is much broader. We want to create a publication with words from a broad selection of bright minds around the sport, who share different perspectives. Each perspective can be either very hands-on or abstract, very encouraging of a singular thing or broad strokes. A love letter or a small idea.

We want to create it as a physical item, accompanying those who buy a bib for the race to keep and read in their own time. For those not running, the publication will be available for purchase. All proceeds (which will be 100% of the sales) will go to prize money for an upcoming race. The publication will be part of a series of incentives to generate capital for the sport, and at the same time create lasting memories and hopefully push the boundary.

Also, the newspaper will be a POC as a running series of physical publication with room for ads and sponsored articles with time - again, with 100% of the proceeds going to prize money.

Product

The product itself will be a newspaper. The goal is 40 pages. We aim to print 300 examples, and thereby selling 150. None of the articles will be available for free online.

Form Factor

Each idea is envisioned to follow the same form factor

Idea: The idea being communicated to the audience.

Preface: A short introduction into why this idea may be intriguing. A byline to capture the reader.

Article: The actual idea.

The idea itself can be whatever you find interesting. The main theme of all articles will be “the future of running”.

Inspiration

The idea for the ideas-series is stolen from Monocle, who in great style communicate various ideas for a better world clearly.