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Chattanooga: Road Rash adds 4th partner, chases ads, develops franchise idea

By: Brian Lazenby
(Contact)

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Tom Blevins & Ronnie Land

The publisher and managers at Road Rash Magazine have added a fourth partner for their motorcycle enthusiast publication and hope the added manpower will help them sell magazine franchises in other cities.

Alan Kelley joined the Chattanooga-based publication in July and will oversee advertising sales.

“Obviously, my role at this point is sales,” Mr. Kelley said. “That is what pays the bills.”

Tom Blevins founded the magazine in 2001 to inform other motorcycle riders about events taking place in the Chattanooga area.

He said the magazine grew to the point where he was forced to add additional partners.

In 2006, Ronnie Land and Jimmy Cornett partnered with Mr. Blevins. Mr. Land became the managing editor, and Mr. Cornett became the distribution manager.

Mr. Blevins said he needed someone to focus on attracting advertisers.

“Alan promises to bring his business sense and sales experience to the table, which should help skyrocket Road Rash Magazine to unseen levels of success,” Mr. Blevins said. “I still look at my partners as sent from God because where I’m weak they are strong.”

They said they preferred not to release the magazine’s financial information.

“It’s a small company,” Mr. Land said. “It’s less than a quarter-million dollars a year.”

When the magazine began, it was a black and white, newspaper print publication, but it gradually became the glossy, full color, 47-page monthly publication that it is today.

Mr. Blevins said he prints 20,000 copies each month. In August alone, there was more than 540,000 pictures viewed on their Website, www.roadrashmag.com.

“I cannot take the glory for what this magazine has become, because in reality, it has taken many deck hands to navigate this vessel through the choppy seas,” he said.

Mr. Blevins said his dream is to have a Road Rash Magazine in several cities around the country.

He recently sold a Road Rash franchise to a group of motorcyclists in Atlanta who have vowed to maintain the integrity of what Mr. Blevins began. Road Rash Atlanta will focus on events taking place in the Atlanta area.

Mr. Blevins and the other partners said they also want to dispel the myth that the magazine is geared solely toward Harley Davidson riders.

Mr. Land said they will soon include sport bikes and even scooters on the cover.

“A lot of people think we are nothing but a Harley-Davidson magazine, and we’re not,” he said. “This magazine will appeal to anybody in the motorcycle community.”

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