Last weekend’s Moto Expo marked our final event of the year after what’s been a stacked schedule between the Australian Superbikes, MX Nationals, AUS Supercross, Troy Bayliss Classic, the expo and more. It’s gone so quickly that it’s almost a strange feeling the end of the year is essentially upon us as summer’s arrived now in December.

We’re proud of the investment (both time and financially) we’ve put into the 2016 season, with multiple people at most of those events listed. Our partners – the vital advertisers – are the ones that enable us to bring such coverage of the sport and industry locally, as well as our production side of creating content for companies at events as well.

It’s no secret that the publishing industry is going through a lot of change at the moment and we’re really seeing magazine sales decline or the titles axed altogether. Sign of the times or not, the backing of the industry has helped us as an online business really progress and bring our audience world-class coverage that’s completely free and we appreciate it.

Image: Alex Gobert (Foremost Media).

That’s why we go to all the efforts we can to produce a quality product, both in terms of racing content and also new bikes, products, etc. It all takes countless resources and talented people putting it together behind the scenes, but I personally definitely feel what we do goes a long way to elevate interest in the sport from an Australian standpoint – that’s our target.

Next year’s shaping up relatively nicely as well as we work to secure all the funding we can at what’s one of the busiest times of the year for brands, so we look forward to finalising that and moving into 2017 with a strong amount of momentum on our side at Foremost Media.

We’re also, right now, producing a new digital magazine to be released prior to Christmas. It will cap off our year in terms of content and will be continued into next year, although the frequency of it is to be determined. From the articles published on all of our sites, to the films we create and the magazine we’re about to launch, we enjoy challenging ourselves, no doubt.

Image: Keith Muir.

And aside from the operations side of the business, I for one am already anticipating an exceptional 2017 season. The amount of change we’re seeing in rider placements across the board will make for interesting bench-racing, both here in Australia and internationally. The excitement never seems to slow!

One of the more curious cases right now is that Yamaha Racing Team hasn’t actually signed Wayne Maxwell or Glenn Allerton for the 2017 ASBK series, despite all the testing they’ve been doing – four days since Winton’s title-decider! It’s clear that they and Dunlop want to win next year, but I’m not certain exactly what it is that’s delaying them finalising the rider line-up.

Anyway, that’s it from me for this week, thanks for stopping by as usual! Make sure you check out all of CycleOnline.com.au’s social networking channels and be sure to Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for even more behind the scenes insights. Just search CycleOnline.