Dear AJ family,
Over the last few months, I’ve been pulling back the curtain a bit so people can better understand the website and magazine that they (seem) to love. Today, I want to fill you in how our staff is structured.
Well, um, actually, when it comes to full-time staff, it’s…just me. That’s not to say there aren’t a whole bunch of rad people that make AJ what it is. There are, and you can look at all the bylines to see some of them. It’s just that we don’t have a traditional or formal infrastructure, nor a crew of employees.
Joni Casimiro, who does our incredible design, also fulfills orders, wrapping magazines and shipping them. As I write this, she’s dropping orders at the post office and then she’s going to our storage unit to pick up more copies of AJ11. During deadlines, she’s definitely at her desk full time, but in down periods she has other projects and clients. Justin Housman, who is absolutely doing a bang-up job running the website editorial, is an independent contractor who also doesn’t log full-time hours. Chris Muldrow oversees our dev ops and customer service under contract, and we’re incredibly blessed to have him but most days (if it’s a good day) he probably doesn’t even spend an hour on AJ. Steve Hawk and Emily White make every issue of AJ better with their editing, but they both have full-time gigs and help us in their spare time just because they believe so much in AJ.
Joni and I each have small offices in our house in Monarch Beach, California, but AJ itself doesn’t have an office, just the aforementioned storage unit. In San Francisco, Justin usually posts up to work in a coffee shop. Chris, Mr. Swanky, does have a real office, but it’s in Virginia and so we can’t go poach his space.
That’s Justin. He really drives a Subaru, but will never forget that time in Iceland when he got to drive a Defender.
All of this is by design. The reason we are so streamlined is because I am protective of our business values and don’t want to have to make decisions about what goes in the magazine or on the site based on money—only on what I think you want to read. The downside of this bootstrapping is that producing four issues a year and five online stories a day, plus handling sales and social media and all that other stuff, with this small of a crew isn’t sustainable long-term.
We have one sure path to success and longevity and that’s through growing our subscribers to AJ in print. Most magazines are bloated with overhead and desperate to cover those costs and they give away subscriptions, basically, to justify astronomical ad rates. I built AJ to be lean, ethical, transparent, and to put the readers first, which means limited advertising and a reliance on reader support.
Joni, Joshua Tree. She likes to run incognito…
We need a circulation of just 10,000 subscribers, ideally, 15,000, to let us build the AJ of our dreams. By comparison, Outside has a circ of 675,000. If every person who follows AJ on Instagram subscribed, we’d be there twice over. If just five percent of the people who read AJ online for free every month subscribed, we’d be there. The announcement last night that Transworld Snowboarding is shutting down is a cold reminder that if you don’t support the brands you love, if you don’t live your values by where you spend, they will go away.
We’re a long way from the sustainable level, however. Quite a long way. And so I have to ask—you, very specifically you—and I have to keep asking. Those of you who’ve already subscribed, I think you know how I feel—hugs and high fives of gratitude abound. Those of you who haven’t, yeah, I know…you’ve been meaning to…you think “content” should be free…AJ is too expensive. I hear ya. But our journal price reflects what it really costs to pay people fairly and make what we think is the best outdoor publication ever. It’s a quarterly book, not a magazine, and the vast majority of subscribers collect them. I’d argue that we pack more substance in one issue than most titles in a year (though I am, admittedly, biased).
C’mon, y’all. Join us. Subscribe now and get the winter issue, with the spring issue to arrive in about a month.
Sub.
Okay, so 10,000 is our mark for long-term sustainability. What will we do when we get there? Here’s a start:
• Add editorial help for the website—we need at least one more part-time editor and more contract writers like Shawnté Salabert and Jeff Moag
• Add editorial staff for the print quarterly—a managing editor at minimum
• Make more photo assignments in print and have a travel budget to send writers and photographers into the field
• Hire a part-time customer service/order fulfillment person. Not that I don’t like wrapping magazines myself, I do, but, well, you know, I should probably be editing or writing stories
• Rent a modest office where we can store the magazines and ship orders, instead of from our spare bedroom and a Public Storage 10×10
• Launch a book series. So many book ideas, so little time
• Develop more AJ merch. We have some very cool things in the works
• Rejoin One Percent for the Planet. When we launched in print, our revenues went up and our net went down, so we had to pull out. I want back in
• Create an environmental reporting mentorship program to pair senior writers with up-and-coming journalists
• Create an Adventure Journal reader micro-grant program, where we fund altruism-based adventures. My goal would be to give $50,000 in grants a year, max grant size or $1,000. How rad would that be?
• What else? We adapt, build, and change AJ all the time based on reader input—how else should AJ be a voice or presence for good?
Please subscribe. And you who already do, maybe you can add your voice below and let people know what to expect from their issues.
I hung out with a guy named Steve Hawk in NYC last fall. Nice guy, has a very famous brother who rides a skateboard and was in a video game one time. Is this the same Steve or nah?
Yes, that Steve Hawk. Former editor of Surfer, former editor of Sierra, currently teaching magazine journalism at Stanford. A true gentleman, one of the best feature editors I know, and a helluva guy.
Sweet! We were out the for a THF fundraiser, rode a bus to the woods of New Jersey with him. He and the rest of the crew were kind enough to sign a board for a little friend of ours who was battling cancer. The kid beat it! So that’s rad. Tell him Luke says hi. He may or may not remember, but whatever!
Shared this on my media pages, Steve. I’m looking forward to a whiff of the new issue straight out of the envelope!
Thank you, Derek! My whole office smells like that. Unless I’m eating a burrito, of course.
Cram that smell into a car scent as part of AJ merch.
But seriously, thanks to you and your teams work Steve. I absolutely get so pumped for each new issue. It helps me reframe my mindset each quarter and focus on my outdoor goals. The quality of work the AJ team continues to pump out each quarter is awesome. I continue to tell friends and family about it. I can’t say enough good about it.
Totally concur!
been debating subscribing for a little while now, but with the recent demise of Transworld Snowboarding, it’s made me realize the value print has. you got one new subscriber today.
Muchas gracias, Chris!
Rad! Awesome to hear how this all comes together and super stoked it all does comes together! Excited for AJ’s future!! You guy’s never disappoint.
Been a subscriber since the beginning, will stop sharing my AJ with my friends and force them to pony up!!!
I lent a couple issues out to some of my friends but NO MORE! “Buy your own!” I say to them. Been here since the beginning and so thankful for the dedication and commitment from you folks.
Have you ever considered sponsored content? (I’m just kidding)
Hahahahahahah. Ha. Ha.
I have a subscription and it is the best. The photos, the articles are all awesome. I purchased some art after reading about John Fellows and seeing his work in the magazine. AJ is the best! Subscribe, you won’t regret it!
Thanks for all your hard work Steve and Joni and everyone else!
Excellent story and impassioned plea. As a freelance writer myself I suffer both psychically and financially every time another publication goes under. I have enjoyed your online feed and now I will be looking anxiously towards my mailbox for the print issue. You have a new subscriber here.
+1. Merci!
Been a subscriber from the beginning. Live for the AJ. So think you.
Will gift a few subscriptions to do my part. Thank you, Steve and team.
Steve, You need to highlight Joni more. I am guessing she is the real brains and brawn behind the operation.
I don’t know about the brawn, but otherwise…yep.
I can confirm that Joni is an absolute treasure.
I asked for a subscription as a gift last year. It’s great and I’m glad I did! Really looking forward to seeing the next edition in the mail. Definitely worth it!
I just subscribed and love it. My first print issue is really lovely. And I really love the daily emails. I hope you guys can make it. It’s tough out there with so much free content and people primed to expect it at little to no cost. But quality matters. And I’m impressed with what you all offer.
Dear Steve—thanks for writing this. Your work on AJ is inspiring. I get that mere words often are insufficient to sustain you and your team. However, AJ sustains me, and for this, I am deeply appreciative—thanks for all that you do…
I love it and have got a few people from down here in NZ to get on board. Get the merch going as soon as you can, there is a large unfulfilled potential right there through the social side of things….
That’s saying a lot, Ross. It costs a small fortune to get magazines there.
Steve, thank you for the peek into your operations – it’s just one more touch that you so often use to personalize your product with your readers; I appreciate that. The level of writing, photography, and paper together is unmatched. Sadly, after two years of subscription, which were paid by my dear sister, I had to tell her I can’t carry any more more issues into my trailer…and as you know, I just can’t discard my delivered issues.
I would ask you to perhaps add some items to your AJ store if possible: trucker hats, beanies, stickers, mugs, and maybe some other items thinking outta the box related to sustainable travel and adventure. Items for daily use and spreading the good word are a win-win. Thank you again for reminding us on a quarterly basis what really matters in this world – experience.
We plan on tees, hats, beanies, stickers, art prints, mugs, onesies (wait until you see them), and a few other things we think are perfect for AJ-type people. It’s just that as soon as we finish one issue, we have to dive into the next and there’s been no time to design them and order samples.
Does anyone want nice slipcases to store four issues at a time? Cause I do. Just haven’t researched where to get them made affordably.
Subscribed for the last year or so from Australia so costs me an extra $48 than the US crew. But still worth every cent.
Best regular reading material I get on or offline.
Thanks Steve!
If we can find a way to get it there cheaper, we will!
I LOVE AJ. Will continue to evangelize. Best content, imagery, delivery and values. Killing it.
Subscribed a couple issues ago and I wish I had sooner. DO IT. You won’t regret it. Best print publication money can buy.
I read the web site before there was print and was totally stoked when you went to paper. I have been a subscriber since Issue 1 and don’t see any reason to ever stop. AJ is easily my favorite magazine. Can’t wait to see what kind of books you will print.
Been a subscriber since issue 1. As an editor of a magazine that also relies on subscriptions, I support this post and this effort. Good luck, Steve.
+1 more. I’m in.
Ever consider producing an “electronic version” of your paper magazine? Maybe I’m alone in this, but I personally have issues buying paper.
I’d be on board straight away with an electronic subscription.
Chris—I get that, I do. And it was something I spent a long time considering before making the decision to move forward on print. We’ve added a product that uses materials and requires energy to transport. Ultimately, I felt that our scale, as well as my belief that we need healthy alternatives to screens, justified it. (The latter being why we won’t have a digital version.)
Here are a few of the steps and decisions we’ve made to make the process as responsible as we can:
• We use Forest Stewardship Council certified sustainable paper. Paper is material, yes, but it is renewable.
• We use soy-based inks.
• We ship subscriber copies in EcoEnclose recycled and recyclable envelopes even though it’s a much higher cost.
• We reuse the boxes our bulk copies come in, returning them to the printer to use in the next issue.
• We deliberately chose not to sell AJ on traditional newsstands. That business model is horribly wasteful. Unsold magazines—up to 70 percent—are simply dumped in the trash at the publisher’s expense.
• We designed our editorial to be evergreen so you can read it for years to come. So far, we don’t know any subscribers who throw AJ away. Most people collect them, and those that don’t pass them along.
• We only do four a year. Financially, it makes more sense to do six. We want to make what feel more like books than magazines, with a lower overall impact but longer term connection with readers.
• The stories that appear in print will only appear in print. Why in the world would anyone pay for a paper magazine whenthe know the stories will appear free online? Talk about wasteful.
In the end, some of you guys will disagree, and I respect that. But please know that I have given this great consideration, and we are trying to publish with the most responsible methods possible.
Steve,
Thanks for the detailed reply. I understand your postion. However, I would like to address this point:
“The stories that appear in print will only appear in print. Why in the world would anyone pay for a paper magazine whenthe know the stories will appear free online? Talk about wasteful.”
I would assume prior to sending your magazine to print it is probably laid out digitally in some fashion. If so, I’d be interested in paying for a subscription to access/download that. I don’t think it should be free as there was a lot of work/artistry/care behind it.
I’ve seen magazines and catalogs where you can virtually turn the page to get the same layout as the print version. I think that could be interesting and I’d pay for it.
All that said, I fully respect your approach and decisions.
How about a digital subscription for overseas readers? Not sure if that’s possible.
That’s how I read powder and international postage adds up.
Respect your views and would likely subscribe if I resided in Nth America.
I’m hoping that at some point I’ll have the bandwidth to explore overseas distributors or, better yet, licensors. Ideally, we’d find a publishing group that could print to our specs on their home turf, making shipping much lower. Europe, Australia, and Japan would be nice.
We’re too small to afford a circulation expert and my expertise is in editorial. Things like this always take longer for AJ because of it.
I think Patreon could address your last bullet. Your friend Brendan could better address that issue.
Love the transparency (regarding your values) and authenticity (regarding your content and editorial). You are keeping it real – and crushing it!
I get the whole, “nothing is like holding a physical book, or archival quality journal,” but one of the reasons that I appreciate online journals is for the lack of (additional) waste. Several of the online platforms that I read daily have gone this quarterly publication route, and to support all of you would require hundreds of dollars and create a big pile of paper. Is there a viable economic model that would provide enhanced online content for a subscription fee?
Erik—see my response to Chris.
is it possible to pay for a subscription using Venmo by chance? would realllllly love it if that was an option! thanks for all your hard and great work!
I discovered AJ by accident whilst surfing online and daydreaming about the outdoors when I probably should’ve been working. I have returned almost every day since for the last ten years. Nothing else speaks to me like AJ. The AJ family are my kindred spirits. The people are real. The things that we all care about, that excite us or aspire to are all shared. We all find beauty are intrigue in the same places. So, if you like the website, I promise you’ll love the magazine. They are a thing of beauty, something to be treasured and returned to time and again like great books. AJ used to be my little secret gem of a find, but now I’m sharing the love. Tom – Wiltshire, UK.
Steve, Please think about a cumulative index. It may spark some additional interest if folks can see what they are missing from past issues and of course to help me find an old article. This way you become the Consumer Reports of the outdoor periodicals.
Add more female writers other than those from the HCN reprints. I see a majority of the comments here are male. Maybe you would get a larger demographic of female readers which hopefully will increase more hardcopy purchases.
I often regret lending the first 5 issues to a friend. I won’t make that mistake again. All future AJs will greedily stay mine.
Just subscribed, after years of enjoying the free content here, with thanks. I believe in indie publishing, I believe in journalism, I’m passionate about outdoor writing, and I want to support these things with my dollars whenever I can. Really excited to get my first issue.
Really appreciate it, Toni! Let us know what you think. Don’t expect every story to resonate with everyone, but I’m always curious to know who likes and doesn’t like what.
Ok ok I’ll subscribe. This weekend. I promise. As soon as I finish my post-work week coffee.
and get my wallet out of the car.
And can I email you on Monday if you haven’t? 😉 Don’t make me sic my 85-year-old mom on you. We joke about having her do our sales efforts, because no one can say no to Arlene. No one.
nothing, for me will replace holding a beautifully designed, thoughtfully created physical journal, but maybe some interactive mediums like a podcast (rambling on about your experiences, stories in the outdoors would be amazing), outdoor “happenings” like a weekend of like minded individuals climbing, camping, running, hiking, seminars, workshops with industry, etc. all moderated by AJ.
Merch rocks too!
Great article. Have read online for years. Subscribing to the print edition now. Keep up the good work!
Appreciate the honest plea for subscribers. I love AJ,s content, vision and purpose. I have hesitated because of the $$ to issue but will be subscribing today in support of your cause. Keep it up.
Thanks, Ryan—it’s coming your way on Monday.
Truth be told, I really can’t stand pleading for subscribers. When we first launched, I very naively thought people would just jump on board (hahahahhahahahaha—no). I understand that it’s a big leap for a lot of folks, and also that $60 for a subscription or $18 for a single copy isn’t something they’re used to.
One of the reasons that I’ve started writing about the realities of publishing is so you can understand why things are the way they are. For example, the price you pay for a year of, say, Men’s Journal, is about $12. Essentially, they give away the magazine to build a massive circulation, which in MJ’s case is 5 million. The reason they do that is so they can charge an ungodly amount of money for advertising. Do you guys have any idea what they charge for a full page ad? Go ahead, guess.
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$204,658.
That’s right, for the cost of a condo, you can get one ad page in one issue one time. It doesn’t take a math genius to see that advertisers are who Men’s Journal cares about. If they’re a typical mass media publisher, they use the cheapest paper and inks they can get away with. Even so, I’ll be you a donut that magazine costs a lot more than $12/year to produce.
Maybe I’m a lousy business person, but I’ve built AJ for myself, my creative colleagues, and my friends—and by friends, I mean you. I haven’t yet had a conversation with an AJ reader that didn’t leave me thinking we should go for a ride or a ski or something. I wanted to make something that was different, and better, and really really really good. To do that with a tiny circulation and very small press run, while paying people like Craig Childs a living wage, costs a ton of money per actual copy of the magazine. The reason that we need to grow our circulation isn’t just because it will give us more revenue, but because our unit production costs will go down. Our margins will be bigger, which will give us the ability to do some of the things I’ve mentioned above.
Finally (for now, ha)—I know that it sounds like I’m a one-man NPR fundraising drive, but we aren’t asking you to just give us money (although some people have asked if they can support us that way, and we’ll be rolling out Patreon program in a few months so they can)—we are asking you to take a leap on a magazine so special that 98% of our readers renew and renew year in and year out. Give yourself an issue and some good reading time…I think you’ll be stoked.
Right on Steve, I’m in marketing so know the absurd cost of advertising in print. While I live in Carlsbad, I actually work up your way. We should get together for a mountain bike ride. Happy to support the great work you and your team are putting out.
+1 for a request for a digital subscription of the PDF of the print magazine. What’s the reason for currently not doing this? I have no interest in a print magazine but would still pay for the articles and photography.
I profoundly wish there was some method of submissions for photography or articles to the magazine, also.
And question, you guys still receive support when someone buys an issue at a bookstore, right?
Meg—every issue of AJ that’s purchased helps. But, no. It costs us more at this point than we can charge for wholesale, so we lose money on shop copies. That might sound, um, stupid, but I see as money well-spent to get physical copies of AJ into the world where people can see them in person and also to develop relationships with stores. That’s one of the reasons it’s so important that we build our subscriber base as quickly as we can now—the efficiencies of scale drive down production costs rapidly. We’ll break even on shop copies before we have 10,000 subscribers, but at 10K our costs will be such that we have a traditional margin on wholesale. That’s one of the many reasons why 10K is our threshold for long-term sustainability.
“Our journal price reflects what it really costs to pay people fairly and make what we think is the best outdoor publication ever.” As a writer I respect everything about this ethos and, having witnessed with growing alarm the race to the bottom in writing and photography, commend you for your commitment to creativity and quality. We need a fundamental shift in what “value” means. Once I read Brendan Leonard’s story (https://www.outsideonline.com/2389386/steve-casimiro-30-years-making-adventure-stories) I couldn’t help but click the “subscribe” button.
I only have one thing to say, subscribe!!! You will not regret it. I look so forward to the print version, it is like getting a shiny, new, fancy book every quarter about everything I love. Thank you to all of your small crew for doing such great work!
Steve: Have you thought about Patreon? I love AJ; subscriber from the beginning. I’m guessing some of your readers/subscribers might have means/desire to support AJ more than encouraging others to subscribe. I’m one of them; let me know if something like that ever plays out.
Jeremy—thanks so much. I’ve given a lot of thought to Patreon and plan on instituting it later this year. The Patreon ethos is to offer escalating rewards for escalating support, and a lot of the Patreon creatives offer access to additional content. We’re already maxed on how many stories we can do (and, honestly, do you really need more than five stories a day from an outdoor publication?), so I’m charting a rewards ladder that gives merch and progressively deeper discounts on merch. To do that, we need to build out our offerings. I’m hoping that between now and the next issue deadline we can get some simple tees, hats, mugs, and some art prints on the site, and then we can get Patreon rolling.
Steve, I know your post is a sound and sober request for funds to keep a good thing going. Not unlike an npr fundraising effort or such. But it reads like a perfect manifesto. I’m embarrassed to say that I only recently subscribed and got my first hard copy. I seriously washed my hands before I cracked that perfect spine – which of course is entirely counter to the point. But it’s a gorgeous thing you’ve made. 10K here we come.
Thanks, John. Really appreciate it. Here’s the thing that always strikes me as odd: We’re not asking for a handout. I believe that we are making one of the best outdoor publications ever (I’d better!). Subscribing is not charity. As a reader, I am thrilled to sit down and enjoy the book after it prints. I can’t wait to share it with you guys. I think you’re absolutely getting your money’s worth, especially given how rare these kinds of journals are. And for a whole bunch of reasons I have to approach it like a fundraiser.
That’s okay. Whatever it takes. Hearing responses like yours means a lot.
Steve,
I was an initial subscriber and have really enjoyed AJ. As my renewal came due I thought I might allow the subscription to lapse and instead subscribe to a contemporary art magazine or something like that becasue I didnt find myself going to my bookshelf often enough after receving AJ in the mail. I was even contacted by AJ and expressed something along those lines.
After I sent the email response I began to think more deeply about priority and what I want to expose myself and my family to. After a few weeks of thought and some consideration given to reprioritizing my reading selections, I decided it would be more impactful for me to renew my subscription for another two years and went ahead and did that this morning. I looik forward to being a part of this community for year four and five as the first three have been great.
James
Wow, James, that is such an incredible endorsement. Thank you.
Hey, I read some of your article, and I Loved that. You explained things very well and your pictures are just lovable. You appealed so nicely, so don’t worry I will gonna subscribe you. You are doing an amazing work, and I want you to keep it up with that eagerness. thanks mate for all of your great info.
I m in a coffee shop in Vermont, and am glancing through Issue 2, and then went to your website. I was trying to find out whether your on-line content is also in print. I was surprised to find out it’s not! I wish it were-so I could interact with my child and show it to him, instead of being engrossed in a screen. Then I came across your post about subscribing. I was thinking of it, and now I will – I agree that if we don’t support creators and stores, they won’t be there! And, I loved NatGeo Adventure, and couldn’t believe it folded! I think I have old issues somewhere, along with Bike and Powder mags from the 90’s. There’s just something about holding a printed book in your hands!
Just discovering your site today and it looks great. I am on the east coast…seems this focuses mostly on the west coast, which I understand…much more opportunity for great adventure out there. Am I wrong? Do you cover anything east?
I love what you’re doing with the website and magazine! I think your commitment to quality content and minimal advertising is laudable and am happy to support it. Keep up the good work and I hope you nail your subscription goal.
thanks a billion for your commitment to quality!! i’ve loved every issue. sometimes i skip straight to the food at the back… not always for what it is but how it was photographed. like every photo in every issue, the food shots always rule! in this age of millisecond contentment… it’s refreshing to get that sweet brown envelope in the mail… rip it open and to hold a gorgeous magazine for hours at a time! thank you to the entire small team that make this happen!!
Thank you, Stephen! That means a lot given your excellent eye.
For those already subscribed (or about to), I’d recommend buying up the back issues as well. You support AJ by buying up their inventory, plus you get to binge on multiple mags when they arrive. Good luck finding these back issues when they run out. Just got 4 new (to me) ones to add to my growing collection. Thanks!