Today is a tremendously sad day for fans of high-quality enthusiast publications and for Joni and me in particular. The magazines Bike, Powder, Snowboarder, and Surfer are being shut down by owner A360 Media, née American Media, which also owns Men’s Journal. This includes both print and digital products for Bike, Powder, and Surfer, and print for Snowboarder. Powder will print its remaining 2020 issues, with the photo annual dropping in mid-November and the gear guide being released later. We have been told but not confirmed that Snowboarder will also print its remaining issues.
Staffs of Bike and Surfer were told Friday afternoon that they are furloughed immediately, while the staffs of the snow titles will stay on board until November, when they are being furloughed. A company insider clarified on Sunday that Snowboarder will maintain a single editor to run the website and social media accounts, as well as fulfill the brand’s obligations to the Dew sports tour, which is also part of A360’s Adventure Sports Network Group.
A360 did not say whether the closures are permanent, but website updates have stopped for Bike and Surfer and will stop for Powder in November, and many of those furloughed are already looking for new positions.
Friends have just lost their jobs, including people who’ve dedicated their entire careers to these titles. Beyond the human cost, which is significant, this will leave a huge cultural gap, and a personal one as well: I was an editor of Powder for nearly 12 years, I was the founding editor of Bike, I had a teeny hand in the launch of Snowboarder, and Joni was the art director of Surfer for 14 years. We gave huge parts of our lives to these publications, and their demise is heartbreaking.
These, of course, are different times than when we worked at what was then Surfer Publications and housed in a converted airplane hangar. The internet has changed almost everything, giving cyclists or skiers or surfers a bottomless soupbowl of “content.” But it has not changed the special magic that happens when a group of passionate, talented editors, writers, and photographers pour their hearts and souls into telling stories designed to stand the test of time.
Business is business and never is that more ruthlessly obvious than on days like today, but still: These magazines meant something important to countless people. Powder has been the soul of skiing since 1972. Surfer has been the voice of the sport since the early 1960s, and its impact is woven into the DNA of the culture. And Bike, well, Bike did nothing less than change the sport by celebrating the experience of riding over the worship of gear and racing.
These titles did more than just fill their pages with stoke, they conveyed philosophies that rippled throughout their worlds. They showed that adventure could be more than just recreation, that it could be the path to lives better lived.
I should feel angry that magazines that meant so much to so many can be wiped out by the decision of some suit in New York, and I do, but mostly I feel sad. The news, as we’ve come to say in this craziest of years, is shocking but not surprising. Publishers face extreme challenges today. Typical magazines have staffs and offices and a tremendous amount sunk into fixed costs, while advertisers have a zillion other ways to reach customers and readers have a zillion other (free) choices. In Darwinian capitalism, a publication has to respond to these challenges or it will die. A small, narrow-focused book owned by a giant corporation—especially one whose flagship was until recently the National Enquirer—has the odds stacked against it, as titles are bled for “efficiencies” while expectations are ratcheted unrealistically higher.
And what’s left is too often shit. I don’t mean Bike, Powder, Snowboarder, or Surfer, I mean junk shows like Men’s Journal. Is this really what you want from your outdoor media—a firehose of pandering, listicles, lowest-common denominator pap, and nakedly commercial gear roundups designed to get you to click on affiliate links? Magazines like Men’s Journal exist only to enrich their CEOs and shareholders; rather than enrich the culture they purport to serve, they treat it as a commodity from which to scrape their profits.
It’s on publishers to create something special, something uniquely attuned to their audiences, and to do it in a way no other publisher can or will. Increasingly, this means ownership by small, independent houses, like AJ or Surfer’s Journal or Height of Land. Perhaps Bike or Powder or Snowboarder or Surfer will find such a home and be given realistic tools and expectations to succeed; I certainly hope so.
Even if they do, the challenges won’t lessen. In the pre-internet days, publishing a magazine was like operating a restaurant: You market yourself to get people in the door and buy a meal and if they like it they’ll keep coming back. Today, you still own a restaurant but now you have to serve free samples out front 24 hours a day, giving people as much as they can consume and hoping that a few kind or generous souls will come inside and pay for it.
But here’s what you need to understand (and I know that a lot of you already do): Nothing is free, not even those samples. With a publication like Men’s Journal, you pay for it with uninspired, formulaic editorial designed only to collect as many readers as possible; you are valuable only in aggregate so they can sell ads or affiliate products. With a higher quality publication, you pay for it on the backs of those willing to subscribe and then the freeriders keep their fingers crossed that it’s enough to keep them going.
The two big lessons here are 1) that we publishers need to give you an awesome product, but 2) if we do, you need to step up and pay for it. And by “pay for it” I don’t mean with clicks or likes, I mean by subscribing. It’s too late for Bike, Powder, Snowboarder, and Surfer, but there are numerous independent publications that could use your support. I can without reservation recommend any of the titles at Height of Land (Alpinist, Backcountry, Cross Country Skier, Mountain Flyer), Funny Feelings (FlyFish Journal, Frequency, Ski Journal), and Surfer’s Journal (The Golfer’s Journal, The Surfer’s Journal). All of them are produced by small publishers doing great work. None are getting rich, and some are fighting existential battles.
I’m writing this at the dining room table on a Saturday morning. Joni’s reading the newspaper—an actual physical newspaper, to which we subscribe—and she just asked me how I’m feeling about all this. Honestly, it’s a bit of a shock to realize that the three magazines I gave 22 years to are now gone or going (Bike and Pow, plus National Geographic Adventure) and not for anything to do with a lack of quality. Mostly, though, I feel sadness for my friends, and for one friend in particular: Dave Reddick, the director of photography at Powder. When I hired Dave around 1992, he was so young—shy and quiet and absurdly athletic—and I could have had no idea then that he would become one of the three or four most important people to work at Powder, as well as direct the visuals for Bike for 20 years. As the publishing group got passed from one corporate owner to the next, each time wringing more blood from this stone, Dave was the one who held it together. Not that others didn’t matter, but he was the spiritual backbone of the brand, the person who embodied the ideals of the powder experience, and the one who defended photographers and photographs and the commitment to quality that was laid down before either of us got to Powder. The love I feel for Dave, and the gratitude for our 30-year friendship, runs deep, but just as deep is the admiration for the incredible work he’s done all these years. The ski culture will be poorer for no Powder to display his talents, but the world will be richer for whatever he chooses to do next.
Steve Casimiro
Editor and Founder
P.S.: If you would like to help support Adventure Journal, please buy a subscription today. Also, many of you have suggested we set up a donation program. We’ve been working on one and expect it to be live within two weeks. Thank you for all the encouragement!
This really sucks. As a kid growing up in NJ, Powder inspired me to move west and pursue ski town life. The best things in life (my wife, a ski racing and powder loving daughter) have come from that. So bummed.
This sucks shit. Magazine brands with real soul.
What a colossal disappointment. Bike and Powder were eagerly awaited each issue, both for the quality of the writing and the stunning images shot by photographers, many of whom live here in BC. I express my deep gratitude to everyone who contributed to these fine magazines over the years, wish them and their families well, and hope they land on their feet, continuing to pursue their passion for the outdoors.
This is heart breaking
I loved your work at Bike—really admired that magazine. And I really can’t imagine a world without Surfer. All of those magazines, and including Skateboarder, are part of the reason I got into publishing.
Crap, I love my surfers journal and I pay for it. I will donate some $ to you guys because I read and enjoy and get inspired by your stuff. Thanks.
Damn…worked for all of them, except Surfer (which I couldn’t with any street crew as a Colorado=bred hack). Same thing happened in the world of paddlesports publications, where I spent most of my career…
Bummer, but I long ago switched from Surfer to Surfer’s Journal, and from Powder to Ski Journal. I also subscribe to Alpinist. All good choices to change to higher quality work.
As much as these publications might have a long history that helped to define their sport, they didn’t react to the internet over the last 25 years by creating better content and taking a higher plane. They tried competing with the internet, and came away more and more in that Men’s Journal ad space. Probably more to do with their corporate overlords than anyone actually there, but I missed and mourned them years ago, not today.
This is beyond sad to read. I just went to subscribe to adventure journal but the link is broken. Please refresh!
@pep Seems to be working for us. https://shop.adventure-journal.com/shop/adventure-journal-subscription-winter/
So many jumbled up feelings about this news, but I couldn’t say it better than above. Fingers crossed these important periodicals will resurface in some form, and the writes and shooters will find a way to make a living…..
Thanks for the insight, Steve.
And a reminder to review my Ski Journal subscription!
v/r
Njord
Holly shit! Perfectly said and thanks for shout out to Dave too, 100%
Wow. What a shame. And unnecessary, too. Maybe they weren’t making enough money to appease their new corporate overlords, but these are all publications with value and legacies that have real meaning in people’s lives. Too bad the new, Trump-allied owners don’t actually care about things like that.
I’ll never forget living in my Westy in the Surfer Pubs parking lot as an unpaid intern all those years ago. Bike and Powder were more than just magazines to me back then. I couldn’t think of a better way to launch my career than there, with that crew and their commitment to soulful, original storytelling. Thanks for that Steve. And thanks for keeping the spirit alive at AJ.
Heck yes! I lived in the same parking lot in 2004 in a 60s Econoline as a Bike Mag intern. Some of the Surfer guys helped me build a bunk in the back. Those titles were made up of some of the kindest people I ever met. In a different time print magazines were the only conduit to sports culture. It is heartbreaking to see them go.
beautifully said Steve
If this breaks your heart, make sure you’re subscribed to the print version of Adventure Journal.
And buy a sub for friend, client, or deserving relative.
If unclear on why, please refer to the money quote: “…you need to step up and pay for it. And by “pay for it” I don’t mean with clicks or likes, I mean by subscribing.”
Thanks.
+1.
And Alpinist if you’re a climber. And Surfer’s Journal if that’s your gig. And other print mags with deep content, beautiful photos/payout, and fine writing. We need these publications!!
Very sad to hear this Steve. I have been subscribing to Powder since it’s inception. The long anticipated yearly gear guide will be really missed, along with the stunning photography and the great articles. Many a trip was planned around the destinations I read about in the mag. I hope you folks find a new home for your publications. As great as the internet can be I am a bit old school and prefer sitting in my favorite chair in front of the fire with a glass of scotch and the latest issue of Powder. Many a trip was born that way. Good luck to you and your wife and the rest of your staff. Jack
Hey Steve-This is stunning and as you said, so sad for so many creative people who gave their energy and passion to those Titles. Surfer and Bike were integral parts of my photography career. I hope that someone with integrity and vision can revive them. Best regards to you and Dave Reddick
seconded. It’s just devastating.
Steve and Joni-
I am so sorry for the crappy feelings you are both having right now. It truly sucks. However, as I tell my children and players I coach: “You can pout for 24 hours. Then you have to regroup, come up with a plan and get back to work!!”. I subscribe to Bike, Mountain Flyer AND Adventure Journal. I can’t imagine a world without any of them so PLEASE, I mean PLEASE from the bottom of my heart, keep fighting for your publication. So many of us need your inspiration to get us through the days until our next adventure. With respect, Joe
There is something visceral about a real, physical thing in hand that no virtual image can provide, as any hoarder will testify. I have Summit and other climbing mags from the 1960’s, and probably several score total with 70 year old Life mags as well. Too many under 40 care nothing about our treasures, and these magazines don’t even qualify for that. Family photos are timeless and paradoxically priceless, yet must be digitized for safety, and often for restoration. For me, my mother’s wedding shots resonate, while action sports shots evoke only the adrenaline-infused fixations of my youthful obsessions – there will always be another, exciting and interchangeable, and meaningless. Curate your stuff; only personal meaning matters; be ruthless. Essays with insight and timeless impact, editions that captured the spirit of the time better than most, personal connections with someone, a place, event, sure. Frankly most is filler, not great literature or art, and only rare early items may be valuable to collectors. Take stacks to local used bookstores, and they may give credit, and another who loves the stuff can get to own it for a while, or donate to a library. You got your couple dollars of enjoyment from the issue; pass it on, and let go.
You’re a class act Steve. Thanks for the Height of Land acknowledgement!
So happy!
As a kid growing up in Australia skiing 1 week a year I lived to get Powder to see the beautiful world of North American and European skiing. It motivated me to spend my first season bumming in Red Mtn BC in the mid 90’s . I still have 2 large boxes of Powder mags from the 90’s that I won’t let my folks throw out.
That’s a bummer, but I’m not surprised. Once David Pecker and his American Media team took them over, you knew this would happen. I loved Powder and still have a subscription. I recall years ago skiing at Verbier and the place I stayed had a bar with like 10 years of back issues that were amazing to pour threw. Things have changed much since then. Even this past season they reduce to 4 paper prints a year…..
Is there a bigger bunch of shitheels than the losers that run American Media formerly helmed by the aptly named dickhead David Pecker? The magazine industry turned into a bunch of media planner bootlickers spoon-feeding neutered enthusiast infotainment to finance gym bros looking to buff out their tinder profile. I say let’s burn it to the ground and start over.
Every month since I was a kid, I would skip home with my issue of Powder Magazine when it showed up at the mailbox down the street. I started calling it ‘Powder Day’… I’m 37 now and if you ask my wife and kids, I still come up the drive from the mailbox with a huge shit-eating grin on my face when it’s ‘Powder Day’. This news is disgusting and heart breaking.
I have been a subscriber to surfer Magazine since 1971. A sad day!!!
thats so sad but its not just the suits in ny, its the participants themselves that stopped buying mags. who under 30 is actually going to buy a mag? LOL
Under 30 and proudly subscribed to AJ. 🙂
frankly, one reason i subscribed to adventure journal is your staff numbers can be counted on two hands or less! in fact i visualize that probably some of the issues are partly “birthed” around the kitchen table?! and probably steve & joni take turns at the table while the other is cooking the evening meal at the stove………..while these magazines are going to the wayside, maybe someone in the future will resurrect the magazine? i got an email alert a few weeks ago that a second resurrection is on the way for a great little magazine from the 1970s/1990s and is in resurrection from lake tahoe california…..originally the magazine and the first resurrection were from colorado. the magazine had some pretty well known and lesser known authors, and a stunning black and white (majority) layout. this is the mountain gazette……we gotta keep the small operations going…..
Yes to the kitchen table. Yes to Mountain Gazette!
Only 1499 more new subs needed.
This is really sad day, but the writing was on the wall when American Media bought these titles.
All of these magazines were created by people passionate about each of these sports, and they need to be owned and run by people who are equally passionate about them.
At the same rime, audiences need to support the publishers who still serve these communities of interest – including the Adventure Journal!
Subscribe!!!!!!
Thanks Steve. Good read. Love to Joni and the fam. Dave will thrive wherever he goes.
Crushed… I’ve been reading bikemag since 1997… Mike Ferrentino, Rob Story, and Steve are some of my all time favorite authors. Lately it’s been Kristin Butcher to keep my attention away from my smart device. 2020 just flat out sucks…
We have a Mike Ferrentino piece teed up for the spring issue of AJ.
Awesome! So happy I’m in a position to finally subscribe. The first issue I got was so far above anything I’ve ever read in that format!
Heartbreaking. Loved all those mags, especially Bike. I interned for Joni @Surfer when I was in college and the experience helped me on my path to becoming a designer. After some twists and turns I became an AD at TWMX which also disappeared a few years ago along with TW Surf, Skate, etc. An entire industry decimated by algorithms. Sad day.
Passion and love is a rare commodity. Big changes in the world around the corner but snow will for sure come back this season too…
legend
So what’s the business plan look like for magazines going forward? Segmented into niche products with small but devoted readership like AJ? Or mass market pablum? Which is really more profitable in the long run? Can the niche grow into something that can be broad enough for an editor to make a good living and hire plenty of writers? Or will it always be a struggle?
I realize the glory days of the Sunset type magazines are gone, but is the only hope incredibly deep pocketed investors willing to lose money for years because they love the title?
Matt—well, I don’t know that AJ’s model is the only way for niche titles, but I’d argue it’s the best way. But I think you’re asking the wrong question. It’s not what’s the most profitable, it’s what’s the most sustainable? We need to get to 7,000 subscribers because that’s the level that will enable AJ to survive no matter what happens to the ad market. We’ve already seen massive erosion in online ad buys throughout the industry. With all kinds of new pressures on the industry, it’s impossible to predict whether and how much support there will be for us. So: 7,000. But once we’re there, organic growth (or stability) is just fine. All I want is a strong enough base to keep doing what we’re doing. But I admit, this probably isn’t how most businesses are run.
Beautifully written and heartbreakingly true. Every much as we need to get out and vote to save the outdoors, we also need to subscribe and read in order to save our outdoors culture. I really hope you guys hang in there and maybe we can all donate something so that those lost jobs at Powder, Bike and Surfer can be recycled into something truer and better.
Thanks, Alissa. We have amazing friends and supporters and I’m confident AJ will be here for the long haul, though I’m going to have to continue asking for support for awhile.
@Steve/@AJReaders
I feel your story, Steve. Like, I really feel it. I grew up a midwestern boy in a Detroit suburban town dreaming of going on adventures written about in National Geographic Adventure and Powder mag. I would stay up late in bed flipping through their pages, and imagining myself in their role player stories and photos.
I understand what sadness you must be experiencing and my heart goes out to you, your wife and your friends. I have been a reader of Adventure Journal since my career started at SolarCity over 10 years ago. I would read AJ stories, and then dart off on the weekend and actually experience them. Where as a young boy in MI thumbing the pages of the print ads and dreaming of one day carving virgin lines down Alaskan peaks, I was now a young man reading your content online and driving to the mountains and skiing these lines. Now, I am a Dad with two kids, living less than a mile from the beach in Norther California. I’m a surfer, a skier, a runner, an all around adventure enthusiast. In one form or another, I have been reading YOUR content for over 25 years. You and your team(s) have worked tirelessly, I’m certain of it, over the years to provide me with content I have consumed for free. Thank you for all of that. Sincerely, I’m grateful.
My subscription to AJ lapsed this year and I have yet to re-subscribe. I’m happy to resubscribe]t, but in reality, I just prefer to consume my adventure content online. I prefer the online experience. I would love to see how my total historical views of your website stack up against your other viewers. I’m loyal to you. I want to pay you. I would pay $100 per year for access this content. online, but I don’t want a publication sent to my house and I don’t want to donate.
What are my options?
If any magazine could instantly appeal to, and help form, the perspective of a skinny 9th grader in the Poconos who was obsessed with skiing in the mid-80s, it was Powder. It did away with the elitist attitude in the sport, focused more on its soul, moved beyond hyping gear I could never afford and didn’t focus on races I would never see in person. Thanks to Powder, I quickly (and thankfully) moved away from having my ass handed to me on the slalom course and towards having my lift tickets clipped for trying daffys on Friday nights at Big Boulder to impress girls who would never notice anyway. Bike was a wonderful natural extension of Powder. Both of these titles were huge inspirations for me as I went on to work at, and contribute to, various cycling magazines and and other titles over the years. Thanks, Steve, Ferrentino, Joe and everyone else for all of it. (And, for what it’s worth, I’m happy to be a paying subscriber to AJ.)
sadness prevails. this news sucks. as mentioned, the writing was on the walls but i never thought it’d happen. i was fortunate to grow up with powder magazine. i lived and breathed powder. moved to northern bc’s powder king to really live it. henry georgi came by to shoot a powder feature once and a handful of us locals jumped off of stuff for his camera. he inspired me to further pursue my photography passion. art school and mountain bikes and of course david followed my powder days. after numerous submissions to bike, david reddick published a shot of mine in buzz. a self portrait of all things. me sitting by my old vw bus in moab. that moment defined my future. david and bike shaped my career in bike photography and i am forever grateful!! thank you for your words steve. so well said. thank you for aj and for keeping dreams alive!!! take care! enjoy your morning coffee, i’m just going to go read some old grimy handshakes.
As of 2017 80% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. I’m pretty sure since then, especially since Covid, it’s a good deal more than that. The internet has enabled even more hollowing out of the American economy. Available dollars are going to an ever smaller set of individuals than ever. When the amount of people that have money left for anything other than basic survival drops below 20% by very much, there just isn’t enough disposable income left in the economy to support much of anything.
Yay modern capitalism… /s
It’s always tough when the things we know become obsolete, getting old is hard precisely for this reason.
Does anyone remember when listening to music on the radio was cool?
This generation will lose a lot as social media and and general media are beamed to their mobile devices, losing all context for where things originate.
Getting old sucks, truly, but it’s how it goes, so try not being that old person who bemoans the loss if “our culture”.
Hey you kids, get off my turf!
As the young, wide-eyed aspiring newbie in 1972, I still treasure my Powder issue #1. This sucks. At the same time, that mountain town treasure is coming back alive – http://www.mountaingazette.com
I can only wish Powder gets the same fate and dedicated core of print subscribers…. soon …..
Subscriptions pay bills but so do ads. This may have already been said in the above comments, but why not offer ad space to, name your sport/cause/article related, independent businesses at a rate they can afford. You benefit and we learn more. Both benefit and survive.
Well said Steve, those were magical times in that airplane hanger.
It continues to be a struggle for all enthusiast publishing as the corporate demands are unobtainable, as you are well aware.
My thoughts go out to all of our friends but with brands this strong maybe this will not be the end…
It’s over. Anyone still putting out an actual magazine doesn’t get it. I’m not saying it’s for the best. I’m not saying I don’t still subscribe to some. But it over. Sad but over.
The Drake & Western Hunter are also good ones.
As one of the original founders of BIKE, this is a sad day for sure. I remember vividly moving to California to resurrect the original idea of THE BIKE, to become BIKE Magazine with Steve as the Editor and I selling the classified ads to what at the time was a very small selection of potential clients.. My what it has grown into! Will remember that time in my life.
SO SAD to see these great titles go away.
It seems like the only publishing model that will work is to charge $10.00 a copy and $100 for a sub and let the reader’s money be the primary funding source.
The days are long gone when advertisers could pay the bill and the reader got a bargain because the publisher was playing circulation games with ABC and other audits to try to convince advertisers how much reach they have.
What few readers understand (or care) is that those subscription prices have always been artificially low and subsidized by advertisers. Across all kinds of categories, we’re seeing reckonings of flawed business models. Cheap isn’t. One way or another you pay. Our journal is priced to reflect the real costs of making it.
So many things going through my head.
I can’t do print media anymore. 25 years of paying for National Geographic (stopped when Murdoch bought them as I knew it would no longer be science based, in a neutral fashion) got me lot of memories, lots of “did ya knows”, but mostly, about 400 pounds of paper that likely won’t get read, ever again, that no one wants.
I prefer paper, for the experience, when reading (the Kindle etc thing will never work for me), but now, that’s books. I can’t stomach paying for what soon becomes garbage. I don’t know how to address that, it’s a serious 21st century conundrum.
I too, am also finding myself too poor, to spend hundreds per year on subscriptions, so when this place goes paywall on me, I’ll be gone from here as well.
I give away massive amounts of my time, and energy, daily, in phone calls, emails, in person contacts, quick fixes for free, etc. I really can’t screw up too much support mindset for someone who creates a bit of blog content daily, needing my dollars to keep them afloat, just being honest.
It’s not through greed, or disdain, simply what I have money for.
Which gets me to Amazon, who is rapidly destroying our economy, one rock bottom price with free shipping, at a time. Sadly, my mindset is not that different from an Amazon purchase, and I have to own that too.
Small bike shops (what I own), are just as pushed into a corner by the modern way of being, and each year has me one year closer to pulling the plug. More and more, customers find items below my cost, can I blame them for going that way? Not at all.
I show up every day, and fight. Profit is not my motivation, being here to provide what I do, is.
When these publications got bought/taken over, it wasn’t with a gun to their heads, no, it was with visions of more profitability, greater access to funds to do more, bigger stories, etc.
Politely? Shame on them. Had they simply said, “nope, we’re going to do our own thing over here, take your purchase offer and shove it”, they’d have continued to eat Ramen, and have the freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted.
If you’ve sold your businesses soul to the devil in hopes of making things better FOR YOU? I have a bridge in Brooklyn looking for a buyer…..
I loved Bike, it spoke to me. As a mechanic, I loved Ferrentino’s column, finally, someone who gets it. The change once corporate take over was complete, was enough to turn me of, so I’ve not paid attention in years. It became obvious, what got mentioned or reviewed, was also prominently advertising in that issue too.
Alpinist is awesome, but yeah man, a shit ton of money to pay for what becomes an under the coffee table dust collection. Sexy, well done, thick page stock, but once read a time or two, bye bye…
I don’t know the answer, but selling out isn’t it. Sticking to your guns, might be a labor of love, you may never get rich, but at least you can look yourself in the face every morning and just go to work, rather than wondering if today is the day, some suit from NYC is gonna cut you off at the knees……
We all have choices. Nobody is forced to pay the cheapest prices for bikes or bike parts. Many of us care enough about the existence of our LBS, or surf shop, or mountaineering shop, to pay a little more, understanding the true cost of things, because those stores are of value to us. Bought a post mount adapter for new brake rotor yesterday at the bike shop a short walk from my house. It was $4 more than I could have paid online with a promo code. But I value the LBS, so I spent my money there.
Print, or paywall-limited websites, aren’t so different. We aren’t looking to get rich. I’d be happy if AJ felt something like a small-town bookstore or record shop or gear shop. A comfy place to come in, browse around, talk shit with the clerk, buy a record or pair of socks, hang out. I value those things tremendously. I think, I hope, there are enough people out there who do too. I don’t wanna live in a world of nothing but big box stores and online shopping, with no enjoyable reading, be it print, or online, simply because we all spent as little money as possible. That sounds awful. Long live the indies.
National Geographic, Arizona Highways… Friends of the library don’t want them as donations. AJ faces the same fate in our house. What do you do with a hard copy these days. Read them, stack them or pass them on to another reader? Doesn’t help AJ’s bottom line.
If these three titles were truly viable, they would not have ended up in the hands of American Media – and I mean that from a nuts and bolts business perspective. I get that those of us who were readers will miss the format and visceral nature of holding them in our hands, but how many of us were recent a subscribers to any of them? To Steve’s point, the great magazines of yore were made possible by advertising. You can blame FaceBook and Google for the lion’s share of why these pubs are going away. My hunch is that the vast majority of the folks commenting here have a livelihood that is somehow tied to or wholly dependent on the internet and/or social media. Our habits have changed to suit the dominant paradigm of tech being a good thing. We all bought into the idea that the internet and the associated dominance of web-based everything made life more easy/flexible/profitable. In the end, we’re all actively responsible for this news ….
Damn. Not all change is good, and this small but important – at least to us – outcome of America’s ongoing and insidious celebration of greed, which has long been a national ethos and which grows like a cancer, reminds us of the importance of doing things right and protecting the soul. Which, I suppose, requires a soul to begin with. Anyhow, I love every AJQ print issue. And I hope you can find a way to make digital subscriptions available for that wonderful premium print content (subscriber since day one, btw, and I buy a gift sub for my local library). It seems a necessary adaptation. Keep up the great work that you do, Steve and Joni and team.
Thank you, Kelly. Ready for your next piece any time, my friend.
An eloquent eulogy Steve, thanks.
It is so far beyond the twist of the knife to have so much passion, commitment and culture dismissed as insignificant and insufficient to some distant overlord’s bottomline. It cuts deep – and makes me question all the more what is real and valued during these crazy, unpredictable times.
I am thankful to have worked with ya’ll over the years. I can remember it like yesterday when I first visited you at the Powder offices with my hat and (analog) portfolio in hand. Bike and Powder certainly shaped both my life and career – and I am thankful for the opportunities and inspiration they provided.
And a special shout-out to Dave Reddick for being the critical eye and steady hand for all these years. From his desk, Dave single-handedly shaped the look and stoke of both skiing and mountain biking.
May something great rise from the ashes. R.I.P.
So sad to hear this news! Steve, your POWDER editor letters inspired me to move to Aspen from Queens NY over 20 years ago! Thank you for that : )
This is a real bummer, actually, more than that I feel like I’m losing a trusted friend in the bike industry. I started subscribing to Bike after receiving a free copy in a swag bag at the Solvang Century in 1994, and every bike/component purchase since has occurred after reading their reviews. The articles transplanted us to faraway lands, and the photography stunned. I so hope a small publisher can take the Bike staff and it can be revived. I’d pay double the subscription cost for it. I’ll check out Adventure Journal, if it has any of the same soul I’m interested.
On Friday I was looking at the wire Surfer 25th Anniversary magazine racks I kept from when I had The Snoboard Shop and was thinking “There are barely any magazines left anymore to put in these, at least Powder and Surfer are still here”.
I’m totally sad, my first thought was for Reddick as well. So many good times with so many good people at all those magazines.
I guess I can recycle The title of my first story I ever got in Powder.
The king is dead. Long live the king.
What sad and terrible news. At least the magazines had a wonderful run with great editors like Steve! All were class act publications and Powder was a big part of my own younger life!
hey gordon, you gonna offer some “scribe” to the resurrected mountain gazette?!
This is so sad I have bought every issue of Bike starting with the first issue because it was different. Bike celebrated the joy of riding through fantastic photography and stories rather than gear. I even had a letter to the editor published. I used to have a subscription to National Geographic Adventure as well but that has been gone for a while now.
Beautiful and sad elegy, Steve. We’re blessed to have been a part of inspiring publications that captured the outdoor ethos as something beautiful and aesthetic and soul-enriching. Those are words that escape the grasp of AC360 suits.
Somehow I know this bears on your expressed desire to commit substantial energy to combating climate change. Count me in. If we leave the world order to the soulless AC360s of the world, we’re doomed. Let’s celebrate beauty and without shame or embarrassment declare our intent to save the world.
Long live Adventure Journal.
I love receiving my issues of AJQ at our little post office. I love it more when my college age son picks up an issue and finds an article he enjoys! We both are still “out there” together on skis and bikes, ripping! When we talk about the articles in the Journal, it feels like we’re sitting in the van or around the fire after a great day of skiing or riding. We both treasure our lives outside and AJQ is part of that.
Steve and Joni thanks!
Many years ago, I started my publishing career literally in the mailroom at Surfer Publications. Thanks to the mentorship of publishers Dave Dash (of “Skateboarder”) and the legendary Steve Pezman, who gave me a chance as an editorial assistant at “RollerSkating,” then eventually promoted me to editor of that colorful magazine modeled on the success of “Powder” and “Surfer”. At the time, Skateboarder turned into “Action Now” ably led by D. David Morin. What a joy it was to learn all about publishing in such a creative and dynamic environment where collaboration and synergy were encouraged, and we all learned from each other. The high standards set in writing, photography and design ~ along with the lessons that publications were actually in business to make money ~ proved to be a solid foundation for personal and professional growth in my 30+ year publishing career. There is nothing like the experience of a team working on a high-quality publication, seemingly lost these days, and this sad news just makes me value the experiences at Surfer all the more. Thank you for sharing, and al the best to you. ~Cheri Rae
well, good for the trees and the environment. media consumption has been changing for decades, youtube channels, social media, blogs, they had all the time to modernize.
Man this really sucks! And I’m not just saying this because my subscription to Bike just renewed. More so because I have been subscriber since day 1. I will truly miss my mountain bike getaway that inspired me without depleting my energy sources and hydration levels.
I truly hope that we will someday get away or at least find a happy medium that isn’t entirely digital. Being an Art Director myself, I like being able to bring my print ideas to life with motion graphics and video but there is nothing more rewarding and relaxing than holding that print issue and letting time slip away.
RIP Bike, Powder, Snowboarder & Surfer. I will miss you all. And Steve, I’m subscribing now. Keep up the great work!
A half century of inspiration blows away like flakes into the white yonder. Writing for Powder over many years felt like cheating: my job was to conjure a dream, live it, and share it. From skiing in Patagonia with then-editor Casey Sheahan and the late great Alan “Bardini” Bard to chronicling misadventures throughout the Northeast, Powder was my reason to go, and go farther. The words and images continue to inspire me. It’s not possible for me to walk by a copy without stopping to flip through at least a few pages. Thank you Scoop for being one of Powder’s stewards of dreams, and for keeping the flame burning now that it’s gone.
One of the reasons Powder hasnt been the same… nobody was conjuring up dreams anymore.
Nighttime urban “skiing” is a nightmare. Everybody knows climate change is real and skiing isnt helping it one bit. Who cares about the same lame pros being in photo? There are lots of reason why everyone stopped reading Powder. Just hasnt been the magazine it was 20, 30, 40, 48 years ago.
Always aspired to get a photo published in bike mag growing up. Certainly doesn’t feel as special to work hard to get a photo published online. Sad to see so many awesome magazines disappear in the past few years.
Hope we can all come together to keep supporting you guys here at AJ!
Sad to see Snowboarder go. A great mag back in the day. Everything is the internet these days I guess.
I got a card in the mail today with my last (and the last) issue of Powder that said that my remaining issues of Powder would be converted to Men’s Journal. Kinda sums it all up I think.
Wow. I noticed that many of the pieces I wrote for Surfer’s website now appear at Men’s Journal. So sad.
Instead, request your refund per the card (came in the mail today) at 1.800.289.8983 before Dec 1, 2020. Do not let them bait and switch, get your refund.
Hey Scoop, that was beautiful! It’s shameful that I hadn’t read it before now, but my devotion to reading every single word on the internet about the Kansas City Chiefs borders on the psychopathic. I truly shut down in the fall, especially when our brave footballers go 14-2 in the regular season.
I loved your restaurant analogy. Writing these days is all about the “free samples.”
I’m now in Telluride, skiing my ass off. But the writing career is greatly diminished. Thank jah and our lord and savior, Patrick Mahomes, that I bought south-facing property on Telluride’s Sunny Side in 1998. I make more $ as an innkeeper than as an artist.
“Print is dead; Long live AirBnB”
cheers,
Rob Story, aka “Bob”, aka RFS
Oh man did you nail it on this take. It took me 6 months before I realized that Snowboarder was done. There was absolutely nothing communicated to subscribers. I somehow got a free subscription to Men’s Journal and your comment on them is spot on:
“a firehose of pandering, listicles, lowest-common denominator pap, and nakedly commercial gear roundups designed to get you to click on affiliate links”
Men’s Journal and, I suppose like many others, are vacuous trash not worth the paper they are printed on (which is already cheap toilet paper quality).
Hey Steve,
Larry Prosor here. I feel like a skiing Rip Van Wrinkle these days, living on the other side of the planet. What a sad obituary you wrote on Powder and the ICU condition of the print publishing world.
I feel the sway of emotions attached to the Powder days. I want to thank you and David Reddick for being there for us creative types having a go at junctions of art and commerce.
Reaching way back in memory , thanks to David Moe and Neil Stebbins for letting me step up to their light box and lay the Squaw Valley extreme photos in front of them. My first photo feature Powder ran, “Ski to Die” (I hated Neil’s title) helped open many doors to my photographer dreams coming true.
Add the demise of Powder and the sister mags to the long list of WTF’s. Hang in there and keep the faith in the mountains and sea. Reach out if you need a sympathetic shoulder to lean on.
LP