There was also a time 18 mos or so ago when R&I, apparently under Jeff Jackson’s influence, seemed to be gaining momentum with some great articles and writing –at times. But it was sporadic and I’ve not found anything compelling to read there for a while.

So, I’ve let all my subscriptions lapse. If all the magazines do is rehash the same news highlights that are available in near realtime here on the web, there’s little reason to receive them. I don’t want to see climbing magazines go away, but they’re going to have to up their editorial content and the quality of their writing before I feel inclined to subscribe again.

Two other remarks from the comments above:

First, to the Narc: what you believe you are accomplishing with your site, you are. This is a great site, and is where I nearly always come first to begin my dive into the latest climbing news and reports.

Second, to Matt, Climbing’s editor. Nice to have you weigh in and let us know what it’s like on the inside. Your frustration speaks loudly. That aside, maybe you guys should start by looking at your own web site and get that thing revamped. For a brief while your pro blogs were worth checking out. But my god, they’re laughable now: Daniel Woods two lame entries, Dave MacLeod same. Lauren Lee, Josune Bereziartu, Dave Graham nothing since 2008. And Michael Reardon? Come on, you gotta let that guy rest in peace (he was never that interesting to begin with). The thing that you don’t seem to get is that there are a lot of us out here who DO pay attention. We check out your mags and your sites and we have a sense of aesthetics, style and quality. And our spending reflects what we find. Finally, if you want an example of a clean, well-designed, web-2.0-oriented, engaging site, one that reflects the 21st century we’re all living in, start right here with Brian Runnells’ excellent ClimbingNarc.com.

Cheers.

The entire point of this site is to try and draw positive attention to things that are going on in the climbing community and drive readers to those stories. I would think that the hard working athletes, companies and magazines would like the added attention. 99% of the posts I do try to portray climbing in a positive light so I’m not sure how after one mildly negative post you can declare that I “stand icily above the climbing industry, commenting on it negatively with seeming impunity”.

Brian Runnells AKA Narc

Narc, it’s disingenuous to stand icily above the climbing industry, commenting on it negatively with seeming impunity. The hard work of professional athletes, the companies that sponsor them, and the magazines that do their best to cover these climbers (and yes, happen to accept ads, too) makes it possible for you – Google-like paying nobody anything – to aggregate this content and offer it for free.

You can say whatever you want about Climbing or any of the other magazines, but here’s the real scoop: I’m the only full-time editor at Climbing. My wife was in 3 days a week but left to take another job. Can one person, of whatever talent level (and I’m not really of that old-school arrogant mindset that magazine editors know more than anyone else), somehow offer an all-pleasing, all-encompassing view of an international sport, while still hitting budgets, doing their best by contributors (five to 10 queries a day land in my inbox), readers, and advertisers? Would you like to try? It’s a daunting, thankless task, to be sure, and all I can really say is that I’ve tried my hardest for a long time (years) now. All of the endless, faceless (what’s your real name?) Internet criticism hurled our way does have a negative impact – on our psyches, on the industry, and on confidence in publishing in general.

Climbing Magazine isn’t some giant, soulless, corporate edifice against which to rail. Right now it’s one person, and guess what – I bleed just like the rest of you.

The one thing I’ve noticed about the ads on the new DPM site is that when google doesn’t have climbing ads to show they show random ads like the Fitness Singles that distract from the content on the site.

There’s some awesome discussion about the current state of industry mags here:

http://kemplemedia.com/blog/2009/12/13/how-creative-will-the-future-be/

and here:

http://kemplemedia.com/blog/2009/12/21/be-part-of-the-solution/

Both from Tim Kemple’s blog…