On the heels of an already active first half of the year, more changes are in the works at the magazines Climbing and Urban Climber.
Active Interest Media (AIM) has purchased Climbing Magazine, UCTV and Urban Climber Magazine from current owners Skram Media folding the 3 entities into the newly formed Outdoor Group that includes titles such as Backpacker. Former Rock & Ice publisher and editor-in-chief Dougald MacDonald will be the editorial director for AIM’s climbing magazines as well as editor-in-chief of Climbing.
The news was announced yesterday in a press release that outlines what kind of benefits and changes AIM is expecting from this acquisition:
Underscoring the opportunity that this acquisition represents to both the Skram climbing titles and to AIM’s existing Outdoor Group properties, Jonathan Dorn, general manager of the Outdoor Group, told SNEWS, “Backpacking is a gateway to climbing, and if you look at the various sports represented in the outdoors, it is hard to argue that there are not two more closely linked activities in terms of methods, locations, ethics, and audience than climbing and backpacking.
“By virtue of this acquisition, we have a growing footprint of publications and websites that work extremely well together to serve a very core group of outdoor enthusiasts,” said Dorn. “When it comes to mountain and trail sports, the Outdoor Group speaks to more influencers, more authentically, than anyone else.”
Added Ebersole, “As long as I have been at Backpacker, there have been very few days where we have not all thought how great it would be to have Climbing as part of the editorial family. To have Urban Climber now, too, which is reaching an audience in its early 20s, gives us a vehicle as a marketing, sales and editorial group to be able to reach that younger demographic, something the outdoor industry has collectively identified as vital to its future.”
Dorn, Ebersole and MacDonald told SNEWS some of what the climbing industry can expect to see from the acquisition in the near-term and long-term:
Research – AIM is using its research capabilities immediately by launching a project focused on brand awareness and digital content in the climbing market. The results of that survey will be shared with the industry at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2010.
Mobile and web – Backpacker has more than doubled its website traffic since 2007, and Dorn said he sees a benefit for both Climbing and Urban Climber websites by applying the same resources and principles AIM applied to Backpacker.
Events – AIM’s marketing department will use its experience in delivering value-added programs so its partners can reach desired audiences in many different ways. The Get Out More Tour and Adventures NYC, both Backpacker programs, create immediate opportunities for the Climbing and Urban Climber teams to get involved with events and the marketing department.
Trade Reporting – Climbing and Urban Climber will leverage the expertise and industry-leading coverage SNEWS represents to provide more coverage of what is going on in the climbing trade to retailers, reps and manufacturers.
“We are also looking forward to applying Backpacker’s gear-reviewing methodology—the apples-to-apples testing, the long-term field evaluation, and the geographic diversity—to the reviews in these magazines and websites,” Dorn said. “Our goal is to create best-in-class product evaluation, and that requires not only significant testing time but also a set of procedures that the industry and readership fully trusts.”
For MacDonald, he said he sees one of his primary goals to increase the amount of helpful information for climbers at all levels, from beginners to experts. “We will do that at a level of authority and thoroughness that has never been done before in a climbing magazine,” MacDonald told SNEWS. “In the editorial for Climbing and Urban Climber we will be aiming squarely at the hundreds of thousands of weekend warriors who are not being served. We will, of course, still cover elite climbers, but in terms of providing destination and helpful info our content will be aimed at inspiring and enabling the core.”
Could a redesign of the oft-maligned (by me at least) Climbing and UCMag websites be far off??
Update – More on the deal from Folio:
The acquisition is structured to allow AIM to manage Skram operations with an agreement to purchase the company in three years based on certain performance benchmarks.
Mark Crowther, co-owner and publisher of Skram, will continue as publisher of the titles and will report to Outdoor Group publisher Kent Ebersole.
AIM has been working on the deal for the last six months, says Jon Dorn, general manager of the Outdoor Group and editor-in-chief of Backpacker. Dorn declined to offer specifics on the eventual sale price or revenues.
“In the editorial for Climbing and Urban Climber we will be aiming squarely at the hundreds of thousands of weekend warriors who are not being served. We will, of course, still cover elite climbers, but in terms of providing destination and helpful info our content will be aimed at inspiring and enabling the core.”
I hope MacDonald can follow through on this, and I wish him all the best in his efforts to do so. If he succeeds, the mags might actually be worth reading again.
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“Our goal is to create best-in-class product evaluation, and that requires not only significant testing time but also a set of procedures that the industry and readership fully trusts.”
This actually sounds like a very good thing…Considering how important your gear is in climbing, it’s kind of sad how shallow the typical review is in modern climbing media.
While I found the BD news very distressing, and my first reaction to this headline was something along the lines of ‘aw crap, not again,’ this sounds like it may actually turn out for the best.
My interest in Climbing has kind of waned over the past couple years, nothing ever really grabbed me…I’ve been more into Rock and Ice, as they seem to have a few more articles that interest me, and most of all they format and photography have a strong appeal. This could bring new value to Climbing.
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Dammit Narc!… you are on top of things man! I like the business news so keep it up.
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how is the BD new distressing?
isn’t the north face owned by VF (fruit of the loom, wrangler jeans, etc), Prana by Liz Claiborne. i’m sure the list goes on. i don’t think it’s bad big money is stepping into our realm. is having more money for R&D a bad thing? more advertising a bad thing? more people being exposed to our addiction? i’m all for it…. if a company is profitable in another line of business, they could potentially lower costs in another, helping to spur growth in their new acquisition???? not like i even buy cams or belts and strings and snatch links, let alone ice picks and gore-tex clothes or skis.
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The North Face may not be the best example for you…They seem to have largely (not completely) fallen out of favor among outdoor enthusiasts and now largely cater to the college campus crowd.
With the BD deal, the concern is that they have been bought be a company not in the business of designing and manufacturing things, one that has gotten in trouble before for providing the military with faulty body armor, and that is publicly traded…The last concern being that they will now be pressured to cut costs rather than dedicate themselves to excellent design, manufacturing, and quality assurance.
Of course, it could all work out great. But, taken in consideration with their having moved some manufacturing to China, I think they are trending in a bad direction.
We will have to wait and see.
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LC sold Prana back to its original owners in 07. Right around when Tim Gunn became the creative director. Strom and drang, he could not imagine making [ugly yoga clothes] work.
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“how is the BD new distressing?
isn’t the north face owned by VF (fruit of the loom, wrangler jeans, etc), Prana by Liz Claiborne. i’m sure the list goes on. i don’t think it’s bad big money is stepping into our realm. is having more money for R&D a bad thing? more advertising a bad thing? more people being exposed to our addiction? i’m all for it…. if a company is profitable in another line of business, they could potentially lower costs in another, helping to spur growth in their new acquisition???? not like i even buy cams or belts and strings and snatch links, let alone ice picks and gore-tex clothes or skis.”
why do you parrot this industry manta? we must grow, we must spread, more more more. have you ever thought about what an explosion in climbing popularity would actually mean for climbers? Do you really think that would be a good thing in terms of access and ethics and just the nature of the sport in general? I think a lot of people take on your viewpoint without ever thinking of the consequences of commercialization for a sport like climbing. sure, it would be good for the industry, but would it be good for us? maybe that is just me…
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Climbing Magazine although it began in the core has been owned by big copmpanies e.g. Primedia etc. and small, Skram. When it’s been good and even when its struggled it’s had editors that love it and have given their lives to it. Resources in the publishing industry are a funny thing. By becoming part of something bigger you don’t necessarily gain that much. On paper yes, but the economy of scale in print media just means that there is more work dumped on fewer people. People outside of the outdoor world don’t necessarily know that much about the industry and can struggle to hold the reigns. That’s not the case — the backpacker crew knows there stuff. Dougald is great. And Jeff Achey is staying on from what I hear. Both of them are good writers. So here’s hoping for a better luck. I’m sort of suprised that Crowther is staying…so you sell based on performance three years down the road? I think the big question is what purpose in this day and age should climbing serve? That’s the question they are going to have to answer.
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“We are also looking forward to applying Backpacker’s gear-reviewing methodology—the apples-to-apples testing, the long-term field evaluation, and the geographic diversity—to the reviews in these magazines and websites,” Dorn said. “Our goal is to create best-in-class product evaluation, and that requires not only significant testing time but also a set of procedures that the industry and readership fully trusts.”
That sounds to me like they are going to turn Climbing and UC MORE(they already have taken this turn)towards “editorial advertisement”. If you have not noticed, the titles have been featuring a lot of articles and photos that do more to depict gear than climbing.
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