Why I probably won't renew my subscription to Outside magazine

[Louis]

I received the August edition the other day and if this one isn't the straw that finally breaks the camel's back, the next one probably will be. There are just so many d@mn ads in that thing they should be paying me to read it. I decided to sit down and calculate the total % of the magazine taken up by advertisements and as you can see in the included table, I come up with 46.8% of the magazine space is ads. Out of 130 pages total, a staggering 54 of them were 100% devoted to ads. Granted, 59 pages had no ad, but still, it really bugs me. What really annoys me are the "gear information" pieces, which in my opinion are ads masquerading as legitimate journalism. (I counted those as 50% of an ad.

What makes this painful is that I like the articles. For example, in this issue there is an article on climber Jeff Lowe and how he's handling multiple sclerosis - good, serious journalism, an article on the Great Divide Race, a bike race from Canada to Mexico down the continental divide (one guy on a single-speed), another serious article about the cyclone in Burma, etc. This is the kind of stuff that interests me and I'll miss it, but I can only handle so many pages of fluff screaming how cool I'll be if I buy such and such watch or car or vodka. The blatant consumerism of it all is diametrically opposed to what I think that type of magazine should stand for, and I've just about had my fill.

Louis

[chuckroast]

Renew?????

Why not just order from Nashbar or Performance, isn't that how we're all getting it in the first place? :)

Seriously, I think all print media is that way, I'm not sure any other magazine would stand up to the same analysis.

[Peter P.]

I'm sure you already realize this but magazines don't make their revenue from subscriptions or over-the-counter sales; they make it from ADVERTISEMENTS. Of course, the same thing holds true for TV which leads me to wonder, if TV ad time was more affordable, imagine what the typical hour on the tube would be like!

Yes; those gear articles are DEFINITELY some manipulated way of selling ad space; notice how they NEVER say a bad thing about the gear. I'm also willing to bet they charge for suggesting a particular piece of gear in a given article, such as Bicycling Magazine's Summer Triathlon Guide, where they suggest certain products home brew your road bike into an aero-TT machine.

You should welcome those ads as necessary to provide you with the articles you DO want to read, as well as at least making you aware of the products' existence. It's our free economy at work here, and the magazine's goal is to make money. The interesting thing is, you can observe society by the ads in the magazines versus the gear the magazines' demographic surrounds itself with. Sure shows how powerful advertising is, and perhaps what you should avoid...

[Louis]

I'm not sure any other magazine would stand up to the same analysis.

How about Rapha's Rouleur ? :D

[DukeHorn]

I think the Outside articles are a bit more interesting than those in National Geographic Adventure (though I have a subscription to the latter). All these magazines have changed quite a bit over the last ten years.

I'm more disappointed with Dwell, which has morphed into a high end contemporary housing magazine. I thought it started off as an magazine promoting thoughtful urbanism (or that's what the first few issues started off with).

[BumbleBeeDave]

It is not unusual these days for magazines to, in effect, sell editorial space the same way they sell ad space. An advertiser will pay for being mentioned in editorial pieces. No different, really, from product placements in movies. Some are done low key and tastefully. Others are so blatant it's sick. Or there maybe other ways that advertisers influence what kind of coverage their products or services are given.

There ARE some publications that still can be depended on. Consumer Reports, for instance, actually buys EVERY product they test through secret shoppers. Even the multi-thousand dollar cars. Consumer Digest, on the other hand, often gets the products they test for free from the manufacturers, and I don't think it takes a conspiracy theorist to figure out that if they get mega-thousand dollar cars or other products from makers, then savage them in a review, they probably won't be getting many more free cars for testing.

I'd bet money that Outside engages in this practice and the products they review are being reviewed because the makers have paid for it. I'd also bet that they would vigorously deny it if asked. Does the same happen with bicycle mags? sometimes I do see ads for products in the same issue of BICYCLING in which they are reviewed. But not always. But I seem to see color full page ads in ROAD magazine for EVERY bike they review. For common brands like Specialized or Trek that's not unexpected, but when it also happens with less well known brands, then I have to wonder . . .

BBD

[caleb]

The Patagonia print catalog is as good as most outdoor magazines. And it's free.

[Steve-O]

When Outside lost Mark Jenkins (wrote the "Hard Way" column every month) they began to lose face with me. Last month they had Tennis player Andy Roddick on the cover. If I wanted to read about Roddick I could have subscribed to Sports Illustrated. That was the issue that almost had me cancel. This month was a little better (Burma story was good).

Note - To the forumite who likes the Patagonia catalog, you might check out their employee blog http://www.thecleanestline.com/ Always good stuff there...

[dogdriver]

Yeah, I bagged Outside when David Quammen and Randy Wayne White stopped writing columns.

[Lincoln]

The Patagonia print catalog is as good as most outdoor magazines. And it's free.

great pictures.

[toaster]

Try reading Vogue. Mostly advertisements.

Not that there's anything wrong with reading Vogue, just saying.

[Samster]

Try reading Vogue. Mostly advertisements.

Not that there's anything wrong with reading Vogue, just saying.
well, if my experiences are indicative, i think some significant subset of vogue (cosmo, glamour, etc.) customers buy specifically _for_ the ads (and not quite so much for the read). different viewer dynamics apply methinks.

[Climb01742]

all print media is struggling big time. newspapers are on life-support. magazines are just trying to survive. granted i'm biased, or rather i see both sides. magazines live or die on ad revenue. more and more ad dollars are going digital. personally, i love magazines, love the experience of flipping real pages vs digital ones. so i accept the PIA ads...and worse...the millions of blow-in subscription cards. :p

[thugly]

I bagged Outside

hahahahaha

[toaster]

These are consumer magazines, they're supposed to have lots of advertising.

When we think of going out on our bicycles there's a lot of items we need to purchase for that experience and we are constantly refining our gear and consumables.

Even if we are stocked with the bike, the spare parts, tires, tubes, the clothes, the shoes, helmets, gloves, eyewear and the energy foods we still would have to keep up on new developments in all those products in order to make choices in the future.

Same with the activities discussed in Outside magazine.

When you read Outside you're really looking at new gear. If you want to read about outdoor experiences there are non-fiction books written by authors on every subject that are published without advertising.

So what's the problem?

[shoe]

the best thing to do is start training for the great divide race since it is an awesome race and that should help tire you out to help you care less about the magazine...dave

[Louis]

When you read Outside you're really looking at new gear. If you want to read about outdoor experiences there are non-fiction books written by authors on every subject that are published without advertising.


I may be wrong here, but I think that there's a slight difference in time commitment by the reader between Krakauer's original article on the Everest incident and Into Thin Air. In that case I was interested enough to buy the book, but in the vast majority of cases I'm willing to settle for the condensed version.

What bugs me, at the heart of it, is that on one page you'll find a story about some rain forest tribe in the Amazon or a godforsaken spot in Tibet, and on the next they'll have a two-page ad spread for Hummers. Sometimes the clash of civilizations is a little to much for me.

[toaster]

..What bugs me, at the heart of it, is that on one page you'll find a story about some rain forest tribe in the Amazon or a godforsaken spot in Tibet, and on the next they'll have a two-page ad spread for Hummers. Sometimes the clash of civilizations is a little to much for me.

The mindset of the guy who would buy a Hummer on one hand and then on the other be concerned about the rain forest is no different than the pretentiousness of the person who buys a Toyota Prius thinking he's all Green and doing something good for the world when he has no clue about the problem of the environmental hazard all those batteries in the Hybrid vehicle will cause later.

We're all consumers to an excessive degree, unfortunately.

[caleb]

I'm more disappointed with Dwell, which has morphed into a high end contemporary housing magazine. I thought it started off as an magazine promoting thoughtful urbanism (or that's what the first few issues started off with).

Another good magazine gone bad. Has anyone stepped into fill the void?

[gasman]

What makes this painful is that I like the articles. For example, in this issue there is an article on climber Jeff Lowe and how he's handling multiple sclerosis -

Louis

Oh man I didn't know he had M.S.-that is really sad. He has been a leader and innovator in climbing, not for a few years but he has an enviable record.
I don't subscribe to any magazines because of all the ads but i do buy an occasional mag if I see a story that really interests me.

[mflaherty37]

I be likin it, maily cause the chick on the cover look good on my end table.

[Ozz]

The mindset of the guy who would buy a Hummer on one hand and then on the other be concerned about the rain forest is no different than the pretentiousness of the person who buys a Toyota Prius thinking he's all Green and doing something good for the world when he has no clue about the problem of the environmental hazard all those batteries in the Hybrid vehicle will cause later.
We're all consumers to an excessive degree, unfortunately.
Wow...did you glean this info from the internet? ;)

Seriously, I'd be interested to know your source. I own a Prius and dig the mpg and low emissions. I can park it anywhere and only take up one space. Of the things I can be pretentious about, driving an econo-box is not one of them.

FWIW - I would think that used cell phone batteries will dwarf the number (by weight) of Prius batteries being recycled in the future.....

Back on topic....I have not subscribed to "Outside" for 10+ years....about the time they stopped being an outdoors magazine. ;)