What To Do With ‘Outside’?

On a recent episode of ‘Second Nature’ hosts Aaron Lutze and Dylan Bowman ask themselves this question as a response to the widespread news stories of what has been happening at Outside over the past few weeks.

So, what does one do, rather than just yelling at the trees while listening to a podcast? I write down my own thoughts and answer this question for myself:

My key problem with the current management of Outside is that they pivoted to being a tech platform on the backs of the creatives who built the Outside magazine and the other publications. They then laid off actual content creators and doubled down on tech. They already angered many of their longtime contributors, but it might not be too late. What I would do is fairly simple and might not be profitable for awhile, but would be a big branding push: Completely remake the Outside magazine. Go big, go even bigger. Completely one-up Mountain Gazette and others in that space and create a unique print periodical that cannot be resisted by anyone: brands, contributors, subscribers. Get it into every ski resort, lodge, and AirBnB. Make it the most coveted physical storytelling outdoor media property in the US. They have the money, the have the historical brand appeal, and the have the reach. On the back of that they can sell subscriptions to tech platforms and do all their other stuff. But they need ONE thing that is sexy and honors their legacy. Magazines are hot right now. There’s a clear avenue on how to make a product like this work. They have the resources to pull this off.

I am hearing that Outside is working on a redesign of their main magazine, maybe they are already working on this. I don’t think with their current leadership they have the vision to pull this off correctly, but I may get surprised.