Trail Runner Magazine is being shifted to online only as parent company Outside makes big changes to its business model. Those changes include ceasing print publications for some 80 percent of their dozens of brands and magazines.
Pocket Outdoor Media acquired Carbondale-based Big Stone Publishing in October 2020. Until that time, Big Stone published Trail Runner and Rock and Ice magazines, and was owned by publisher Duane Raleigh. Just months later, in early 2021, Pocket acquired Boulder-based Outside Media and rebranded as Outside. Outside merged longtime rival publications Rock and Ice and Climbing, and it emerged Friday that Climbing is also ceasing print publication.
Outside CEO Robin Thurston has been vocal in the press about his desire to turn the Outside umbrella of brands into the Amazon Prime of the outdoor media world, with content being available by subscription on all devices. It appears that shift is now underway. A representative with Denver-based PR firm Ink Communications responded to an inquiry about Trail Runner with a statement boasting of Outside’s acquisitions and "quadrupled paid membership," adding that "Outside made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce headcount" as the publishing industry as a whole moves online.
For KDNK News, I'm Morgan Neely.
