The Daily - August 10, 2021 - 32

Field Notes
M I K E R O G G E
you're pushing affiliate links and
getting a kickback from gear companies
and online retail specialists.
When that becomes a large part of
your business model, how on earth
could anyone expect to maintain
editorial integrity on gear reviews
when, say, headlamps offer a lower
kickback than skis and snowboards,
but smaller brands choose
not to or don't have the capability
to implement a cookie? Folks
in outdoor media have planted
meaningless flags in superfluous
partnerships with Facebook news,
YouTube, and Apple News+. And
for what? More eyeballs that get fed
an ad every microsecond of every
moment they are on their phones?
No thanks. I don't need to chase a
bright-red convertible CPM.
But that's not what Mountain
What Really Matters
In a big, sad, and exciting year for magazines, one publisher
found the secret to success-caring about people.
By Mike Rogge
" WHAT A YEAR IT'S BEEN " IS A CALLOUS WAY TO RECAP A PANDEMIC,
political and social cultural explosions, and the solitude most of us felt
during lockdowns. But nonetheless, what a year it's been.
From a little desk in a little office in North Lake Tahoe, California, I
watched magazines I love go under, a magazine that transformed my life
Powder) disappear, and Pocket Media-turned-Outside become a heavily
invested conglomerate its CEO hopes can become the Amazon Prime of
outdoor media. I shrug my shoulders at the suggestion these events are
related. In my 15-plus years writing about the joys and pitfalls of living an
outdoor existence, rarely has focusing on what others are doing served me.
Rather, I focus on the good I can make and hope our little title can ripple in
still water.
With Mountain Gazette-a beloved title I purchased so naively at Outdoor
Retailer for a fair price and a cold beer (it's actually in the bill of sale)
a little over a year ago-I aim to return the magazine to its former literary
and photographic excellence while righting so many of the wrongs I experienced
at other titles. First: managing expectations. We publish two print
issues per year and do not publish with any regularity on our website. Our
Instagram is a cherished throwback of previous work, a sort-of digital hang
32
/ OUTDOOR RETAILER SUMMER 2021
for those whose lives were made
better by a print title. You see,
outdoor media is a bunch of dogs
chasing mainstream media trends.
Social media? Consumed by it
when even the best-paid social
campaigns rarely make a dent in
monthly overhead. Daily website
content? Well, that's only good if
Gazette is about. We care about
people. We're about our community.
We're about telling the stories
in the cracks of our culture. And
let's talk about that loaded phrase:
our culture. The editorial mission
of this title isn't to tell the " highest,
most, fastest " performance-based
stories. To my knowledge, we
cannot help you win a marathon,
and there is no nutritional value
to our paper stock. We do, however,
cover the stories that happen
anytime someone walks out their
front door. Our stories are lonely,
hopeful, dead-ended, and occasionally
fail to make a ripple but
rather a wave.
That broad mission statement
FOLKS IN OUTDOOR MEDIA HAVE
PLANTED MEANINGLESS FLAGS IN
SUPERFLUOUS PARTNERSHIPS WITH
FACEBOOK NEWS, YOUTUBE, AND
APPLE NEWS+. AND FOR WHAT?
COURTESY MIKE ROGGE
The Daily - August 10, 2021

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